New Feminist Translation of the Koran
Very interesting. Predictibly, folks in the Muslim world who don’t like it claim she doesn’t know Arabic (she’s Iranian-American) and she, of course, claims that she does, and that her translation is perfectly fair. And back and forth.
Reuters reports,
In the new book, Dr. Laleh Bakhtiar, a former lecturer on Islam at the University of Chicago, challenges the translation of the Arab word “idrib,” traditionally translated as “beat,” which feminists say has been used to justify abuse of women.
“Why choose to interpret the word as ‘to beat’ when it can also mean ‘to go away’,” she writes in the introduction to the new book.
Full story here.
This story’s been around for a bit. In particular, it was in the NY Times a couple of weeks ago. And, it seems, she doesn’t know Arabic that well, she’s not an Arabic scholar (or even an Islam one for that matter), and her translation, by the NY Times’ account, seemed to involve looking at Arabic dictionaries and seeing what they said. Which isn’t to say what she did wasn’t valid, but just the same…
—BearsforIsrael · April 13th, 2007 at 1:45 pm
I think that this is an extremely positive sign, assuming that the Arabic translation is justified.
The book is now in print. It’s on sale on Amazon as “The Sublime Koran”. But it is expensive–$24.95 for a paperback edition!!
—dorachild · April 13th, 2007 at 2:36 pm
“Why choose to interpret the word as ‘to beat’ when it can also mean ‘to go away’,â€Â
I AM NOT JUSTIFYING ANY FORM OF VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN OR ANYBODY ELSE
—Amit · April 14th, 2007 at 5:41 pm
“Why choose to interpret the word as ‘to beat’ when it can also mean ‘to go away’,â€Â
I AM NOT JUSTIFYING ANY FORM OF VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN OR ANYBODY ELSE
but we all know that if there’s a longstanding hermeneutic tradition of the word, it takes more than a dictionary to change it. Its naivete more than anything else.
—Amit · April 14th, 2007 at 5:42 pm
can’t wait to see the fatwa issued over this one…
—yaaziel · April 16th, 2007 at 4:01 pm