anecdotes from the world of translation-1-

Posted on | November 20, 2009 | No Comments

While doing some reading for a paper on translation, especially cases when translators put themselves at risk by tackling texts that are either too vulgar or too scared to translate, I came across an interesting story of one of Arabic’s most celebrated translators.  Hunayn Ibn Ishaq  (full name:أبو زيد حنين بن إسحاق العبادي ‎ ’Abū Zayd Ḥunayn ibn ’Isḥāq al-‘) came from a Nestorian Christian family in Al-Hira, in the 9th century.  His translation talents took him to Bagdad where he quickly became the undisputed head of translation activities at Bayt-Al-Hikma which was the world’s largest center of learning at the times and for a few centuries to follow.  Ibn Ishaq was a star of translation and he apparently acted like one too.  An anecdote cited by Mona Baker in Routledge’s Encyclopedia of Translation studies:

[...] Ibn Ishaq who was paid by al-Ma’mun (Abbasid Caliph 813-833)in gold, matching the weight of the books he translated. Being somewhat greedy, he wrote in large letters, on thick, heavy paper, with wide spaces between the lines (al-Difaa 1984/85: 11; al-Khury 1988:40). His greed had the unexpected side benefit of ensuring that manuscripts remained intact and readable for many centuries.  (p.320)

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