Toward an Intercultural Understanding between the Orient and the Occident: A Narrative Approach to Translating Jihād Concept into English

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Prince Sattam Bin Abdul-Aziz University, KSA

Abstract

Translating religious terms and expressions, particularly polysemous concepts like Jihād, is an intriguing area of research, since non-Muslim perceptions of Islam and Muslims are largely contingent upon their understanding of these translations. A translator’s presuppositions exercise considerable influence on his/her rendition of religious concepts. At heart, the greatest issue in translating the religious text hinges on whether it may be considered conceptually untranslatable. An important issue regarding the translation of jihād, is that religious expressions and terms are components of ancient and classical texts ‘travelling’ from the past to the present; this alone brings about a number of significant problems in their understanding, interpretation, and translation. It has not yet been established whether religious terms like jihād preserve their meanings unchanged across time and space, or whether they are transformative and changeable. Therefore, the proposed study aims to address the issue of translating jihād concept into English through applying Baker's narrative approach.

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