Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Quran english translation'

This study investigated the accuracy and quality across five different translations of the Quran from Arabic into English, focusing on euphemism. It evaluated the degree of faithfulness or deviation in meaning from the original and corroborated whether this is due to the translating approach or inadequate understanding of the meaning of Quranic text. It assessed the main features of euphemistic expressions in the Quran, how euphemistic expressions have been translated, and provided recommendations on how to improve the translation of euphemistic expressions in the Quran. Throughout its long history, translation and translation studies have never been free from conflicting views. Translation is one of the most researched topics and no other issue has preoccupied theorists and practitioners as much as the translation debate which has brought about a split of views, specifically into those who claim that translation is an art and those who believe that translation is a science. Each camp puts forward unrealistic expectations of what translation is and what it can achieve. Despite the boom in translation studies over the last decades which has provided interesting and fresh insights, it remains an area which has little theoretical base and very few research landmarks. Translation has rarely managed to rise above mere comparative analysis of language pairs, examining their cross linguistic and cultural differences. Translation approaches, procedures and techniques are not one size fits all. They may work well for Indo-European languages but may not for Semitic languages, for instance. They are often prescriptive, abstract and lack practical implications. Highly expressive and colourful components of any language are often deliberately substituted by euphemistic expressions. Euphemism is thus a purposeful act of softening existing terms or expressions with neutral, courteous and ‘clean’ words. Euphemism is said to be a form of deception. This study examined the translation of euphemism in the Quran focusing on the English versions of the Quran by Abdel Haleem, Khan and Al-Hilali, Yusuf Ali, Arberry, and Pickthall. It was found that translators often underestimate the complexity of translation, particularly the translation of euphemism in the Quran Based on the nature of the problem and the research questions, the method adopted in this study used a qualitative approach starting with text based analysis of a broad sample of euphemistic expressions from the five selected versions of translations of the Quran. This was supported by semi-structured interviews with professional translators to gauge their views and perceptions regarding the meanings of euphemism in the Quran. The key findings suggest that there is no single method which will address all of the challenges faced by the translators of euphemisms of the Quran. Moreover, many Islamic concepts and cultural bound items are untranslatable, thus loss of some meaning is inevitable. Findings revealed that straightforward and mechanical transfer of euphemisms from the Quran produces meaningless or clumsy utterances because there is no direct correspondence between Arabic and English euphemistic expressions. Therefore, translating euphemism in the Quran goes beyond mere linguistic transfer. This study has several practical implications. Firstly, it will benefit translators of the Quran by providing fresh insights into dealing with some of the challenges of translating euphemism from the Quran. Secondly, it will provide a platform for further research on translating euphemism as it has expanded the existing literature on translating euphemistic expressions from the Quran to benefit future researchers.

This study aims to investigate the challenges of translating metaphors of the Quran. It examines English speakers' understanding of a number of Quran metaphors which are selected from three well known English versions of the Quran translations. In addition, the study highlights the root causes which may be deemed to be a source of misunderstanding Quran metaphors. The study also aims to find out to what extant metaphors of the Quran can maintain their sense in today's context. Translation in today's globalised world is gaining relevance as a means to enhance communication among multicultural nations. Translation studies have contributed significantly in bridging the linguistic and the cultural gap among languages. However, the key literature of this study suggests that, translating metaphors and translating metaphors of the Quran in particular have been under researched as they are very often overlooked in translation studies. The conclusion that can be drawn from the predominant literature related to translation studies is that the on-going debates over the faithful, loyal approaches of translating vs. the free and dynamic methods have generated in parts insightful explanations and interesting and useful, but they have fallen short of providing a general consensus. This study takes the view that there is no master plan for translating and that a word for word approach often leads to stilted translation particularly when dealing with metaphors. Given the nature of the topic under consideration, this study combines both qualitative and quantitative methods. The advantage of the use of both methods for collecting data is highly considered and recommended. Utilization of this combination enhances the trustworthiness of findings as well as reduces limitations. The qualitative method in this study represents scholars' interpretations and views and a questionnaire as a data collection instrument is adopted to enhance the result of this study. The findings suggest that the three selected English versions of the Quran have fallen short of conveying the meaning of Quran metaphors. The findings also indicate that the meaning is often mistranslated or misleading or misunderstood by English readers.

