Rendering time divisions in selected translations of the glorious Qur’an

Abstract EN

The present study will deal with rendering time divisions in five selected translations of the Glorious Qur’an.

Time divisions refer to words denoting units used to measure time.

Time divisions are deeply rooted in the Arabic and Islamic culture and may or may not have their counterparts in other cultures.

They acquire a special meaning in the context of the Qur’an since they refer to religious ceremonies or occasions.

A day, for example, in not just a day but the day of decision on which the battle of Badr occurred.

Time divisions are thus a culture-specific aspect which is considered a major obstacle for any translator who translates the Qur’an.

The present study attempts to answer the following queries: What are the problems encountered by the translators of the Qur’an in rendering time divisions? What are the strategies they use in order to overcome these problems? Do they preserve cultural differences or adapt them? Are these strategies foreignizing or domesticating? To reach the answers to these queries, the study will use Aixela’s model (1996) for translating culture-specific aspects.

The study concludes that there are four strategies used to render time divisions in the Qur’an.

The linguistic strategy has proved to be the most commonly used strategy followed by extratextual gloss, intratextual gloss and orthographic adaptation consecutively.

These are all foreignizing strategies.