TEHRAN -- A new Persian translation of the Holy Quran by the Iranian Academy of Persian Language and Literature director Gholamali Haddad-Adel was published in Tehran.

The book was unveiled during a ceremony held here on Thursday evening at the venue of the 19th International Holy Quran Exhibition now underway at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Mosalla.

The ceremony took place in the presence of the Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Mohammad Hosseini, and scholars Mehdi Mohaqeq and Bahaeddin Khorramshahi.

Haddad-Adel made a short opening speech saying that the project took nine years of constant work and studies in collaboration with experts on the Quran, while three members of the Academy of Persian Language and Literature helped him in editing.

“Over the past years, many have made efforts in producing a fluent and smooth translation of the Holy Quran,” he said, adding that as the translator of the book, he tried to present an eloquent translation matching the Persian language of today.

He also added that he has established his translation based on “Al-Mizan Interpretation”, one of the major Shiite interpretations written by the great philosopher Allamah Tabatabaii.

Khorramshahi next made a brief speech, regarding the book as a unique translation of the Holy Quran.

“I must point out that each page of the book contains a number of detailed points that took a great deal of time in translating.

“There are about 80 different translations of the Holy Quran since the Iranian Constitutional Movement (1905-1911), but the translation by Haddad-Adel is one of the best,” he said.

He added, “I believe this is one of the top three Persian translations of the Holy Quran and I believe it will be republished over and over in the future.” 

The ceremony was brought to an end with short speeches delivered by the culture minister as well as several other scholars.