This study examines word order variation in the Qurän, the Holy Book of Islam, and ten of its translations into English, produced between 1920 and 2004. Word order in Arabic is flexible and is used as a linguistic resource for realising several discursive functions. Arabic literature on baläghah (Arabic art of eloquence) details a number of such functions, which can be realised by foregrounding an element (e. g. predicate, object, adjunct, adverbial) to or towards clause-initial position. The Arabic data consists of äyahs identified in tafslrs (commentaries on the Qurän), specifically those identified by al-Baydäwi, a renowned commentator, as examples of foregrounding in the Qurän. Al-Baydäwi and other commentators also identify the functions realised by each instance of foregrounding. A corpus of (68) äyahs, some of which feature 2 instances of foregrounding, thus constitutes the Arabic corpus. According to the commentators consulted in this study, the Qurän uses foregrounding to fulfil the functions of specification, restriction, emphasis, glorification/amplifrcation and denial. The literature also identifies a number of äyahs which fulfil more than one of these functions simultaneously. Ten English translations of the Qurän constitute the English corpus used in this study. These are carried out by individual or team translators with different ideological orientations (sunni, shi`i, sufi, Qadryänl, orientalist) and demonstrate different levels of competence in the source and target languages (some are native speakers of Arabic, some are native speakers of English, some are not native speakers of either language, while the team translators consist of a native speaker of each language). Strategies used across the ten translations to render the relevant instances of foregrounding are identified and repeated patterns of choice described. The translators featured in the corpus generally remain close to the. word order of the äyahs, often opting for non-canonical word order in English. Some have a preference for cleft structures, which allow them to foreground different elements of the clause. Translators also use lexical strategies (especially the addition of restrictive items such as alone and only) as well as punctuation devices (such as rendering a clause as an independent sentence/question or placing a punctuation mark such as a dash before an element or elements in a clause) in order to reproduce, make up for or strengthen the force of the foregrounding in the source text. The study then selects a sub-corpus of three translations for closer examination of the cumulative effect of the translators' preferred choices on their respective style. The selected translations are examined to identify how frequently individual translators (or a team of translators) use each strategy to render the foregrounding featured in the äyahs which constitute the Arabic corpus. Translators' choices are then explained against a backdrop of their stated aims (where these are made clear in a translator's introduction or preface), available reviews of the translations and interviews with the translators, as well as documented information about their background and the context in which they produced their respective translations.

