Muhammad Hamidullah’s French translation was published in 1959 and produced in collaboration with the translator and historian of religions Michel Léturmy (1921-2002). The text has been re-edited a dozen times between its first publication date and the year 2000.
Hamidullah was born on 19th February 1908, in Hyderabad, a former Muslim principality and present capital city of the Indian state of Telangana. He came from a family of Sunni Muslim scholars, and began studying Islamic sciences at the al-Ǧāmi‘a al-Niẓāmiyya theological institute, a higher education establishment devoted to denominational education, founded in 1876. He then studied at the ‘Uṯmaniyya university, also in Hyderabad, where he got a degree in International Islamic law. He also received the title of ḥāfiẓ (“حافظ”) awarded to those who memorized the entire Qur’ān. His university sent him to Germany for his research; and in 1932, Hamidullah defended a PhD dissertation on “The Principle of Neutrality in International Muslim Law” (“Die Neutralität im Islamischen Völkerrecht”) at the University of Bonn. Three years later, he obtained another doctorate in Literature from the Sorbonne University for a dissertation entitled: “Documents on Muslim Diplomacy at the Time of the Prophet and Orthodox Khalifs” (“Documents sur la diplomatie musulmane à l’époque du Prophète et des Khalifes orthodoxes”). Hamidullah then returned to the Indian subcontinent to teach Islamic law at his former university, but his opposition to the annexation of Hyderabad by the new Indian state obliged him to go into exile in Paris in 1948, where he stayed until 1996.