ABSTRACT
Quran translation into Western cultures is a high volatility intercultural act. In it many of the translator’s choices are not purely dictated by linguistic necessity alone, but, rather, are due to the Text’s shifting dynamic of reception, they are contextually overdetermined. Here the dialectic of the translator’s invisibility vs agency comes into sharp relief, as the translator’s discursive presence is overtly superimposed. The global context and extra-textual contradictions and fissures between the source and the receptive milieus necessitate that the translator come out of the shadows and heavily intervene, taking on a peacemaker role. Otherwise, his/her translation endeavour is superfluous at best, or aggravating to an already intense cross-cultural engagement at worst. Given the hard facts of today’s world, Quran translations have, out of necessity, become more exegetical in nature. Within this context, translation is literally about creating a new way for putative readership to access a Text that is central to the believer’s identity as well as the outsider’s understanding of a central religious tradition. This chaptersets out to examine English Quran translations that were published in the aftermath of 9/11 and the tension between worldviews that sprang to a global scale thereafter. In particular, it zooms in on recent renditions of the key term Islam and passages of the Original having a bearing on issues that could prove to be contentious and challenging. Against this global backdrop, all recent English Quran translations simply could not run the risk of going about it without intervening to accommodate for the contextual alongside the textual.
