The Inimitable Qurʾān: Some Problems in English Translations of the Qurʾān with Reference to Rhetorical Features

218 Pages·2019·1.744 MB·English

by  Khalid Yahya Blankinship

TheInimitableQurʾān
Texts and Studies
on the Qurʾān
EditorialBoard
GerhardBöwering(YaleUniversity)
BilalOrfali(AmericanUniversityofBeirut)
DevinStewart(EmoryUniversity)
volume 15
Thetitlespublishedinthisseriesarelistedatbrill.com/tsq
The Inimitable Qurʾān
SomeProblemsinEnglishTranslationsof theQurʾān
withReferencetoRhetoricalFeatures
By
KhalidYahyaBlankinship
LEIDEN | BOSTON
Coverillustration:KhaledAl-Saai,MasterCalligrapher
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Names:Blankinship,KhalidYahya,author.
Title:TheinimitableQurʾān:someproblemsinEnglishtranslationsoftheQurʾān
withreferencetorhetoricalfeatures/byKhalidYahyaBlankinship.
Description:Boston:Brill,2019.|Series:TextsandstudiesontheQurʾān,1567-2808
;15|Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
Identifiers:LCCN2019040943(print)|LCCN2019040944(ebook)|
ISBN9789004412521(hardback)|ISBN9789004417441(ebook)
Subjects:LCSH:Qurʾan–Translating–Criticism,interpretation,etc.|
Qurʾan–Language,style.
Classification:LCC BP131.13.B562019(print)|LCC BP131.13(ebook)|
DDC297.1/22521–dc23
LCrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2019040943
LCebookrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2019040944
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ISSN1567-2808
ISBN978-90-04-41252-1(hardback)
ISBN978-90-04-41744-1(e-book)
Copyright2020byKoninklijkeBrillNV,Leiden,TheNetherlands.
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Contents
Preface vii
NoteonTransliteration xv
Introduction 1
1 InversionofWordOrder 41
2 Iltifāt 48
3 IndicativeinPlaceofImperativeorJussive 62
4 IndefiniteNouns 67
5 Non-ConsequentialException 72
6 PleonasmandRedundancy 79
7 RepetitionforEmphasis 83
8 Parallelism 94
9 JuxtapositionofContrastingConditionalSentences 111
10 Coordination 114
11 LackofConjunctive(Asyndeton) 124
12 Parenthesis(iʿtirāḍ) 133
13 Succinctness,orījāzal-qiṣar 143
14 Ellipsis,orījāzal-ḥadhf 152
vi contents
Conclusion 174
Bibliography 183
IndexofQurʾānicSurahsandVerses 194
IndexofProperNames 196
IndexofSubjects 200
Preface
The last five decades or so have seen a great reversal of fortune across the
worldasfarasrhetoricisconcerned.Beforethattime,rhetorichadindeedbeen
neglectedbyWesternscholars,exceptforafew,andmostofthelatterworkedin
languagesotherthanEnglish.Now,notonlyhasrhetoricbeenrehabilitatedin
itsownimmediateprovinceoflanguageandliterature,butithasalsoachieved
anewrelevance,if notdominance,inallthevariousfieldsof thehumanities
andsocialsciences,withsomereferencebeingmadetoitinthecriticismof
thenaturalsciencesaswell.Thisspectacularreversalhaslargelycomeabout
becauseof thedevelopmentandspreadof whatmaybelooselydescribedas
thepostmodernistcritiqueof modernistthought.Postmodernistcriticshave
takenmorenoticeoftheeffectsthatlinguisticstructureshaveonthecontentof
whatisconveyedintext.Furthermore,theyhaveobservedthatlanguageisfull
ofambiguities,sothatagivennarrativeisunlikelytohaveasingleundisputed,
obvious,orcorrectinterpretation.Becauseofsuchmultiplepossibleinterpre-
tationsorpolysemyoftexts,howthereaderreceivesorinterpretsatextneeds
to be considered as well as the supposed original intention of the text or its
author.Thishasusefullyrefocusedattentionontheproblemsofinterpretation
of texts,problemswhichareoftenrelatedtounderlyingrhetoricalstructures
thathavebeenhithertoneglected.
