A COMBINED SOCIOLOGICAL-CDA ANALYSIS OF TRANSLATION IN THE LEGAL FIELD WITH REFERENCE TO SAUDI FAMILY-LAW PROVISIONS IN CANONICAL ḤADῙTH COLLECTIONS

Abstract

Translation in the legal field is a complex process that involves not only linguistic transfer but also cultural transfer. It requires a multi-layered approach to analyse linguistic and sociological aspects. These forms of transfer are arguably the most discussed but the least fully analysed in the current literature on the translation of legal or para-legal documents. Therefore, this study is an effort to explain the various factors that affect the translation of canonical ḥadīth collections (sayings and actions of the Prophet Muhammad), which are often used in the Saudi legal system. The study adopts Fairclough's Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) framework to investigate and analyse the influence of linguistic, sociological, and communicational issues on the Target Texts. Additionally, the study combines CDA with Bourdieu's concepts of ‘capital’, ‘field’ and ‘habitus’ in the legal context to reveal the means and process of influence in translation without diverting attention from the complex and challenging features of legal language, particularly the language of Islamic Law. For this purpose, a collection of ḥadīths from Ṣaḥῑḥ al-Bukhārī and Ṣaḥῑḥ Muslim were selected as the corpus for analysis. These ḥadīths are categorised as proto-legal texts and are considered major sources of legislation in Saudi Arabia, particularly in family law. This study attempts to highlight the factors that resulted in discrepancies in ḥadīth translation products and provides an insight into the degrees of effectiveness of these factors on the ḥadīth translation process.