Translation and the Modern Arab Renaissance by Jabra Ibrahim Jabra

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Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Author’s footnote: In Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates, in the spring of 1989.

2 Author’s footnote: “al-Fann wa-l-ḥulm wa-l-fi‘l,” 383–4.

3 Translator’s footnote: The Italian philosopher Benedetto Croce (1866–1952) wrote La storia come pensiero e come azione (History as thought and as action) in 1938. Sylvia Sprigge translated it to English under the title “History as the story of liberty” in 1941, when Jabra was a student of English literature at Cambridge University.

4 Translator’s footnote: The Egyptian scholar and translator Rifāʿa Rāfʿ al-Ṭahṭāwī (1801–1873) lived in Paris from 1826 to 1831.

5 Translator’s footnote: A popular proverb falsely attributed to the Prophet Muhammad holds that “whoever learns the language of an enemy people is safe from their evil” (man ta‘allama lughata qawmin amina sharrahum).

6 Author’s footnote: I would like to mention here that the Ministry of Higher Education in Baghdad responded positively to my proposal, made it law, and published directives that every student applying to advanced studies must first pass an exam in at least one European language as a condition of his acceptance.