Just a status update for everyone on the progress on this project:
In terms of the translation itself, here are the parts that are remaining:
- Book Introduction (8 pages)
- Chapter 1 (29 pages)
- Chapter 3 (28 pages)
- Chapter 5 - Section 10 (9 Pages) - Abu Ali in working on finishing this section right now.
- Book Conclusion (5 pages)
Since all Abu Ali's work has been copied into Google Drive, I'm just working putting the footnotes in the right places. This is mostly done for Chapter 5 already. For Chapter 4, most of the text comes from the .tex file that Aziz created and it will take a bit longer to cleanup. In addition, I have to make sure that Arabic text in that section is properly organized and aligned just like in the original Arabic version. Chapter 2 is copied, cleaned-up and pretty much formatted.
Like mentioned before, you can keep track of the work progress in the spreadsheet:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1aL_G1aVg0dZTGejLEp-qkyg_y2ToGihQhlJorr-iwGs/edit?pli=1#gid=0Also, you can view the documents themselves by clicking the link in the column "File Number" beside the chapter name.
Once Abu Ali is done, I'm not sure how we are going to proceed, we'll probably have to do the following:
- Ensure that all parts have been translated by comparing against the original Arabic document.
- Let Abu Ali review his work and ensure that it is to his liking.
- Get others to proofread the document.
- Format the document and ensure that matches the Arabic version in layout.
- Generate PDF files out of the documents and merge them.
- PUBLISH!
There are a few things that we should discuss also:
- Should we also re-create the Arabic version and have a clear and readable PDF version. (We have the .doc file, so we just need to copy, paste, and adjust the fonts, etc)?
- I recall that Abu Ali wanted to add a preface of his own or something. Do you still want to do this?
- We could also add a section about the who the author might be, and also the reactions of some the Muslims in the Appendix. (There was one in Arabic that was long, claiming conspiracy and what not by a Muslim scholar. ?Ibrahim Awad?)?
- Finally, Chapter 4 especially relies on the Arabic text of the Quran, and only the English is provided. I was thinking of putting the Quranic verse in Arabic alongside the English, what do you think? Same for some of the poetry. What do you think?
That's all for now!