While a great deal of work has been accomplished in Western rhetorical
studies in the last fifty years, and a considerable number of modern Arabic-
languagerhetoricalstudiesalsocontinuetoemerge,studiesontherhetoricof
theQurʾān,thoughincreasinginnumber,remaincomparativelysparse.1This
isdespitetheimportancethattheQurʾānhasforMuslims,anddespitethefact
thatChristiansandJewshaveproducedalargeliteratureofrhetoricalanalysis
ofvariouspartsoftheBible.Partly,thisrelativelackofrecentMuslimattention
totherhetoricalstructuresof theQurʾānmayowetothetraditionalformof
theQurʾānicexegesisortafsīr,whichtendstosurveytheQurʾānictextverseby
verseandtoconcentrateonthejudicialimplicationsoftheindividualverses.2
1 PhilipHalldén,“WhatIsArabIslamicRhetoric?RethinkingtheHistoryofMuslimOratory
ArtandHomiletics,”InternationalJournalofMiddleEastStudies37,(2005),19.
2 Thisclasssicalmethodofexegesishasstartedtobesupplementedbynewperspectivesin
recenttimes,however,forexample,withtheworkFīẓilālal-QurʾānbytheEgyptianliterary
criticSayyidQuṭb(1324–1386/1906–1966),Beirut:Dārash-Shurūq,1394/1974,6vols.Larger
structuresoftheQurʾānhavealsobeenexaminedbyAmīnAḥsanIṣlāḥīinhisUrdu-language
viii preface
Thedearthofattentiontorhetoricalstructuresbecomesevengreaterwhenour
focusmovesfromtheArabicQurʾāntotheEnglishtranslationsofitsmeaning,
forlittleanalysishasbeenmadeofthevarioustranslations,andmostofwhat
hasbeendoneconcentrateson“mistakes”intranslationorideologicalques-
tions of interpretation rather than on the rhetorical structures themselves.3
Thus,aworksuchasIhaveundertakenhereis,Ihope,nowmoretimelythan
everbefore.
Myinterestinthesubjectbeganwithmyfirstmaster’sthesis,whichIwrote
at the American University in Cairo over forty-three years ago. However, the
workbeforeyou,thoughincorporatingsomeof thatearliereffort,isagreatly
expandedandmoredevelopedone.First,Inowhavemoretosayonthesub-
ject,bothbecauseofwhatIhavelearntfromnewdevelopmentsinrhetoricand
becauseofmyhavinghadtheopportunitytopursueadeeperandlongerstudy
oftheQurʾānandtheEnglishtranslationsofitsmeaning.Ihaveincludedmany
additionalArabicsources,includingḌiyāʾad-DīnIbnal-Athīr’sal-Mathalas-
sāʾirfīadabal-kātibwa-sh-shāʿir,as-Sakkākī’sMiftāḥal-ʿulūm,Najmad-Dīnaṭ-
Ṭūfī’sal-Iksīrfīʿilmat-tafsīr,al-Khaṭībal-Qazwīnī’sal-Īḍāḥfīʿulūmal-balāghah,
andaz-Zarkashī’sal-Burhānfīʿulūmal-Qurʾān,amongothers,allofwhichIwas
unawareof whenIfirstwrote.Eachof theseisquiteoriginalandimportant.
Furthermore,IhaveaddedreferencestoparallelrhetoricalfeaturesinGreek
andLatinfromancientGreekandRomanrhetoricianswhererelevant.Ihave
also updated my use of modern rhetorical studies, including more in Arabic
thanIpreviouslyused.
Besiderhetoricalcriticism,Ihavealsonowtakenintoaccountrecentdevel-
opmentsintranslationtheory,afieldwhichhasalsomostlycomeintoitsown
commentary,Tadabbur-iQurʾān,whichisdescribedinMustansirMir,CoherenceintheQurʾān:
AStudyofIṣlāḥī’sConceptofNaẓminTadabbur-iQurʾān,Indianapolis:AmericanTrustPubli-
cations,1406/1986,andotherexamplescouldbecitedinArabic,English,andotherlanguages
aswell.
