The Jewish Master of Arabic the Story of the Man Who Made the Koran Available in English

JANUARY 23, 2015 Z The Jewish master of Arabic The story of the man who made the Koran available in English

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NESSIM DAWOOD, in an undated photo, dedicated his life to the art of translation. (Courtesy) Most revered for his Arabic to English translation of the Koran, Nessim Joseph Dawood was a revolutionary in introducing the West to Arab literature and culture – but his life story is so much more

The Jewish

master MARION FISCHEL of Arabic n November 20 the world lost a rare talent with the death of Nessim Joseph Dawood. An Iraqi Jew, he is revered for his master- ful translation of the Koran into English for Penguin Classics, never out of print Osince 1956. He was the 20th century’s most outstand- ing translator of Arabic to English and English to Arabic, and a man with an extraordinary sense of language and poetry. To paraphrase William Shakespeare, whose work fascinated the scholar from an early age: The man had music in himself. Dawood’s translations of tales from The Thousand and One Nights collection put the original Arabic stories of Shahrazad onto the bookshelves of many an En- glish-speaking living room, and his idiomatic version of the Koran became the go-to text for those who, while in- terested in its content, had been unable to contend with the old-fashioned and more literal renditions previously in existence. The descendant of an ancient Jewish family that had left the Land of Israel before the destruction of the Tem- ple, he was born in Baghdad, the sixth of seven children. Yakov Yehuda, the youngest of the seven, and today one

8 January 23, 2015 of Dawood’s three surviving brothers, spoke to The Jerusalem Post about his scholarly sibling and their family history. Their parents, whose marriage had been arranged – as was the custom at the time – both attended the Alliance Française school in Baghdad. They were fluent in French as well as Arabic, and their mother spoke enough English to teach the rudiments to her children. “Our father, Yosef, was a merchant who had been an officer in the Ottoman Empire. Before we were born he had business concerns in Iran, in Isfahan I think, and therefore also spoke fluent Persian,” said Yehuda. “Our [original] surname is Yehuda,” he said, ex- plaining that the family is related to Sarah Yehuda, the mother of David Yellin, of David Yellin Academ- ic College fame. This ancient family name did not, however, appear on Dawood’s Iraqi ID card, just his own given name, plus those of his father and pa- ternal grandfather, “Nessim Yosef [Joseph] David.” When he left his native land for England in 1945, the third name, adapted from David to Dawood (the equivalent in Arabic), became the surname on his passport. Later, his nom de plume was to be N.J. Dawood. The Yehudas left Iraq for Israel when Yakov was 19, as a result of the difficult situation for Jews in Arab countries after the establishment of the state in 1948. “Shortly after we came to Israel [in December 1950], we returned to the airport to collect a Torah scroll that my father had commissioned in Baghdad in the name of his brother, Salah, who died at a very young age, and that Torah scroll is now in an Iraqi synagogue, Ohel Ari, in Ra’anana.” Yosef’s sons did not know “much” about their father’s side of the family. Yakov said that they were aware that their mother, “had two uncles, Aharon and Ephraim Tweg, who went to Turkey, to Istanbul, to learn to be pharmacists and then became the first two pharmacists in Israel.” DAWOOD’S LIFE took him from Iraq to London The medical vocation appears to have run in the to Israel. (Clockwise) Dawood and his wife Juliet family, as Dawood’s eldest son, Richard, is a doctor, on their wedding day. Dawood in his late 80s. author of Traveler’s Health, and his youngest, An- Dawood and Juliet pose with a birthday cake that drew, a dentist, is involved with 3D printing, which also celebrates his achievements translating ‘The includes making medical applications. The middle Thousand and One Nights.’ (Courtesy) son, Norman, however, followed his father’s profes- sional footsteps and works in translation. Arriving in the Promised Land in the ’50s “was very difficult, we had left everything behind. There was not much money and we lived on a moshav at first, and after two years moved to Tel Aviv,” Yehuda explained. The eldest of Dawood’s brothers, David, who left Iraq at the age of 16 to study in Beirut, was already in On Dawood’s 27th birthday, August Israel, having arrived in 1930. Upon immigrating, he changed his last name to Eshed. 27, 1954 – and as the 1,001st Penguin “It was usual for people to change their names when they came to Israel in those days,” explained Yehuda. publication – his translation of David spent some time in the UK, only to return to Israel and work in the government, in the Agricul- ‘The Thousand and One Nights: ture Ministry. Another brother, Fouad Salah Yehuda – named after his uncle – (who changed his name to The Hunchback, Sinbad and Other Gad Eshed when he came to Israel, at David’s sugges- tion), “studied aviation in the UK, and when he fin- Tales’ hit the shelves ished [his studies] El Al contacted him and he came to work with them at the airport. He left [that position] after a few years and opened a motorcycle shop and a driving school for motorbikes,” said Yehuda. The fourth of the brothers, Heskel, worked at the American Embassy in Tel Aviv as commercial attaché. The two sisters were Matilda, who came to Israel

