Lanterns lighting up every street, lush garlands in lively colors hanging at every corner, heart-warming aromas of delicious foods filling the air as the sunset approaches, precious rituals adored and practiced; it’s finally Ramadan again!

As the holy month begins after being awaited by Muslims across the world east and west, various cultures show their true colors through the distinctive celebrations they dedicate to this special time of the year.

In addition to the Ramadan religious rituals that are naturally the same wherever you are in the world, like dry fasting from sunrise to sunset, Tarawih prayers, etc., countries around the world celebrate Ramadan in unique ways that manifest their people’s cultural heritage and traditions.

China

Let’s start with the continent with the largest Muslim population, Asia. In China, there reside more than 20 million Muslims, mainly located in Zheng Yang and Henan, who break their fast with a meal that consists of two parts. First, tea is consumed followed by thirst-quenching cubes of watermelon. Then, individuals go to Maghreb prayers and come back for the main part of the Iftar meal, usually consisting of fish, rice, and an assortment of veggies and mutton.

Indonesia

In Indonesia, the largest archipelagic country that is home to the largest Muslim population in Asia, Ramadan is very special and celebrated with glamorous traditions. In Buka Bersama, the native word for the meal that breaks the fast, is shared with family and friends, and include plenty of food and drinks that are served only during Ramadan. One of them is the kolak pisang, which is bananas soaked in palm sugar syrup. During the month, bazaars (or pasar amal) are held by charitable organizations, selling goods at discounted prices to help the needy and poor. At the end of the month, Takbiran is a prayer celebration that heralds the Eid El-Fitr holiday, which follows Ramadan. Chants fill the air, praising Allah, and drums beat till dawn in huge public displays of joy.

Malaysia

In Malaysia, Muslims constitute most of the population and its multi-ethnicity, as the number of Muslims is about 12 million people – about 60 percent of the total population. Islam entered Malaysia through trade with Islamic countries and the entry of preachers. Malaysians celebrate the advent of the holy month of Ramadan starting at the end of the subsequent month of Sha’ban. At this time, they begin to buy their food needs and prepare mosques for worshipers and light up the mosques. Regional quarters and local administrations clean the streets and hang electric decorations in key areas. Muslims in Malaysia – men, women, and children, come to Tarawih prayers and burn incense, and spray fragrances in mosques.

The state organizes Quran memorization competitions in all regions and distributes prizes in a grand ceremony to the winners and their teachers. Malaysian Muslims break their fast in their homes or in mosques, where those who are able to, prepare foods that are served in mosques for group Iftars. In rural areas, however, such Iftars are provided in turns, where each person feeds the people of his village one day during the holy month in a tradition that reflects solidarity and compassion.

Among the most famous Ramadan foods in Malaysia is the Ghatri Mandi meal, the most famous Malaysian dish, as well as the “Badiq” which is made of flour, chicken, rice, dates, and oranges. The latter is used so that the fasting person can bear thirst, and provide the body with energy to help it do its work during fasting.

Boys in Malaysia are keen to wear their national clothes during this month, as they put on their rectangular hats, while girls wear long, loose clothes, and a veil. Malaysian families exchange gifts, food, and sweets in this holy month, to strengthen the bonds of love and harmony between them.

India

In India, the proof of sighting the crescent of Ramadan differs from one place to another due to the presence of Muslims in separate regions of this vast country. Therefore, there is a special legal body of scholars which undertakes to follow the sighting of the crescent of Ramadan. When the sighting is proven, it issues a public statement, and it is announced to Muslims across the country.

As is the case in most Islamic countries during the month of Ramadan, mosques and their minarets are lit, the Qur’an reciting circles multiply, mosques are filled with worshipers, and the lives of Muslims are renewed in this month, which breaks their daily habits and changes much of what they are accustomed to.

Iftar in India usually begins with sips of water if they do not have dates, and some eat pure salt in accordance with what some Hanafi books mention: that whoever does not find dates or water to break the fast with, breaks the fast with salt, which is usually practiced only in India.

