Translations of the Qur'an in Albanian and the example of Sherif Ahmeti

The state of Kosovo, which declared its independence on February 17, 2008, has been under different administrations throughout history. Starting from the Roman Empire, it is possible to continue until the Bulgarian, Serbian, Ottoman, Yugoslavian rule. Although the population of Kosovo is 1,773,971 according to the 2021 census, it has a multicultural structure. It is one of the countries that bring people of different ethnicities together. Although the people of these lands went through difficult historical times, they still did not break their ties with religion. This shows their efforts for religious education and for the survival of religious institutions. The emergence of clergy, scholars and well-educated personalities from these regions, which are the fruit of these efforts, is an issue that should be emphasized. Sherif Ahmeti, who has high values, is one of these important personalities. Sherif Ahmeti was born in 1920. He took lessons from the best teachers of the period. This was also reflected in his later life. The name of Şerif Ahmeti has an important place in Albanian religious literature. Because he has done remarkable work in this field. The most important of these was the Albanian annotated translation. Despite some deficiencies, this translation has become the most common translation in Albanian-speaking areas. Translations of the Qur'an in Albanian were written late for some reasons. Such studies first started with partial or incomplete translations of the Qur'an. We see the first example of this in Naim Frasheri in 1894. Such small-scale translation studies were later completed or followed by full translation studies. It is the translation of Feti Mehdiu, who is one of the names that should be mentioned as he is the first in this direction, with the name "Kur'an-i". Sherif Ahmeti, Feti Mehdiu and Hasan İ. Nahi in line with some of the verses that we have evaluated from the translations, we have seen that there is not much difference between them and they are complementary to each other.