THE FIRST TRANSLATOR OF QUR’AN INTO SERBIAN, BOSNIAN, CROATIAN AND MONTENEGRIN

The first complete translation of the Qur'an into Serbian, Bosnian, Croatian and Montenegrin was done by Mihajlo Mićo Ljubibratić (1839–1889). Ljubibratić was born in the village of Ljubovo near Trebinje into a Bosnian and Herzegovinian Serbs' family. He received schooling in Trebinje and Dubrovnik, where he completed the high school.

Ljubibratić took part in the rebellions against the Ottoman State in Nevesinje in 1875, and against Austro-Hungary in Herzegovina and Dalmatia.

His work on the translation of the Qur'an primarily had national and political aims, although the cultural ones should not be ignored either. Serbian politicians wanted to use the translation of the Qur'an to win over Muslims in Bosnia and Herzegovina for their national aims.

Ljubibratić's translation of the Qur'an was published in the Cyrillic alphabet in Belgrade in 1895, and research shows that it was done based on the translation of the Qur'an into French by Kasimirski (1808–1887).

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ljubibratić's translation of the Qur'an had a mixed reception, from rejection to acceptance. It was published twice in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in Sarajevo in 1990, and in Sarajevo-Banja Luka in 2016.

The translation has a great cultural and historical significance both from the viewpoint of translating the Qur'an and from the viewpoint of the reception of Islam by Serbian intelligentsia in the last decades of the 19th century.