Descriptive Study of Techniques in the Translation of Surah Titles of the Holy Quran

Case Study: English Translations by Arberry, Pickhtall, Rodwell, Sale and Al-Hellali-Khan

Abstract

This research investigated strategies of the Surahs’ (chapters) titles of the Holy Quran in English. Therefore, five English translations of the Holy Quran conducted by Arthur John Arbury, Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall, John Medows Rodwell, George Sale, and Hilali-Khan were reviewed by Leppihalme's model (1997) to detect the strategies applied in the translations. Comparative analysis of the Arabic names of the Surahs with their English equivalences and their translations indicated that 1) translators used all strategies to convey proper nouns, except for the strategy of "keeping proper nouns in the target language with the respective footnotes and 2) the strategies include: a. replacing 493 source nouns with their equivalences in the target language, b. keeping 35 nouns without additional comments, c. keeping 31 nouns without additional comments and adaptation to the phonetic or lexical system of the target language, d. keeping six nouns with additional comments, and e. omitting five nouns and conveying their meanings with other nouns. Moreover, Muslim translators did not use the omission strategy of the source noun, but non-Muslim translators employed it.

Keywords: English Translation, Proper Nouns, Techniques of choosing equivalents, Titles of the Surahs (of the Quran)