In collaboration with

The Knowledge Integration and Translation Laboratory at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Marrakech,

and

The Department of Arabic Language and Translation at the University of Leuven, Belgium,

Al-Kindy Center for Translation and Training

organizes:

The Fifth International Conference on Translating the Meanings of the Holy Quran:

On

Jewish and Christian Frameworks in the Translations of the Meanings of the Holy Quran

In honor of Prof. Ahmed Chahlane 2018

The purpose of translating the meanings of the Holy Quran into the different languages of the world is to introduce the religious, civilizational and scientific values of this noble text to the world. However, the process of translating and rendering the meanings of this Holy text from the language of revelation into the other languages requires taking into account the specificity of this holy text, which is associated with its religious, cultural and historical framework. The latter represents a real challenge for the translator, be it in terms of its rhetorical images that reflect the Arabic pragmatic domain in which it was revealed, or in terms of its unique composition as well as its style of arranging its words and expressions.

Among the translations of the meanings of the Holy Quran are those with biblical (Jewish and Christian) frameworks. Despite the continuous efforts to correct their mistakes and to improve their quality, they still teem with serious linguistic, conceptual, semantic, religious, cultural, ideological, and symbolic as well as psychological problems. Chief among them are:

– Most of these translations fail to overcome the language barrier, to cater for the linguistic and rhetorical inimitability of the Holy Quran, or to grasp its meanings, dimensions and purposes. The translator finds himself confronted with a miraculous source text that is difficult to render without a considerable loss. Moreover, the linguistic stock of the target language frequently lacks the expressions and words that reflect the real meanings of the Arabic Qur’anic text. This often leads to the loss of the Quran’s profound meanings and attractive stylistic features.

– The Holy Quran is endowed with a unique conceptual system as it is linked to a specific cultural, civilizational and cognitive framework. Thus, when the Qur’anic text uses Arabic words, they are no longer used as simple regular words, but they become open to various meanings and horizons, which would not have been possible or imaginable before. The translator has, therefore, to be aware of these meanings and to grasp the cultural, civilizational, and religious patterns of the Holy Quran. The translator should also be equipped with the necessary procedural tools to convey these meanings and contexts according to the requirements of the target language and to follow a method that limits his/her interference with the source text to the maximum. Unfortunately, the translations of the Holy Quran into languages with a biblical framework do not always meet such requirements since there is always a close association between the translator and his intellectual and religious framework, which of course influences his/her translation of the Quran and often leads to confusion as far as the Qur’anic text is concerned. Sometimes, this goes to the extent of asserting its doctrinal affiliation with the Jewish and Christian faiths (especially the Jewish religion), and thus questioning its divine origin. The presence of the “Isra’iliyat” in these translations has in fact caused them to shift from the objective goal of producing a conscious and error-free rendering of the source text to more biased claims that the Qur’anic text is only a collection of Jewish and Christian beliefs and laws, which has been redrafted in Arabic.

Furthermore, the absence of a thorough understanding of the purposes of the holy Quran is reflected in the ideological use of some “interpretive” approaches that belong to different intellectual and ideological frameworks. This leads to a deviation from the cognitive framework of the source text, the reality of its contents and its operating mechanisms. This also results in modern readings and translations that turn the Qur’anic text into a corpus that is subjected to many abuses by the different western ideologies that neglect all human, religious and civilizational values, which are among the pillars of this noble text. Any conscious and responsible study of some of these contemporary interpretive models of the Qur’anic text will prove, without doubt, that the interpretive practices of some of these modernists needs a critical review because of the intellectual and methodological fallacies that they contain. Although the theoretical framework in the latter cases is not necessarily biblical, some of these modern interpretive translations are no less dangerous than the former.

We do not seek to close the door of “ijtihad”, i.e. to limit or put an end to any serious attempts to contemplate and study the Qur’anic text, but we mean to put such attempts in the proper cognitive framework that takes into account the specificity of the Qur’anic discourse and the Islamic doctrine, be it on the level of faith, thoughts or language to avoid any ideological misuse of such a religious text. The fertility of its meanings, and the richness of its expressive means, make it open to various readings and translations targeting the multi-cultural and multi-ethnic reader. The translational act remains dependent on the uniqueness of this text achieved by its miraculous expressive style, as well as its structural patterns, which give the meaning its emotional intellectual and legislative depth.

The purpose of organizing this conference is to provide a careful and thorough reading of these translation projects and the issues they raise in an attempt to develop a special theory that accounts for the translation of the meanings of the Quran, a theory that takes into consideration neutrality and rejection of orientalist bias that dominated most of these translations and interpretations. We also seek to properly deal with the Qur’anic text without losing sight of its purposes or distorting its meanings and stylistic patterns.

Thematic areas include (but are not confined to):

First Axis: Jewish and Christian Frameworks in the Translations of the Meanings of the Holy Quran:

– Jewish translators’ religious frameworks across different periods and in various geographical environments and their effect on translating the meanings of the holy Quran into different languages (Hebrew, English, French, German and others).

Christian translators’ religious frameworks during different periods and in various geographical environments and their effect on translating the holy Quran into different foreign languages as well as the role of the church in the translation process.

– The effect of the translator’s framework on the translation of the holy Qur’anic stories and on the translation of Abrahamic religions’ shared stories (story of Joseph, Mary, the “Ma’ida” (Table Spread with food), the Sabbath, the covenant, etc.)

– The influence of the “Isra’iliyat” on the conceptual framework of the Holy Quran translator.

Second Axis: The Influence of Orientalism on the Translation of the Holy Quran.

– The translator’s orientalist framework and its effect on translating the Holy Quran.

– The ideological framework and its implications for modern translations of the Holy Quran (feminist movements, islamist groups, liberal secular trends, etc.).

– The orientalist’s approach in dealing with what is considered non-Arabic words in the holy Quran.

Third Axis:  Linguistic Studies

– The impact of the translator’s framework on translating Qur’anic terms.

– The impact of the translator’s framework on translating proper names in the Quran.

– The impact of the translator’s framework on translating the opening letters in the beginning of some Surahs.

– The impact of the translator’s framework on translating homonyms and synonyms in the holy Quran.

