دو فصلنامه ترجمان وحی
سال چهاردهم شماره 1 (پیاپی 27، بهار و تابستان 1389)

In order for the ordinary reader to appreciate the Divine message in the Qur’ān, its meanings need to be explained through interpretation and translation and towards that goal syntax is an invaluable tool in the hands of the exegete as well as the translator, whose task is producing a rather concise interpretation. Syntactic considerations also serve well in judging the merits of a particular translation. As such, syntax has been adopted as the sole basis for the critical method in the present article. The following conclusions have been drawn: 1) Due to the diacritical indeterminacies and the consequent syntactic ambiguities of certain terms in the Qur’ān, some translators have inadvertently made inaccurate renditions of these expressions. 2) In Arabic, each preposition (harf al-jarr) often assumes several roles or meanings. Occasionally there isdisagreement between Sunni and Shiite commentators about the syntactic functions of certain prepositions. A number of Shiite translators have rendered translations which reflect the Sunni view on this particular topic. 3) Implication (tadmīn) is an important feature of Arabic grammar and discourse and is used frequently throughout the Qur’ān.

Emphasis or stress is a literary mechanism often used in (negative) imperatives to impart forcefulness or certainty to an expression and increase its persuasive power in the mind of the audience. This article begins by formally examining the nature of emphasis, its different types in both the source (the language of the Qur’ān) and target languages (English) and the various approaches to satisfactorily reproducing it in translation. The article goes on to detail the devices and mechanisms by which emphasis is expressed, including the (non-textual) elements of the speech situation, the audience’s perceptualcontext and other situational pseudo-linguistic factors. In order to present an objective discussion of the subject, three English translations from Pickthall, Irving and Abdullah Yusuf Ali have been used to exemplify each visited mechanism of emphasis. Our study of these works has yielded the following two main observations: First, often a translator’s failure to achieve cross-language equivalence stems from a lack of due attention to orknowledge of the capacities and peculiarities of the syntactic, semantic and pragmatic systems of the source and target languages and their different approaches towards fulfilment of the communicative objectives. Second is the often apparent incompetence of translators in dealing with the differences between stylistic systems of Semitic and Indo-European languages. This has sometimes led to their rather superficial approach to translation, their relative negligence of the multiple embedded layers of meaning and an oversight of the common strategies and mechanisms of semantic expression in the Qur’ān.

The present article was written in response to the balanced review of my translation by Mr Muhammad Ali Kūshā, which was published in the previous issue of Tarjumān-e Wahy (no. 26).Mr Kūshā’s original article pointed out and exemplified some of the strengths of the Persian rendition. While admitting that he could not find any significant errors, nevertheless the reviewer went on to detail 46 cases of what might be considered minor glitches, responding to which is the focus of this article.We begin by making the point that review articles should concern themselves with emphasizing the more obvious and unequivocal mistakes and not highlighting the perceived minor breaches of etiquette which might be open to question and counter-argument. We then go on to respond point-by point to the individual criticisms made against the translation. In the few cases where this author acknowledges minor inconsistencies, the criticism has been welcomed without any reservation.Our final conclusion is that not only the cases made prominent in the review article do not amount to serious errors, but hardly constitute valid technical glitches as well.

This part studies the signification of the various tenses of Arabic verbs and the various forms of the composite verbs that indicate the particular and precise time of an action or event. It also mentions the meanings of such compound constructions as “fa‘ala,” “qad fa‘ala,” kāna fa‘ala,” “qad kāna fa‘ala,” etc., which occur in the Qur’ānic verses. According to the author, special attention is to be paid to this matter for a correct understanding of the meaning of the Qur’āic verses, especially while translating them into other languages. Otherwise it will be difficult to attain a correct understanding of the verses.

Translations of Mu‘ezzi, Saffārzādeh and Āyati It is widely accepted among Muslims that the Qur’ān is not only a sacred text with the ultimate goal of providing guidance and imparting Divine teachings to humanity, but also a literary work of utmost excellence which has fully exploited and further brought to perfection the literary and rhetorical tradition of its age. Therefore, having a sufficient grasp of the literary devices and traditions of that particular period is essential to developing a valid interpretation of itscontents. One of the literary devices, which is used throughout the Sacred Text, ismetonymy and is of great importance for its utility in expressing complex or inconvenient meanings, the study of which has been chosen as the focus of this paper. In this article we explore the ways for proper rendition of metonymic expressions and present many cases of metonymy, extracted from established exegetical and rhetorical references. Our objective is to impartially evaluate the strategies adopted for translation of such expressions in three contemporary Persian renditions. The outcome of our study is a series of tables which can be summarized as following: 1) In many cases, the translation fails to properly reflect the rhetorical mechanisms of the source language in terms of the target language structures. 2) Although metonymic usage is found in almost alllanguages, often there is a mismatch or incongruence between Arabic and Persian as far as the involved symbolic associations are concerned. Therefore, whenever possible, the preferred method for rendering metonymy is by employing another metonymic expression in the target language, so that in addition to fully transferring the source message into the target text, some of the rhetorical features are also preserved. In cases where such an equivalent is not available, the best option is to freely paraphrase the source expression and in any case, a literal translation should be avoided as much as possible. Towards better achieving this goal, a good command of stylistics is a prerequisite to viabletranslation skills in addition to a close familiarity with the cultures of the source and target languages.

The so-called occasions of revelation (أسباب النزول) material is an important constituent of the Qur’ānic exegesis literature in particular and Qur’ānic scholarship in general, and has been developed over the centuries by Islamic scholars who have greatly extended its realm of influence. The article begins by offering a historical review and roundup of the opinions of commentators and authors of related literature from the 3rd century through the 9th century A. H. The article has restricted its focus to presenting the major scholarly views on the subject in the most general terms and does not concern itself with specificstatements on the occasion for revelation of a particular verse. According to Rippin, al-Zarkashī (in Al-Burhān) and al- Suyūtī (Al-Atqān) offer the most comprehensive account and authoritative summary of the collective opinions of their predecessors. They have posed five questions of fundamental significance concerning the influence of the occasions for revelation on interpretation of specific verses from the Qur’ān. Rippin concludes that in al-Suyūtī’s view, the most important utility of occasions of revelation reports is their jurisprudential function, although he accepts their value as historically and narratively significant. A major portion of the article is devoted to exemplifying the specificviews of al-Suyūtī and al-Zarkashī on interpretation of particular verses and the role played by the reported occasions for their revelation

The Qur’ān, being the Divine message to Humanity that it is, incorporates moral lessons in the form of stories, parables and other kinds of literary illustrations. It contains a number of well-known moral narratives or parables, some of which are rather lengthy accounts which occupy whole chapters, such as the stories of Joseph and Moses. Others are short including the accounts of Lot, Solomon and the people of Thamud. On the whole, Qur’ānic narratives seek their goal on multiple levels