Arab World English Journal
AWEJ Volume. 3 Number. 1 March,2012 pp.4- 17
Transformation, Appropriation and Medieval Arabic Translation Tradition
Musallam Al-Mani
Sultan Qaboos University, Oman
Said M. Faiq
American University of Sharjah, UAE
Abstract:
An examination of the historiography of translation, as a transformative and/or appropriationist act, for example, is important for a discipline that affects the contact between peoples interculturally, even intraculturally. Such an examination should consider translation as cultural movements that stem from and affect crisis, nation-building, and identity. Within this context, the purpose of this article is to assess what history labels the Medieval Arabic Translation Tradition (MATT) in terms of its culture, how it accommodated foreign cultures into Arabic and its role building the Arab/Islamic Empire (transformation) that globalized the world for centuries (appropriation). In other words, how MATT transformed its culture, on the one hand, and, on the other, how it assisted this culture in acquiring global influence.
Keywords: Arabic Medieval translation, appropriation, transformation, culture.