Indirection in biblical and qur’anic discourses, and in Bible translation in Islamic contexts

Indirection strategies such as metaphor, idiom, euphemism and honorifics have been ubiquitous in Christian and Muslim religious discourse, and they have often been the cause of confusion and controversy. The key issues of anthropotheism (and tashbīh, ‘comparison’), apophatic theology (and ta‘ṭīl, ‘divestment’) and politeness strategies are traced here, through the textual, compositional and translational history of the Bible and Qurʾan, and on into various modern Muslim-idiom Bible translations, especially in Africa.