James Dickins Review of "Quran Translation by Hussein Abdul-Raof"

8/13/2019 James Dickins Review of "Quran Translation by Hussein Abdul-Raof"

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British Society for Middle Eastern Studies

Qur'an Translation: Discourse, Texture and Exegesis by Hussein Abdul-RaofReview by: James DickinsBritish Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 32, No. 2 (Nov., 2005), pp. 283-285Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30037710.

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F: REVIEWS: LANGUAGE AND CULTUREHUSSEIN BDUL-RAOF.UR'ANTRANSLATION:ISCOURSE,EXTUREANDEXEGESIS. urzonPress,Richmond, 001,ISBN 0700712275 (Hardcover).This book is writtenfrom the perspectiveof a practisingMuslim with a profoundknowledge of Qur'anic exegesis and associated disciplines such as rhetoric(baldgha). It provides a survey of Qur'anic stylistics and, to lesser extentsemantics and grammar,and considers the implications these have for Qur'antranslation.A wide range of topics are covered, including general issues inreligious translation, yntacticfeatures of the Qur'an,ellipsis, lexical repetition,alliteration,assonance,figuresof speech,andQur'anic exture,as well as generalbackgroundmaterial on the text and exegesis of the Qur'an. The book isparticularly trong n its analysisof theQur'an fromtheseperspectives.The authorclearlydemonstrates oth thesubtletyof theQur'anictext,and theimpossibilityofrelayingall these subtletiessimultaneously n a translationof the Qur'an.The book accepts the traditional slamic doctrineof the Inimitability i 'jdz)ofthe Qur'an,arguingthat the Qur'anhas uniquestructuraland other features notsharedby otherArabic texts Althoughthis may be true,the argument tself is notexemplified;no otherArabictext, whetherpoetryorprose,is analysed n the bookin orderto show how the Qur'andiffersfrom more standardArabicwriting.Thenotion thattheQur'andisplaysuniquefeaturesalso raises anotherssue. Normallyreadersrecognise linguistic featuresbecause they are iconic, that is imitativeofextra-linguistic eality(e.g. extremecases of onomatopoeia),or becausethey obeythe known conventionsof a language(e.g. that 'John'is a man's name in Englishbut 'Jean' a woman's name), or because of a combinationof imitativenessandconventionality (e.g. 'cuckoo' in English; cf. the also imitative but differentlyconventionalisedKuckuckin German). If Qur'anic cohesion (Chapter3), forexample,hasuniquefeaturesnotsharedby otherArabictexts,theissue arises as tohow these featuresarerecognisedby readersas cohesive, i.e. ashelpingto bindthetext together since theuniquenessof these featuresseems to implyboththattheyare not imitative of extra-linguisticreality and that they fall outside the normalconventionsof the language.

The discussion of Qur'an translationsis generally insightful and thought-provoking. My main caveat relates to the issue of translatability.Two centralargumentsare invoked in the book. The first is that there is no such thing as aperfect translation:all translation involves some kind of loss, because alllanguagesand culturesrepresentedaredifferent.Thus,a translationmay succeed(perhapseven perfectly) in conveying the message content of an original text.However, there are bound to be losses other kinds, for instance at the level ofalliterationor otherphonic devices. The second argument s that the Qur'anismore untranslatablehanothertexts, andmay even be uniquelyuntranslatable.The first argument s uncontroversialn translationstudies, and is in practiceborne out by close analysis of original texts and their translations.The secondargument can be seen as an extension of the Islamic doctrine of Qur'anicInimitability i'jaz); if nothingcanbe produced n Arabic,andby extensionin anylanguage,of the same sublimityas the Qur'an,no translationof the Qur'ancan

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REVIEWS:ANGUAGENDCULTUREHe comments:'Ali has rightlyrendered he word y.Aja.,.I- beat themgently)accordingto the meaning provided by exegetes' (p. 28). While not wishing tochallenge the traditionalexegetical interpretation f this verse, I believe that thetranslation aises significant ssues: does i in Qur'anicArabicreallymean'to hit lightly', or is this an interpretation exegesis) of how the hittingshould becarried out? I believe that if the 'lightly' element is exegetical, rather thanlinguistic, there is a case for keeping it out of the actual translation even as abracketedelement), andputting t into a specifically exegetical footnote.The above caveats notwithstanding, his is a very useful book. It presentsincondensed form a large amount of informationon the Qur'anictext, combininganalysesfrom traditionalArabicgrammar nd rhetoricwith insightsfrommodemtext linguistics. I found some of the author's own proposals (e.g. the structuralanalyseson pp. 68-75) particularly nteresting.Scholars nterested n thelanguageof the Qur'an,from whateverperspective,as well as Arabic-English ranslationspecialists,will benefit from this book.UNIVERSITYOF DURHAM JAMES DICKINS

JAMESDICKENS,SANDORHERVEY& IAN HIGGINS.THINKINGARABICTRANSLATION. COURSENTRANSLATION ETHOD: RABICTOENGLISH.London,Routledge,002,ISBN 0415250641 (Hardcover).This book consists of eighteen chaptersand is supplementedby a twelve-pageglossary,English-language ndArabic-language eferences,and aLatin-script ndArabic-scriptndex. Chapters1 to 4 tackle translation s processandproduct,anddiscuss cultural and compensation issues. Chapters5 to 11 cover aspects ofsemanticsand the formalpropertiesof text. Stylistic issues and genre aredealtwith in chapters12 and 13, whereaschapters14 to 16 focus on translationwithinspecific genres, such as scientific, constitutional,and consumer-oriented exts.Chapter17 tackles revision andeditingof thetargettext. Each of these seventeenchaptersare reinforcedby two practicalsbased on Arabic source texts coveringawide-rangingchoice of genres, such as political, journalistic, iterary,academic,touristic,etc. These exercises aim at training he translator o develop solutions totranslationproblems.The sourcetexts, like the rest of the Arabic sectionsin thebook, arepresented n a very clearprintand in a suitable size of font andspacing.Finally, chapter18 presentsa summaryandconclusion. This translation extbookmay be convenientlycovered duringone academicyear, andalthough t focuseson translating romArabic nto English,thustargetingnative speakersof English,it can be equallybeneficialto Arab students.AlthoughThinkingArabic Translations notdirectlyconcernedwith translationtheory,the authorsare to be commendedfor the lucid way in which they presentthe essential theoreticalnotions. The technicalterminologyis clearly marked nbold letters and collatedin theglossarywhere it is succinctly explained.A numberof theoretical and practicalissues, such as synonymy, hyperonymy-hyponymy,partiallyoverlapping ranslation, tc. arecaptured n very effective simple figureswhich go a long way in relieving the readerfrom the usual drab of theoreticaltreatises.

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James Dickins Review of "Quran Translation by Hussein Abdul-Raof"