The Indian Iftar table includes rice, dhi bhada that resembles falafel with yogurt, boiled lentils, and halim or harees which consists of wheat, meat, and broth, and all these types of food are spiced up by hot pepper. During Suhoor, it is customary to eat rice and bread, which is the main food, along with other condiments.

Drinks are topped with lemon juice and milk mixed with water, while in the state of Kerala in southern India, there is a drink consisting of rice, fenugreek, turmeric powder, and coconut for Iftar, and they drink it with spoons made of coconut shells, believing that this drink removes the fatigue of fasting, and gives the fasting person the energy to perform the nightly prayers.

The Muslims of India are keen on the Sunnah of i’tikaaf, especially in the last ten days of Ramadan, and they pay special attention to Qadr Night (the night of the Decree which in Muslim belief, was the first night the Quran was sent down from Heaven to earth). This is celebrated on the night of the twenty-seventh, as they prepare to revive by washing and wearing the most beautiful clothes.

Azerbaijan

In Azerbaijan, where Muslims represent about 80 percent of the population, preparations begin to welcome the month of Ramadan a week before by organizing horse races, which is an authentic folkloric tradition, and families congratulate each other during these popular celebrations.

Every Azerbaijani family presents dishes of food as gifts to neighboring families or presents them as a charity to the poor and needy among relatives, friends, and others. It is noticed when sitting at the Iftar table in any Azerbaijani house, that there is a dish in excess of the number of family members in anticipation of the arrival of a random guest at the Iftar.

Uzbekistan

In Uzbekistan, people await the advent of the crescent of Ramadan for eleven months, in order for their country to turn into a real festival during the days of the holy month. At sunset every day, they hear the call to prayer in Arabic emanating from minarets illuminated by sparkling lights and festive decorations.

The fasting people in Uzbekistan drink water first when hearing the Maghrib call to prayer, followed by dates, as per the Sunna (example) of the Prophet Muhammed, then they perform the Maghrib prayer in congregation, after which adults and children sit at the Iftar table, adorned with soup made of lamb with pieces of carrots, onions, and vegetables, then Samosas, which are a favorite dish for Uzbeks, followed by mantari, which is similar to a samosa but steamed.

Saudi Arabia

In KSA, Saudi people celebrate Ramadan in several ways, one of which is buying large quantities of different types of dates to store them in refrigerators, in order to eat them with coffee or for Iftar.

Saudi Arabia is distinguished by the spread of Ramadan tables in the Holy Mosques of Mecca and the Prophet in Al-Madinah, and Tarawih prayers in the Haram, and they are followed up on television, so satellite channels transmit all prayers in Ramadan.

Turkey

Up north, Turkey is famous for Ramadan celebrations and customs that make it distinct from other countries. Turks call Ramadan the “Sultan of all Months” and welcome it with traditions inherited from the days of the Ottoman Empire itself, which are light banners that are placed between the minarets to welcome the holy month.

Turks receive the sighting of the crescent of Ramadan with ululation, which is an old Ottoman habit, and the streets and houses are decorated with cheerful lights to welcome jolly nights of Ramadan.

Africa

Moving on to Africa, the celebrations of Ramadan have an even more distinct flavor in the Dark Continent. In Sudan, food gained its luster and color through the effects of many generations from different nationalities such as the British, Turks, and Egyptians, because they lived with the Sudanese for centuries, there is a very strong relationship between these cultures and the Sudanese one. During Ramadan, cooking in pottery, and other types of cooking and food methods, such as sand-buried ovens are used to prepare very distinctive dishes.

Morocco

In Morocco, preparations for the holy month take place long before its onset, so the maximum state of alert is in the month of Shaaban. Moroccans prepare a lot of foods that will be eaten in the holy month. For example, the well-known chebakia dessert is prepared in the month of Shaaban, in addition to the sufof, which is prepared with nuts such as almonds and sesame, and an assortment of dried fruits, with butter, honey, and oil. Olives, which are prepared before Ramadan in large quantities, get pickled to adorn the dining table every day during Iftar.