Important Deadlines:

• Deadline for abstract, participation form and curriculum vitae: August 30, 2017. The jury will respond to the abstracts as soon as they are received.
• Deadline for the submission of complete paper: October 30, 2017.
• The jury will respond to the papers, specifying whether they are accepted, rejected or to be amended on November 30, 2017.
• Date of Conference: 20-21 February 2018.
• Conference Venue: Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Marrakech, Kingdom of Morocco.
• Abstracts, application forms and proposed research papers should be sent to the e-mail:

alkindiconference07@gmail.com

• The proceedings of the Conference shall be printed before it is convened.
• We kindly urge researchers to follow the APA style in referencing.

Conference Fee:

• The conference fee for participants with a research paper approved by the Scientific Committee is $ 600 or equivalent. This covers conference services (conference bag, conference book, and participation certificate), four nights’ accommodation in a 4 star hotel, accommodation and mobility throughout the conference, and organized excursions to cultural sites and historic landmarks within or outside Marrakech.
• The conference fee for those wishing only to attend the conference from outside Morocco is $ 150 or equivalent. The fee cover conference documents (conference bag, conference book, attendance certificate, and lunch meals during the two days of the conference). Those wishing also to benefit from the accommodation are kindly requested to contact the organizing committee.
• The attendance certificate is given only to those who have already obtained the approval of the organizing committee.
• The participant shall bear the cost of travel forth and back.

Scientific Committee:

• Chairperson of the Scientific Committee:

Dr. SouadKoutoubia, University of Cady Ayyad – Morocco.

• Members of the Scientific Committee:

Dr.AbiedAlsulaiman, University of Leuven– Belgium.

Dr. Amer Al-Zanati, Ain Shams University – Egypt.

Dr. Ahmed Al Laithi, American University of Sharjah – United Arab Emirates.

Dr. Mohamed Ait Al-Farran, Cadi Ayyad University – Morocco.

Dr. Mohamed Abouridwan, Cadi Ayyad University – Morocco.

Dr. MoulayElmamoun El Mrini, Cadi Ayyad University – Morocco.

Dr. AbdelkarimBoufra, Mohamed I University– Morocco.

Dr. AbderahimHimid, IbnZohr University– Morocco

Dr. NazihaAzzabiri,IbnZohr University – Morocco

Dr. LahousseineIdyous, University of Leuven – Belgium.

Dr. Hassan Al-Mazouni, Cadi Ayyad University – Morocco.

Conference coordinators:

Dr. AbdelhamidZahid

Dr. Hassan Darir

Dr. Noreddine Hanini

Application form and CV

1. Ahmed CHAHLAN’s speech report

The translation and knowledge integration laboratory, and the Canadian centre for translation and training, organized within its scientific activities in collaboration with the Faculty of Arts and Humanities-Qadi Ayyad University, and KU Leuven university-Belgium, The Fifth International Conference on Translating the Meanings of the Holy Quran On: “Jewish and Christian Frameworks in the Translations of the Meanings of the Holy Quran” on the honor of Professor Ahmed CHAHLAN. The conference was held on the 20th and the 21 February 2018 and started at 8:30 in the Andalus Hotel’s lecture room-Marrakech. And an honory session was the ending session of the conference last day in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities-Qadi Ayyad University’s lecture room.

The first scientific session was held After the opening session headed by Dr. Souad Al Kutbiya, as she praised the great efforts of Dr. Abdel Hamid Zahid and Dr. Hassan Darir in organizing this international scientific conference. She also referred to the scientific achievements of Dr. Ahmed Shehlan. Dr. Ahmed Shahlan from Mohammed V University, tackled in this session an opening lecture entitled: “The Hidden Translations, Voltaire as a Model”. He initiated his speech by presenting his gratefulness to all the organizers of this scientific meeting, especially the translation and knowledge integration laboratory in the person of Dr. Abdel Hamid Zahed.

Moreover, the interlocutor highlighted his interest of translation, especially the translation of the meanings of the Qur’an, and he briefly reviewed the most important parts in the history of Quranic translation. The professor also outlined a number of related topics, pointing out at the same time that these aspects are still in need of research. The professor began his lecture by analyzing some European translations of the meaning of the Holy Quran, highlighting its characteristics and the most important issues that it raises in terms of its references and methods.

The professor also pointed out some aspects of Orientalism in the field of translating the meanings of the Holy Quran. Then the professor elaborated on the hidden models of the translation of the Quranic meanings focusing on Voltaire.

The professor reviewed Voltaire’s relationship with translation by analyzing “mohamed le prophete” and “the philosophical dictionary”. The professor considered that the term of the hermit “الناسك” or “zaduk” in relation to destiny “القدر” or “le destin” of the most important issues worthy of study because of its reference to the Arab-Islamic culture.

Here the professor stopped to show the common elements between the what Voltaire achieved in this context and some of the Quran stories, ex: the cave people story. And in his comparisons of the Quran stories with Voltaire’s writings, the professor pointed out that these writings deserve attention in terms of their partial dependence on what is contained in these stories. Considering that the research on these issues needs more researches. Claiming that what Voltaire writes is another type of translation of the meanings of the Koran, especially that Voltaire showed interest in the Arab-Islamic culture as illustrated by the authors referred to earlier.

The communication of Dr. Abied Alsulaiman

The communication of Dr. Abied Alsulaiman of Leuven University in Belgium begins with talking about the Syriac language in the Jewish and Christian framworks.

He mentions the claims saying that Arabic grammar was based on the diacriticaland vocalization, which is taken from the Syriac language, and considering the language of Qur’an from the conceptual network for the universal language, and that segmented letters cannot be understood unless through the Hebrew language.

Meaning that the words have their equivalent effect in the Aramaic languages, by dismantling it from dots and vocalization, and putting dots and revocalizaing it according to the Aramaic pronunciation that is similar in the effect, and apply it on the context of the Qur’anic verses where the words are mentioned, according to the Jewish and Christian perspective.

And this is derived from the same act that occurred in the text of the Old Testament for the Masons.

The mistake indicated that the Arabic language is alive, and the Aramaic language is a language that is dead and not used. This shows that Chrsitoph Luxenberg’s approach in translation is mistaken because it is considered as an arbitrary utilization.  ( like the letter B and Sh, and R). (baShar ) means human in Arabic, and means meat in Hebrew(baŠar ), so they eliminated the Arabs on the real understanding for the word (baShar).

