The necessity for a new translation of the Quran which would present the results of critical study came home to the author as an urgent task more than twelve years ago, in the course of the preparation of his lectures of The Origin of Islam. He began it somewhat light-heartedly, not realising the labour which it would involve. That all the problems of the Quran have now been solved, it would require the confidence of ignorance to claim. But he hopes that his work marks a sufficient advance in the understanding of this important religious document to justify its publication.