Bias in Translation: Orientalism, the Quran, and 1001 Nights

This article was originally published here.

Continuing on from the previous article in my Bias in Translation series, we’re still talking about the Orientalists who shaped Arabic-English translation today, and we’re going to examine the two most significant texts that they translated from which many modern racist and Islamophobic stereotypes are derived: the Quran and One Thousand and One (1001) Nights. These stereotypes persist today: A New Yorker writer referenced 1001 Nights when discussing how English readers look to Arabic literature to learn about Arabs, saying that its stories “have the power to save your life.”[1]

Blatant bias rather than implicit bias

How one is prejudiced nowadays is quite different from back when Orientalists were at their peak (the Reformation and Enlightenment era through the Age of Imperialism): what we now consider blatant, virulent racism/Islamophobia prevailed and wasn’t condemned as much. It was jarring for me when I first started translating and analyzing very old newspapers, but this language was the norms in some circles and not perceived as radical or extremist by the public. So just keep that in mind when we discuss early Orientalists’ biases: their bias is very blatant and disregards the intention of the original text and its author—not something we professional translators are used to or are accepting of.

Warning labels

The Crusades left lasting hostilities, wounds, and mistrust between European Christians and Muslims in Southwest Asia and North Africa (SWANA), which drove Church scholars to view the study of Islam and Arabic as a way to arm Christians “with the tools to convince Muslims that their faith was false and Christianity was true”[2] and pushed them to translate the Quran into Latin and other European languages.[3] Translators were among the first scholars to portray Islam as a barbaric and backward religion; their sole aim in translating the Quran was often to denounce Islam and the Quran.[4] But this stems from a long history of suspicion and hostility, for Peter the Venerable (d. 1156) thought the Quran deserved study ‘if only to refute heresy with the truth.’[5]

Many Orientalists considered Islam as “a natural continuation of nomadism”[6] or “Mohammedian pseudo-prophecy.”[7] One scholar, Du Ryer, called the Quran “a crude invention of a false prophet” in his introduction, and Martin Luther believed that the Quran should be studied “to refute heresy with the truth.”[8] When translating the Quran, some would name it the ‘Mohammedian Quran,’ ‘Turkish Bible,’ or ‘Act of Muslims’ to demote Islam from a legitimate Abrahamic religion to the mere writings of Prophet Muhammad.[9] These translators (or translating scholars if you’d prefer) would add caveats (and literal warnings in the introduction) that would warn readers of the content and present Islam as deviant and insidious.[10] These introductions contained fake information about Muslims, Prophet Muhammad and his companions, and the Quran itself, so they could induce readers to have negative preconceptions about the Quran before they read it.[11] Take Alexander Ross’s preface from his 1649 French to English translation of the Quran:[12]

Good Reader, the Great Arabian Imposter now at last after a thousand years is by way of France arrived in England, and his Alcoran or Gallimaufry of Errors (a brat as deformed as the parent, and as full of heresies as his scald head was full of scurffe [sic]) hath learned to speak English. I suppose this piece is exposed by the Translator to the publicke view no otherwise than some monster brought out of Africa, for people to gaze, not to dote upon; and as the sight of a monster, or misshapen creature, should induce the beholder to praise God, Who hath not made him such; so should reading of this Alcoran excite in us both to bless God’s goodness toward us in this land, who injoy the glorious light of the Gospell, and behold the truth in the beauty of his Holinesse, who suffers so many Countreys to be blinded and inslaved with the misshapen issue of Mohamets braine…

This is only one of many such introductions, which veer from fascinated to hostile, but usually end up disparaging the Quran.[13] And even with this warning, a pamphlet circulated soon after Ross’s translation was published, making insinuations of his loyalty to Britain and opined that Ross was too lenient towards Islam.[14] Despite these warnings and the effort undertaken to complete these translations, the Church suppressed the publication of Quran translations for decades, centuries even.[15]

Racism/stereotypes derived from 1001 Nights

Black men being disparaged for their looks and intelligence, being villains, and being hypersexualized were featured in a significant number of the stories in 1001 Nights, but there were also quite a few positive representations of Black people.[16] So although there were instances of racism present in the original Arabic text, historian and writer Robert Irwin advises that those who read 1001 Nights in English or French should be warned that “the racist abuse has been heightened or actually invented in the English translation of Richard Burton (1885-8) and the French translation of Joseph Charles Mardrus (1899-1904).”[17] Burton had certain characters imitate “blackmoor” speech when there was no indication of such in the original Arabic, and he added a note to the opening account of Shahriyar’s wife’s sexual betrayal: “debauched women prefer negroes on account of the size of their parts.”[18] Mardrus added “nègres” and “nègresses”—I apologize if this the equivalent to our N-word, but my research couldn’t find a conclusive yes or no to this dilemma—as slaves in some stories when there weren’t any indication of their race in the original Arabic.[19]