He also referred to Tasshif without any scientific standard. In addition to that, he mentioned an example of it ( Aslama: Luxenberg said that the word doesn’t mean in the Qur’an what we understand in Arabic but it means (they finished) in Syriac (Ashlem).

The Doctor thanked the organizers for the forum, and the role of the conference on evaluating the efforts.

The communication tackles the translation of the terms and Islamic texts into other languages because of the absence of specialization and approaches that should be followed by translators.

The Doctor hopes for creating a website which should be managed by a special group to unify and examine the terms, in order to transfer the purpose of the texts accurately without any deviation or editing in a scientific style.

In order to achieve the correspondence between translators, and proximity in terms in Arabic first then transfer it to languages to which it is translated, and providing access of the all results to translators; to expand and spread the Islamic translation, and contributing to avoid repetition, and providing services to communication and discussion and searching solutions and exchanging experiences. Then inform best translators and beginners to latest news and to ways for translation, and at the same time, inform the public on the efforts of scholars concerning this issue.

Therefore, the professor insisted on the need of interaction between the participants in this field, and providing the promising ways to strengthen this relation, with the creation of an electronic library to examine all the books related to the subject of translation or to offer them for sale, and a collection of the examples have been shown; she shows lack that alternates some of it, and suggests alternatives where she sees success to improve the purpose.

The communication of Dr. Abdlkarim Bouferra was about the common point between the Hebrew and French translation background of the Holy Quran.

Evoking the idea of the Qur’anic miracle in the Hebrew translation and its ability to translate the Miraculous book

The Doctor presented examples from those translations that evoke the Jewish and Christian frameworks and its intellectual perspective, for instance, the section of ‘Jumoaa’ is named by the Hebrew translator as the sixth day which has a different denotation about the Jewish. So, it eliminates it from understanding the Qur’anic text.

Whereas, the French translation aims to approximate the reader to the text, and considering Qur’an as the third testament  in intellect which the Christian religion was based on, which ruins the translation of the section names of Qur’an such as ( section of Ghafir), and proper nouns (Abou Lahab and his woman as an example).

“Hebrew Translation of the Qur’an: A Comparative Study”

Dr. Idriss EBEIZA, Mohammed V University, Rabat

Four Hebrew Translations were addressed:

• Haim HERMAN RIKENDORF’s Translation
• RIVLIN’s Translation
• Uri RUBIN’s Translation
• Subhi AL-ADAWI’s Translation

The lecturer compared Rivlin’s Translation to the other three as it is the most common of them all. Such comparison is still in its early stages, and will go on till a book is published tackling all these Translations along with all the Chapters in the Quran and, firstly, covering how far these Translations have respected form and content in rendering the Quranic text; secondly, identifying the similarities and differences between them. This is similar to the study he began on the Arabic Translation of the Bible. In this latter, he left comments on and compared several Translations of this text. The process began by analyzing 21 manuscripts from the National Treasury of Paris, then moved on to compare the Arabic Translation that was prepared by the Jewish scholar Saadia AL FAYOUMI which was a starting point for this study and its comparison to the Arabic Translations of the biblical text that were developed by the Samaritans/Coptic or some other Arabic translations, such as the Greek Translation which was renown in the seventies. The translation is represented in manuscript 12 at the National Treasury in Paris.

Dr. EBEIZA also commented on the historical journey Quran Translation into Hebrew went through. He pointed out that Jews, as endorsed by a number of studies, expressed their interest in the Quran from as early as revelation began. It is very likely that they considered, in that period, making a Hebrew Translation for the Quran and the revelations they heard of although Arabs did not hear of such translations. Jews, however, never stopped caring for the Quran and that manifested during the Andalusian period. At that time, Jews begin to actually translate the Quran, in whole or in part, even if the former is more likely. Still, we have not received much from them other than some translations of a few Quran verses shared by some Jewish scholars: Saadia AL-FAYOUMI, Ibn EZRA and Jacob BEN YISRAEL HALEVY.

Some tend to believe that Jews have produced a copy of Arabic Quran written in Hebrew, as was their habit of editing personal works. Saadia, writer of ” Faithfulness and Beliefs,” was the Jewish scholar who produced an Arabic translation of the Bible which was the first full work we received. The lecturer has been working ever since to rendering it from Hebrew into Arabic calligraphy.

Perhaps, Saadia could have tried to translate Quran into Hebrew as he is a linguist mastering both Hebrew and Arabic. If he could produce an Arabic Translation of the Bible, it is very likely that he also made one for Quran. Besides, the citations in his book “Faithfulness and Beliefs” raise many questions about the language in which he wrote, whether Arabic or Hebrew.

After the Andalusi period, the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries particularly, Jews’ interest in the Quran increased and they worked on making a full Quran Translation. Most of the studies and researches on Hebrew Translation of the Quran agreed that the first one of these translations goes back to the 16th or 17th century by the Jewish scholar Jacob BEN YISRAEL HALEVY who did not start from the Arabic version but rather and Italian Translation of the Quran. Chances are it was published in the sixteenth century while some think it dates back to the thirteenth century and that the Italian Translation was rendered from Saint Peter’s Latin translation.

Uri Rubin points out, in his Quran Hebrew Translations introduction which preceded its translation, that there are some Quran Translations have not been published.

After this period, Orientalism appeared and most Orientalists worked on studying the Arab-Islamic ideology along with the Arabic writings, Quran at its top.

As the existing virtual Translations were neither published nor distributed, the 19th century came out with a wave of change. Thus, a Jewish scholar, RIKENDORF 1857, produced a Quran’s Hebrew Translation in which Quran discourse was not tackled as objectively as it should.

It should be noted that Jewish scholars, whether those who attempted to translate the Koran into Hebrew or those interested in Arab-Islamic studies including the intellectual Samson SUMEICH, admit that RIKENDORF’s Translation is poor and was not endorsed even by the Academic Institutions in Israel. What’s even stranger in this translation is starting it by a poem in which he laments his dead father.

Later on, in 1936, Uri RUBIN published another Quran Hebrew Translation in two parts. Afterwards, Ben SHIMSH published a new bad Translation in 1971. In this latter, he adopted an exceptional strategy that has never been considered before, he would gather five or six verses and give only one translation which is an abuse Quran. This translation was referred to as “Holy Quran Free Translation” and was later on re-published under the title “Quran: the Book of Islam”. The lecturer disregarded this translation in the comparison and focused only on the other four instead despite the many errors they present.

