ترجمة القرآن إلي اللغة السواحلية في شرق إفريقيا : دراسة وصفية

Abstract

Despite the effort put by Muslim scholars and others in east Africa to translate the Holy Quran into an indigenous language (Swahili) and thereby producing volumes of work in that regard, and despite the battles, shifts at an intellectual, linguistic, methodological level that the translation of Quran to Swahili witnessed in the beginning, these works remained unstudied, especially in Arabic language which is considered a cultural and traditional hallmark of Swahili community. In thisresearch, we studied only the complete Swahili translation of the Quran. We employed a descriptive method of study considering the importance of laying foundation for introducing such works. In doing that, we emphasized on three areas; physical descriptions of these work, objectives of each work and the methodology of interpretations. The chapters of the study are arranged as following: chapter one: background. Chapter two: introduction. Chapter three: translations of Quran to Swahili up to 1950. Chapter four: translations of Quran to Swahili from 1950-2000. Chapter five: translations of the Quran to Swahili from 2000- 2016. In our quest for that, eventually we arrived at the following results: 1) there are numerous Swahili translations of the Quran, estimated at around 13 translations. 2) These translations vary physically e.g in terms of size etc. 3) the objectives of these translatios are different. 3) The methodologies of interpretations are also different. 4) These translations witnessed various shifts in terms of intellectual, theology, linguistic, methodology, etc. This study is a laying foundation upon which further researches can be conducted with regard to these works of translations. There are many perspectives from which a researcher can choose and carry a deeper study and analysis of it.