It’s possible that these scholars saw some of the racial/ethnic prejudice in other 1001 Nights stories and felt that their own racial/ethnic prejudice would be fine. Some famous racists loved 1001 Nights: racial theorist Joseph-Arthur de Gobineau, novelist H.P. Lovecraft, and writer Sax Rohmer, among others. Regardless, the translations of 1001 Nights if not fabricated then amplified racial prejudices and created stereotypes that have persisted in Arabic-English translations.

Techniques and strategy used—and why they’re not great

Mistranslation and misinformation

In the Orientalists’ view, there is nothing new in the teachings of the Quran; whatever is new in the Quran is wrong and whatever they considered right was old news.[20] That being said, “being right” was apparently not a high priority for Orientalist translators. Many translations of the Quran were completed translating from other translations (that also contained many errors) not the original Arabic because the translators weren’t that knowledgeable of Arabic, and some of these translations were the main resources for Western scholars for centuries.[21]

As translators, we know there is always loss in translation, so translating poses significant risk for inaccuracy, but translators should still be trying their best to be accurate. Even when an Orientalist translator would produce a reliable translation, the translation would be met with suspicion as heresy or some kind of “religious Stockholm Syndrome.”[22] Yet producing accurate translations of the Quran isn’t what official Christian authorities wanted. They opposed publishing these translations of the Quran because it might lead to and facilitate the spread of Islam in Europe, despite the biased warnings in the introductions and alterations made to the source text.[23]

Professor Rana Qadri has studied various Orientalist translations of the Quran and compared them to the original text:[24]

???? ?? ?????

Is it you who can make God see and hear? (Sale)

He sees and hears everything. (Qadri)

[?? ????? ??????? ??] ????? ????

The effects of God (Berque)

The pillars of God (e.g., Hajj) (Qadri)

The list of examples was much longer, but you can read further if you’re interested in seeing more. She made quite the critique of Arthur Johns Arberry, who was fluent in Arabic and considered a brilliant translator, and whose English translation of the Quran is the most famous of its kind. However, he fully admitted that “any translation whatever it is, no matter how accurate it could be, won’t be but a weak interpretation of the miraculous original book.”[25]

Modifications and Rearrangements

Given the bloody history of translating the Bible, when translators would be executed as heretics and have their remains desecrated (this is not an exaggeration),[26] you can tell there is no reverence or respect in these Orientalist Quran translations, which was apparently acceptable to society. In a move you would only do if someone was paying you extra for developmental editing, some of these Orientalist translators actually transferred some Quranic verses from one place to another to “have a correct complete meaning.”[27] Because the linguistic and academic prowess they displayed in their mistranslations demonstrated such expertise that they would feel confident in rearranging divine thought…

Now some, like Arthur Johns Arberry and Iraqi Jewish translator N. J. Dawood, may have been influenced by their religious ideology and made misguided equivalents, rather than having malicious intentions. Dawood has been critiqued for decisions like when he translated “sons of Adam” as “sons of God,” which deviated from the original Arabic and would not have been accepted by Muslim scholars/leaders.[28] This could have been influenced by a personal interpretation, which can happen in many translation specializations, but it undoubtedly critiqued the most in religious translation.

Domestication and personal interpretations

Many theorists and other scholars assert that the Quran can’t possibly be translated because the text is divine and “exceeds the possibility of human understanding.”[29] A lot of critiques I’ve read involve the translator’s interpretation, for many of the ‘mistranslations’ flagged are more misinterpretations or genuinely different interpretation of words or context. As you might expect, a translator’s ideology can influence their translation, and this is doubly true for translating religious texts.

It’s important to examine different interpretations affecting religious translation because religious texts have immense power, potentially influencing people in their actions and beliefs. Consider the follow verse and how different translations/interpretations can produce different effects:[30]

????????????????? ???? ??????????? ?????? ??? ???????? ?????????????? ? ???????? ??????? ?????????? ? ????????? ????? ???? ???????? ????????? ??? ??????????? ?????????????? ???????????? ?????? ????????????? ? ????? ?????????????? ????? ????????? ?????????????? ???????????? ?????????? ? ????? ??????? ?????????? ?????? ???????????? ????? ???? ?????? ???????????? ? ????? ??????? ????? ???????? ????????? ??