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late Shakespeare into Arabic – In the introduction er Tales, was published in 1957. qualified as a teacher and taught In 1973 they were combined into English at a secondary school in to his translation, a single volume, Tales from The South London. He also spent three Thousand and One Nights. He also years as a journalist at The Jewish Dawood refers to created child-friendly versions of Chronicle. the tales, published by Puffin, a In 1948, as an internation- the Koran as ‘not subsidiary of Penguin Books. All al student in London, he was of these works remain in print. thrilled to be invited to attend only one of the Following the success of Tales, Shakespeare’s birthday celebra- Dawood approached Rieu and tion in Stratford-upon-Avon, most influential Sir Allen Lane (Penguin Books’ a previously annual event that founder) about the possibility had only just resumed, following books of prophetic of a new translation of the Ko- the end of the war. Years later – ran. The publishers did not ex- in 2011 – he was asked to speak literature, but pect that there might be a large at the same anniversary as the potential readership for such a oldest survivor of that first post- also a literary project. war lunch, and shared anecdotes Nevertheless, Dawood man- of the time, including how he masterpiece in aged to convince them that this met Shakespearean actors Claire translation would be like no oth- Bloom and Alfie Bass at the the- its own right’ er, rooted in the parameters that ater bar. Over the years, Dawood Rieu himself had laid down, and attended several such lunches utilizing “idiomatic” English, “as in commemoration of the Bard, you would feel the best authors whose work he continued to delight in. of the day would write in,” Dawood told The Bookseller. In 1949 he married Juliet Abraham – the sister of his He wished to showcase to English-speaking readers childhood friend Eliahu Abraham – at the Lauderdale what he considered the greatest work of classical Ara- Road Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue in London. bic literature. The couple were married for 65 years and had three In the introduction to his translation, Dawood re- sons and nine grandchildren. fers to the Koran as “not only one of the most influ- But it was in 1952, when the young scholar attend- ential books of prophetic literature, but also a literary ed a talk by E.V. Rieu, renowned for his Greek-to-En- masterpiece in its own right.” glish translations of Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, and As it turned out, Dawood’s Koran became probably founding editor of Penguin Classics (a subdivision of the best-selling English-language version, and has so DAWOOD IN London in 1947. He was able to attend Penguin Books), that his life-course would change. far been reprinted 70 times since 1956, with nine ma- university on a grant from Iraq. (Courtesy) Rieu’s novel concepts went straight to Dawood’s core, jor revisions, including the most recent carried out by as he explained in a 1990 interview with The Booksell- Dawood in May of last year. er magazine. The revisions were the result of the translator’s life- in 1946, and Flora, who married in Iraq and moved to Lon- The publisher spoke of “a new kind of translation,” long preoccupation with the style and language of don, then Nice, and spent her final years in Monaco. of the “challenge of emulating the excellence of the the original text. Although in later versions Dawood Upon arrival in Israel, Yakov enlisted in the IDF and original”; and the concept that “a good translator reverted to the original sequence of the text – that is then “worked in a factory, and after that I went to Bank must be a good writer” and should use surahs (chapters) arranged in descending or- Leumi at the airport at the age of 25; I left in 1985 hav- “idiomatic English”; that “a transla- der of length – in the early versions he ing attained the position of assistant manager.” tion had to sound well when read organized these into more-or-less out loud.” chronological order, seeking to DAWOOD DID not immigrate to Israel with the rest “I was enthralled,” said make them clearer to an au- of his family. He had been in the UK since 1945, sent Dawood in the interview. dience who had no previous there at age 17 on an Iraqi state scholarship to study He wrote to Rieu, en- familiarity with the text. English literature. He had exhibited an uncanny knack closing a translation Philip Howard, literary for this from an early age, having fallen in love with of the prologue to the editor of the The Times, Shakespeare’s works as soon as he came across The Mer- book of Eastern tales with whom Dawood corre- chant of Venice while still a schoolboy. that was to become sponded extensively over He left Iraq on August 15, 1945, recalled Yakov, “the a household name, the years, reviewed the very day the atom bomb exploded on Hiroshima.” Tales from the Thou- 31st and 35th printings His natural gift for language, and his perseverance, sand and One Nights. of the Penguin Classics enabled Dawood to publish Arabic translations of En- To Dawood’s amaze- Koran. glish short stories in local publications while still in ment, what he re- In the 1986 review school in Iraq. According to researcher and fellow Iraqi ceived by return mail Howard wrote, “All oth- Emile Cohen (“Tribute to Nessim J. Dawood: An Arab from Rieu was the er English translations Jew in a Muslim World”), this attracted the attention offer of a contract to are pompous, archaic, of a respected democratic politician, Kamil Chadirji, translate the Tales reverential and unread- owner of the Al-Ahali newspaper, who asked Dawood themselves. able, except by the en- to translate articles from English for his periodical. thusiast,” adding that Chadirji, who also hired Dawood to teach English to AND SO, on Dawood’s Dawood had “captured his son, was to sign as guarantor for Dawood when he 27th birthday, August the thunder and poetry received a grant from the state to study in London. 27, 1954 – and as the of the original.” Years later in the UK, Dawood – an assiduous book 1,001st Penguin publi- Further, in 1991, he as- reviewer and contributor to letters to the editor of The cation – his translation sured Times readers that Times – wrote a eulogy of Naim Tweg, his uncle and a of The Thousand and One “[Dawood] is the only ver- former colleague at Al-Ahali. Nights: The Hunchback, Sin- sion, if you want to know in Dawood’s received a scholarship to London Univer- bad and Other Tales hit the English what the Koran ac- sity in the capital, but the university was evacuated to shelves. Its popularity was tually says, behind the thun- Exeter during World War II, where he toiled the next such that not only were Ter- four years. The result of his labors was a double degree ence Tiller’s dramatic readings of in English literature and Arabic. it broadcast on BBC radio, but a fur- DAWOOD AS a toddler in Baghdad, 1931. Subsequently Dawood – whose fantasy was to trans- ther selection of tales, Aladdin and Oth- (Courtesy)

