Document Type : Original
Author
Assistant Professor, Department of Quranic and Hadith Sciences, Faculty of Theology, Azarbaijan shahid madani university, Tabriz, Iran.
Abstract
The historical interaction between the language of the Quran (Arabic) and the Persian language has led to extensive lexical borrowing and profound semantic shifts in the target language, creating a serious challenge for Persian-speaking exegetes. This research, employing an interdisciplinary approach combining cognitive semantics and critical translation studies, argues that these loanwords act as " cognitive-semantic traps" and lead to a "hermeneutical displacement" in understanding the Quranic text. The present article aims to model this mechanism and, through qualitative analysis of ten contemporary Persian exegeses, examines two highly challenging loanwords—"barīʾ/baraʾah" (to be quit/acquittal) and "majnūn" (possessed by jinn/mad)—as case studies. The findings show that in the case of "baraʾah", the "covenantal disengagement framework" (denoting a legal-political act in the era of revelation) has been reduced in the Persian context to an "affective prototype" (meaning hatred and disgust). In the case of "majnūn", the "cultural-epistemological framework" of the era of revelation (debate over the source of revelation: God or jinn) has been completely replaced by the modern "medical-pathological framework" (meaning clinical insanity). The analysis of the exegeses reveals three typological approaches (substitutive-customary, eclectic-hesitant, and lexicographical-conservative) and demonstrates that the strategy of "unconscious domestication" is the dominant pattern in confronting these traps. This research concludes that the exegete's mother tongue is not a transparent tool but a powerful "prejudice" (pre-understanding) that can systematically shape the interpretive process. Accordingly, the article emphasizes the necessity of active "hermeneutical consciousness" in exegetical studies to safeguard the authenticity of the meaning of revelation.
Keywords
Main Subjects
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