Chartered Institute of Linguists
WINTER 2024 The Linguist 19
FEATURES
expert articles section. An example is 'Bania'
(see image, right, or the full article at
https://www.qdl.qa/en/bania-gulf).
Terms may require thoughtful treatment in
either language for a variety of reasons, but
some pose particular questions for translation.
While the IOR material is predominantly in
English, it features words borrowed or
adapted from other languages, including
Arabic. Two such terms that have generated
much discussion are fall
āḥ and Mohammedan.
Fallāḥ
(pl. fallāḥīn) is originally an Arabic
word
( ف ح ،
ي ن
( ف ح ( ) equivalent to 'agricultural
labourer' or 'farmer'. In Arabic, the word also
has ethnic implications dating back to the
providing the necessary historical context on
how it is specifically used in these records
(see image, below left).
Mohammedan meanwhile is both highly
problematic and offensive. Appearing across
colonial discourse on Muslims from the 15th
century onwards, the word means 'followers
of Muhammad'. Historically, it reflects an
antiquated Christian view of Muslims as
heretics and/or a conflation of Muhammad's
place in Islam with that of Jesus in Christianity.
In the IOR files, British officials use the term to
refer to Muslims or anything related to Islam.
The inaccuracy inherent in this usage warrants
signalling in both English and Arabic.
Tempting as it may be to avoid
reproducing the offensive term, to do so
would efface and erase the biases and
perspectives of the colonial administrators,
sanitising and distorting their voices. Instead,
we place it within quotation marks, followed
immediately by an in-line gloss in square
brackets: '[Muslim]' or '[Islamic]'. In
translation, we similarly use
م ح م د ي /
d
ة within
quotation marks, followed by [
d
ة / م س ل م ] or
]
ة / إ س م ي [ in square brackets. Glossary
INFLUENTIAL WORKS
A visitor to the British Library looks at
sacred texts in its Treasures Gallery
cord
THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT
A glossary entry about the word fallāḥ (top);
and an expert article on the Bania (bottom)
Arab conquest of Egypt when it was used
favourably to refer to indigenous Egyptians.
By contrast, when British colonial officials
use fallāḥ
in the IOR files, it is usually to refer
disparagingly to agricultural labourers or their
political/social class (a usage closer in meaning
to 'peasant'). Although the word is originally
Arabic, a simple back-translation here would
misrepresent its usage in the colonial files,
introducing a positive or neutral connotation
that is not present in the English. At the same
time, there is no better alternative word to
use in the translation.
While it might suffice in the English
description to enclose the term in quotation
marks – indicating a direct quotation, and our
distance from the colonial administrators'
perspective – the Arabic demanded an
additional step. After assessing whether the
word had been used in any other contexts
across the QDL, the term was added to both
the English and Arabic glossaries, thereby
TAKING NOTE
A visitor consults a collection item in the
British Library's Reading Room
chives. By Nisreen Alzaraee
