WikiIslam:Translations
Translations of most articles are welcome, but please avoid articles which need further work or are awaiting a complete rewrite.
Important Languages
Translations for all languages are welcome, but in this case some languages have higher priority than others. The list of the 30 most spoken languages of the world is one way to help you decide what languages should be considered for translation.
In that list, the following languages are spoken by a large number of people in Muslim majority countries: Arabic, Bengali, Indonesian, Farsi and Urdu. These languages are therefore of high importance. For non-Muslim countries, Mandarin, Spanish, Hindi and Russian are important languages.
Here are other relevant lists:
- List of countries by number of Internet users
- List of countries by Muslim population (sort table by 2nd column "Muslim population")
- List of Muslim-majority countries
Other languages can be chosen depending on relevance and popularity of a certain topic or social issue, or simply because you happen to know it and think the information on WikiIslam should be made available in your language.
High-Priority Articles
Many topics are equally important but sometimes a certain topic may be more relevant or important in a region, and this should be taken into consideration.
For example, women's rights is an important topic in Saudi Arabia because women are often denied equal rights and there is some activism there in an attempt to improve this situation (voting, driving).
In many non-Muslim countries, women's rights will not be much of an issue but if Muslims in that country are involved in honor violence, then that could be considered an important topic.
Relevance can also be seen by checking what topics are popularly discussed in the media of that region and any online forums.
The following are possible issues in a country with a Muslim majority population:
- Free Speech
- Islam and Women
- Islam and Apostasy
- Islam and Miracles
- Islam and Homosexuality (for example this topic is important in Iran)
- Any topics that are discussed in debates between Muslims and skeptics or former Muslims (contradictions in the Qur'an, science, major incidents of violence etc.)
For a non-Muslim country with a small Muslim population, the following are possible topics:
- Converts
- Islam and the People of the Book
- Islam and Propaganda
- Any topic in Islam that contrasts strongly with modern moral standards such as Pedophilia
If relevance for a certain language is not an issue or cannot be determined, the following are a few examples of articles you could begin translating other languages:
List of Articles to Translate
Here is an initial list of articles that can be translated. These are popular pages or otherwise good candidates for translation.
- Women
- 72 Virgins (this is a high traffic page and a very popular topic. It is unique in being the only article on the internet that compiles all the facts and dispels the myths surrounding the subject)
- Refutation of Modern Muslim Apologetics Against Aisha's Age (Aisha's age at marriage is a popular topic among people who debate about Islam)
- Aisha Age of Consummation
- Pedophilia in the Qur'an
- Women in Islam - From Islam's Sources
- Wife Beating in Islam
- Muhammad
- Violence
- Invitations to Islam Prior to Violence
- List of Killings Ordered or Supported by Muhammad
- The Genocide of Banu Qurayza
- Science
- Flat Earth and the Qur'an
- Scientific Errors in the Qur'an
- Setting the Record Straight: The Non-Miracle of Islamic Science
- Others
- Top 10 Controversial Verses in the Qur'an
- Allah the Best Deceiver
- The Origins of the Qur'an
- Health Effects of Islamic Dress
- Adverse Effects of Islamic Fasting
- List of Fabricated Hadith
- Georgics
- Muslim Statistics (long project)
Or choose any article from topics listed on our site map or navigate through our core articles.
Articles to Avoid
Although translations of most articles are welcome, there are a few that should be avoided.
- Articles that need further work or are awaiting a complete rewrite.
- Core articles. These contain quick summaries of issues with links to complete articles. Without first translating the linked articles, a Core article is useless.
Please ask us for directions on the forum page before beginning any translation work so you do not start on a project that is difficult to complete.
Examples of Translated Articles
WikiIslam already hosts many completed translations in French, Turkish and other languages . Note that these pages retain their original formatting. To do this, simply press the "Edit" or "View source" tab at the top-right of the page you wish to translate, then copy and paste the entire thing into a text or word file. If you then translate directly from that file, you will retain all of the formatting.
Steps and Guidelines
Steps
After you choose what article to translate:
- Login or create account: Unless you are okay with having your IP address recorded in page histories, the first step for you would be to create an account . If you already have an account, you can login. When you are logged in, you will see your username at the top left of every page with various user specific links like My talk, Preferences and so on.
- Go to Help:Contents. Translate the title of your chosen article and type that into the "Create Page" box. If any of these characters exist in the title, avoid using them: brackets, commas, colons, semi-colons etc. These can be added into the title later by using {{page_title|Desired page title}}.
- After clicking "Create page" you will see a blank page.
- Open another window. Then go to your chosen article and click the 'Edit' button. You will now see the text and all the wiki-formatting of the target article.
- Copy and paste the entire thing into the new page you created. In Windows, Select all text and then CTRL-C; CTRL-V to paste.
- You can now start your translation. Delete the English text as you go. You can also keep another window open which has the original article in a regular view (non-editable).
- After you are done, you can preview or save the page. To make sure you don't lose your work, please see the "Saving your Work" section on the Help page. You can also simply 'copy' all the text. You can also do intermediate saves if you have to interrupt your work, or if it's a long page.
- To find what you have been working on, click the 'My contributions' link at the top right.
If these steps are difficult to follow, you can leave a message on the forum page with the name of the article you'd like to translate and the new title of your translated version. We will make a page for you with that new title with the existing English text that you can translate. Remember to save your work as you go (see the tips for saving your work).
We are also looking for feedback on these steps. Please let us know on the forum page if these directions can be improved or if you face any difficulties.
Guidelines
Translations should always remain faithful to the original English work, retaining their scholarly tone and information. If for some reason you think a particular section should be left out or altered in the translation, please discuss this with others on the talk page. The same applies for any additional information you may be considering to incorporate in the translation.
Future Plans and Updates
Future Plans
Sub-domain and interface support for languages (like on Wikipedia) is planned in the future for languages which have a large amount of articles. A rough guide for the amount of material needed before considering to launch a sub-domain would be a main page's worth of translated articles.
This project will begin with a single sub-domain. If it works well, the number of sub-domains will then be expanded to cover other languages. So, if you would like to see a WikiIslam sub-domain in your language, please join the WikiIslam Translation Project and start translating articles.
If you have any suggestions for this page or if you think a certain article should be added to this page, let us know by leaving a note on the forum page.
Updates
July 14, 2013:
Preliminary work on a Russian sub-domain (http://ru.wikiislam.net/) has been completed and the site is now officially open to the public. Russian speakers who are interested in helping the Russian WikiIslam's continued growth can contact the Russian site administrator on their talk page.