WikiIslam:Translations
WikiIslam is an international website with editors, contributors and visitors from all over the world. Its policies and guidelines reflect this by requiring material to be tailored to accommodate, as best as possible, a universal audience. One of the major issues faced by sites that appeal to a universal audience is the language barrier. The WikiIslam Translation Project aims to rectify this by providing translations of its content in all languages.
Sub-Domains
A main page's worth of translations (about 25-35 full-length articles) is the amount of material required before considering to launch a new sub-domain in any language. Although WikiIslam's Core Principles will remain, once these initial translations are completed, the new sub-domains are free to evolve separately to the English site.
One of the key rules to follow when translating these pre-sub-domain articles is that they should always remain absolutely faithful to the original English work, retaining their scholarly tone and information. The reason for accurate translations to begin with is that it allows new editors in that particular language to understand the style, tone, and quality that is expected in all languages.
It also allows existing administrators to see if there are any users (at least one regular and reliable editor) who would be suitable and willing to take on the responsibility of guiding the future direction of that sub-domain. To be an administrator at this site or one of its sub-domains, an editor must demonstrate that they fully understand and are willing to uphold the policies and guidelines concerning style, tone, and quality.
Editors are expected to take a scholarly and rational approach in their conduct and criticisms, adhering to stringent rules concerning the content of articles. Material should always be tailored to accommodate, as best as possible, a universal audience, and they should contain no politics, no promotion of religions/worldviews and no opinions, only referenced facts.
Those who would like to see a WikiIslam sub-domain in their language are advised to join the WikiIslam Translation Project and start translating articles.
Articles to Translate
Here is an initial list of articles that can be translated. These are popular pages or otherwise good candidates for translation:
- About
- Women
- 72 Virgins
- Aisha's Age of Consummation
- Responses to Apologetics: Muhammad and Aisha
- Health Effects of Islamic Dress
- Purpose of the Mahr
- The Meaning of Nikah
- Muhammad
- Violence
- Science
- Flat Earth and the Qur'an
- List of Genuine Islamic Inventions, Innovations, Records and Firsts
- Dr. Keith Moore and the "Islamic Additions"
- Setting the Record Straight: The Non-Miracle of Islamic Science
- Others
- Allah the Best Deceiver
- Qur'an, Hadith and Scholars:Lying and Deception
- Adverse Effects of Islamic Fasting
- List of Fabricated Hadith
- Fastest Growing Religion
- Any relevant pages from our QHS series for topics that are often discussed in your country or language. For example QHS:Zakat, or Female Genital Mutilation are good candidates.
- Short articles
Alternatively, an article from the topics listed on the site map can be chosen. However, before beginning translation work on an article not listed here, editors are advised to leave a message on the forum page or their own talk page mentioning what they would like to translate. This allows administrators to make sure a project that is difficult to complete or is not optimal in some way is not started.
Articles to Avoid
Translations of most articles are welcome, but there are a few that should be avoided:
- Articles that need further work or are awaiting a complete rewrite.
- Core articles that contain quick summaries of issues with links to complete articles. These should only be translated if the linked articles have also been translated (without the linked articles, a Core article is redundant).
Help and Guidelines
The "Instructions for Translators" page provides an in-depth, step-by-step guide for new translators to follow at WikiIslam. it covers everything from creating an account to announcing a completed translation on the main page. If translators find any of the steps difficult to follow, they can leave a message on the Translation Project's Discussions page. The following is a quick summary, but new editors should still read the full instructions before attempting their first translation:
- Go to Help:Contents. Type the translated title of the chosen article 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}} at the bottom of the page.
- After clicking "Create page" you will see a blank page.
- Open another window. Then go to the 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 blank page you created. In Windows, Select all text and then CTRL-C; CTRL-V to paste.
- Start the 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). You can save as often as needed and continue editing at any later time.
- Final check: Add the language hub page, translation links template, add/remove the relevant categories (and everything else discussed here), under the "See Also" section. To make sure your article is ready, briefly go through the new content. If possible, look at other translations to see if anything is missing.
- Create the necessary links to and from the new translation. This includes a link in each and every version of the translated page (in their own languages), a link from the language hub page, and a link from the "Latest Translations" template so the new translation appears on the main page.
- To find what you have been working on, click the 'My contributions' link at the top right.
Updates
July 14, 2013:
- The Russian sub-domain (http://ru.wikiislam.net/) was created on 16 January, 2013. Preliminary work on the sub-domain 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.
June 28, 2015:
- The Bulgarian sub-domain (http://bg.wikiislam.net/) was created on 12 April, 2015. Preliminary work on the sub-domain has been completed and the site is now officially open to the public. Bulgarian speakers who are interested in helping the Bulgarian WikiIslam's continued growth can contact the Bulgarian site administrator on their talk page.