In the twenty-first century, and following the aftermath of the 9/11 tragic events in the United States of America, Rubin the Jew published a Quran Hebrew Translation which stands as the most important to the practice of translation thanks the translator’s approach, the language used, though, does not, according to Dr. EBEIZA, come as efficient as Arabic.

An Intervention by Rachid LAALALMA, Mohammed V University, Rabat, Morocco

“Jack BURKE’s Impact of the Christian reference In translating Quran’s Meanings”

Jack Burke is one of the most prominent French Orientalists who worked on translating meanings of the Holy Quran into French, but despite the great effort he has made to bring this work to life, it was still full of mistakes which reflects a corrupted faith and indicates guilt of conscience in his translation.

The speaker referred to the work of Jack Burke who published a book, “Essai de traduction: Le Coran” (An Attempt to Translate the Quran).

He was clever in choosing the title of the book, where he called it “Attempting to Translate the Quran” because he is implying that his work was no more than an attempt.

It was obvious that he used words loaded with Christian connotations which confirms his lack of integrity in his translation for the Meanings of the Quran, and his betraying the scientific faithfulness which is required in the process of translation in general, and that of Quran in particular.

The speaker talked about Jack Burke, the impact of his translation on the other, his Arabic and Amazigh skills, and his deep knowledge of the Muslim heritage from Quran/Fiqh/Hadith, and from his works:

• Morocco between Past and Future
• Morocco between two wars
• Morocco, History & Society
• Islam and the challenges
• An attempt to translate the Quran
• Editing the Holy Quran

Needless to say, Burke made a great effort to get this work out but messed up on many levels.

The basic principles of translation: Impartiality, Objectivity and Faithfulness are absent in the French Orientalist’s work because he did not get rid of his Christian reference in translating the meanings of the Quran.

The speaker mentioned several examples in Jack Burke’s translation which were far from the meaning of original text as in:

In Chapter Al-Baqarah, verse 4: “هدى من ربهم” was translated by Mr. BURKE to “Guidance” which deviates from the actual meaning of the word; instead, he chose another word loaded with Christian insinuations. In his translation of the first verse of Surat Al-Isra, he rendered “المسجد” into “Oratoire,”. Although the word has its counterpart in the French language: “Mosquée”, he opted for “Sanctuaire” which insinuates the part of the church around the altar where the rituals take place”

Burke’s let-outs did end there, whenever he had the chance, he only planted Christian beliefs, references and doctrine which led to producing a distorted and dishonest translation.

The examples herein uncover Jack Burke’s Christian references in his Quran Translation.

Jack Burke, despite his ingenuity in choosing the title, gives the reader the false impression that it is just an attempt. Truth be told, no one can produce a proper translation of the Holy Quran, but in the body of his book, he passed on many of the Christian beliefs he could not deny. This means he failed to maintain the key principles of fair translating: impartiality and objectivity.

Communication of Bushra Musleh

Lexical Selection and Archaisms in three English Translations of the Surat Yusuf (the chapter of Joseph).

By Bushra Musleh – University of the West of England-UK

The report covers in general the reader-response theory; however the aim of the study is to investigate the extent to which different translations of the Qur’an are perceived as understandable by different groups of readers. The empirical nature of the investigation follows a questionnaire approach and engages readers rather than making judgments on more abstract theories.  Three different translation of Chapter of Joseph were investigated. The comparison was based on the stylistic choices made in the three translations at the lexicological level.

The inspiration behind this study for Bushra Musleh is the absence of previous studies on what makes a text understandable from the linguistic side. Her aim is to investigate the reader’s perception of understandability. Understandability is a very complex word to measure because people have different visions of words.

Bushra Musleh focused her work on three different translations:

• Abdellah Yussef Ali which was first published in 1937; Bushra Musleh studied the revised edition of 2008.
• Hillali & Khaled, they first published their translation in 1974 and the revised edition in 2011.
• Abdelhalim’s translation which is the recent translation of the 21th century.

The reason behind her choice is that the translators are from different backgrounds, different studies and none of them is a native speaker of English.

The reader response theory:

A theory that focuses on the reader or audience reaction to a particular text, It also engagers the reader in the process of translation (it makes of them participants in the process of translation).

According to Wales, reader-response theory or criticism describes various kinds of critical approaches popular from the 1970s which focused on the activity of the reader in the interpretation of a work.

The reader, in reader-response theory, is as an active participant rather than a consumer of a text.

Bushra Musleh also says that interpretation on the basic sense means understanding (the text, the meaning of the text).

According to Carson, the text itself needs the reader’s experience to make it understood.

When it comes to the reader-response theory in the Biblical studies Barton states that reader-response approaches to texts are, in the wider literary culture which biblical scholars vainly try to enter, no so taken for granted that only the naïve discuss them as though some questions of truth or falsehood were involved.

In Qur’ranic translations Farghal and Al masry study is a significant illustration of adopting reader-response theory in relation to translations of the Qur’an. Their study was based on two types of questionnaire (an open form and a closed form) concerning translations of Qur’anic verses that contain referential gaps. Their study elected importance on reader’s study.

The study is composed of two faces:

Lexical Analysis: Bushra Musleh chooses Surat Yusuf (The chapter of Josef) as a field of studies.

With a careful study and analyzing of Surat Yussef with the three translations, the researcher has listed 42 words with their English equivalence (the words are not synonyms or relate to each others).

The analysis of style is operationalised in this study by referring to the stylistic labels given in the online Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English “formal, informal, dated, archaic, literary, technical, rare, biblical, spoken, written, taboo”, also by referring to the British National Corpus which serves further stylistic criterion of frequency.

According to Oxford dictionary word are classed in three groups: High frequency (common words), middle frequency (less understandable words) and low frequency (non understandable).

The translation of the Qur’an most done with high frequency words and that makes even native speakers of English find it hard to understand the Quran.

The analysis led to the following results:  The translation of Abdellah Ali who is not a native speaker of English is considered to be hard.

The translation of Hilali & Khaled and Abdelhalim are considered among the top because they have mixed between high, middle and low frequency words while translating.

