When I was in the primary school, Allah summoned the soul of my father to Him. However, he did not die. His good deeds, his love and respect in the hearts of those who knew him have always reflected his love and care on us. Wherever I go, study or work he looks down at me and sends me his love and care through those who knew or heard of him. To my great father, my dear father, who always reminds me of the Quranic verse (ً)ِ+(َ- (.ُه1ُ2ن أ َ (َ َوآI dedicate this book. To my great mother, who undertook efficiently the responsibility of raising a large family of nine little children all by herself after the sudden Departure of my father, whose prayers and encouragement have kept me going ahead throughout my life especially in times of distress who inspired me to study hard and get the highest grades just to please her; with love respect and gratitude which no words can fully express, I dedicate this work. To my sisters, the light of my eyes, the voice of my mouth, the power of my arm, the comfort of my woes, I dedicate this work. And finally, to my dear elder brother, Sohaib, who guarded our home with the deepest sense of responsibility, with respect and love I dedicate this book.
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Acknowledgments I would like to express my sincere respect and gratitude to my late supervisor Dr. Kadhim Haidar al-Jawadi, who was assassinated by terrorists. His paternal guidance, continuous support and meticulous insights had been invaluable to this work. I am deeply indebted to him for everything that he did so that the present work can see the light. My deepest gratitude and appreciation also go to Dr. Abdul-Baki AsSafi. His valuable advice, encouragement, help and patience have always been indispensable. Special words of thanks and appreciation are due to Dr. Alya’ Al-Rubai‘i for her estimable remarks and generous assistance. She guided me at times when I was badly in need of help. Gratitude with respect and love also go to Dr. Muna Al-Alawn, for her continuous moral support and encouragement. She gave me access to the libraries and references available to her. A particular debt of thanks goes to all my dear friends and excolleagues, especially Mrs. Nagham Qahtan, Miss. Aseel Jouri, Mrs. Ghusoon Subhi, Mrs. Muntaha Na‘eem and Miss. Ghaida’ Hammudi for their priceless cooperation and encouragement and for the references they generously provided me with. Miss. Jameela Al-Attar extended at critical times friendly help that I shall never forget. To her I owe a word of deep gratitude and express heartfelt love. I am deeply appreciative and sincerely grateful to Miss. Jhenel Aryola, Mr. and Mrs. Adel Abu Jubba and Mr. Gray J. Harriman, whose assistance was invaluable for the questionnaire. Special thanks in this respect go to Mrs. Huda Yang whose enthusiastic support and kindness were immense and extremely generous. Also, I would like to thank Mrs. Shlair M. Ash-Shaikh Rasheed for her cooperation in doing the statistical work. Finally, I sincerely acknowledge with love and gratitude the inspirational help of my mother, my dear elder brother, Sohaib, my younger brothers, my sisters and especially Sundus and Hanan for their enormous support and continuous encouragement. Special thanks are also due to Mr. Muhammad Al-Bayyati for his support and patience in guiding me through my search for references.
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Preface This book studies the translation of Islamic religious texts (IRTs). These texts are peculiar in that in addition to their having a sacred as well as legal nature, they address the minds together with the hearts of their audience. They evoke aesthetic feelings and have vocative functions. This book tries to tackle this issue by analysing the register of IRTs, highlighting the characteristics of the sub-field of jurisprudence, examining the semantic notions and problems connected with this field and introducing the strategies of translation from the angle of IRTs. This study focuses on a very important issue in the translation of IRTs, viz. the interrelationship between language, culture and religion through investigating the application of translation strategies to the cultural signs. It shows how different translators have applied them in the hope of communicating the message to the largest possible number of receptors. The investigation of an adequately representative collection of specimens has revealed how the lack of guidelines to follow in translating IRTs leads translators to base their judgments on personal intuition and thus produce different translations for identical signs. The second area inspected is style. After introducing the concept of style and indicating the two resources focused upon here, viz. the phonological and the lexical, the present work shows that IRTs bear strong affinity to literary register, in that they use sound devices, such as paronomasia, assonance, consonance and rhyme and employ literary style, such as verbosity and terseness. It also affirms the strong affinity to literary register by showing how idiomatic and connotative the language of IRTs is. Through the investigation of the lexical and stylistic levels of IRTs, the present work has proved that there are various elements which have to be taken care of in translating IRTs, and that overlooking any of them has serious consequences at the denotative and/or connotative levels. The third point examined is the importance of the audience as a factor in deciding on the strategies to be adopted. Intelligibility and acceptability have been brought into focus in this work. A questionnaire was conducted in Taiwan to find out the points of view of non-Arabic speaking audience concerning the translation of an Islamic juridical text. Significant results in this connection emphasized the point in question, viz., intelligibility and acceptability
