How To Redirect Pages from Joomla to WordPress

I am in the process of moving a site from Joomla to WordPress, I don’t want to do any direct migration of content since there is a lot of legacy content that we do not want, a fresh start for us.

The problem is the traditional HTAccess method of redirecting URLs using a 301 redirect doesn’t seem to work with Joomla since it is a database driven CRM that uses query strings for page names. (Something about the ? is giving me problems.

I know I need to use some sort of mod-rewrite rules but can’t seem to get my head around the concept with what I have found on about 20 other pages. Could someone please provide me with an example HTAccess file of how I would redirect this page to the new one:

Original page: /index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=38&Itemid=9

New location: /software/

Please include the wordpress generated HTAccess content so I can see exactly where it goes.

The domain name will be the same.

Also, a little explanation or link to some help on the mod-rewrite characters and expressions would be great. Thanks a ton, this has been really bugging me!