In the second phase of this study, an essentially quantative method was used by conducting a questionnaire. In the questionnaire developed for the current study, the participants were asked to rate the understandability of some underlined words from the translated texts of the Qur’an. In some items of the questionnaire that was used in this study, the readers were asked to explain and comment on their personal reaction to the words under investigation.

Participant’s highest educational qualifications are Up to diploma, BA/BSC – PhD, they are also native and non-native speakers of English.

The results shows that her hypothesis which is about that if a word is a low frequent word and even if it is used in a context cannot be understood, and later on the results showed that her hypothesis was wrong.

Participants were asked about the words they have found difficult and the words they have found easy to be understood. So the words that are difficult according to the participants are due to unfamiliarity (Low frequent words) and the words that are easy to be understood are due to familiarity and commonly using (high frequent words).

Communication of Dr. Idriss EBEIZA

“Hebrew Translation of the Qur’an: A Comparative Study”

Dr. Idriss EBEIZA, Mohammed V University, Rabat

Four Hebrew Translations were addressed:

• Haim HERMAN RIKENDORF’s Translation
• RIVLIN’s Translation
• Uri RUBIN’s Translation
• Subhi AL-ADAWI’s Translation

The lecturer compared Rivlin’s Translation to the other three as it is the most common of them all. Such comparison is still in its early stages, and will go on till a book is published tackling all these Translations along with all the Chapters in the Quran and, firstly, covering how far these Translations have respected form and content in rendering the Quranic text; secondly, identifying the similarities and differences between them. This is similar to the study he began on the Arabic Translation of the Bible. In this latter, he left comments on and compared several Translations of this text. The process began by analyzing 21 manuscripts from the National Treasury of Paris, then moved on to compare the Arabic Translation that was prepared by the Jewish scholar Saadia AL FAYOUMI which was a starting point for this study and its comparison to the Arabic Translations of the biblical text that were developed by the Samaritans/Coptic or some other Arabic translations, such as the Greek Translation which was renown in the seventies. The translation is represented in manuscript 12 at the National Treasury in Paris.

Dr. EBEIZA also commented on the historical journey Quran Translation into Hebrew went through. He pointed out that Jews, as endorsed by a number of studies, expressed their interest in the Quran from as early as revelation began. It is very likely that they considered, in that period, making a Hebrew Translation for the Quran and the revelations they heard of although Arabs did not hear of such translations. Jews, however, never stopped caring for the Quran and that manifested during the Andalusian period. At that time, Jews begin to actually translate the Quran, in whole or in part, even if the former is more likely. Still, we have not received much from them other than some translations of a few Quran verses shared by some Jewish scholars: Saadia AL-FAYOUMI, Ibn EZRA and Jacob BEN YISRAEL HALEVY.

Some tend to believe that Jews have produced a copy of Arabic Quran written in Hebrew, as was their habit of editing personal works. Saadia, writer of ” Faithfulness and Beliefs,” was the Jewish scholar who produced an Arabic translation of the Bible which was the first full work we received. The lecturer has been working ever since to rendering it from Hebrew into Arabic calligraphy.

Perhaps, Saadia could have tried to translate Quran into Hebrew as he is a linguist mastering both Hebrew and Arabic. If he could produce an Arabic Translation of the Bible, it is very likely that he also made one for Quran. Besides, the citations in his book “Faithfulness and Beliefs” raise many questions about the language in which he wrote, whether Arabic or Hebrew.

After the Andalusi period, the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries particularly, Jews’ interest in the Quran increased and they worked on making a full Quran Translation. Most of the studies and researches on Hebrew Translation of the Quran agreed that the first one of these translations goes back to the 16th or 17th century by the Jewish scholar Jacob BEN YISRAEL HALEVY who did not start from the Arabic version but rather and Italian Translation of the Quran. Chances are it was published in the sixteenth century while some think it dates back to the thirteenth century and that the Italian Translation was rendered from Saint Peter’s Latin translation.

Uri Rubin points out, in his Quran Hebrew Translations introduction which preceded its translation, that there are some Quran Translations have not been published.

After this period, Orientalism appeared and most Orientalists worked on studying the Arab-Islamic ideology along with the Arabic writings, Quran at its top.

As the existing virtual Translations were neither published nor distributed, the 19th century came out with a wave of change. Thus, a Jewish scholar, RIKENDORF 1857, produced a Quran’s Hebrew Translation in which Quran discourse was not tackled as objectively as it should.

It should be noted that Jewish scholars, whether those who attempted to translate the Koran into Hebrew or those interested in Arab-Islamic studies including the intellectual Samson SUMEICH, admit that RIKENDORF’s Translation is poor and was not endorsed even by the Academic Institutions in Israel. What’s even stranger in this translation is starting it by a poem in which he laments his dead father.

Later on, in 1936, Uri RUBIN published another Quran Hebrew Translation in two parts. Afterwards, Ben SHIMSH published a new bad Translation in 1971. In this latter, he adopted an exceptional strategy that has never been considered before, he would gather five or six verses and give only one translation which is an abuse Quran. This translation was referred to as “Holy Quran Free Translation” and was later on re-published under the title “Quran: the Book of Islam”. The lecturer disregarded this translation in the comparison and focused only on the other four instead despite the many errors they present.

In the twenty-first century, and following the aftermath of the 9/11 tragic events in the United States of America, Rubin the Jew published a Quran Hebrew Translation which stands as the most important to the practice of translation thanks the translator’s approach, the language used, though, does not, according to Dr. EBEIZA, come as efficient as Arabic.

An Intervention by Rachid LAALALMA, Mohammed V University, Rabat, Morocco

“Jack BURKE’s Impact of the Christian reference In translating Quran’s Meanings”

Jack Burke is one of the most prominent French Orientalists who worked on translating meanings of the Holy Quran into French, but despite the great effort he has made to bring this work to life, it was still full of mistakes which reflects a corrupted faith and indicates guilt of conscience in his translation.

The speaker referred to the work of Jack Burke who published a book, “Essai de traduction: Le Coran” (An Attempt to Translate the Quran).

He was clever in choosing the title of the book, where he called it “Attempting to Translate the Quran” because he is implying that his work was no more than an attempt.

