About translation data
Translations are available as JSON and SQLite. Because different
apps need different things — a website can render HTML, a small embedded reader often cannot — each
translation is exported in several shapes. Pick the one that matches what your app can display.
Plain text formats
These two carry the translation only: no formatting and no footnotes.
Nested arrays
One array per surah, holding that surah's ayahs in order.
[
["translation of 1:1", "translation of 1:2"],
["translation of 2:1", "translation of 2:2"]
]
Key and value
Keyed by ayah reference, which is easier to look up a single ayah in.
{
"1:1": "translation of 1:1",
"1:2": "translation of 1:2",
"114:6": "translation of 114:6"
}
Formats with footnotes
Some translations carry footnotes. Three more formats keep them, each trading off differently between
fidelity and how much your renderer has to understand.
1. Footnotes as tags
A <sup> tag marks the reference in the text under t, and the footnote
bodies live separately under f, keyed by footnote id.
{
"88:17": {
"t": "Do the disbelievers not see how rain clouds are formed <sup foot_note=\"77646\">1</sup>",
"f": {
"77646": "The word ibl can mean 'camel' as well as 'rain cloud'..."
}
}
}
2. Inline footnotes
The footnote sits in the text itself, wrapped in double square brackets.
{
"88:17": "Do the disbelievers not see how rain clouds are formed [[The word ibl can mean 'camel' as well as 'rain cloud'...]]"
}
3. Text chunks
The ayah is split into a list of pieces. A piece is either a plain string or an object describing a
footnote or a formatting tag. Use this when your app cannot render HTML at all.
This ayah — Bridges' translation of Surah An-Nas, ayah 6 —
<i class="s">(from the whisperers)</i>among the race of unseen beings<sup foot_note="81506">1</sup>and mankind.”
is exported as:
[
{"type": "i", "text": "(from the whisperers)"},
"among the race of unseen beings",
{"type": "f", "f": "81506", "text": "1"},
"and mankind.”"
]
- A string is plain text — print it as is.
"type": "i" (or another tag name) is formatting — render text in that style."type": "f" is a footnote reference — text is the marker to show and
f is the footnote id to look up.