3 ForafairlyrecentlistingofQurʾāntranslationsinEnglish,seeBruceLawrence,TheKoranin
English:ABiography,Princeton:PrincetonUniversityPress,2017,pp.177–188.Lawrencealso
includesconsiderablecommentaryonandreviewofmanyofthesetranslations,pp.36–100
andpassim.Asimilarlydetailedbutmoreselectivedescriptionofsuchtranslationsisfoundin
PaulaYoungmanSkresletandRebeccaSkreslet,TheLiteratureofIslam:AGuidetothePrimary
SourcesinEnglishTranslation,Lanham,MD:TheScarecrowPress,Inc.andAmericanTheo-
logicalLibraryAssociation,2006,pp.3–23.ForaMuslimevaluationofQurʾāntranslations
tothepresent,seeA.R.Kidwai,TranslatingtheUntranslatable:ACriticalGuideto60English
TranslationsoftheQuran.1sted.NewDelhi:SarupBookPublishersPvt.,2011,andA.R.Kid-
wai,God’sWord,Man’sInterpretations:ACriticalStudyofthe21stCenturyEnglishTranslations
oftheQuran.NewDelhi:VivaBooks,2018.
preface ix
sinceIfirstwrote.Inthiseffort,myworkhasbeenconsiderablyinformedand
greatlyhelpedbytheworkof LawrenceVenuti,aleadingtheoristontransla-
tionwhoisalsomycolleagueatTempleUniversity.Ihaveparticularlybenefit-
tedfromhisbookTheTranslator’sInvisibility,inwhichheshowsthattransla-
tionhasalwaysbeenaprocessstronglyinformedbyideologyandatendency
to domesticate the foreign text for purposes that always have to do with the
receivingsociety,evenwhilethosepurposescanbequitevaried.4Clearly,the
workofeverytranslatorhastobeconsideredinitshistoricalandsocietalcon-
text.
Also,whenIbegantorevise,Irealizedthatitwouldhavebeenbettertodeal
with other translations of the Qurʾān beside those of Pickthall, Arberry, and
Bell,thethreethatIalmostexclusivelyconcentratedoninmyearlierwork.The
choiceofthesethreemayhavebeeninfluencedbymymentorDr.Mohammed
al-Nowaihi, but ultimately also may derive from the original introduction to
Arberry’s translation of 1955, in which Arberry singles out Pickthall and Bell
asimportanttranslationsprecedinghis.5AlthoughPickthallhasretainedhis
importance considerably over the years, despite his archaic English, Bell is
almostcompletelyforgottentoday,andevenArberry,despitehisremainingin
printandhiscontinuingpopularityas“thebesttranslation”amongmanyeru-
ditenon-Muslims,nowhassomewhatfadedinpopularityaswell.Whileithas
beenpossibletoremedythisdeficiencyofcoveragetosomeextentbyadding
furtherexamplesfromsomeof thetranslationsinwideruseamongtheMus-
limsandintheworld,especiallythoseofʿAbdAllāhYūsufʿAlīandN.J.Dawood,
andtoalesserextentthoseof MuhammadAliandMuhammadAsad,ithas
beenbeyondmyabilityinthisrevisiontodealwitheachofthesetranslations
fully or to add others that are likely to be equally or even more deserving of
attention, such as those more recent ones by M.A.S. Abdel Haleem (2004),
ThomasCleary(2004),AhmadZakiHammad(2007),TarifKhalidi(2008),and
thegroupunderthechiefeditorshipofSeyyedHosseinNasrwhichproduced
TheStudyQurʾān(2017).
Some parts of my work remain as originally written. The coverage of the
original was limited mainly to features of Arabic rhetoric that are generally
considered part of the rhetorical subdivision called ʿilm al-maʿānī, and that
remains true of this revised version.Thus, I have dealt exclusively with syn-
4 LawrenceVenuti,TheTranslator’sInvisibility:AHistoryofTranslation,2nded.reissuedwitha
newintroduction,Abingdon,UK:Routledge,2018,pp.xii–xiii.
5 ArthurJ.Arberry,TheKoranInterpreted,London:GeorgeAllen&Unwin,Ltd.,1955,Vol.1,
pp.20–24,Vol.II,pp.11–12.