Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Hebrew Quran translation to avoid term "Israelites"

From Asharq Alawsat:
The translation of the Holy Quran into Hebrew will take over one full year, according to Dr. Mohammed bin Salim al Awfi, the secretary general of the King Fahd Complex for the Printing of the Holy Quran, the Saudi Arabian body authorized to issue and publish translations of the Holy Quran into various languages.

A year has already passed since the complex announced undertaking the translation of the meanings of the Holy Quran into Hebrew, while other translations into Arabic and Hebrew have been published outside of Saudi Arabia, however containing several flaws. Al Awfi confirmed that the translation takes more than a year in various languages, not only into Hebrew. "Any institution that works on the translation and publication of the meanings of the Holy Quran must try to be accurate in order to present correct and valid meanings in terms of theology, Shariaa, language and style. This requires an accurate method," al Awfi added. [...]

According to al Awfi, there are various measures in the translation process that are based on the theological accuracy of a translation, compliance with Shariaa, observance of the [Islamic] fundamentals and principles, refraining from subjecting translations to denominational views, referring to the established interpretation sources and transferring the meanings of the Holy Quran directly into the target language rather than from an intermediary language as well as refraining from adapting the Quranic verses by adding or deleting, compliance with the translation of the meanings of the Holy Quran, avoiding literalism so as to make it a translation of meanings, transliterating untranslatable words and giving their approximate translations between brackets such as ‘Zakat’, ‘Hajj’, ‘Umrah’, and avoiding the term Israelite and narrations that cannot be confirmed.[...]
I wonder what that's all about. (Hat Tip: Martin Kramer)

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