Translation Manifesto
April 12, 2006
I find positively mind-boggling the rarity of Arabic translations into English. By all accounts, Arabic represents a major literary and philosophical tradition.. but what could a person buy in order to learn that? If one jumps to the catalogue for Penguin Classics, and selects Arabic literature.. the result is underwhelming: The Ruba'iyat of Omar Khayyam.. which is a Persian work! If you look a little harder you will also find the Qur'an.. but that is all..
The problem also becomes apparent as one looks at the way Islam gets taught a the university level. The American Academy of Religion posts syllabi for various courses, and the following is the reading list from one class taught by Omid Safi at Colgate University (there are many examples I could have chosen to use):
1) Michael Wolfe, The Hadj.
2) William Chittick, Vision of Islam.
3) John Esposito, ed, Oxford History of Islam.
4) Abdullah Yusuf Ali, The Qur'an: Text, Translation, and Commentary.
5) Karen Armstrong, Muhammad: A Biograpy of the Prophet
6) Farid al-Din Attar, translated by Dick Davis. Conference of the Birds.
7) Carl Ernst, The Shambhala Guide to Sufism.
8) Roy Mottahedeh, Mantle of the Prophet.
9) Reliance of the traveller
10) Farid Esack, On Being A Muslim
On this list the historical works are exactly two: the Qur'an and the Conference of the Birds by Farid al-Din Attar.. a wonderful book, but again.. a Persian book. Out of a total of ten books, only two are primary sources. I have nothing against any of these books, but it is obvious that this lopsided emphasis on what others have said about Islam, to the exclusion of historical Muslim writers, is bound to give a skewed view.. one that takes into account the questions that dominate current debate, such as the connection between Islam and violence, or Islam and women, and leave behind the questions that Medieval Muslims themselves would have asked.
My wish list for easily-available translations now has four members: 1) Futûh al-Buldân (Conquests of Nations); 2) Murûj al-Dhahab (Fields of Gold) by the historian Mas'udi; 3) an early commentary on the Qur'an, such as that by Tabari; and 4) the Rihlah of Ibn Jubayr. Each of these works has been translated into English or another European language, but the matter of availability chiefly concerns me right now. Without access to a good university library.. or, more correctly, a university in a strong interlibrary loan network.. these works are not ready at hand for students or general readers.
These are larger projects.. and I especially have my eye on the last work of the above list. But for now my goal is to build up a portfolio of short Arabic translations. These will be posted on this web site, and include brief biographical notices of important writers and religious thinkers along with discrete sections from longer works that could be used as a representative sample. The final goal is to produce an on-line textbook of short readings.. to be used in my own classes on Islam, but also available broadly to anyone out there with an interest in the topic. I should also note that collaboration with other scholars is definitely a possibility.
In some ways this project will resemble the Internet Medieval Sourcebook, maintained by Fordham University. Under the rubric of Islamic history the site provides English translations of primary source material. But what I find unhelpful about this site is its disciplinary focus on history.. i.e. what really happened. The selections are chosen and excerpted for their clarity in illumining a particular topic.. lost is the original format, along with inevitable digressions, which provide a window not just into what happened, but how people thought about their world. Even when I do not provide a full translation of a work, it will be a translation that maintains the isnâd (chains of authority) and technical digressions.. not to mention Quranic quotations.
The ultimate roots for this project is a dissatisfaction with Middle Eastern Studies.. I think Edward Said had some important things to say, but the overall tenor of his influence has been to dissuade students from engaging with classical texts.. as if there is something slightly suspect in a devotion to old texts and understanding old points of view. In the process of excoriating Orientalists he presided over a period during which there was remarkably little translation of classical Arabic works. And to my eyes, it is exactly this lack of textual connection with Islam that is enabling it to be widely misunderstood. So I guess I am saying that instead of attacking those who peddle a distorted view of the Middle East, why not make available the texts that would allow for a more realistic and informed view of the Middle East? That is the legacy that I would choose for myself..