South Africa

Ramadan in South Africa has a special charm. Despite the small number of Muslims there, their ethnic diversity makes the holy month rituals diverse and rich, given the representation of different ethnicities of Islam in the country, each is keen to celebrate it according to its culture. The role of local Islamic organizations in the country appears during the holy month, not only to urge people to fast but also to try to implement the idea of Ramadan as a month of good deeds, handing out humanitarian aid to the poor. In the city of Cape Town, Muslims are eager to prepare collective Iftar tables for Muslims and non-Muslims. Each family prepares food and shares it with the needy at a large table that gathers all people. With Eid al-Fitr approaching, children knock on the neighbors’ doors to ask for Eid cookies and continue playing in the streets.

Egypt

In Egypt, there are many manifestations of celebration that the Egyptians inherited and practice up till now, even with the progress of time and culture. These have been updated and developed over the years, and are still linked only to this venerable month.

At Iftar, don’t be astonished to hear cannon fire marking Maghreb time for Muslims to break their fast! This is one of the earliest traditions of Ramadan in Egypt. Cairo was the first city to have a Ramadan cannon, because in the year 765 AH the Mamluk sultan “Khashdam” wanted to try a new cannon and fired it, and this coincided with the call to prayer, and everyone thought the sultan wanted to alert the crowd of the time of the Iftar. When the sultan saw how happy they were with this, he ordered the cannon to be fired daily at the call to prayer.

What about Suhoor, you might wonder? Who will alert Egyptians for the pre-dawn meal that marks the end of the eating window of the day? Egyptians assigned this task hundreds of years ago to “Mesaharati,” a role that was created in the year 853 AD. At that time “Isaac bin Uqba” was the first person to perform this role, as he roamed the streets of Cairo at night in order to wake up the people to eat the Suhoor, and from here the Mesaharati began his main role associated with the month of Ramadan.

At the beginning of the holy month, people begin to decorate their streets with garlands of various shapes, and lights are scattered in the streets for 30 days starting the first day of the month of Ramadan. Such decorations began to develop with the introduction of electricity and changed much in shape and volume. History books tell us that celebrating the advent of the month of Ramadan with lights was initiated by the caliph “Umar ibn al-Khattab” when he ordered the hanging of lamps on the wall of the Kaaba square to illuminate them at night so that Muslims could complete the Tarawih prayers. Hundreds of years later, this cheerful tradition is still in full swing every night of Ramadan.

As the list of countries goes on, the unique features of the annual esteemed guest, Ramadan, go on as well. One month, one religion, yet tens, or perhaps even hundreds of traditions, practices, dishes, drinks, and arrangements are linked to the same occasion. This is how powerful the impact of culture is, and how essential it is to preserve and respect it.

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Game On!

Would it be an exaggeration to say that video games have shaped the culture of several generations? Do video games bring the world closer or further from reality? How important is it to localize your game and what measures should you look for in such an endeavor? Should localization be taken into consideration during the game design process, or is it a mere afterthought? Questions, questions, and then some…

In this day and age, game localization is almost as thriving as game development itself. Why? Because it ensures gamers will feel the game was developed specifically for their market. When a game has been localized to a specific market, it acknowledges their culture and utilizes the essence of their very thoughts and communication – language! Take it from a gamer; it is a whole other experience to hear the protagonist use my everyday idioms, memes, and perhaps my dialect, to express their character and bring the game to life. Because, hey, a game is most of the time, no longer a game, but a parallel life(s) for the gamer (Hello Metaverse!)

Wouldn’t such a parallel life be much more influential, enjoyable, and fulfilling if it is perfectly localized? Enter the keyword: “Perfectly.” It’s no game to localize a game, but a sophisticated process that has many facets and should be planned for in the designing process to ensure a fine UX (user experience) and the most cost-effective process.

Truth is that if you, as a game development agency, want to keep (or improve) your place in an increasingly competitive market – where at least 15 games are released daily – you have to consider localizing your game in the languages of profitable markets. Needless to say that providing this customized UX to millions of gamers ensures a higher rating in-store reviews, and a significant sales increase.

