Translation Strategies Utilized in Rendering Social Etiquette in Holy Quran

Abstract

The study aims at filling the gap in the translation of Quranic verses concerning social etiquette1. Translating culture specific items (CSIs) can be challenging because certain elements have meanings particular to the culture and the language in which they appear. These meanings do not exist necessarily in other cultures. Translation strategies tend to solve translational problems by applying specific procedures to the translated text. The article at hand has studied the translation strategies used by seven translations of the Holy Quran relating to social etiquette, based on the selection of Quranic verses pertaining to social etiquette as followed by practicing Muslims through analyzing nine English translations from 1930 to 2009. It is found that the dominant translation strategy is the literal translation, with 89% of all strategies in preference to other strategies such as free translation, neutralization, paraphrasing, lexical creation, and adaptation.