‫معهد محمد السادس‬

‫للقراءات والدراسات القرآنية‬

Al Kindi Center for Translation and Training

In collaboration with The Knowledge Integration and Translation Research Laboratory,
Faculty of Arts and Humanities- Marrakech
And Mohammed VI Institute of Qur’anic Studies
Organizes

The Sixth Conference on Translating the Meanings of the Holy Qur`an

Under the theme

Translation Studies and the Translation of the Holy Qur`an

In honour of Professor Mohammed Didaoui

Date: 20 - 21 November 2019

Website: http://takc.org

The Holy Qur’an was revealed to the prophet Muhammad (PBUH) in Arabic. Its
translation has been an old and debatable issue among a host of scholars. In the present time,
the different translations of the Holy Qur`an are of a great need to be scrutinized and
examined in the light of contemporary theories in translation studies to establish a dialogue
between different languages and nations. In this regard, a vital question must be raised; to
what extent are these contemporary theories in the translation field of great scientific guidance
to overcome all the potential barriers facing the Holy Qur`an translator?
 Since its inception as a fully-fledged and independent discipline, translation has been
approached by a myriad of pioneers and masters of translation theory. The controlling concept
for most translation theory during the 1960s and 1970s was equivalence, and translation
studies were linguistically oriented. Eugene Nida (1964) identified two fundamental measures
for producing and assessing a translation: formal equivalence and dynamic equivalence. In the
late seventies, Text Linguistics was created, and much attention was given to the structure of
the text based on the work of Katharina Reiß (1971) text typology. Within the same decade,
translation was looked at from a philosophical standpoint (the Hermeneutic Motion). Steiner
(1975), as a pioneer of this approach, focused on the psychological and intellectual
functioning of the mind of the translator. The latter was viewed as the understander and the
interpreter of the original text. As a reaction to static prescriptive models, a dynamic
culturally oriented theory (polysystem) was initiated by Itmar Even-Zohar (1978) who looked
at translated literature as a system operating in the larger social, literary and historical systems
of the target culture. Gideon Toury (1978), a major proponent of a comparative literature-
oriented approach, shifted attention to the translated text with no comparison with the original
one. For him, translation involves a set of norms as well as the translator’s alertness in
manipulating the ST to make it acceptable in the target language and culture.

As the science of translation grows, more translation theories have emerged to enrich
this field. First, the functional theory began to take shape in the 1980s thanks to the German
scholars Hans J. Vermeer and Katharina Reiss (1984). They ascertained that the Skopos (aim
and purpose) of a translation is given more importance over any other considerations. Later, it
became crystal clear that it is not enough to analyse just linguistic structures but rather focus
on extra linguistic features as well. In this respect, the sociolinguistic theory, a communicative
oriented approach, focused on the social context that defines what is and is not translatable.
This approach is associated with scholars and academicians such as Annie Brisset (1990),
Even Zohar and Guideon Toury (1995). Within the same decade, Ernst-August Gutt (1991)
introduced the relevance theory, a cognition-based approach, into the communication theory
model. The focus of attention moved to ‘mental faculties rather than texts or processes of text
production. The image of the translator has been changed by Basil Hatim and Ian Mason
(1990), who viewed the translator as a communicator. They highlighted the importance many
basic elements in communication theory.
 A thorough study of the history of translation reveals that the concept of translation
itself has been labelled with a wide range of terms by different translation specialists
according to a set of principles underscoring their points of departure. Accordingly, to what
extent can the translation act (`` to translate``, `` to render``, `` to replace``, `` to rewrite``,
``to reproduce``, ``to transfer``, and ``to substitute``) be adopted as a working framework to
translate the Holy Qur`an?

Due to the different aspects of the source language and the target language, translators
resort to some techniques in the translation process in order to achieve the equivalence of the
translated works. The subject of translation techniques has been widely investigated by
specialists in the field of translation studies. The major aim is to examine whether the
translation techniques explored in this call for paper are helpful in the Holy Qur`an
translation. The first category of translation techniques is direct translation which is used
when structural and conceptual elements of the source language can be transposed into the
target language. Direct translation techniques include: Borrowing, Calque and Literal
Translation or a word-for-word translation. When direct translation techniques are not
applicable because they are either structurally impossible, or the target language does not
have a corresponding expression, the generated text would have a different meaning, no
meaning or a foreign structure. The translator then seeks refuge in oblique translation
techniques. These include: Transposition, Modulation, Reformulation or Equivalence,
Adaptation and Compensation. Domestication and foreignization are two other opposite
techniques/strategies suggested by Venuti (1995). The first one is the imitation of text features
of the target culture. Whereas, foreignization is characterized by giving much emphasis to the
elements that are foreign to the target culture (Venuti 1992). Domesticating practices where
some source culture features are partially or totally erased may lead to the invisibility of
translators. That is, the more fluent the translation, the more invisible the translator. (Venuti,
1995).