Saffarzadeh: [Also] forbidden are wedded women except those captives and slaves whom you owned, [in the war against the idolaters] thus Allah has ordained for you [regarding those forbidden marriage]. All others are lawful, provided that you seek marriage with them and offer marriage portion from your property and desiring chastity, not lust. So with those whom you have enjoyed tentative marriage, give them their marriage-portion as prescribed; if you agree mutually [to change the amount] there is no sin on you; Allah is the Absolute-Knowing Decreer.

Al-Hilali: Also (forbidden are) women already married, except those (slaves) whom your right hands possess. Thus has Allah ordained for you. All others are lawful, provided you seek (them in marriage) with Mahr (bridal-money given by the husband to his wife at the time of marriage) from your property, desiring chastity, not committing illegal sexual intercourse, so with those of whom you have enjoyed sexual relations, give them their Mahr as prescribed; but if after Mahr is prescribed, you agree mutually (to give more), there is no sin on you. Surely, Allah is Ever All-knowing, All-Wise.

Arberry: And wedded women, save what your right hands own. So God prescribes for you. lawful for you, beyond all that, is that you may seek, using your wealth, in wedlock and not in licence. Such wives as you enjoy thereby, give them their wages apportionate; it is no fault in you in your agreeing together, after the due apportionate. God is All-knowing, Allwise.

Dawood: Also married women, except those whom you own as slaves. Such is the decree of God. All women other than these are lawful for you, provided you court them with your wealth in modest conduct, not in fornication. Give them their dowry for the enjoyment you have had of them as a duty; but it shall be no offence for you to make any other agreement among yourselves after you have fulfilled your duty. Surely God is all-knowing and wise

1. Saffarzadeh’s translation and apparent interpretation demonstrates that she followed Shia doctrine.
2. Al-Hilali’s translation demonstrates that his ideology is the dominant one in Saudi Arabia.
3. Arberry and Dawood’s translations reflect their lack a reference point for temporary marriage (mut’ah, prevalent in Shi’a Islam), as they were not Muslim.

In the Orientalists’ case, their ideologies were European Christian, imperial, and anti-Muslim ideologies, so many either intentionally or unconsciously made interpretations that were from a narrow Christian perspective and supported imperialist aims. In line with their imperialist ideologies, many Orientalist translators who worked on the Quran and 1001 Nights used a domestication strategy. Domestication is when the original text is adapted to the target language and culture and removes the ‘otherness’ from the text. In postcolonial translation studies, the very act of translating indigenous written and oral texts into a colonizer’s language is the initial act of colonization, and domestication is seen as parallel to how colonizers would subjugate the indigenous population. One famous example of domestication of 1001 Nights is Galland’s translation.

Famous examples

Antoine Galland’s Les Mille et une Nuits (1706)

Galland’s French translation of 1001 Nights was the only translation published in the 18th century and promoted the public’s interest in SWANA tales. He divided his translation into eight volumes; the last one contained tales that weren’t part of the original manuscript.[31] Galland’s approach has been deemed “ethnocentric,” which uses “appropriation and annexation” to shape the original text into something that fits the target language and culture and negates the “otherness” from the original text.[32] Galland domesticated the text to produce something an 18th-century French audience could relate to, with a familiar socio-cultural context.[33] During Galland’s time, literary translators were primarily concerned with creating a new literary work out of the original text that their target readers would like.[34] which is why mainly domestication was used by Orientalist translators, potential personal biases aside.

Galland wanted 1001 Nights to fit into the Western tradition of folk tales: he transformed the tales from an oral discourse to a written one, omitted various oral elements, and Sharazad’s role as the narrator is relegated to a secondary position.[35] When Galland omitted Sharazad’s oral repetitions in the beginnings and endings of each tale, he took out the reminders that Sharazad won another night to live, removing the lurking threat over her.[36] This approach significantly changes the Arab storytelling tradition and their intertextual relationship to the Quran and another genre of Arabic literature called khitaba (discourse).[37]

Galland generally omitted the poetic elements of the text, which further diminished the oral nature of 1001 Nights.[38] Because Galland used domestication to conform to Western written discourse, he had to transform the structure of the narrative and modify the Arabic prose according to French prose. He also omitted what was “seemingly erotic praise of female beauty” but what was actually a poetic tradition call ghazal (love poetry).[39]

Galland also stripped away key aspects of the text that are associated with Islam: He replaced divine agency with human agency; equated divine manifestations with mysterious manifestations; and omitted references and inferences to God’s omnipotence, Quranic verses and the Prophet’s sayings.[40] When Galland did decide to keep Islamic references, he would explain them extensively but from a Western worldview. He included representations of Islam that “could be understood and accepted from Christian points of reference” as opposed to a legitimate religion and images of Islam that depicts it as subservient to Christianity or a distorted or perverted version of it.[41]