10 January 23, 2015 THE ARABIC transcript on parchment of ‘The Thousand and One Nights.’ Dawood’s translations of the The Yehuda stories led to an esteemed position with Penguin Books. family Torah scroll (Wikimedia Commons) he Yehuda family, who came to Iraq from Israel via the Spanish Exile, had for generations been among the rabbis and community Tleaders in Baghdad. At the start of the 20th century, Yosef Yehuda and his brother Salah der of the faith and the fanaticism and merous letters from readers of his trans- set out on a business trip to Iran. Yosef returned to Iraq, and Salah stayed the poetry.” lations, including many from those who there, as a representative of the firm. In Iran, he contracted a serious illness Former Israeli ambassador to the UK had been inspired to convert to Islam, to which he succumbed. Back at home, and during the period of mourn- Moshe Raviv spoke of Dawood’s contri- or who simply wanted to thank him for ing, Yosef decided to have a Torah scroll written in memory of his brother bution, and of also the writer’s personal helping them understand what their re- and had it commissioned from the best scribes in Baghdad. It was written mission to translate the texts. ligion meant. on the finest deerskin “The fact that he translated the Koran was Nevertheless, “My father never had any available and com- important to [Dawood], important to the other agenda than the agenda of a lin- pleted in 1912. The wider community, important to Europe and guist,” said Richard. “He began his proj- cover for the scroll important to the United States,” Raviv said. ect [of translating the Koran] at the age of was made of decorat- “I met him when I was ambassador in 27 and finished it at the age of 86, when ed and painted wood, London in the ’90s. I knew him very well. he carried out his last revision. In fact, covered with intri- He was a very perceptive man, whose he was still looking at the Koran short- cately worked silver, forte was a philosophical and a wider ap- ly before he died, always looking for the crafted by the best sil- proach. He knew a lot about the Middle better way to express something, striving versmiths of the time. East and it was always good to discuss to make it as perfect as he could, to repro- In 1950, the scroll things with him.” duce the poetry accurately.” was shipped to Israel Among the topics they discussed were It was a project that never left him, said together with oth- the differences between Shi’ite and Sunni his son, whatever else he was busy with. er Torah scrolls that Islam, Raviv told the Post. “He would feel he had done his best, were saved during the fleeing of Jews from Iraq. Yosef, by then ‘[Dawood’s] is the only version, if you living in Israel, met the plane on which want to know in English what the Koran his family’s scroll arrived, and transport- actually says, behind the thunder of the ed it to the home of his son Gad, original- faith and the fanaticism and the poetry’ ly named Fouad Salah (his middle name – Philip Howard, was after the uncle in whose memory the literary editor of ‘The Times,’ 1991 scroll had been written). When Yosef and his ALTHOUGH UNHESITATINGLY identify- and then still come back to it.” wife moved to Petah ing himself as a Jew, Dawood was discreet Dawood often quoted Plato’s maxim, Tikva, in 1959, he had about matters of religion, and extremely saying that ideally, “You ought to wait 20 the scroll kept in the THE SEFER Torah commissioned by Yosef private about his own beliefs. years before you publish something, and Sephardi synagogue Dawood, written in the name of his brother, Dawood’s son Richard said of his fa- that way you would know that you had near his house. In Salah, who died young, is kept in an Iraqi ther: “His worldview was all-encompass- got it right.” 