Ideologically Motivated Strategies in Rewriting Arab Conquest of Egypt: An Analysis of Muhammad Abu Hadid’s Version

This thesis attempts to investigate the ideologically motivated strategies followed in translating the historical book Arab Conquest of Egypt in Arabic, written by Alfred Butler. The study examines Muhammad Abu Hadid’s translation of this book by conducting an analysis on the textual and paratextual levels. To accomplish the target of this study, the researcher applies qualitative and quantitative approaches. More specifically, Abu Hadid’s translation was evaluated to identify the translation techniques through the whole corpus by assessing the form of words as well as counting and categorizing the inserted footnotes. The study capitalizes on the rewriting approach as a form of translation, in which it highlights the role of two contextual factors in the translation system. These are people inside the literary system (professionals) and outside the literary system (patronage). Both elements were discussed and linked to the analysis of the research. Besides, Arabization was introduced as a form of rewriting in the Arabic context and used as an assessment tool to recognize the form applied in translating the book. In addition, interventions in the form of footnotes were identified and categorized based on Tian’s model (2014). While the applied model was able to classify most types of footnotes, there were additional type of footnotes that could not be classified through applying this framework. Arabization and interventions were used to identify translation strategies in Abu Hadid’s version to signal the possible ideologically motivated interventions. The analysis of the data reveals that Abu Hadid applied the rewriting approach in the form of Arabization and interventions to conform to the intended ideologies of the patronage. Moreover, the irregular use of footnotes in Abu Hadid’s version suggests new use of footnotes in translation.