Richard Burton’s The Arabian Nights (1885)

Burton’s translation approach was a bit different from Galland’s: he strove to ensure its accuracy, as least ‘accuracy’ from his perspective. He took care to preserve the Arabic pronunciation of names and the tales’ plots and features, and left a copious amount of explanatory notes.[42] However, his translation also had many flaws. He “Englishized” whatever he considered “barbaric and outlandish,” though he didn’t specify what fell into those categories, and changed the rather down-to-earth Arabic to archaic English, transforming the style from tales that were typically told orally to a listening audience to English literary prose.[43] His notes also shaped the readers’ understanding in a particular way or perspective, and he used these notes to springboard to other topics that weren’t related to the original text.[44]

Burton is notorious for sensationalizing and making caricatures of certain features of 1001 Nights, namely elements involving slavery, sex, and Islam.[45] Compare these translation samples, one from a translation professor (Bouagada) and the other from Burton (second one).[46]

At midnight, he [King Shahzaman] remembered something he forgot in his palace. He went back, entered his palace and found his wife lying in his own bed embracing a Black slave. (Bouagada)

But when the night was half spent he bethought him that he had forgotten in his palace somewhat which he should have brought with him, so he returned privily and entered he apartments, where he found the Queen, his wife, asleep on his own carpet-bed, embracing with both arms a Black cook of loathsome aspect and foul with kitchen grease and grime. (Burton)

Burton’s descriptions of Black people are generally prejudiced and awful, e.g., “Debauched women prefer Negroes on account of the size of their parts. I measured one man in Somali-Land…”[47] I won’t continue for it just gets horrifyingly worse. But the sexual fascination Burton had wasn’t limited to Black people, he also made comments about “Eastern sexuality” with what was deemed as “pornographic fixation.”[48] He portrayed ‘Eastern’ women as easily seduced and promiscuous, and he could be especially crude. Cultural historian and writer Rana Kabbani noted that what Burton “felt unable to say about European women, he could unabashedly say about Eastern ones.”[49]

In line with the Victorian scientific and social discourse at the time, Burton seemed to consider slavery as a natural condition and thought Indians and Africans as incapable of emancipation and that the best they could hope for was be subject of Queen Victoria.[50] He attributed some of the enslaved people’s deceit and treachery to some mysterious biological aspect.[51] And like many other Orientalists, he portrayed a fragmented and static image of a violent, barbaric Orient.

These views are echoed by the British Empire at the time, which is ironic because Burton tended to criticize and rebel against Victorian society (hence the preoccupation with sex) and had traveled to the SWANA region, so you would think he might not have imperialist views.[52] And yet he does things like trying to use hadith (the Prophet’s sayings) to assert that Muslims would support foreign rule. He equated Muslims’ rejection of an unjust ruler with acceptance of a foreign one, or say a ‘just British rule,’ which has not been supported by classical Islamic scholarship.[53]

Summary

Bias in translation was not as scrutinized or mitigated during the Orientalists’ time, and the degree of bias displayed in translations has changed since then. Yet these biased translations have shaped stereotypes about the SWANA region and its people for centuries, and some still linger today. In the next installment, we’ll look at how Orientalism has fed into racism and Islamophobia, and how they’ve shaped translation today.

Sources

[1] Kelley, Elizabeth Anne. “Translating the Arab World: Contingent Commensuration, Publishing, and the Shaping of a Global Commodity.” University of California, Berkeley, 2014.

[2] Ramdane, Tahraoui, and Merah Souad. “Between Orientalists and Al Jazeera : Image of Arabs in the West (Comparative Inquiry).” Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, vol. 1, no. 4, 2011, pp. 160–168. April 2011.

[3] Naoum, Abdel Fattah. “Anglo-American Orientalism’s Contribution to the Rise of Area Studies.” Doha Institute, Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies, Apr. 2015, www.dohainstitute.org/en/lists/ACRPS-PDFDocumentLibrary/Orientalisms_Contribution_to_Area_Studies.pdf.

[4] Woods, Ryan T. “Introducing the Quran to Europeans: The Orientalism of Translation.” The Revealer, The Revealer, 11 Oct. 2019, https://www.therevealer.org/introducing-the-quran-to-europeans-the-orientalism-of-translation/.

[5] Woods, Ryan T. “Introducing the Quran to Europeans: The Orientalism of Translation.” The Revealer, The Revealer, 11 Oct. 2019, https://www.therevealer.org/introducing-the-quran-to-europeans-the-orientalism-of-translation/.