Los objetivos de esta tesis doctoral se basan en investigar cómo se traducen algunos temas coránicos al inglés, al castellano y al catalán con énfasis sobre la intervención del factor ideológico en dicha traducción teniendo en cuenta la influencia de la ideología de cada traductor sobre el texto original en su versión meta. Asimismo los objetivos planteados nos llevan a establecer cuatro hipótesis que se demuestran a través de un marco teórico relacionado con las contribuciones de varios teóricos en el campo de traductología sobre todo las teorías del descriptivismo en relación con traducción y ideología tal como la escuela de la manipulación que permite comprender cómo un texto se manipula cuando se traduce a otro lengua y cúales son los factores que intervienen en su manipulación. En cuanto a la parte práctica de la tesis, se escogen ejemplos divididos según el tema coránico que les corresponde y se analizan basándose en el modelo descriptivo y comparativo que permite estudiar estos ejemplos tal como parecen en sus versiones meta y no cómo deben ser traducidos sino el estudio llevado a cabo será prescriptivo en vez de descriptivo. Por consiguiente, se observa que los ejemplos estudiados y analizados se han afectado negativamente en varias ocasiones y han cambiado el significado de versículos coránicos mediante el empleo de diferentes técnicas de traduccione sobre todo la traducción literal, la omisión, la amplificación explicativa, etc. Por otro lado se concluye que los traductores musulmanes han prestado más atención a la traducción de sentidos para evitar manipulaciones y distorsiones de los mensajes verdaderos. Además, se entiende que el factor ideológico se nota no solamente en el empleo de técnicas de traducción sino también en la influencia religiosa de cada traductor, su intención de tras de su traducción y las referencias académicas y exegéticas empleadas por cada traductor. En ese sentido se observa que los traductores musulmanes se basan únicamente en referencias del Islam Sunita ya que están subvencionados por un país Sunita que es Arabia Saudita. En contrario, los traductores no-musulmanes diversifican sus referencias cuando reflejan opiniones de diferentes doctrinas islámicas y de orient los alistas.
The purposes of this thesis are principally about investigating how some Quranic issues are translated into English, Spanish and Catalan with focus on the intervention of the ideological factor in this translation taking into account the influence of the ideology of each of the selected translators on the original text in its taget version. Additionally, the planned purposes help to establish four hypotheses which are confirmed through a theoretical approach related to the contributions of some eminent scholars in the field of translation studies, especially the theories that are about descriptivism and ideolgy as in the case of the manipulation school whcih permits to understand how a source text is manipulated in its target version and also how other factors interven in its manipulation. As for the practicle part of this thesis, there are examples that are divided into issues that touch upon different Quranic topics and they are studied on the basis of the descriptive and the comparative model which allows to analyse them as they are in their taget versions and not as they must be otherwise the study becomes prescriptive instead of descriptive. Consequently, it is observed that these examples are affected negatively and they change the original meaning of Quranic verses and messages through the use of translation procedures, notably omission, literal translation and amplification. On the other side, it is concluded that Muslim translators pay more attention to the translation of meanings so as to make their translation meaning-oriented and to avoid manipulation and distortion. Morover, it is understood that the ideological factor is not only noticed in the use of translation procedures, but also in the religious influence of each translator and his intention beyond his translation as well as the academic and the exegetical references employed in each translation. In this respect it is observed that Muslim translators exclusively rely on Quranic exegesis of Suni scholars as they are sponsored by Saudi Arabia. On the contrary, non-Muslim translators diversify their references by relying on Suni and Shii exegesis in additon to the opinions of Orientalists and all that is reflected in their translations.

The study of gender as an analytical tool in Translation Studies has highlighted women's position as translators and creators of meaning and has opened the way for questioning established realities, "truths" and norms created by the dominant male voice. The aim of this research is to study four English translations of the Quran by women: The Quran, Arabic text with Corresponding English Meaning (1995) by Umm Muhammad, The Light of Dawn (1999) by Camille Adams Helminski, The Holy Quran: Translation with Commentary (2006) by Taheereh Saffarzadeh and The Sublime Quran (2007) by Laleh Bakhtiar, in order to determing whether these women translators are challenging or reproducing patriarchal gender hierarchies through their renditions of the Sacred Text of Islam. An important second thread is to investigate the assumption that a translator's feminine gender automatically results or leads in/to a woman-centred or feminist reading of the source text. Considering that scholars working on gender and translation have focused on various elements of the translation process, in this study, my research questions revolve around four main areas, namely (1) the role of paratexts, (2) the extent of interventions in the Sacred Text (3) linguistic choices, and finally (4) interpretation of gender-related terms. In order to address these questions, I will adopt a critical and comparative analysis between the four individual English translations of the Quran by women, the original Arabic text, and, occasionally, other English versions translated by men. The main findings reveal that there is a deep divide between translations produced by women translators living in Muslim majority countries and those living in the United States. Finally, this research suggests that the study of women's role as translators of religious texts in different cultural, social and religious settings could help produce a more nuanced and critical view of the impact of the translator's gender on his/her work.

This thesis investigates the problems of discourse in translating the Qu'ran into English. More specifically, it focuses on the discovery and analysis of problems relating to the macro-textual level and occurring in both stages of the translation process i.e. source-text analysis and transfer. Source-text analysis problems encountered by the Qu'ran translator are extracted from the processing of the source-text. Transfer problems, on the other hand, are isolated via (a) the comparison of eight English translations with the original text; (b) the identification and analysis of 'shifts of translation' displayed in the target text(s); (c) the isolation of the transfer problems per se from the shifts. Proceeding on these bases, the research examines the discourse problems: 1. problems caused by the structure (or internal organization) of the Qu'ranic text; 2. problems relating to texture in the text of the Qu'ran and considered firstly in terms of cohesion and, secondly, coherence. Cohesion problems are investigated at the level of the two cohesive relations: inter-sentential connection and pronominal reference. Coherence problems focus on the problem relating to the use of implicit information in the text of the Qu'ran. The problems confronted by the Qu'ran translator at the level of discourse have received little attention from researchers in the field. The present research attempts to remedy this neglect and to pave the way for adequate strategies to deal with such problems.

