,
also known as Umar Mita, was a
Japanese Muslim
Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...
who is considered the first-ever Muslim to translate the
Quran into the
Japanese language.
Biography
Mita moved to
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
at the age of 24 and lived there for almost three decades straight (he briefly returned to Japan in 1921 but moved back to China the following year and found initial employment in the railway industry). During his long life in China, he saw
Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
firsthand and developed an interest in it, becoming a preeminent consultant to Japanese forces on Islam-related questions after he had been hired as a propagandist, although it wasn't until 1941 that he formally converted. Throughout this period, Mita was known to have met and had close discussions with
Shūmei Ōkawa, another translator of the Quran and fellow
pan-Asianist
Satellite photograph of Asia in orthographic projection.
Pan-Asianism (''also known as Asianism or Greater Asianism'') is an ideology aimed at creating a political and economic unity among Asian peoples. Various theories and movements of Pan-Asia ...
. Mita engaged in
spy work for the
Imperial Japanese Army and wrote of the need to propagandise
Muslims in China
Islam has been practiced in China since the 7th century CE.. Muslims are a minority group in China, representing 1.6-2 percent of the total population (21,667,000- 28,210,795) according to various estimates. Though Hui Muslims are the most numerou ...
in order to obtain their support against the
Han Chinese forces.
After the end of
World War II, Mita focused his efforts solely on Islam. He joined the recently-founded
Association of Japanese Muslims (日本ムスリム協会) in 1952, becoming its leader from 1960 to 1962, whereafter Mita left for
Pakistan and
Saudi Arabia so as to learn
Arabic and translate the Quran into his native tongue, a task that he would complete a decade later in 1972. His translation avoided terms with
Buddhist connotations in favour of simple
native phrases and occasionally terms with
Christian
Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
precedent.
Published works
* For the Sake of Comprehending Islam (イスラム 理解 の 為に)
* Stories of the
Sahaba (サハバ 物語)
* Introduction to Islam (イスラム 入門)
References
External links
Ryoichi MitaUmar Mita: Japanese translator of Qur’an
1892 births
1983 deaths
Japanese Muslims
Translators of the Quran into Japanese
People from Yamaguchi Prefecture
20th-century Japanese translators
Converts to Islam
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