Valeria (Iman) Porokhova, a well-known translator of the Koran into Russian, has died in Moscow at the age of 79.
Media reports in Russia quoted Porokhova's friends as saying that she died on September 2. A memorial service for the prominent interpreter and Muslim activist will take place at a mosque in Moscow on September 4.
Porokhova's translation of the Koran into Russian was the only one made in verses and approved by Islamic scholars in several countries, including former Soviet republics.
Porokhova married a Syrian national in 1975 and left Moscow for Damascus in 1981, where she converted to Islam and accepted the alternative first name Iman (Faith).
In Syria she worked on a translation of the Koran into Russian, which she completed in 1991 and has gone through 12 printings.
