Domesticating the Prophetic Biography

Abstract In 1937, Hussain Salahuddeen, the chief justice of the Maldives, completed a translation of the Arabic biography of the Prophet Muhammad into Dhivehi, the official language of the Maldives. With the support of the Maldivian government he published the translation in three volumes through the publishing company Sitara-i-Hind, based in Calcutta, India. In 1973, Radio Maldives commenced a project to convert Salahuddeen's translation into twenty-nine recitations broadcast daily during the month of Ramadan. That year, a songwriter versified Salahuddeen's translation into a book of Dhivehi praise songs. This article examines these interrelated acts of translation, recitation, and versification. First it explores techniques Salahuddeen adopted to localize his translation for readers of Dhivehi. Then it analyzes how Salahuddeen's translation was reborn in the prosody of the radio recitations and the poetics of praise songs. The article argues that the translation, recitation, and praise songs were attempts to attune Arabicate and Islamic culture to the Maldivian target audience.