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    History of Translation

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    Ayesha
    The document provides a history of translation in the Muslim world from the pre-Islamic era to the 20th century. It discusses several important periods and centers of translation, including the early spread of Islam which increased demand for translation, the establishment of centers in Baghdad and Andalusia/Spain, and the roles of important figures like Hunayn ibn Ishaq. The process of translation in early Islamic civilization emphasized accuracy in translating texts.

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    History of Translation

    Uploaded by

    Ayesha
    57 views4 pages
    The document provides a history of translation in the Muslim world from the pre-Islamic era to the 20th century. It discusses several important periods and centers of translation, including the early spread of Islam which increased demand for translation, the establishment of centers in Baghdad and Andalusia/Spain, and the roles of important figures like Hunayn ibn Ishaq. The process of translation in early Islamic civilization emphasized accuracy in translating texts.

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    The document provides a history of translation in the Muslim world from the pre-Islamic era to the 20th century. It discusses several important periods and centers of translation, including the early spread of Islam which increased demand for translation, the establishment of centers in Baghdad and Andalusia/Spain, and the roles of important figures like Hunayn ibn Ishaq. The process of translation in early Islamic civilization emphasized accuracy in translating texts.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    57 views4 pages

    History of Translation

    Uploaded by

    Ayesha
    The document provides a history of translation in the Muslim world from the pre-Islamic era to the 20th century. It discusses several important periods and centers of translation, including the early spread of Islam which increased demand for translation, the establishment of centers in Baghdad and Andalusia/Spain, and the roles of important figures like Hunayn ibn Ishaq. The process of translation in early Islamic civilization emphasized accuracy in translating texts.

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    of 4

    “History of Translation Theories”.

    ASSIGNMNENT NO. 1

    7TH SEM. FALL-2018

    Submitted Date: October 18, 2018

    Submitted By:

    IQRA TARIQ

    ROLL: 15011517-024

    BS. Eng. (ATS)

    Submitted To:

    Ma’m Faria Shaheen

    Centre for Languages and Translation Studies

    UNIVERSITY OF GUJRAT
    Muslim history of translation

    Introduction:

    Translation is a process which defined as the transmission of the meaning from one language to another.
    And the translator is one who creates conditions under which source and target readers can interact with
    each other. And a good translator is someone who has the command on both source and target language.
    Arab started to pay attention to translation when Islam came. The act of translation and translators were
    highly recognized at that time and translator’s reward was there in the form of gold. Arabic translation
    helped to preserve many subjects other as part of world.

    “On the other hand, translation at that time was known by its accuracy, validity, and authenticity as
    translator’s great effort to reference and maintain the quality of the translation. They used to travel to far
    off countries, and produced several translated versions of Arabic text for the sake of accuracy. ”

    Translation centers in Islamic history:

    There were so many centers where translations had been done in Islamic history such as:

    Aghdad was the first and the most notable center for translation activities in history. The second important
    translation center in Islamic civilization was in Andalusia, Spain. The Bayt Al-Hikmah reached its peak
    when it became translation center in Muslim world for two centuries. The most important intellectual
    centers were Toledo and Cordoba. The most significant translation center in Andalusia was the city of
    Toledo, called the “cradle of learning” and the chief point of interactions between the Muslims, Christians
    and Jews. This school of translators of Toledo was responsible for the translations of the most influential
    works of Muslim scientists and intellectuals from Arabic to Latin and then to Spanish contributing greatly
    at the arrival of European Renaissance. As being the main translation center in the world at that time, many
    European scholars traveled to Muslim Spain and Sicily to learn Arabic in order to translate the vest
    knowledge of Muslim scholars into their own languages, mainly to the Latin. Hence, Islamic civilization in
    Spain became main threshold behind the European Renaissance.

    Process of translation in Islamic civilization:


    There had been an outline for translators that they should follow in their translating process. The first step
    was the process of checking the original and translated versions in order to check accuracy, the authorship
    and the contributed to the literary refinement of Arabic.

    1
    Muslim history of translation:

    Muslim history of translation is divided into following stages:

    1. The Pre-Islamic stage (before 610 A.D)

    Arabs didn't have separate and independent civilization or state and they didn't have a great effect in the
    world. They had just little documents are available for translation activities in that era and it is expected
    like because Arabs travelled a lot. Arabic language had no written expression at that time and they had to
    learn different languages for translation purpose.

    2. Translation during Prophet Muhammad’s life (610-632 A.D)

    This era was the most important era in the history of translators in Arab. This was the time of early seventh
    century 610 A.D when Islam had introduced and Quran was revealed to Prophet Muhammad (Peace be
    upon Him). Arabic language and Islam have become closed. As Muslims started moving in all directions
    in order to spread Islam, they became in need for translating their knowledge written in Arabic with the
    new concepts and religious terms to others, and translate and understand the languages of others. So,
    they basically needed to have translators and interpreters during their movements and campaigns. In
    these campaigns Zaid Ibn Thabet plays an important role as he translated letters of prophet from Arabic
    into other languages.

    3. Translation during Caliphs period (632-661)

    In 7th century after death of prophet Muhammad Muslims were represented Arabs in so many countries and
    those countries had different languages. This means that adding new countries to the Islamic state, several
    languages, civilizations and cultures have been added to the state. Islam was led by four caliphs who
    have known companions of prophet (PBUH). They were known collectively as the Four Rightly Guided
    Caliphs:

    Abu Bakr (632–634 A. D.)

    Omar ibn al-Khattab, (634–644 A. D)

    Hman ibn Affan (644–656 A D.)

    Ali ibn Abi Talib (656–661 CE)

    In this era of translation Holy Quran was translated into various languages by these four rightly guided
    caliphs.

    2
    4. The Umayyad Period (661-750)

    This era leads so many major things like in that era Arabic language was considered as official language.
    Omer ibn al-Khattab was the major component of that era. In that era major translations had been done.
    All those translations were represented as whole Arab and if we compare with other era’s translations
    so we can easily get the answer that the translation movement in this era was limited in quantity and
    quality. At that time translation of many books had been done like: medicine, chemistry and mental
    subjects.

    5. The Abbasid Period (750-1258)

    Abbasid period is known for the Persian translation of Quran that’s why this era has its own significance
    because in this era Quran presented to those who don’t understand Arabic. Their main focus was on Greek
    Philosophy, Indian science and Persian literature. And the major translator of that era was Hunayn Ibn
    Ishaq. The Abbasids played a fundamental role in the development of the Arabic translation movement
    through translating books and works of different cultures such as Chinese, Persian, Indian, Greek, and
    Spanish.

    6. The Ottoman period

    This era was mainly focused on Turkish work and Arabic grammar of spoken. This era led to the translation
    of legal and official documents. The Arab world was largely isolated and disadvantaged of cultural contact
    during the first few centuries of Ottoman rule

    7. Translation under Mohammad Ali


    Some of the translations which appeared during this period were done by Europeans, among them the
    French consul Basili Fakhr who translated several French books on astronomy and natural science into
    Arabic. Baker (1998:223) tells us that teaching in the various schools set up by Mohammad Ali was initially
    conducted by foreign instructors in French or Italian. These instructors relied on interpreters in the class-
    room to communicate with their students. Thus, the use of interpreters in the educational context seems to
    have been fairly common practice at the time.
    8. The twentieth century
    In the early part of the twentieth century, most of the Arab World was under foreign occupation. Today,
    translation training programs exist in various parts of the Arab World, either in the form of independent
    institutions or university departments

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