The aim of the conference is to re-raise the problem of translating the meanings of the
Holy Qur’an in the light of modern theories and techniques. Accordingly, the ensuing
questions arise:
▪To what extent can modern theories be adopted as an intellectual framework for the
translator of the meanings of the Holy Qur’an?
▪To what extent can the notion of translation itself be considered as a descriptive concept of
the rendering process from Arabic into other languages?
▪To what extent can translation professionals rely on the various translation techniques and
regard them as procedural devices to translate the meanings of the Holy Qur’an?

The conference research axes include, but are not limited to:
 Equivalence and Qur’an translation
 Discourse analysis and Qur’an translation
 Hermeneutic approach and Qur’an translation
 Literary polysystem and Qur’an translation
 Theory of norms and Qur’an translation
 Skopos theory and Qur`an Translation
 Translation as a transfer and Qur’an translation
 Translation as rewriting and Qur’an translation
 Translation as reproducing and Qur`an Translation
 Translation as rendering and Qur`an Translation
 Translation as substitution and Qur`an translation
 Translation as replacement and Qur`an translation
 Translation as communication and Qur`an translation
 Visibility / Invisibility and Qur`an Translation
 Direct translation techniques and Qur`an Translation
 Oblique translation techniques and Qur`an Translation
 Domestication / Foreignization and Qur`an Translation
 Translation terminology and Qur`an translation
Conference working languages
The working languages of the conference are Arabic, English and French.
Important dates
▪ Deadline for proposal submission: March 31, 2019.
▪ Submission of final papers: June 30, 2019
▪ Notification of acceptance after blind reviewing: July 30, 2019.
▪ Conference date: 20 - 21 November 2019.
▪ Conference venue: Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Marrakech, Kingdom of Morocco.
▪ Participation proposals should be sent to: [email protected]
▪ Conference proceedings are to be published before the conference.
▪ APA reference style required.
Participation fees
▪ $ 450 or equivalent (conference documents, participation certificate, accommodation, meals
and coffee breaks are included)
▪ Travel expenses to be covered by participants
Conference general chair
Khalid Essaki
Conference coordinators
Jamaa Ouchouid
Noreddine Hanini
Noureddine Azmi
Scientific committee

- Rachid Aaradi (Cadi Ayyad - Abied Al-Sulaiman (University of

University, Morocco) Leuven, Belgium)

- Brahim Assikar (Cadi Ayyad - Hassan Bouijelabn (Cadi Ayyad

University, Morocco) University, Morocco)

- Bouchra Chakir (Al Quaraouiyine - Ahmed Saber Chergui (Cadi Ayyad

University, Maroc) University, Morocco)

- Ahmad El-Leithy (University of - Kamal El Fouadi (Cadi Ayyad

Sharjah, United Arab Emirates) University, Morocco)

- Ahmed El Hamzaoui (Cadi Ayyad - Souad El kouttoubia (Cadi Ayyad

University, Morocco) University, Morocco)

- Hassan El Moudden (Cadi Ayyad - Malika El Ouali (Cadi Ayyad

University, Morocco) University, Morocco)

- Lhoucine Idyouss (University of - Ahmed Kerroum (Ibn Zohr

Leuven, Belgium) University, Morocco)

- Abdelouahed Lamrabet (Cadi Ayyad - Abdelali Majdoub (Cadi Ayyad

University, Morocco) University, Morocco)

- Abdelkader Marrah (Cadi Ayyad - Mohamed Fathallah Misbah (Cadi

University, Morocco) Ayyad University, Morocco)

- Amal Oussikoum (Sultan Moulay - Mohamed Rezzaki (Cadi Ayyad

Slimane University, Morocco) University, Morocco)
 - Amir Zanati (Ain Shams University,
Egypt)

Organizing committee

Adil Lachgar Imad Dehbi

Ayoub Nejjari Laila El ghazouani

Hanane Oussoulouane Nour El Houda Belghita

Hicham Beddari Taoufiq Bouamrane

Overall supervision

Abdelhamid Zahid (The Knowledge Integration and Translation Research Laboratory)

Hassane Darir (Al Kindi Center for Translation and Training)
Coordinator of Master’s program: Translation Technology and Specialized Translation
Participation form

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Phone number

Email

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Institution

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