It was obvious that he used words loaded with Christian connotations which confirms his lack of integrity in his translation for the Meanings of the Quran, and his betraying the scientific faithfulness which is required in the process of translation in general, and that of Quran in particular.

The speaker talked about Jack Burke, the impact of his translation on the other, his Arabic and Amazigh skills, and his deep knowledge of the Muslim heritage from Quran/Fiqh/Hadith, and from his works:

• Morocco between Past and Future
• Morocco between two wars
• Morocco, History & Society
• Islam and the challenges
• An attempt to translate the Quran
• Editing the Holy Quran

Needless to say, Burke made a great effort to get this work out but messed up on many levels.

The basic principles of translation: Impartiality, Objectivity and Faithfulness are absent in the French Orientalist’s work because he did not get rid of his Christian reference in translating the meanings of the Quran.

The speaker mentioned several examples in Jack Burke’s translation which were far from the meaning of original text as in:

In Chapter Al-Baqarah, verse 4: “هدى من ربهم” was translated by Mr. BURKE to “Guidance” which deviates from the actual meaning of the word; instead, he chose another word loaded with Christian insinuations. In his translation of the first verse of Surat Al-Isra, he rendered “المسجد” into “Oratoire,”. Although the word has its counterpart in the French language: “Mosquée”, he opted for “Sanctuaire” which insinuates the part of the church around the altar where the rituals take place”

Burke’s let-outs did end there, whenever he had the chance, he only planted Christian beliefs, references and doctrine which led to producing a distorted and dishonest translation.

The examples herein uncover Jack Burke’s Christian references in his Quran Translation.

Jack Burke, despite his ingenuity in choosing the title, gives the reader the false impression that it is just an attempt. Truth be told, no one can produce a proper translation of the Holy Quran, but in the body of his book, he passed on many of the Christian beliefs he could not deny. This means he failed to maintain the key principles of fair translating: impartiality and objectivity.

Communication of Dr. Ines Younis

Dr. Ines Younis; A lecturer at the American University in Cairo held the fourth discourse in the fourth scientific session titled “A Contextual Analysis of the English Translation of the Qu’ranic Dialogue in Surat AnNaml: A functional Linguistic Approach”. Her research is based on The Systemic Functional Linguistic Theory of Halliday. She particularly worked on two English translations; Youssef Ali’s translation, and Abdel Haleem’s translation. Her presentation is divided into two parts; the first is an overview of the theory, and the second is an analysis of the context in both the original text and the translations focusing on some examples, namely the dialogues of the Ant and of the Hoopoe.

First, She explained Halliday’s functional linguistic theory and the three basic elements that she applied to the dialogues (the contexts, the metafunctions, and the parameters). According to her “Halliday had proposed a three-dimensional model of context. They are; co-text (the relationship between texts and other texts), context of culture (the historical, social and ideological environment), and context of situation (language choices depending on the situation of context”. She focused more on explaining the context of situation and its variables, which is “a meaning that is derived from a particular situation where language varies according to the situation in which it is used.” She also tackled the types of meanings according to Halliday whom considers that “language serves three types of functional ‘need’ which he called ‘metafunctions’.” She went back to list the three parameters or variables which; she used to analyze the context of the situations she is dealing with. These parameters are; ‘Field’ (Content), ‘Tenor’ (Participants), and ‘Mode’ (Form).

Next, she moved to the second part where she applied Halliday’s theory on the two dialogues. First, she analyzed the Ant Dialogue:

“حَتَّىٰ إِذَا أَتَوْا عَلَىٰ وَادِ النَّمْلِ قَالَتْ نَمْلَةٌ يَا أَيُّهَا النَّمْلُ ادْخُلُوا مَسَاكِنَكُمْ لَا يَحْطِمَنَّكُمْ سُلَيْمَانُ وَجُنُودُهُ وَهُمْ لَا يَشْعُرُونَ (18)

In this context:

The field: “the Ant is reporting a kind of danger and there is a number of social activities that the other ants should be following.”

The tenor: “the main role is played by the soldier and the working ants”

The mode: “the textual coherent and cohesive meanings created through how language is organized from a rhetorical and grammatical perspective”

In addition, she examined the translation loss, namely; the gender loss (particularly that of the Ant), and the loss in the vocative form (especially in Abdel Haleem’s Translation).

Then, she analyzed the Hoopoe Dialogue, and she listed the following findings:

The field: “the Hoopoe is reporting to Solomon what he saw.”

The tenor: “frequent participants; the Hoopoe, Prophet Solomon, and the Queen of Sheba. And the three of them are present in the environment and in the text.”

The mode: “the emphatic loss and its rhetorical effect in Arabic”

She moreover listed the three types of identities, which the Hoopoe stood for through this context, which are; the Master identity, the Situated Identity, and the Discourse identity.

She concluded her discourse by suggesting two alternative translations; one is for the loss of gender, where she insisted on specifying the gender of the speaker (in this case the Ant). And the other is for the rhetorical loss, for which she suggested the use of a footnote.

 Communication of Dr. Said KAFAITI

THE SIXTH LECTURE

Chaired by Dr. Noureddine HANINI – Cadi Ayyad University, and consisted of one intervention:

The first intervention: “Christian Backgrounds on Quran Translation, Origins and Amendments” By Prof. Dr. Said KAFAITI, Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdallah University.

The lecturer started by an outline for his intervention focusing mainly on: the Bible in the Arabian Peninsula, Eastern and Western Christians’ view on Islam, early Christian writings on Islam, and the Latin translations of the Holy Quran.

Next, Dr. KAFAITI explained the impossibility of tracing back Christian references in the Quran Translation in isolation from the historical context and geographical location that witnessed Islam’s dawn. Conflicts with Islam, then, were not just politically motivated but religiously-driven more particularly.

It was later on stated that Judaism and Christianity were not alienated in the Arabian Peninsula as the Bible was read in Hebrew and interpreted in Arabic.

The lecturer raised a question after that on how much Islam and Christianity and/or Judaism know about each other. Islam’s knowledge was based on direct contact, then enhanced by what the Quran tells about them.

Afterwards, Dr. KAFAITI highlighted the relationship Eastern Christians have with the Holy Quran, pointing out that Bible Translations were abundant and conveniently accessible. These Translations, in fact, have helped them in their writings on Christianity and Judaism, and Christians had no excuse for translating Quran into Syriac or Aramaic.