The Process – Think Beyond Translation

Start with the end in mind and plan for localization in the design process. What markets would you like to penetrate? A well-formatted strategy is essential to determine the following steps that will take your game to new territories. This strategy includes designing the game to be language-independent, determining what content needs to be translated, deciding on the audience and their segments, and the extent of adaptation the game should need based on those audiences.

Back-end Design Process

In the design process, you need to ensure that the functionality of the game is language-independent. If your functionality is dependent on the user entering information in a specific format (such as date) the game may not work as intended since date formats are different in other languages. Your content should be in a translation-friendly format that will facilitate extracting the required strings, be those dialogues, UI (User Interface), instructions, small print, etc., into a repository that can later be imported into a translation management system (TMS). Custom-built connectors, which GPI excels in providing, are key to linking your content management system (CMS) to the TMS, where the real magic starts, the linguistic process.

This process consists of several steps, employs multiple skills, and has some challenges.

Linguistic Process The translation stage, which can either be performed by a complete team or one linguist, is the next stage in the process. While all the content could just be translated, we recommend a different approach that involves a bit of pre-planning. We have found that incorporating these steps helps improve the overall quality.

A bilingual glossary, a list of the key terms or words from the content to be translated, is built by a specialized copywriter, who is a native speaker of the target language. They scrutinize the extracted content from a specific perspective to build a glossary that will ensure consistency and fluent readability.

A style guide could also be authored in this step, which outlines the linguistic specifications, tone, cultural issues, and many other aspects for the translator(s) to follow.

These two products are created to ensure translation consistency. If you have native speakers of the target language, they could review the glossary and style guide at this stage to make sure that the content meets expectations.

With the prep work done, the second step of the linguistic process is the translation of the content. The translator or translation team will review the source copy in a translation memory tool and begin creating the content in the target language. This step can be more accurately referred to as transcreation. Given the nature of the material, it most likely will require adaptation to the target culture, which requires a more creative approach than translating a manual for example. What will be helpful to the translator during this step will be access to the actual product so that they can see the context of the text to be translated.

Following translation is editing, in which another linguist will review and correct the translation for the following: any linguistic or cultural issues, compares the target with source texts for accuracy and completeness, and confirms the translation adheres to the previously mentioned glossary and style guide. Generally, any edits are returned to the primary translator for review and acceptance.

Once translation and editing have been completed, monolingual proofreading of the content is then performed as an additional layer of quality control to eliminate any typos or grammatical mistakes.

Last but not least, a Linguistic Quality Assurance (LQA) is performed to assess the translation accuracy, good fluency, and appropriateness of the style.

Then the translated material is imported back into the game after any necessary regional adaptation is performed. Testing takes place as a Language Sign Off (LSO) step, which looks into post-editing issues like truncation, text direction, overall sanity checks, synchronization, and all text context-related issues.

Skills

Video games as a genre have a unique and diverse realm of content. Its localization requires an equally well-equipped linguist. Unlike any other subject matter, the game localizer needs to be deeply involved in the content they handle, i.e., a gamer themselves. The passion a gamer has for the industry, and the familiarity and hands-on knowledge of the UX, platforms, game environment, and general terminology are important tools that ensure the quality of the target text. This level of involvement also means the gamer/localizer is up to date with new gaming trends, e.g., trending genres and news, which heavily impacts the translation and ultimately the localized game’s UX quality.

Creativity and shrewd cultural awareness of the target market(s) are essential skills the localizer has to have since the cornerstone of game localization is to render the truthful essence of every part of the game in a way that is culturally and socially compatible with a whole other market and audience. No easy feat!

Challenges

Game localization challenges fall into two categories: linguistic and technical. They differ according to the language and market of localization. Let’s look at Arabic localization as a solid example.

