The Koran. Arabic-German. Trans- lation and commentary by Adel Theodor Khoury. Chr. Kai- ser/Gütersloher Verlagshaus: Gü- tersloh 2004, 813 pp., 69,00 € [in German only: Der Koran. Arabisch- Deutsch. Übersetzt und kommentiert von Adel Theodor Khoury]

The text of this further German-Arabic version of the Koran is based on the 1987 translation of the well-known Professor emeritus of Religious Science at the Roman Catholic theological faculty of the University of Münster (Westphalia), T. A. Khoury, published in association with leading Muslim theologians including the General Secretary of the Muslim World Congress. The introduction gives a brief history of the origins of Islam and the Koran, Muslim and Western assessments of the Koran’s importance, its content, style, date, structure and interpretation. A particular feature of this edition is the German-Arabic text set in parallel, permitting an immediate comparison. This is complemented by explanatory footnotes to individual verses and a helpful index of proper names and sub jects with important Koranic terms.