Editing Kitáb-i-Aqdas (section)

== Translations ==
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| label1 = 1873
|  data1 = Revelation <hr/>
| label2 = 1961
|  data2 = Translation published by the Royal Asiatic Society<hr/>
| label3 = 1973
|  data3 = Synopsis and codification <hr/>
| label4 = 1992
|  data4 = Official Baháʼí translation in English
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The Kitáb-i-Aqdas was completed by Baháʼu'lláh in 1873. It was published in the Arabic for circulation among Baháʼís speaking the language circa 1890.<ref>{{cite book |author=Christopher Buck |title=Symbol & Secret |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xbVTViPK8JsC&pg=PA19 |date=1 January 1995 |publisher=Kalimat Press |isbn=978-0-933770-80-5 |pages=19, 26–27}}</ref> A Russian translation was undertaken by [[Alexander Tumansky]] in 1899 and was his most important contribution to Baháʼí studies.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=TUMANSKIǏ, Aleksandr Grigor'evich |author=Jahangir Dorri |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia Iranica |volume=online |date=15 August 2009 |url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/tumanski-aleksandr-grigorevich |access-date=10 January 2014}}</ref> Around 1900 an informal English translation was made by Baháʼí Anton Haddad, which circulated among the early American Baháʼí community in a typewritten form.<ref>{{cite book |editor=Moojan Momen |title=Studies in the Bábí & Baháʼí Religions |author=Loni Bramson-Lerche |chapter=Establishment of the Guardianship |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cQK-kIlq2yYC&pg=PA282 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cQK-kIlq2yYC |year=1988 |publisher=Kalimat Press |isbn=978-0-933770-72-0 |page=282}}</ref> In 1961, an English scholar of Arabic, Dr. Earl E. Elder, and [[William McElwee Miller]], published an English translation, "Al-Kitab Al-Aqdas",<ref>{{cite book |author=Bahā'-Allāh  | translator1-last = Elder | translator1-first = Earl E. | translator2-last = Miller | translator2-first = William McE. | translator2-link = William McElwee Miller |author-link=Baháʼu'lláh |orig-year=1873 |year=1961 |title=Al-kitab al-aqdas or The most holy book |publisher=The Royal Asiatic Society |location=London |url=http://www.h-net.org/~bahai/areprint/vol1/aqdas/aqd.htm}}</ref> through the [[Royal Asiatic Society]], however its translation of the notes section was problematic<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=AQDAS |author=A. Bausani |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia Iranica |volume=online |url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/aqdas-more-fullv-al-ketah-al-aqdas-pers |date=9 August 2011 |access-date=10 January 2014}}</ref> and overall lacked "poetic sensibility, and skill in Arabic translation".<ref>{{cite journal |last=Lawson |first=Todd |title=Review of: The Kitáb-i-Aqdas: The Most Holy Book by Baha'Allah, Haifa: Baha'i World Center, 1992 |journal=Iranian Studies |volume=29 |issue=1–2 |pages=207–209 |date=Winter–Spring 1996 |doi=10.1080/00210869608701848 |jstor=4310986}}<!--| access-date = 10 January 2014--></ref> Miller only ever used it to further his polemical agenda.<ref name="E-SReview">{{cite journal|last=Elwell-Sutton|first=L.P.|year=1976|title=Review of "The Baha'i Faith" Its History and Teaching by William McElwee Miller|journal=Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland|pages=157–158|volume=108| doi=10.1017/S0035869X00133416|jstor=25203713|number=2|s2cid=162531277 }}</ref> In 1973 a "Synopsis and Codification" of the book was published in English by the [[Universal House of Justice]],<ref>[http://bahai-library.com/bahaullah_synopsis_codification Synopsis and Codification of the Laws and Ordinances of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas by Baháʼu'lláh and Shoghi Effendi], Baha'i World Center, 1973</ref> with 21 passages of the Aqdas that had already been translated into English by [[Shoghi Effendi]] with additional terse lists of laws and ordinances contained in the book outside of any contextual prose. Finally, in 1992, a full and authorized Baháʼí translation in English was published.<ref name="PSmith">{{cite encyclopedia |last=Smith |first=Peter |author-link=Peter Smith (historian) |encyclopedia=A concise encyclopedia of the Baháʼí Faith |title=Aqdas, Kitáb-i- |year=2000 |publisher=Oneworld Publications |location=Oxford |isbn=1-85168-184-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Yhy9DwAAQBAJ |pages=43–44}}</ref><ref>See also the [http://bahai-library.com/bahaullah_kitab_aqdas_multilinear Kitab-i-Aqdas Multilinear Translation project].</ref> This version is used as the basis of translation into many other languages<ref>{{cite book |editor1=Albert Branchadell |editor2=Lovell Margaret West |title=Less Translated Languages |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3SA6AAAAQBAJ |author=Nobel Perdu Honeyman |chapter=From Arabic to other languages through English |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3SA6AAAAQBAJ&pg=PA67 |date=27 January 2005 |publisher=John Benjamins Publishing Company |isbn=978-90-272-9478-4 |pages=67–74}}</ref> highlighting the practice of an indirect translation and how the purpose of the translation affects the act of translation. The Baháʼí Library Online provides a side-by-side comparison of the authorized translation with earlier translations by Anton Haddad and Earl Elder.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://bahai-library.com/bahaullah_kitab_aqdas_multilinear |title=Kitáb-i-Aqdas (Most Holy Book): "Multilinear" Translation project and Glossary |last1=Baháʼu'lláh |editor-last=Winters |editor-first=Jonah |website=Baháʼí Library Online |access-date= 19 September 2016 }}</ref>