The belief that the Quran is the literal word of God (Allah) in Arabic is fundamental to every Muslim. It is also a frightening notion that haunts many Quran translators. It often drives them to translate the Quran literally, in a way, thinking that this is the best way to maintain faithfulness to the sacred text, despite the fact that they are aware that the translation itself is not sacred. As a result, many of the Quran translations are stained by this excessive literalness to a degree that they are quoted and effectively used against Islam and Muslims. Consequently, this research project is concerned with developing a new methodology for undertaking Quran translation that brings together a variety of techniques to represent the Quran in a way that may be considered more communicative and favourably received by the target readers. First, two factors are introduced to guide the process of translation: the need to set a target - skopos - that shapes the output of the overall process, and the need to consult existing Quran exegesis for interpretation so as to limit, as far as possible, individual translator influence. The methodology used to translate the Quran is presented in a hybrid model whose ultimate aim is to convey the meaning of the source text (ST) as it is generated within its context - that is, not in terms of its surface semantics - and to provide a target text (TT) that serves native speakers of English, regardless of their faith backgrounds. 1 chose one chapter of the Quran - “Mary” - as a sample translation. A reception study that supplied positive feedback from the intended audience of this research confirmed the validity and reliability of the model. The research has also confirmed that the translation is more informative than the original text to its proposed target readership. The research is indeed prescriptive in that it seeks to propose a translation through a systematic and organised treatment of the very special text that is the original. The ultimate concern is that the language of the translated text be domesticated according to target language norms, at the same time leaving intact the distinct foreign elements located in the ST because their distinctiveness is crucial to its identity.

This thesis provides a thematic comparative review of some of the English translations of the Qur'an, including the works of Abdullah Yusuf Ali, Muhammad Asad, Taqiuddin Hilali and Muhsin Khan, and Zafarlshaq Ansari/Sayyid Mawdudi. In this study, a new and unique approach is used to review and compare these translations along with their commentaries. They are reviewed based on the following four Qur'anic themes: Injunctions, Stories, Parables, and Short Chapters. These are some of the key themes where the Qur'an translations, especially the ones with commentary, often differ from each other and can be assessed objectively. For each theme, three to four examples are taken as samples from the Qur'an, and they are studied from different points of view. For example, the translation of the verses with injunctions will be reviewed for their relative emphasis over the letter versus the spirit of the law, consideration of jurisprudence knowledge, overall objectives of Islamic law, issues of this age, and impact of the translator's environment. This approach is intended to identify further requirements for offering more accurate and more communicative translations of the Qur'an in the English language.

This work examines ten English translated versions of the meaning of the Qur'an chosen in considerations of different factors. The date of the version and the background of the author represent the main factor behind the selection process. The aim of this study is to provide a theoretical analysis of the main trends of the translation theory, which was applied on the practical parts of the work. As for the practical parts, the study aims to analyse the source language and the target language texts in order to identify the loss of meaning in translating the Qur'an into English so that the translatability of the Qur'an could be assessed. The study adopts text analysis to find out the linguistic characteristics of both source language and target language texts. It also makes comparison between the different target texts on the one hand and between them and the original text on the other hand. The study, however, tries to base its findings on a more general linguistic framework. The study consists of five chapters. The first one is the introduction. The second one is the theoretical setting in which many theoretical issues related to the scope of this study have been analysed to set up a theoretical frame work to be used in approaching the practical parts of this thesis. The third chapter is the lexical meaning where the loss of meaning is discussed in terms of the linguistic, cultural and phonic levels. Some aspects of the loss of meaning, as found out in this chapter, are related to linguistic factors, but other aspects are related to issues beyond language. The fourth chapter is the syntactic meaning where the loss of meaning is dealt with on the syntactic/grammatical level. The fifth chapter in this thesis, however, is the conclusion in which the results and the recommendations of this work are presented. The study results were all related to the main results, which are that the Qur'an is an untranslatable text; it could not be reproduced adequately into any other language. That is to say that the loss of meaning in the English translated versions of the Qur'an is inevitable and this, in fact, supports the Issue of the Qur'an untranslitibilty. The main recommendations in this regard are that the translation of the Qur'an should be carried out by more than one translator; a committee or an organisation should stand for this more important task. The existing English translated versions of the Qur'an should also be revised from time to time for many reasons could be related to new views in understanding the Qur'anic text or in relation to the interpretation, or changes in the language into which the translation is done, or new ideas regarding the communication and translation theory.