On the linguistic level, some of the most prominent challenges that face the linguist are cultural adequacy, respect for religious ideologies, and varied dialects. Arabic is the officially recognized language in 26 countries, and the native language of approximately 420 million speakers (compromising 6% of the global population). There are about 20 spoken Arabic dialects in the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) and Gulf regions alone. This makes it essential for the developer to decide upon the required markets, and for the linguist to have a good command of the desired dialects. Furthermore, some sensitive topics require experience to be creatively tackled. These include issues like homosexuality, sexually explicit content, and religiously offensive content…

As for technical issues, localizing into Arabic (as a right-to-left reading language) could entail text-directional issues, especially if Latin-character words are also embedded in some of the strings. Length of strings, run-on lines, and character limits could be another issue.

Additionally, Arabic is one of the languages that assign grammatical gender to every noun. This affects the syntax of every string, usually lengthening it.

Why Arabic Then?

There is tremendous growth in the game development industry and new technologies, platforms, and a whole new generation of consoles are being introduced to the industry.

By 2024, Newzoo’s Global Games Market Report 2021 predicts that the game industry will hit $218.7 billion with a sustained growth of 8.7% per year.

This growth is inevitably accompanied by a parallel increase in the number of gamers everywhere, and consequently in the Arab world. It can be greatly beneficial for the sales of your game to get a foothold in the MENA and Gulf markets, since the majority of their populations are below 25 years old, with a major interest in tech and game trends. Many game genres are met with tremendous success in the Arab market, like sports, arcades, action, battle royals, and even casual games. Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) role-playing games are the most localized from English into Arabic and are played by a huge – and increasing – number of gamers.

Grow with the Flow

Games are growing into completely immersive experiences, and their very concept is evolving to include more players and new generations. To achieve this on a global level, localization is a necessity. And as we step into the future all-encompassing, augmented reality gaming era, the experience of the gamer will not be complete, or even meaningful, unless their native language is supported.

The post Game Localization: An Integral Part of the Game appeared first on Globalization Partners International.

“Translation is not a matter of words only: it is a matter of making intelligible a whole culture.”

– Anthony Burgess

In his book “On Comparative Literature,” Dr. Abd al-Salam Kafafi, Professor of Islamic Arts, Cairo University, points out that Arabs “traveled the old world in summer and winter [for their commercial business] and were influenced by their neighbors in various aspects of life since the Golden Age of Islam. Farsi was translated into Arabic, and it appeared in the poetry of the great poets, and Al-A’sha was one of the most famous who used Persian words in their poetry.

Therefore, the Arabs have been in contact since time immemorial with the three nations surrounding them back then, namely, the Romans in the north, the Persians in the east, and the Abyssinians in the south.

History of Translation in the Arab World

The cultural and scientific renaissance that dawned upon the Arab and Islamic world represented a major push that paved the way for the influx of non-Arabic speaking elements to the Arab countries. This opened the door to the emergence of linguistic pluralism and encouraged the emergence of types of bilingualism (Persian/Syriac/Greek). However, the decision to Arabize the public bureaus in the emerging Islamic states during the first century AH remains one of the most prominent decisions that supported and helped to increase interest in translation. As a result, the awareness of the different languages and the need to employ a mediator to achieve the necessary understanding amongst speakers of different languages.

Thus began the involvement of the Arab people and their direct active participation in a distinguished translation activity in terms of both quality and type, and the reason for this is mainly due to the direct association with its utilitarian and strategic function. The construction of Baghdad and the transfer of the capital of the caliphate to Iraq was considered a major breakthrough that changed the intellectual trends of the Arab community as a whole, and the society moved away from the Byzantine influence that prevailed in Damascus. A multicultural society formed in Baghdad, affected by the demographic and ethnically diversified population mix. A mixture of Aramaic-speaking Christians and Jews formed most of the settled population, as well as Persian speakers. As for Arabs, they spread in the cities and were divided; some of them settled in the city and some lived in the desert and were known as “the residents of Al-Hira.”

An Emerging Translation Movement

It was in the time of the Umayyad dynasty, that the Arab bureaus were Arabized, and Prince Khalid bin Yazid bin Muawiyah bin Abi Sufyan was the leader of the translation movement at the time.

