Arabic to English
Translate an Arabic book into English, and keep the Arabic
Upload an Arabic book, from the classics of the Nahda and the medieval prose collections to a contemporary novel with no English edition, and read it with English beside every paragraph: the Arabic as it was written, right to left, and the English alongside, left to right.
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم و الحمد لله رب العالمين والصلاة والسلام على سيد المرسلين سيدنا ومولانا محمد
In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Praise be to God, Lord of the worlds, and prayers and peace upon the master of the messengers, our master and lord Muhammad,
وعلى آله وصحبه صلاة وسلاماً دائمين إلى يوم الدين. وبعد فإن سير الأولين صارت عبرة للآخرين
and upon his family and companions, prayers and peace everlasting until the Day of Judgment. And now: the stories of those who came before have become a lesson for those who come after.
How it works
Upload the book, choose English, and look at the free preview of the opening pages, side by side. If it reads well, translate the whole book and read it in the browser, or download it as a PDF, an EPUB, or a Kindle file. More about translating a book.
Where to find Arabic books
Arabic Wikisource and the Hindawi Foundation publish many Arabic classics for free. Your own DRM-free EPUB, a text-based PDF or a Word file all work; scanned PDFs are read with text recognition first.
Reading Arabic with English beside it
Right to left, side by side
Arabic runs from right to left and English from left to right. In the book each paragraph keeps its own direction, so the Arabic reads the way it is meant to and the English sits beside it, paragraph by paragraph.
Short vowels are not written
Printed Arabic leaves out the short vowels, so a word is read from its context: the same three letters can be kataba (he wrote), kutub (books) or kutiba (it was written). The English beside each paragraph shows which one the sentence means.
Modern Standard Arabic and the spoken dialects
Books are written in Modern Standard Arabic, while people speak a dialect that differs from country to country. A translation of a novel with dialogue shows how the written line sounds in plain English.
Questions
Can I read an Arabic book with English side by side?
Yes. Upload the book, choose English, and read each Arabic paragraph with its English beside it, in the browser or on your e-reader.
Can I learn Arabic with it?
Yes: read the Arabic first and look across only when you need to, or hide the English until you tap it. The free library also has Arabic stories by level.