Despite the fact that many problematic areas in the English translations of the Qurān have been thoroughly investigated, no substantial work has so far been devoted to critically evaluating the translation of the Divine Names, which pose paramount challenges for all translators. Critical and evaluative studies of Qurān translations seem to avoid investigating and assessing the Divine Names, which are the most sensitive and delicate Qurānic terms. This study critically and comparatively investigates how accurate and consistent are the English renderings of these Divine Names; al-Asmā al-Ḥusnā, The Most Beautiful Names (MBNs) which are recurring terms in the Qurānic text. The complexity of meanings and morphological features of these Divine Names is evidently reflected in so many cases of inaccuracy as well as inconsistency in their English translations, particularly in the renderings of the near-synonymous root-sharing Names. Translators of the Qurān have unjustifiably used different corresponding terms for the very same Divine Name when it appears on more than one occasion, and sometimes in similar Qurānic contexts. Most Qurān translators have also inaccurately used the very same English corresponding terms to translate two, if not three, near-synonymous Divine Names, whether they share the same linguistic root or otherwise. For the purpose of this evaluative study, hundreds of occurrences of the root-sharing Divine Names in five well-known English translations, namely Pickthall (1930), A.Y. Ali (1936/1986), Arberry (1955), Hilali-Khan (1985) and Abdel-Haleem (2004), have been collected, analysed and critically and comparatively evaluated. The comparative evaluation of the English renderings of the Divine Names has revealed that all the five translations not only fall short in their attempts to distinguish between the near-synonymous Names, particularly the root-sharing ones, but prove unsuccessful in rendering them accurately and consistently. The study has also revealed that the translation of Arberry shows much better quality, in terms of accuracy and consistency, in rendering the root-sharing Divine Names than other translations do. In addition to critically revealing shortcomings, inaccuracies and inconsistencies of the renderings of the Divine Names, the study suggests the use of translation technology solutions (or computer-assisted tools), such as translation memory and bilingual concordances, to improve the quality and consistency of future Qurān translations in general, and the renderings of the recurring Divine Names in particular.

This work provides an analytical critique of some selected English translations of the Original Quran. This research tries to demonstrate (1) whether the cultural convergence of English and Arabic, due to globalisation, is leading to any further linguistic intermingling and (2) whether the cultural backgrounds of translators, in terms of their native languages, religion and place of origin/residence have any influence on the quality of their translational works. The first chapter builds up a theoretical base, by reviewing thematically the available literature upon which translational strategies are established. The second chapter discusses the differences between the two cultures concerned and the translation of the main features of culture. This chapter concentrates on cultural factors from an Arabic/English translational perspective, i.e. their impact on the rendition of cultural features such as the ecological, religious, social, political, and material aspects. Chapter three is concerned with the literal linguistic differences. More specifically, literal language will be looked at on a grammatical basis. The fourth chapter will cover the figurative level of linguistic differences, as it is more cultural based. It will view the most important traditional tropes but will concentrate on the figures of speech that are most commonly used in the Quran and those than are stylistically useful and effective. Metaphor will be dealt with separately in chapter five. The analysis of chapter seven will be linguistically based on text patterns by examining and tracing chronologically the figurative language of the Quran through metaphorical discourse and to find out whether cultural convergence through temporal constraints has an effect on the way translators treat the Quran. Chapter eight focuses culturally on the profiles and cultural backgrounds of the translators of the Quran and their intentions in terms of whether they see the Quran as the word of God or whether they deal with it as a literary text.

