This research paper examines the question of rendering Islamic items from Arabic into
English. Based on an Algerian Arabic expression literary work and its newly published
English version, the debatable issue revolves around the presentation of some culture-specific
items in the source text and how they are rendered in the target language/culture. Using
Venuti‟s foreignization and domestication model, and considering the new globalized writing
and reading conditions, this qualitative study aims to highlight the frequency of these two
main strategies in transferring words and expressions revealing the Islamic identity. The
results reveal the translator‟s general tendency to keep a balance between the original‟s
strangeness on the one hand, by using some extreme foreignization strategies like
transcription, and on the other hand by turning the target reader‟s expression habits eminent
by exploring different domestication strategies such as absolute universalization.
This research paper examines the question of rendering Islamic items from Arabic into
English. Based on an Algerian Arabic expression literary work and its newly published
English version, the debatable issue revolves around the presentation of some culture-specific
items in the source text and how they are rendered in the target language/culture. Using
Venuti‟s foreignization and domestication model, and considering the new globalized writing
and reading conditions, this qualitative study aims to highlight the frequency of these two
main strategies in transferring words and expressions revealing the Islamic identity. The
results reveal the translator‟s general tendency to keep a balance between the original‟s
strangeness on the one hand, by using some extreme foreignization strategies like
transcription, and on the other hand by turning the target reader‟s expression habits eminent
by exploring different domestication strategies such as absolute universalization.