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Table of Contents Dedication Acknowledgements Preface Table of Contents List of Abbreviations (English) List of Abbreviations (Arabic) List of Tables List of Figures Key to Symbols of Transliteration Introduction
3 4 5 6 9 10 11 12 13 14
Chapter One: Theoretical Perspective 1.1. The Concept of Register 1.1.1. Field of Discourse 1.1.2. Mode of Discourse 1.1.3. Tenor of Discourse 1.2. The Concept of Jurisprudence (Fiqh) 1.3. Semantic Problems 1.4. Culture 1.5. Strategies of Translation 1.5.1. Literal Translation 1.5.2. Translation Proper 1.5.3. Loan Blending 1.5.4. Acculturation 1.5.5. Transliteration 1.5.5.1 Complete Transliteration 1.5.5.2 Partial Transliteration 1.5.6. Translation Couplet 1.5.7. Translation Triplet 1.5.8. Definition 1.5.9. Paraphrasing 1.5.10. Addition 1.5.11. Deletion
17 19 20 20 22 22 24 28 31 33 34 35 36 36 37 37 39 39 40 40 41 43
Chapter Two: Translation Problems Involving Cultural Signs 2.1. Cultural Signs 2.2. Proper Names
45 47 54
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2.2.1. Beautiful Names of Allah 2.2.2. Names of Prophets and Messengers 2.2.3. Names of Ordinary Individuals 2.2.4. Names of Groups of People 2.3. Geographical Names 2.4. Technical Terms 2.4.1. Translating According to Context 2.4.2. Explanatory Translation 2.4.3. Letting the Text Define the Term 2.4.4. Explanation in a Footnote 2.4.5. Using Established Translations 2.4.6. Translation According to a Definition in the Text 2.4.7. Using Established Target Language Expressions 2.4.8. Translation Proper 2.4.9. Partial Transliteration 2.4.10. Deletion Chapter Three: Translation Problems Involving Stylistic Resources 3.1. Rendition of Style 3.2. Phonological Resources 3.2.1. Paronomasia 3.2.2. Paronyms 3.2.3. Consonance, Assonance and Rhyme 3.3. Lexical Resources 3.3.1. Terseness 3.3.1.1. Brevity 3.3.1.2. Ellipsis 3.3.2. Verbosity 3.3.3. Idioms 3.3.3.1. Transparent Idioms 3.3.3.2. Opaque Idioms 3.3.4. Connotation 3.3.4.1. Analysis and Rendition of Connotation 3.3.4.2. Consequences of Overlooking Connotation 3.3.5. Abbreviations 3.3.5.1. Translation Proper of the Original 7
54 56 57 59 61 61 62 64 65 66 67 67 68 70 70 71 73 75 77 78 79 81 83 83 84 85 87 91 93 98 103 105 110 111
Abbreviated Signs 3.3.5.2. Abbreviating the TL Equivalent of the SL Sign 3.3.5.3. Deletion 3.3.5.4. Transliteration
112 112 112 112
Chapter Four: Questionnaire 4.1. Procedure 4.2. The Strategy of Addition 4.3. The Strategy of Deletion 4.4. Abbreviation of a Transliterated Word 4.5. The Strategy of Transliteration 4.6. Translating a Term According to a Definition in the Text 4.7. Results
134 136
Chapter Five: Criticism, Assessments and Conclusions 5.1. Criticism and Assessments 5.2. Conclusions
139 141 146
References Appendices Glossary
150 158 162
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115 122 122 122 125 127
List of Abbreviations(English) Hamid. El-Helbawy IRTs Ibr.&Dav. Khadduri Khan
Matraji Isl.&Hum.
2OED
Hamidullah, Muhammad. 1953. Muslim Conduct of State. El-Helbawy et al., trs. 1984. The Lawful and the Prohibited in Islam: Al-Halal Wal-Haram fil Islam. By Yusuf al-Qaradāwi Islamic religious texts Ḥadith. Ibrahim, Dr. Ezzedin and Johnson-Davies, Denys, trs. 1977. An-Nawawī’s Forty Ḥadith. By, Imam Yahya bin Sharaf ad-Dīn an-Nawawī (d. AD 1277). Khadduri, Majid, tr. 1961. Islamic Jurisprudence: Shāfi‘ī’s Risāla, Translated with an Introduction. By Ash-Shāfi‘ī. Khan, Muhammad Muhsin, tr. 1971. The Translation of the Meanings of Şahīh Al-Bukhārī. By Muhammad bin Ismā’īl al-Bukhāri (d. AD 870). (Vols.1 and 2). Bilingual ed. Matraji, Dr. Mahmoud, tr. 1993. Riyad us-Saliheen: The Paradise of the Pious. By Imam Yahyā bin Sharaf ad-Dīn an-Nawawī (d. 1277). Bilingual ed. Two vols. …. 1960. Islam and Humanity’s Need of It. By Muhammad Yusuf Mūsā. Translated and published under the auspices of The Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, Ministry of Waqf. The Oxford English Dictionary. (1989). 2nd ed.
Robson
Robson, James, tr. (1963). Mishkat Al-Masabih: English Translation with Explanatory Notes. By at-Tibrīzī (completed the work in AD1336).
Ṣiddīqī
Ṣiddīqī, Abdul Hamid, tr. 1977.
SL
Imām Muslim Bin Al-Ḥajjāj. (d. AD 875) 4 Vols. Source Language
ST TL TT
Source Text Target Language Target Text
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Ṣ aḥ īḥ Muslim. By