Discourse in Translation

Chapter 5 Translation as the instigator of a new Arabic discourse in Islamic intellectual history Gavin N. Picken The historical development of Arabic: from Bedouin verse to the vernacular of statecraft That Arabic ever became a language of translation is one of the peculiar quirks of history, as it began life as the youngest member of the Semitic family of languages and was confined to its homeland of the Arabian Peninsula. Although there were various kingdoms on the edges of the Arabian Peninsula that spoke this language, the vast majority of Arabic speakers were nomadic tribes, who were illiterate and roamed the land in search of essential resources in an inhospitable desert environment (Versteegh 2001: 9–22 and 37– 52; Shah 2008: 262– 264; Knysh 2016: 7–18). Thus, Arabic was restricted to an oral culture, which prided itself on the composition and transmission of a styl- ized form of oral poetry. Arabic oral poetry, being the primary form of art- istic and cultural production in this society, became the medium for recording historical events, maintaining lineages, praising leaders, deprecating enemies, expressing love, and remembering the dead. Poetry was so important to this society that regional and seasonal competitions would be held to assess the talent of the leading poets, who were immortalized in the legendary ‘Golden Odes’ (al- Mu‘allaqat), which were said to have been written in gold and dis- played in the Ka‘ba in Mecca (Allen 2000: 76– 78; Irwin 1999: 3– 7). Mecca was a religious and cultural centre that thrived on the trade gener- ated from its status as a pilgrimage site. The ruling tribe of Quraysh enjoyed great prestige and great wealth for being the tribe that settled in Mecca and became responsible for maintaining the polytheistic rituals of the society at large. Quite ironically, it would be a clansman of this elite tribe who would bring an end to the restricted and isolated nature of Arabic by declaring that he had received divine revelations and was now the Messenger of God. Muslim sources record that Muhammad received revelations over a period of approximately 23 years and that these supernatural communiques consti- tuted the Qur’an, Islam’s primary sacred reference and Arabic’s first formal text (Irwin 1999: 2–30; Knysh 2016: 76–91). In addition to the Qur’an, Muhammad also received extra- Qur’anic revelations that would later be 92 Gavin N. Picken recorded in a subsidiary genre of literature known as hadith (pl. ahadith) (Irwin 1999: 40; Knysh 2016: 92–104). These materials formed the essence and foundation of Islam’s textual corpus and, at the same, changed the function of Arabic from being a language of orality and poetry to also being a language of literacy and religion. Upon his death, Muhammad was succeeded by his Companions, Abu Bakr (r. 632– 634), ‘Umar b. al- Khattab (r. 634– 644), ‘Uthman b. ‘Affan (r. 644– 656) and ‘Ali b. Abu Talib (656– 661), who were collectively known as the ‘Rightly Guided Caliphs’ (al- Khulafa’ al- Rashidun). In many respects, their rule can be considered an extension of the Prophet’s mission, but with perhaps one significant exception – in less than 30 years after the death of the Prophet they had expanded the territories under the control of Islam to include the Persian Empire, the Alexandrian Patriarchy and a significant portion of the Byzantine Empire (Afsaruddin 2008: 27– 58; Knysh 2016: 40– 51). Thus, with the geographical expansion of the religion to include much of what we now refer to as the ‘Middle East’, Arabic was an able travelling companion, being the communicative language of the sacred texts associated with Islam. The early caliphs were succeeded by the first dynastic rule in Islamic history – that of the Umayyads (661–750). Although the decision to create a hereditary succession would prove highly controversial and create considerable political instability, the Umayyads continued the policy of expansion, and the Umayyad caliphate would eventually encompass most of North Africa, parts of Central Asia and southern Spain in its orbit. Extending the territories of the caliphate would be only part of the story, however, and such a huge land mass would certainly benefit from having a single language that united its populace. Ruling from Damascus in the eastern Mediterranean, where Greek was the most common language, the fifth Umayyad caliph, ‘Abd al-Malik b. Marwan (r. 685–705), took the critical decision to make Arabic the official language of state, and thus the vital position of Arabic as the primary language of the Middle East was consolidated even further (Afsaruddin 2008: 76– 87; Shah 2008: 266– 267; Osman 2012: 167). Although much emphasis has been laid on the role of the consequent ‘Abbasid dynasty regarding translation of non- Arabic materials into Arabic, the process began much earlier, under the Umayyads. In some senses this was inevitable, as the Umayyads ruled a land mass that was familiar with