Ideology in translation of Islamic texts

The study on ideology in translation of Islamic texts has always been a debatable area of research. The very term ideology has various general and specific meanings, forming a unique sense due to particular contexts such as political, sociological, religious ones. The most basic and frequent definition of this term defines ideology as a shared belief or beliefs of a group toward a specific subject. According to Hatim and Mason (1997), translation and the translation process involves a series of non neutral activities and the translator may exert his beliefs or attitudes in the translation even without being aware of it. This paper aims to fruitfully summarize and review relevant significant articles and theses about ideology, strategies used in translating ideological Islamic texts, historical backgrounds of the term and limitations of translating Qur’an and other religious texts. The fact that translation, more or less, is influenced by the translator’s ideology is one of the shared findings of the researches mentioned here. Ideological attitudes can be both conscious and unconscious; therefore, this result will help the translator increase their awareness of the effect that ideologies may have on their translation and interpretation of texts.

Keywords:

Ideology , Qur’an translation , discourse , language.