The Qur'an is the primary holy text of Islam. It is famous in part due to its beautiful prose and poetry. This project presents a cross-linguistic analysis of certain selected verses from the Qur'an in its original Arabic and its two most famous English interpretations. Using the tools and techniques of digital humanities, we investigate how stylistic and rhetorical devices present in the original text are interpreted in the English translations, with the goal of gaining a better understanding of how a text is transformed when it undergoes translation.
This project was conceived and designed to fulfil the requirements of the course "Computational Methods in Humanities," taught by Dr. David Birnbaum at the University of Pittsburgh. This project utilizes many of the tools and technologies we studied this past semester.
Mary Kathleen Dryer is a Master's student of Applied Linguistics. She completed her undergraduate degree in Linguistics and Political Science at Pitt in 2018 alongside a certificate in Arabic Language & Culture. Mary Kathleen is interested in how language shapes cultural narratives and in what our language choices reveal about our selves.
Austin Malone is a sophomore majoring in Urban Studies. He is a native of Tennessee. His extracurricular interests include reading, hiking, and cooking. Austin has a particular interest in world religions.
Aisha Vallopra is a senior majoring in Molecular Biology with a certificate in Community Health Assessment and minors in Chemistry and Religious Studies. She's read multiple English translations of the Qur'an and wanted to try engaging with the texts through her newly-developed computational humanities skills.
The developers would like to extend our thanks to Renee Dubaich, our project mentor, for her thoughtful guidance and feedback, as well as Dr. Amani Attia, who provided invaluable cultural and literary insight.