Indeed, Arab and foreign historians agree, that Prince Khalid bin Yazid was the first to order the transfer of Greek and Syriac works into the Arabic language. Those works were a wide selection of many different fields, including medicine, astronomy, and chemistry. The Umayyad Caliph Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz was the first caliph of Bani Umayyah, who showed appreciation for translation, as evident by his commissioning of the Jewish physician Maserjweh to translate some prominent medical references from Syriac to Arabic. Such an endeavor paved the way for the following dynasty, Bani al-Abbas, to follow in the footsteps of nurturing translation activities.

And what an era that was for translation! It gained great favor in the Abbasid era, as this era is considered the golden period for the development and prosperity of translation, both in terms of organization and the abundance and quality of production, especially during the caliphate of three Abbasids, respectively: Caliph Al-Mansur, Harun Al-Rashid, and most prominently Caliph al-Ma’mun.

New Leaders of a Long Standing Endeavour

The Caliph Abu Jaafar al-Mansur is considered the first caliph to direct the efforts of the state to the science of translation. Therefore, he commanded that Euclid’s “The Book of Fundamentals of the Elements” and “Al-Hind and the Sind” – which is written by an Indian author interested in astrology – to be translated into Arabic, and later the wonderful book by Abdullah Ibn Al-Qaf, “Kalila and Dimna,” from Hindi into Arabic. Later, al-Mansur moved to another level, which was to translate the most prominent Greek works of philosophy and literature, especially those written by great philosophers such as Aristotle and Plato.

Then came the period of the rule of the two Caliphs Al-Mahdi and Al-Hadi, but they did not pursue translation and did not fulfill the role they were expected to play and have thus infamously neglected this cultural progression.

Fast forward to a more intellectual boom, when Caliph Al-Mamoun assumed the reins of power, the lost glory returned to translation. During his reign, a well-known scientific school known as “Bait Al-Hikma” (House of Wisdom) was established, which was based in Baghdad and concerned with distinguished scientific research as well as translation and authorship in various fields. Great scholars emerged in this era, who constituted a safe reference of language and thought such as Al-Khwarizmi, Al-Jahiz, Al-Kindi, and Hanin Ibn Ishaq Al-Abadi, who possessed great skill in medicine and excelled in translation and classification.

New Topics and Fields

What distinguishes the translation movement during this era is the exploration of new topics and fields, such as mathematics, natural history, ethics, psychology, philosophies, and medicine. The field of philosophy gained vast importance in this part of the world, more than ever before, as Arabs studied and understood the works of ‘Aristotle’ and grasped the books of Greek historians like Alexander of Aphrodite, which were circulated and developed into Islamic philosophical concepts and theories emerging in the 4th century AH, all because of translation.

The House of Wisdom and its Role in the Cultural Uproar

Speaking of the Baghdad School (House of Wisdom), it must be mentioned that it is considered one of the most important and prominent Arab schools of translation. Before that, the Syriac school was founded. Its production was abundant, as it issued several books in medicine and philosophy translated from Greek. It is known that the Syriac language was the language of communication and the linguistic and cultural link between the eastern nations. It is a language originating from Aramaic and belongs to a group of Semitic languages preceding the advent of Christianity.

Later, another prominent translation house was founded. The Toledo School of Translation, established in Andalusia in the 12th century AD, and it included a group of great European translators. This is what George Monan mentions in his “Histoire de la linguistique: Des origines au xxe siècle,” as he indicated that it was the first real school of translation. The Arabs settled in the Iberian Peninsula in the year 711 AD and remained there for about 7 centuries. During this period, the political and social atmosphere of Andalusia fluctuated.

Conclusion

The lingual and cultural bridges all those linguists had to build and cross were not an easy feat. Despite the absence of bilingual and specialized dictionaries, the translators of that era strived to fill this void, by relying on fruitful teamwork between the masters of all disciplines and specializations. To a large extent, the results were impressive and positive, leading to a great deal of accurate scientific translations that were of high quality.

The post The History of Translation in the Arab World – an Overview appeared first on Globalization Partners International.