As for early Christian writings on Islam, the lecturer pointed out that Eastern writers, namely John Damascene as the first author, were pioneers in this field before such writings move to Iraq and Syria.

To conclude, Dr. KAFAITI tackled the theme of Quran’s Latin Translations in citing these translations in chronological order starting from the translation of “Peter the Exalted”.

Communication of Dr. Shari Ali Khan

The Fifth International Conference on Translating the Meanings of the Holy Quran: Jewish and Christian Frameworks in the Translations of the Meanings of the Holy Quran, organized by The Knowledge Integration and Translation Laboratory of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Marrakech in Cadi Ayyad University, Morocco, hosted many researchers and scholars representing different universities all over the world. Among which Assistant professor Shiari Ali Khan representing the department of translation and interpretation_Faculty of Arabic, the International Islamic University Islamabad Pakistan, who tackled an issue entitled “Robert of Ketton’s Latin Translation of Quran; A language Void or A Planned Vision: A Linguistic Analysis”.

The interlocutor began his speech representing his gratefulness and gratitude, to the great efforts that were put so that such a scientific ceremony could seen light, his special thanks were to professor Abdelhamid ZAHID.

Dr. Shari Ali Khan tackled the deficiencies of translating the Quranic discourses from Arabic into Latin, as he believes that translation is the bridge between cultures, and that it calls for a lot of efforts when it comes to religious texts. that was the main reason for him investigating the source of the mistranslations of some verses, to make sure that it lies back to some problems in the source text, or it was done on purpose to serve some personal needs and ideologies. Dr.Shari presented some example of meaning distortion, and did some comparisons between different attempts of Quranic discourses translation. The interlocutor concluded his speech by emphasizing on the idea that the Latin version needs knowledgeable and scholars with a solid language mastery to deeply analysis it and come up with the best version, as he believes that AL_Kindi center should initiate this project.

 The Communication of Professor Mohammed Albarakati of King Abdul-Aziz University

The professor Mohammed Albarakati of King Abdul-Aziz University in Saudi Arabia initiates his presentation which is entitled “Qur’an Translation through History: a historical on the history of its translation with a major focus in translations into western languages” that his lecture is about the translations of the Qur’an into Latin western languages mainly French and English. Then he moves to say that the translation of the Qur’an started with orientalists but later he mentioned that it started even before that, he gives an example of a convey who fled to ‘Habasha’ to seek refuge with ‘Alnajashi’ who was the emperor of Axum, and it was reported that when they met they had translated some verses from chapter 19 (Chapter of Mariam) and recited them before him.  The professor Mohammed Albarakati gives another example of the prophet Mohammed who sent a letter to ‘Al-Mukawkis’, ruler of Egypt, inviting him to embrace Islam, and that letter included one Qur’anic verse which was translated for the Coptic ruler into his own language. Later on the professor emphasizes that the need to translation arose after the Islamic conquests especially for new-Arab Muslims who demanded a translation of the Qur’an to Syriac, Persian and to Turkish.  The second part of the professor Mohammed Albarakati’s presentation was about the western translations of the holy Qur’an, and as he claimed the first translation of the Qur’an into a western language was to Latin and was done by Robertus Rotenesis and Herman Dulmatia in 1143, he emphasized that this translation has been done for missionary purposes and to refute the Islamic message and even ‘it does not deserve the name of a translation’ as the lecturer quoted from Arberry. Four centuries later there was a revised attempt of the previous translations but actually it copied the same mistakes and was still erroneous. The third part concerns with the translations into French and English. The professor Mohammed Albarakati says that both English and French translations were also criticized for there being mistakes in every page. Directly he moves to show some of the previous translations of some verses where there are mistakes and he also sheds light on some critics based upon these translations. Finally the professor Mohammed Albarakati ends his presentations talking in Arabic about most famous translations and translators of the holy Qur’an.

Communication of Dr. Zahid Abdelhamid

The study of M. Zahid aims to theorize the same words in the Holy Quran, which poses serious challenges to different translators and especially to not Muslim ones who do not distinguish between these words and believe that they have the same meaning in every different contexts. This study came up by some solutions to achieve the exact meaning in the translation of the Holy Quran which are presented in margins and adding explanatory sentences.

The Holy Quran is the most difficult text to translate. It contains many words with the same forms and the same spellings but they do not have the same meaning. The translators consider them as repeated words and they keep the same meanings which lead them to the misunderstanding and then to ambiguity.

The study of M. Zahid classified the words “ هدى huda” and “  قضىqada” to analyze this issue. Through his study he found out that the noun” هدى” has twenty four different meanings and the verb” قضى” has four different meanings. This phenomenon is called homonymy. It is a common linguistic phenomenon and some scholars consider it as an indispensable linguistic necessity for language users, and define it as one utterance that has two or more different meanings. Homonymy has a great role in extracting terms from the Holy Quran in the Arabic language, but some linguistic scholars agree upon the existence of it and some other do not.

In Arabic, Homonymy can be found in nouns, verbs, and particles. The study emphasized it in nouns through the word “ هدى huda” which meant in the Holy Quran guidance, right path, monotheism, belief, Islam, knowledge .., and emphasized it in verbs through the word “قضىqada” which meant ordain, commanded, decide and declare. From these examples, M. Zahid found out that the term homonymy refers to words which are identical in form (sound or spelling), they share the same signifier and they differ in the signified.

The study has focused on six verses of The word “ هدى” in the Holy Quran, the same word which has many different meaning, for example:

“أولئك على هدى من ربهم وأولئك هم المفلحون”  Al-Baqarah ; the cow, verse 5)

According to AL-Qurtubii (Al-Jaami’ li Ahkaam al-Qu’ran, V1, p 178), the word “ هدى huda” in this context means : (Bayan, clarification), ( basira, insight) and (Nour, light). The guidance here is the accurate equivalent and faithful translation of the noun “ هدى huda”.

” ولقد أتينا موسى الهدى وأورثنا بني إسرائيل الكتاب”

(Ghafir; the forgiver, verse 53)

In this context Ibn khatir explains the noun  “ هدى huda” as (Attawraat, Torah). It invites to follow the right path. The word “ هدى huda” has the meaning of the « guidance » and « direction » in its general meaning.