multiple trends of intellectual activity, which had been in place for many centuries and which needed to be utilized in the administrative context. In addition, making Arabic the official language of state required that the administrative records (diwan) would now be in Arabic, but as a primer to this, under the reign of ‘Abd al-Malik’s son Hisham (r. 724– 743), the prior Greek diwan was also translated into Arabic. Moreover, the bibliographic cataloguer, Ibn Nadim (d. 995) asserts that the first translations from one language to another in Islam were books of alchemy, translated by Stephanus from Coptic and Greek at the behest of Khalid b. Yazid (d. 704), who was the grandson of Mu‘awiya (Vagelpohl 2008: 22; Rashed 2015: 22–26). Translation instigates new Arabic discourse 93 ‘Abbasid Baghdad: caliphal capital and cultural crucible Although the Umayyad rulers certainly had the positive effect of expanding Muslim territorial power and unifying the language of communication, they were also unpopular because of the institutionalizing of a hereditary succession that was at odds with the early caliphate, and because they pre- ferred to select traditional Arab families to occupy positions of power. Thus, in an ever-expanding state where the majority of people would have been of non- Arab origin, these new converts to Islam were considerably disenfran- chised and saw themselves as subjects under an Arab aristocracy, which was contrary to the concept of social equity promoted in early Islam under the Prophet and the early caliphs (Knysh 2016: 119– 20). This was seen as an opportunity by certain of the Prophet’s relatives, known as the ‘Abbasids, being the descendants of the Prophet’s youngest uncle – al- ’Abbas b. ‘Abd al-Muttalib (d. 652) – and they mobilized the disaffected masses of the eastern caliphate in Khurasan (modern-day Iran, Afghanistan, and parts of Central Asia) to form a formidable force that would facilitate regime change (Afsaruddin 2008: 87– 90; Knysh 2016: 120– 130). This dynasty would rule for over half a millennium (750–1258) and as a result be central to the advent of the so- called Golden Age of learning, which was driven by an innovative trend in translation consequently referred to as ‘The Translation Movement’. The process of moving towards the Translation Movement was essentially begun by the second ‘Abbasid caliph Abu Ja‘far al- Manṣur (r. 754– 775), who not only provided political stability and financial solvency to the caliphate but also provided the ‘Abbasids with a new capital – Baghdad – which would remain an important city until this very day. Baghdad was well situated to receive the cumulative knowledge of the surrounding cultures, being located between the intellectual trends of the Near East in cities such as Alexandria, Damascus, Antioch, and Harran, and the Persian intellectual hub of Jundishapur to the east. Although the geographical location of Baghdad was certainly important, it could not have been the only factor in influen- cing the initiation of a Translation Movement, since the Umayyads had ruled from Damascus, which was equally, if not better situated (Gutas 1998: 29– 34; Vagelpohl 2008: 25– 26; Picken 2011: 26– 27). Given that the ‘Abbasids had come to power through support from the Persian ‘clients’ (al- mawali), who had converted to Islam, and the need to prove themselves different from the Umayyad caliphate’s Arab- dominated hierarchy, the ‘Abbasids not only welcomed the Persian mawali into their regime but appointed them to some of the most significant positions in the highest political echelons. This ushered in a period of ‘Persianization’ of the caliphate, and the newcomers adopted the administrative model of the former Sassanid Empire, which ultimately defined the caliphate’s political structure and practice. Moreover, a new secretarial class of civil servants (al- kuttab) 94 Gavin N. Picken was developed and, once again, it was the Persian mawali who would dom- inate such positions in the ‘Abbasid administration (Vagelpohl 2008: 23; Picken 2011: 18). We would be forgiven for thinking that the ‘Abbasid caliphate was now being reinvented as a Neo-Sassanid Empire, but we should not forget that the Persian kuttab would also have to be fluent in Arabic, as this was the administration’s official language and so, many of the civil servants who worked for the ‘Abbasids were at least bilingual. Thus, this new class of educated admin- istrators came from a unique cultural background, heritage, and world view that they could express in the caliphate’s official language of Arabic, which enriched the social context of the ‘Abbasid society and exposed it to new atti- tudes, ideas, and experiences (Vagelpohl 2008: 29). For an administration to function efficiently it certainly requires a qualified and capable workforce, which, as was just noted, was provided by the influx of a new demographic into the ‘Abbasid capital.

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