Comparative Linguistic Research

Comparative Linguistic Research

The Legitimation of Ideology and Power in Qur’anic Translations

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors
1 University of Tehran
2 ISLAMIC AZAD UNIVERSITY
3 islamic azad university ,Hamedan
10.22084/rjhll.2026.32125.2421
Abstract
This study examines the ways in which ideology and power relations are represented and reproduced in translations of the Holy Qur’an, drawing on a Cognitive Critical Discourse Analysis (CCDA) framework. The central concern is how ideology operates as a cognitive framework within the translation process and how, through linguistic choices, it highlights or constrains particular interpretive orientations in the target culture.

The study adopts a qualitative–analytical methodology. The data consist of nine Qur’anic excerpts examined across twenty-three translations, analyzed with particular attention to salient linguistic features, including pronoun selection, referential ambiguities, shifts in agency, and degrees of interpretive elaboration. The findings indicate discursive power often functions through subtle cognitive configurations, naturalizing certain readings as self-evident while marginalizing or backgrounding alternative interpretations.The article concludes Qur’anic translation is not merely the transfer of linguistic meaning, but a discursive practice in which meaning, authority, and power relations are reconfigured within the target culture.
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