According to RT Arabic, Valeria Porokhova, the author of an exegetical translation of the Gracious Quran, died on Monday.

Her son Khalid Al-Roushd, author and presenter at RT Arabic, wrote a post on Facebook announcing his mother’s death.

Valeria Porokhova (1940- 2019) graduated from Moscow State Pedagogical Institute of Foreign Languages and worked as a lecturer for 18 years. Next, she worked at the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences.

Valeria made a translation of the Quran into Russian that was possible with the help of contract translation services. The edition, published in 1995, was the first to be available in Russia, Central Asia and the Caucasus.

Besides being a translator and an interpreter, Valeria (Iman) Porokhova played a prominent role in Muslims’ affairs in Russia and Central Asia.

Porokhova was born in Tsarskoye Selo, Russia. She was an Orthodox Christian who embraced Islam after marrying a Syrian Muslim scholar and moving to Damascus in 1985.

Valeria Porokhova and the Quran

When I read the Quran, I felt in love with it, which made me translate it into Russian

She said in an interview in 2011, “When I read the Quran, I felt in love with it, which made me translate it into Russian”.

She also admitted that she found a lot of difficulties, but scholars like Sheikh Ahmad Kaftaro, the former Mufti of Syria, and his son Sheikh Mahmoud Kaftaro helped her a lot thorough her work.

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Sources: Iqna and RT Arabic