Hermeneutics And The Problem Of Translating Traditional Arabic Texts

This book focuses on the problematic issues arising when translating and interpreting classical Arabic texts, which represent a challenging business for many scholars, especially with regards to religious texts. Additionally, the reception of these interpretations and translations not only informs the perception of Muslims and their awareness of the outside world, but also impacts the vision and perception of non-Muslims of Islam and the Muslim world. Consequently, this book reconsiders the concepts of understanding and interpretation, and their nexus in the mechanism of translation, and proposes a novel, hermeneutic method of translating, interpreting, and understanding traditional and classical Arab texts. Handling the issues of understanding from a hermeneutical perspective is shown here to remove the possibility of translation and interpretation rendering a distorted translated text. Drawing on the powerful interpretive theories of Hans-Georg Gadamer and Martin Heidegger, the hermeneutic method of translation starts from a premise that the meaning of a classical text cannot be deduced solely by linguistic analysis of its words, but requires in-depth investigation of the invisible, contextual elements that control and shape its meaning. Traditional texts are seen in this model as ‘travelling texts’ whose meaning is transformed across time and space. The hermeneutic method of translation allows the translator to identify those elements from the real-world that informed a classical text at the time of its writing, so that it can be adapted and made relevant to its contemporary context. Traditional texts can enlighten our minds and cultivate our souls; religious texts can elevate our behavior and thinking, and help refine our confused contemporary lives. When texts become isolated from their world, they lose this lofty goal of enlightenment and elevation.

Domestic violence, interpersonal violence, intimate partner violence, or gender-based violence continues to be a social problem that is rarely understood or discussed in many parts of society, worldwide. The same holds true in the Anglophone Caribbean. Most Caribbean societies are patriarchal in nature, as most men govern and create the political and economic landscape where citizens live. This edited volume brings together reputable scholars of rigorous academic research from various disciplines (e.g., political science, law, linguistics, criminology, nursing, social work and psychology) to clearly explain the conceptual definition of domestic violence within the Latin American and Caribbean region’s socio-political context. It will highlight who are the perpetrators as well as the victims of domestic violence and the consequences of allowing domestic violence to perpetuate in the region. This book is unique in the market today, as it is the only book grounded in the Caribbean providing a comprehensive overview of domestic violence with regards to the significance, victims, perpetrators, and the consequences.

The major religious traditions of South Asia are 'religions of the book'. All accept basic arrays of texts of scriptures, often seen as sacred reservoirs of meaning and power. The West has viewed these texts as 'bibles' of their respective traditions, projecting onto them Western values and concerns. This book challenges such misconceptions by revealing the complex character of scripture and its interpretation in South Asian religions. Texts in Context explores the hermeneutical traditions of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Islam, and Sikhism. The question of how we should understand the diversity of text-traditions is approached by asking "How have traditional thinkers — the exegetes within these traditions —understood and utilized scripture?" The answers, though remarkably diverse, do reveal important similarities and take the discussion of scripture in India to a deeper level. This book makes accessible to the non-specialist sensibilities and approaches that have previously received little attention in the West, but have formed the basis for traditional efforts to understand and utilize scripture. It is a collaboration between contemporary thinkers and their traditional counterparts, whose voices emerge as they consider the sacred words of the religious traditions of South Asia.

Master's Thesis from the year 2017 in the subject Speech Science / Linguistics, grade: 19.25, University of Tehran, language: English, abstract: This study claims to have studied the pragmatic use and role of hermeneutics and intertextuality in translating esoteric and mystical contexts of the Quran. Thus, it examines and reviews such highly esoteric and mystic contexts by performing a comparative but descriptive analysis on two of the scholarly translations of the Quran ever produced: The classic translation of the Quran by Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall (1930) that was the first scholarly translation produced by a native English scholar who was also a Muslim convert, and the latest scholarly translation of the Quran by Seyyed Hossein Nasr (2015), a professor of philosophy, comparative religion and mystic teachings. The purpose of the study is to show how the effective use of an intertextual hermeneutics can help increase the functionality and naturalness of the translation that are the keys to reach to the minds of Western readers who would experience a spiritual encounter with the theophany of the religion of Islam that is its central message, the Quran. The study uses Steiner’s (1975) four-fold hermeneutic motion to perform a comparative and intertextual examination on four major Quranic themes that are Quranic hermeneutics (ta’wil), verbal/oral transmission of the Quran, Quranic intertextuality, and Quranic imagery. The significance of the study is based on two justifications; the issue of authority over a particular discourse that inevitably is realised in translating the Quranicmessage for Western audience, and the flagrant chasm that exists between hermeneutical and translational studies of the Quran. The findings suggest that using an intertextual hermeneutics or any consciousness over that can facilitate the functionality and naturalness of the translation for Western receivers of the translation that have the essence of their spirituality forged based on Judeo-Christian discourse; considering the dramatic similarities that naturally happen among Abrahamic faiths.

This volume brings together twenty-two of the world's leading translation and interpreting theorists, to address the issue of sensitivity in translation. Whether in novels or legal documents, the Bible or travel brochures, in translating ancient texts or providing simultaneous interpretation, sensitive subject-matter, contentious modes of expression and the sensibilities of the target audience are the biggest obstacles to acceptance of the translator's work. The contributors bring to bear a wide variety of approaches - generative, cognitive, lexical and functional - in confronting this problem, and in negotiating the competing claims of source cultures and target cultures in the areas of cultural, political, religious and sexual sensitivity. All of the articles are presented here for the first time, and in his Introduction Karl Simms gives an overview of the philosophical and linguistic questions which have motivated translators of sensitive texts through the ages. This book will be of interest to all working translators and interpreters, and to teachers of translation theory and practice.

As a Protestant theologian and diciple of renowned critics of Christianity, Albert Schweitzer and Martin Werner, the Author wanted since long to contribute to the breakthrough of their resolute nontrinitarian position which has throughout the twentieth century by all and every Western Christian university theology been silenced by pretending tacitly and tenaciously the non-existence of their strong argument.

This anthology brings the key writings on translation in Arabic in the pre-modern era, extending from the earliest times (sixth century CE) until the end of World War I, to a global English-speaking audience. The texts are arranged chronologically and organized by two historical periods: the Classical Period, and the Nahda Period. Each text is preceded by an introduction about the selected text and author, placing the work in context, and discussing its significance. The texts are complemented with a theoretical commentary, discussing the significance for the contemporary period and modern theory. A general introduction covers the historical context, main trends, research interests, and main findings and conclusions. The two appendices provide statistical data of the corpus on which the anthology is based, more than 500 texts of varying lengths extending throughout the entire period of study. This collection contributes to the development of a more inclusive and global history of translation and interpreting. Translated, edited, and analyzed by leading scholars, this anthology is an invaluable resource for researchers, students, and translators interested in translation studies, Arab/Islamic history, and Arabic language and literature, as well as Islamic theology, linguistics, and the history of science. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.