The study has mentioned five more examples of the noun “ هدى huda” in different contexts with different  meaning. It also demonstrated the verb “قضىqada” in two contexts which differ in meaning for example:

“وقضى ربك ألا تعبدوا إلا إياه وبالوالدين إحسانا إما يبلغن عندك الكبر أحدهما أو كلاهما فلا تقل لهما أف ولا تنهرهما وقل لهما قولا كريما” (Al-Isra; the night journey, verse 32)

According to Iben kathiir in ( tafsiir al-Quran al-Aziim, V4, p 342-343), the word “قضىqada” in this context refers to the reward in obedience or punishment in disobedience. It means “ decree”, “command” and “ ordain”.

“الله يتوفى الأنفس حين موتها والتي لم تمت في منامها فيمسك التي قضى عليها الموت ويرسل الأخرى إلى أجل مسمى إن في ذلك لآيات لقوم يتفكرون”

(Azzumar; the groups, verse 42)

Iben khatir has confirmed that the word “قضىqada” in this context had the meaning of the almighty of God to bring people to life or passed them away. It translated as “decree” and ordain”. So in this context means the decision of creation.

All in all M. Zahid has noticed that the homonymic noun “ هدى huda” is limited in two contexts which are « guidance » and « direction ». This thought lead the translators to use the meaning in the whole contexts which causes ambiguity. So to translate the Holy Quran, translators should avoid ordinary dictionaries and look for the exact meaning and be very closed and impacted by it.

Closing Session

Dr. Abdel Karim BOUFERA, Mohamed I University – Morocco, presided the meeting and welcomed all guests then expressed his appreciation for the conference and its organizing team.

Next, the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities in Marrakech, welcomed all the participants in the conference, acknowledged the good organization and his pride on the Faculty of Arts hosting a nationally and internationally renowned scholarly authority. He talked about his relationship with Dr. Ahmed SHAHLAN once he was a student at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities in Rabat. Eventually, he welcomed the guests visiting from Morocco or elsewhere.

The Chair leading the Closing Session shared the recommendations that were proposed by different participants in the conference on: “Jewish and Christian references in the translations of the meanings of the Holy Quran”.

Following it was reading the guests’ speech by Dr. Amer AL-ZAYATI AL-JABRI, Ain Shams University – Cairo, who thanked all the participants in the conference, the Dean of the Faculty of Arts, the Honorary Guest, Dr. Abdul Hamid ZAHID, Dr. Hassan DARIR, conference attendees and all the organizers of this spectacular Scientific Forum.

Dr. Shari ALI KHAN, University of Pakistan, gave a touching poem on the Honorary Guest, expressing his love for this man and admiration for his abundant knowledge and many works.

Then, Dr. Ahmed SHEHLAN delivered a speech in which he expressed his deep gratitude and appreciation to the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Translation and Integration Laboratory, the participants, and all those who contributed to the success of the joyous Scientific Forum. Later on, he expressed his delight and gratitude for the warm expressions of thanks and recognition he heard during the participants’ interventions. Finally, he spoke about the scientific and academic project he is working on, and stressed out its importance and usefulness to both researchers and students. At the end of this closing session, the commemorative memorial was presented to Dr. Ahmed SHEHLAN by the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities.

Honorary Session:

In honor of Dr. Ahmed Shehlan

Concluding the current scientific ceremony, an honorary gathering was held in honor of Dr. Ahmed SHEHLAN and presided by Professor Dr. Abdelkader HAMDI, Cadi Ayyad University – Morocco, who praised Dr. Shehlan through a long yet impressive speech explaining how he is considered one of the cultural symbols in Morocco, and that celebrating on his honor in this special Scientific Forum was well deserved regarding the impeccable profile of a great professor who left behind outstanding works and was a pride for all Moroccans.

Professor Dr. Moulay Elmamoun EL MARINI, Faculty of Arabic Language in Marrakech, took the floor and spoke enthusiastically about Dr. SHEHLAN as he was his teacher in the seventies. Dr. EL MARINI was grateful for being able to participate in honoring his teacher with whom he is still bound by special scientific ties. He also spoke of the Dr.’s manners, humility and knowledge, and later on stressed out that such a man is worthy of all appreciation, gratitude, love and faithfulness.

After that, Dr. Idriss EBEIZA, Faculty of Arts and Humanities – Rabat, praised the guest’s accumulated knowledge, creativity, and nobleness of work. He emphasized that Dr. SHEHLAN is a leading scientist in Arab-Islamic culture research platforms as he acquired important background data on Eastern cultures and looked into them quite deeply.

Later on, Dr. Abdul Karim BUFRA, Faculty of Arts – Oujda, spoke about his personal and scientific ties with the honorary guest. He prides having been one of his students. In his intervention, he focused mainly on mentioning Dr. SHEHLAN’s qualities, qualifications, ethics, seriousness and dedication in coordinating, training and scientific research.

Dr. Abdel Rahim HEMOUD, Faculty of Arts, Ibn Zahar – Agadir, gave quite an emotional speech on the Guest and the strong ties he has with the scientist who engraved in him, and in the generation that he taught, values of science, ethics, noble and exceptional principles.

After that, Dr. Mohamed AIT AL-FARRAN, Faculty of Arts and Humanities – Marrakesh, spoke in an influential, poetic and eloquent way about his relationship with the honorary Guest. He recalls the scientific journey they traveled together, during which their friendship and human relations got consolidated.

Along the same line, Dr. Hassan AL MAZOULI, Faculty of Arts – Marrakech, spoke about his memories with Dr. Ahmed. He also mentioned the personal ties he holds with such a great scientist. Dr. Hassan revived the precious memories he shared with the Honorary Guest as they both are from Marrakesh.

Dr. Said KAFAITI, Faculty of Arts – Fez, spoke of Professor SHAHLAN’s role in directing him, along with a group of students, to study the Hebrew language and to specialize in it. Dr. Said stressed out how the Honorary Guest deserves recognition, appreciation and praise for all his scientific contributions to generations, his ethics and high values.

Finally, Dr. Souad AL KUTBIYA, Faculty of Arts – Marrakech, praised Dr. SHAHLAN and referred to him as the author of a solid scientific project. She also praised his great humility and humbleness, the respect and admiration he had for his students and for science and scientists.