[6] Ramdane, Tahraoui, and Merah Souad. “Between Orientalists and Al Jazeera : Image of Arabs in the West (Comparative Inquiry).” Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, vol. 1, no. 4, 2011, pp. 160–168. April 2011.

[7] Naoum, Abdel Fattah. “Anglo-American Orientalism’s Contribution to the Rise of Area Studies.” Doha Institute, Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies, Apr. 2015, www.dohainstitute.org/en/lists/ACRPS-PDFDocumentLibrary/Orientalisms_Contribution_to_Area_Studies.pdf.

[8] Woods, Ryan T. “Introducing the Quran to Europeans: The Orientalism of Translation.” The Revealer, The Revealer, 11 Oct. 2019, https://www.therevealer.org/introducing-the-quran-to-europeans-the-orientalism-of-translation/.

[9] Qadri, Rana. “Sixth International Translation Conference: ‘The Role of Translation in Civilization Dialogue.’” An-Najah National University, Orientalists and the Holy Qur'an: Translation or Distortion. , 2013, pp. 1–25.

[10] Woods, Ryan T. “Introducing the Quran to Europeans: The Orientalism of Translation.” The Revealer, The Revealer, 11 Oct. 2019, https://www.therevealer.org/introducing-the-quran-to-europeans-the-orientalism-of-translation/.

[11] Qadri, Rana. “Sixth International Translation Conference: ‘The Role of Translation in Civilization Dialogue.’” An-Najah National University, Orientalists and the Holy Qur'an: Translation or Distortion. , 2013, pp. 1–25.

[12] Woods, Ryan T. “Introducing the Quran to Europeans: The Orientalism of Translation.” The Revealer, The Revealer, 11 Oct. 2019, https://www.therevealer.org/introducing-the-quran-to-europeans-the-orientalism-of-translation/.

[13] Ibid.

[14] Ibid.

[15] Ibid.

[16] Irwin, Robert. “The Dark Side of 'The Arabian Nights'.” Critical Muslim, Critical Muslim, 3 July 2015, www.criticalmuslim.io/the-dark-side-of-the-arabian-nights/.

[17] Ibid.

[18] Ibid.

[19] Ibid.

[20] Qadri, Rana. “Sixth International Translation Conference: ‘The Role of Translation in Civilization Dialogue.’” An-Najah National University, Orientalists and the Holy Qur'an: Translation or Distortion. , 2013, pp. 1–25.

[21] Ibid.

[22] Woods, Ryan T. “Introducing the Quran to Europeans: The Orientalism of Translation.” The Revealer, The Revealer, 11 Oct. 2019, https://www.therevealer.org/introducing-the-quran-to-europeans-the-orientalism-of-translation/.

[23] Qadri, Rana. “Sixth International Translation Conference: ‘The Role of Translation in Civilization Dialogue.’” An-Najah National University, Orientalists and the Holy Qur'an: Translation or Distortion. , 2013, pp. 1–25.

[24] Ibid.

[25] Ibid.

[26] https://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/battle-for-the-bible-background/7158/

[27] Qadri, Rana. “Sixth International Translation Conference: ‘The Role of Translation in Civilization Dialogue.’” An-Najah National University, Orientalists and the Holy Qur'an: Translation or Distortion. , 2013, pp. 1–25.

[28] Ibid.

[29] Kelley, Elizabeth Anne. “Translating the Arab World: Contingent Commensuration, Publishing, and the Shaping of a Global Commodity.” University of California, Berkeley, 2014.

[30] Khosravi, Habibeh, and Majid Pourmohammadi. “ Influence of Translator's Religious Ideology on Translation: A Case Study of English Translations of the Nobel Quran.” International Journal of English Language & Translation Studies, vol. 4, no. 4, 2016, pp. 151–163.

[31] Bouagada, Habib. “Orientalism in Translation: The One Thousand and One Nights in 18th Century France and 19th Century England.” University of Ottawa, University of Ottawa, School of Translation and Interpretation, 2005, pp. 1–109.

[32] Ibid.

[33] Ibid.

[34] Ibid.

[35] Ibid.

[36] Ibid.

[37] Ibid.

[38] Ibid.

[39] Ibid.

[40] Ibid.

[41] Ibid.

[42] Ibid.

[43] Ibid.

[44] Ibid.

[45] Ibid.

[46] Ibid.

[47] Ibid.

[48] Ibid.

[49] Ibid.

[50] Ibid.

[51] Ibid.

[52] Ibid.

[53] Ibid.