The Translation of God's Names in the Quran: A Descriptive Study

This thesis explores the translation of God’s names in the Quran. It centres around many of the common issues that the translators of divine attributes face. Since these are sensitive cultural items, translators should ideally give special treatment to divine designations. God’s names are not just stock names but rather they are nominalized adjectives with a descriptive content. As such divine names can enter into a variety of semantic relations such as synonymy, polysemy, hyponymy and hyperonymy (also termed ‘hypernymy’ and ‘superordinateness’). Divine names’ highly-nuanced semantic, syntactic and morphological makeup means that they require delicate treatment on the part of translators. Quran translators realize that God’s names are culture-bound terms and employ different techniques to give faithful renditions. Often they make use of an amalgamation of strategies to accurately reflect their meaning(s) and offset any loss thereof. By and large, literal translation seems to take a rather safe precedence over any other strategy, which gives a safeguard against any misrepresentation of divine attributes. Sometimes the presence of recognized or cultural equivalents is a sufficient warrant to depart from literal matches. This thesis shows how selected Quran translators exhibit varying degrees of consistency in their renditions of divine names, which may be attributable to the absence of hard-and-fast rules for the interlingual transfer of culturally laden lexemes. A convoluted issue that Quran translators face is how to tackle near-synonymous expressions. The situation is aggravated when they deal with divine names where near-synonymy exists in abundance. Quite often, the selected translators in this study have not been able to successfully replicate the more pronounced differences between near-synonymous divine names. Finding matchable polysemous items between languages is a familiar quandary that interpreters have to grapple with. Data in this study demonstrates how it is a taxing task trying to find a single item in English that bears the īe range of senses that a polysemous divine name has. Quran translators are often confronted with the task of picking up a single sense out of the multiple senses that the divine name can designate; the onus in such a pursuit is typically on the Quran exegeses. Usually, the primary (or literal) sense is the translators’ first port of call to the exclusion of any other secondary sense. It is uncommon to find a translator who is keen on conveying the semantic polyvalence of God’s appelations. In this way, Quran translators, inadvertently, do not do justice to the richness of the Quran text despite many readers’ eagerness to become illuminated about the various meanings of their Sacred Book. It is perhaps translators’ proclivity for brevity that is the overriding factor that has stopped them in their tracks. It is reasonable to assume that the brushing aside of (intended) secondary meanings of divine names by many Quran translators to chase ‘structural fidelity’ has come at the expense of more accurate glosses

Mortality from gastrointestinal congenital anomalies at 264 hospitals in 74 low-income, middle-income, and high-income countries: a multicentre, international, prospective cohort study

Summary Background Congenital anomalies are the fifth leading cause of mortality in children younger than 5 years globally. Many gastrointestinal congenital anomalies are fatal without timely access to neonatal surgical care, but few studies have been done on these conditions in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). We compared outcomes of the seven most common gastrointestinal congenital anomalies in low-income, middle-income, and high-income countries globally, and identified factors associated with mortality. Methods We did a multicentre, international prospective cohort study of patients younger than 16 years, presenting to hospital for the first time with oesophageal atresia, congenital diaphragmatic hernia, intestinal atresia, gastroschisis, exomphalos, anorectal malformation, and Hirschsprung’s disease. Recruitment was of consecutive patients for a minimum of 1 month between October, 2018, and April, 2019. We collected data on patient demographics, clinical status, interventions, and outcomes using the REDCap platform. Patients were followed up for 30 days after primary intervention, or 30 days after admission if they did not receive an intervention. The primary outcome was all-cause, in-hospital mortality for all conditions combined and each condition individually, stratified by country income status. We did a complete case analysis. Findings We included 3849 patients with 3975 study conditions (560 with oesophageal atresia, 448 with congenital diaphragmatic hernia, 681 with intestinal atresia, 453 with gastroschisis, 325 with exomphalos, 991 with anorectal malformation, and 517 with Hirschsprung’s disease) from 264 hospitals (89 in high-income countries, 166 in middleincome countries, and nine in low-income countries) in 74 countries. Of the 3849 patients, 2231 (58·0%) were male. Median gestational age at birth was 38 weeks (IQR 36–39) and median bodyweight at presentation was 2·8 kg (2·3–3·3). Mortality among all patients was 37 (39·8%) of 93 in low-income countries, 583 (20·4%) of 2860 in middle-income countries, and 50 (5·6%) of 896 in high-income countries (p<0·0001 between all country income groups). Gastroschisis had the greatest difference in mortality between country income strata (nine [90·0%] of ten in lowincome countries, 97 [31·9%] of 304 in middle-income countries, and two [1·4%] of 139 in high-income countries; p≤0·0001 between all country income groups). Factors significantly associated with higher mortality for all patients combined included country income status (low-income vs high-income countries, risk ratio 2·78 [95% CI 1·88–4·11], p<0·0001; middle-income vs high-income countries, 2·11 [1·59–2·79], p<0·0001), sepsis at presentation (1·20 [1·04–1·40], p=0·016), higher American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) score at primary intervention (ASA 4–5 vs ASA 1–2, 1·82 [1·40–2·35], p<0·0001; ASA 3 vs ASA 1–2, 1·58, [1·30–1·92], p<0·0001]), surgical safety checklist not used (1·39 [1·02–1·90], p=0·035), and ventilation or parenteral nutrition unavailable when needed (ventilation 1·96, [1·41–2·71], p=0·0001; parenteral nutrition 1·35, [1·05–1·74], p=0·018). Administration of parenteral nutrition (0·61, [0·47–0·79], p=0·0002) and use of a peripherally inserted central catheter (0·65 [0·50–0·86], p=0·0024) or percutaneous central line (0·69 [0·48–1·00], p=0·049) were associated with lower mortality. Interpretation Unacceptable differences in mortality exist for gastrointestinal congenital anomalies between lowincome, middle-income, and high-income countries. Improving access to quality neonatal surgical care in LMICs will be vital to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 3.2 of ending preventable deaths in neonates and children younger than 5 years by 2030