English abstract
English translations of the Quran are dated back to the twelfth century. The main
translators working on the Quran projects were not happy the translation and described
their “participation as a ‘digression’ from the scientific translations” (Pym, 1998:130).
This study aims at comparing seven English translations which are done by
translators from different cultural backgrounds. It also investigates the effect of the cultural
background of the translators on their translations of verses related to women by adopting
Newmark’s cultural framework. The second objective of the study is to examine areas of
differences between the seven selected translations. It explores if these differences are
attributed to the extra-textual factors of the translation adopted from Nord’s model of text
analysis (2005).
The sample of this study consists of thirty verses related to women from various
Quranic Chapters. The data is collected from islamawakened.com and the books of the
seven translators. The study adopts Ibn-Katheer’s interpretation as a reference.
The study adopts a cultural framework to cxamine the effect of the cultural
background of the translators on their translations of verses related to women. It also
applies Nord’s functional model of text analysis to investigate if the extra-textual factors of the translation have an influence on the translation of verses by the seven translators.
The study reveals that there are different effects of the cultural background of the
translators on their translations of verses related to women. These differences are caused
by the linguistic culture, social culture and religious culture of the translators. Another
main finding of the study is that the translations are influenced by the extra-textual factors
of Nord’s model. These factors are time and place of production, sender’s intention, the
target readers and purpose of the translation.
Finally, the study recommends that the translator of the Quran should have a
thorough knowledge of Arabic language in general and especially cultural and Islamic
terms, and the translator has to refer to exegeses’ books to produce accurate renditions of
meaning.