The aims of this paper were to contrast English usages of 'time' metaphors with Quranic Arabic realizations and their representations in three English Quranic translations. Three noted translations of the Quran were used, namely, those done by, Pickthall, Yusuf Ali and Asad ('Quran Search,' 2007). Using the cognitive theory of metaphor as a framework (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980), these translations were examined and contrasted, in order to distinguish the version that corresponded the most accurately with the conceptual metaphors found in both languages. If the examined conceptual metaphor was not realized in either language, changes to the meaning of the Quran were taken into consideration. Finally, historical, social and religious aspects were examined in order to determine the cause of certain conceptual metaphor realizations in both or one of the languages.

Materials taken from Lakoff & Johnson (1980b), Lakoff (1994), Kövecses (2002), and Kövecses (2006) gave insight into the social-historical reasons behind the metaphor realizations in English while Quranic references and hadiths, or Prophetic narrations, were considered when examining the Quran.

Two conceptual metaphors were tentatively concluded to be universal and two other metaphors were realized differently on the basis of differing cultural values. Culture in this context referred to the 'mental representations' of certain phenomena of a culture through the language (Kövecses, 2006, p.135).

The translations done by Yusuf Ali and Pickthall were considered to be more literal and thus more accurate renderings of metaphors in the Quran, within the cognitive theory of metaphor framework, while Asad's translations were considered to be less accurate, containing, on the whole, more paraphrasing and individual interpretation. It was pointed out, however, that this is a sample study that cannot entirely represent the complete works of the authors mentioned. It was suggested that more studies need to be conducted in order to conclusively establish these findings.

Translations of the meaning of the Quran in English are becoming amongst the most read books in the world. Unfortunately, almost all the existing renditions fail to transfer the original clearly into the target language. They suffer from serious shortcomings that cause incomprehensibility in parts of the text. These renditions contain some elements that make the target reader struggle to understand the meaning. This research aims to contribute to overcoming the shortcomings of existing translations. It discusses the reasons why the English target reader of the Quran struggles to follow and comprehend the meaning of some of its verses, and attempts to find a workable methodology for translating the meaning of the Quran. It tries to find new methods to help tackle the weaknesses in the translations of the meaning of the Quran and provides suggestions for improving them. It is hoped this methodology will lead to producing a more accurate and comprehensible translation of the meaning of the Quran in which the meaning is transferred clearly in a natural-sounding targetlanguage text, and that will improve comprehensibility for both Muslim and non- Muslim native speakers of English. This research also studies the role and importance of the translator in achieving a good translation, and tries to establish a set of criteria for the attributes and conditions of the translator of the Quran.

This research sets out to investigate translations of the mutashaabih (semantically indefinite), muhkam (semantically definite) and ambiguous Quranic verses, with special attention to the first category, as it is the most sensitive and controversial part of the Quran. More specifically, this thesis investigates how the uniqueness and sensitivity of mutashaabih verses are reflected in translation. The study scrutinises the distinctive features of the three verse categories to find out how these distinctive features are manifested in translational aspects such as translation problems, strategies and quality assessment. The study uses a contrastive method of analysis: It analyses and compares 25 English translations of 30 mutashaabih, 30 muhkam and 30 ambiguous verses. These three separate analyses constitute three sub-studies. The fourth and last part of the study compares and analyses these three sub-studies altogether to determine the translation problems encountered and the strategies used in each category. In addition, this fourth part also evaluates translations of each category to determine the most appropriate translation strategy for each verse category. The study shows that the verse categories under study vary significantly in their semantic features. It proves that muhkam is semantically determinate and independent, while mutashaabih is semantically indeterminate, muhkam-dependent, uncertain and encompasses a multiplicity of meanings. Between these two opposites, ambiguity stands as relatively indeterminate, muhkam-dependent, relatively uncertain and denoting a limited multiplicity of meaning. As a result, muhkam is found to fall under the unmarked category, while mutashaabih is the most marked and ambiguity is positioned between the two. In terms of theory and practice, this markedness continuum manifests itself in translation problems, strategies and quality assessment. Hence, it is concluded that muhkam is the least problematic and demanding, with the highest success rates among the translations studied; mutashaabih is the most problematic and demanding, with the lowest rates of successful translation outcomes; and ambiguous Quranic verses occupy a middle position between mutashaabih and muhkam.