Lost and Found in Translation : Challenges in the Content Analysis of Biruni's India as a Case of Social Research / Esmat Babaii.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Babaii, Esmat, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Ethnology--Research--Methodology.

Ethnology.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

London : SAGE Publications Ltd, 2025.

Summary:

In this Case Study, I discuss the difficulties I encountered during the content analysis of Research about India (also known as India), an ethnography conducted in the 10th century by the Iranian scholar Abu-Rayhan Biruni (~1030; 1958, reproduction). The original text was written in Arabic, which was the language of science in the Islamic civilization in Medieval times. I had a workable knowledge of Arabic, but I was not proficient enough to read and translate the entire text of more than 600 pages. In line with the tradition of qualitative content analysis, it was necessary to reproduce excerpts from the source text to justify and explicate the themes that emerged during the analysis. As such, an already existing English translation was preferable to the original Arabic in terms of manageability. However, on preliminary reading, I encountered instances where I doubted the accuracy of the translation, especially where sensitive and/or provoking topics were discussed. Another translation available in my mother tongue, Persian, helped me to partly handle this dilemma, and I continued the work by cross-checking the three sources: the original Arabic (1030, 1958), the English translation by Eduard Sachau (1910), and the Persian translation by Manuchehr Sadughi Saha (1983). Cross-checking the sources turned out to be an additional challenge along with the demanding requirement of rendering an impartial interpretation of such a culturally sensitive text. This experience, although unique in many ways, may be helpful for researchers whose research involves the analysis of challenging and culturally charged content and its translation(s).

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

1-03-621675-6

9781036216757

OCLC:

1523169707