Translating books from Arabic to English
Kitabs translates entire books, not isolated paragraphs. Every chapter passes through a complete editorial cycle: translation, source-check audit, literary editing and proofreading. The result is a publication-ready English text with every footnote exactly where the author placed it.
What matters when translating from Arabic
Arabic runs right to left and its scholarly literature is dense with material that generic AI translators mishandle: Quranic verses, hadith with full isnad chains, and the technical vocabulary of fiqh, aqida and usul. A typical machine translator will paraphrase a verse of the Quran as if it were ordinary prose — an error no publisher can accept. Kitabs recognises Quranic quotations and inserts them from an established canonical English rendering, marked with sura and verse number and set inside the traditional ﴿…﴾ brackets. Hadith retain their isnad and source attribution — al-Bukhari, Muslim and the rest are cited as the author cited them. Terminology follows the conventions already established in English-language Islamic scholarship, so tazkiyah, ijtihad or maslaha are rendered the way English readers of the field expect.
- Quranic verses inserted from a canonical English translation, never machine-translated
- Hadith keep their isnad chains and source attributions intact
- Fiqh and aqida terms follow established English scholarly usage
Footnotes and the scholarly apparatus survive intact
Arabic scholarly books lean heavily on footnotes: source references (takhrij), manuscript variants, editorial comments. Ordinary AI translators silently drop them, merge them, or renumber them from 1 in every chapter — and the apparatus that took the editor years to build is destroyed. Kitabs treats the apparatus as untouchable structure. Footnote number 474 in the Arabic original remains footnote number 474 in the English edition, anchored to the exact sentence it belongs to. Takhrij references are never lost, never reshuffled, never re-invented. If the author left gaps in the numbering, the gaps are preserved too, because they carry meaning.
- Original footnote numbering preserved — No. 474 stays No. 474
- Every note stays anchored to its precise place in the text
- Takhrij and source references are never dropped or renumbered
How it works
The process is transparent from the first minute to the assembled book, and you see the full price before paying anything.
- 1. Upload the book — PDF, DOCX or scans; OCR is included.
- 2. The system analyses the text and shows the exact price before any payment.
- 3. Translation proceeds chapter by chapter; you watch the progress and can accept or amend every editorial change.
- 4. You receive an assembled book with all footnotes in place, ready for typesetting.
Translation example
قال الإمام النووي رحمه الله: «العلم لا يُنال براحة الجسد»¹
Imam al-Nawwawi, may Allah have mercy on him, said: "Knowledge is not attained through the comfort of the body."¹
The footnote number remains exactly as in the original.
Questions and answers
How much does translating a book from Arabic to English cost?
The price is calculated automatically from the book's size before any work begins. Upload the file and you receive the exact figure for free; payment happens only after you confirm.
Does Kitabs translate Quranic verses?
Quranic quotations are inserted from an established canonical English translation — they are never machine-translated by a neural network or composed anew. The system recognises each verse by sura and verse number and formats it in the traditional way.
What happens to footnotes?
Footnotes keep their original numbering and their anchor in the text. If the author cites a source in footnote 212, it remains footnote 212 in the English edition.
How long does a book translation take?
A mid-sized book is translated in hours, not months. The exact estimate appears right after upload and depends on the book's size and the editing depth you choose.
Can I check the quality before paying for the whole book?
Upload the book and see the price estimate and a sample fragment for free. You pay only if the result satisfies you.
Is the service suitable for publishers?
There is a dedicated team mode: a translator, an editor and a proofreader work on the same book, each at their own stage, with fragment hand-off and a full change history.