General Supervisor

first hand appreciative reliable information about their culture, opening thus a
way for a Christian-Muslim dialogue well before this term started to be used.
Nowadays, Musil‘s rich intellectual legacy arouses a renewed interest and
international cooperation, including that among Czech and Saudi scholars.
In further generations the Czech Orientalist scholars grew and were marked by
ramifications. Among the historians of Islam F. Tauer acquired large notoriety
with his masterly complete translation of Arabian Nights, I. Hrbek by a research
on Arab medieval culture and R. Veselý with his internationally recognized
expertness in Mamluk and Ottoman period, especially the social aspects of
awqaf. Among the scholars working in the field of literature a mention has to
be made of J. Oliverius for the Arabic and J. Rypka for the Persian and Turkish
literature. In further generations special research was undertaken on a large
range of new topics, such as modern history of the Muslim world, Islamic
culture in Czechia or in the Balkans, ways and trends of the inter-religious and
inter-cultural dialogue, Sufism, Salafi Islam, Islam in modern media and others.
An important point should not be left unmentioned: the translation of the
Holy Qur‘an. The author of the best translation with a scholarly exegesis is the
historian Ivan Hrbek. First published in 1972 (being the third translation of the
Holy Book into Czech) it was reprinted a number of times after the democratic
change in the country in 1989 and is in use also by the Muslim community (Al
Ittihad al-Islami) in the country. In Slovakia the first translation of the Qur‘an
into Slovak came out in 2008. It has been prepared with a rich exegesis by
Abdulwahab Al-Sbenaty and is available both in a book form (two huge
volumes) and on electronic web.
Thus both Czechs and Slovaks have a possibility to get well acquainted with
the message of Islam in their mother-tongues.
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