Translation Assessment of the English Renditions of the Verb Jaʻala ((جعل in Qurȃnic Texts

Abstract

The present paper sets itself to carry out translation assessment of some English published renderings of Qurȃnic texts involving the verb;   جعل Jaʻala (to make). The verb in question has a variety of senses that necessitates special focus on the part of translators. This is due to the fact that the co-text plays a significant role in assigning the various senses to the verb under investigation. Accordingly, some Qurȃnic ayas involving the verb will be chosen and subjected to translation assessment to find out how far accurate renditions have been produced by translators. Inadequate translations will be discussed and alternative ones will be put forward. It is hypothesized that mistranslations of the verb tend to be more than accurate translations. This might be attributable to the various rhetorical senses that this Arabic verb conveys which can be classified as language specifics. The specifics are usually difficult to render across languages.