persian equivalents for 'wadi' in the historical periods of the persian translation and interpretation of the quran

the arabic word “wadi”, which was clearly understood by the arab nomads, had not been used in the ancient persian texts. the first uses of this word in the persian works go back to late third century after hijrah, when the translators had to find equivalents for ten qur’anic usages of the word. the present research aims to study which equivalents were employed in different periods for this word in the persian translations and interpretations of the quran. the other objective of this work is to find out when and why the translators gave up translating this term. furthermore, a number of appropriate equivalents have been suggested for translating “wadi” in the quran. the study shows that the translation strategies employed for dealing with the term “wadi” varied in three periods. in the first period which lasted up to mid-sixth century after hijrah, the equivalents were derived from the root word of “river”. in the second period which lasted up to the current period the term was mostly left un-translated. presently, an equivalent is preferred which means “valley” or “land”; although in many cases the term is also left un-translated. the absence of necessary semantic relations in persian for a constant employment of an equivalent, originating from the differences in the environmental experiences of the persian speakers and the residents of the arabian peninsula, has prevented the prevalence of a single equivalent. furthermore, it is impossible to preserve the semantic features of “wadi” and at the same time decide on an equivalent for the term. therefore, it is better to consider various equivalents for the translation of this term based on the semantic context in every quranic verse.