Book Illustration as Intersemiotic Translation: Ilustrating the Holy Qur'an

Abstract

Due to the complexity of cultures and temporal gaps, translation of religious texts has been a subject of heated debate. Since the 1980s, translation theories have tended to encompass socio-culturally oriented conception of the translation process. The inviolability of wording of the Holy Qur'an makes translators prioritize formal equivalence and, at times, the translation result is source-text oriented. As a kind of intersemiotic translation, book illustration can be considered as a purposeful action. Interlingual translation with the aid of intersemiotic translation becomes not just a lexical transference to overcome but the result of connections between text and context. Sandow Birk's American Qur'an (2016) provides an interesting case for the study of such connections. Drawing on the universal message of the Holy Qur'an, Birk has undertaken to visually render its message for the contemporary American reader. By deploying the developmental model of intercultural sensitivity, the present paper seeks to show the strategies chosen by the illustrator in visually translating the Holy Qur'an for modern readers by moving from a text-oriented translation (local reaction) to a context-oriented one (global Perception). The results indicate that Birk preferred to focus on the global perception to maintain his own cultural identity and also integrate aspects of the other culture into it. Acceptance, adaptation and integration are the most widely used strategies to make the communication both more meaningful and more effective for the target readers