1964, Gad’s son Dani Synagogue in Ra’anana. (Courtesy) ing and tolerant. He was proud of the He departed from Rieu’s philosophy in read from the scroll at contributions and achievements of the the end, said Richard, “because he felt he his bar mitzva. Yosef Iraqi-Jewish community, and of its har- could capture the sense in idiomatic English died in 1969. The scroll then passed on to his son Yaakov, who at that monious coexistence with Islam in Bagh- and yet also remain faithful to the original.” time was employed at the Ben-Gurion Airport branch of Bank Leumi, dad through the centuries.” His knowledge of Arabic literature, po- and he offered it to the airport authorities. In 1971, in a public ceremony Dawood had a strong connection to Is- etry and proverbs, and his ability to com- in the presence of religious services minister Aharon Abuhatzeira, it was rael, and when visiting his siblings living municate clearly and warmly in Arabic en- brought into the airport’s synagogue. there, he brought his children along to abled him to establish an instant rapport In 1985, when Yaakov retired from his job at the airport, he retrieved the spend time with their cousins. with anyone who prized Arab culture. Torah scroll, by then damaged by a water leak in the synagogue and having Richard, who after graduation spent “In the early days,” said Richard, lost its original pomegranate decorations. In 2006, Yosef’s granddaughter, a summer at the Weizmann Institute of “there was no issue with the religion Ruth, restored the scroll, and enormous time, effort and expense were in- Science in Rehovot, recalled these visits of the translator. On the other hand, vested to make it usable in time for the bar mitzva of Tamir, the great-grand- fondly, which he said were spent “picking when in later years Dawood’s religion son of Yosef. Its renovation was a long and costly process, finally completed fruit, slaughtering chickens and smoking became more widely known, his trans- in 2007. The bar mitzva took place at Kfar Saba’s Sephardi synagogue. water pipes.” lation became more controversial, After the ceremony the scroll passed to the home of yet another of Yo- Dawood’s wife was involved in attracting criticism from some who sef’s sons, Heskel (originally Yehezkel), where it remained until the com- fund-raising through the London chap- believed that the Koran could only be pletion of the Ohel Ari Synagogue on 98 Ravutzki Street, in Ra’anana, ter of Hadassah Medical Organization. translated by a devout follower of Is- when it was dedicated on June 27, 2010. That synagogue was built in the (“One of the big attractions of Hadassah lam, if it could be translated at all. memory of St.-Sgt. Ari Weiss, who lost his life in Nablus as an IDF soldier for my mother was that it is involved in “Yet anybody who actually met him, if during Operation Defensive Shield. – M.F. helping both Arabs and Jews,” said Richard.) they were Arab, knew that they were Over the years, Dawood received nu- in the presence of someone who

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knew about their culture,” added Richard. “He had a deep respect for it, and was able to recite poetry and say- ings. In the Arab world it is not automatic that someone should not only speak beautiful Arabic, but also know its literature and have a deep respect for its culture.”

SHORTLY AFTER publication of his translation of the Koran, Dawood began a PhD at University College London, but the pressing need to support a young family forced him to abandon this after six months. Instead, he began to apply his unusual abilities to the world of commercial translation. In 1959 he founded his own translation agency, the Arabic Advertising and Publishing Company Ltd. It was at a time when the Middle East was beginning to import Western products as well as export their own, and the first products to receive Dawood’s attention were the basics of everyday life: food and beverages, cleaning materials, confectionery, chocolates and medicine. He started to work with the oil industry, science, technology and the legal sector. The British Defense Ministry and other government departments trusted him with their translations and sought his advice on sensitive issues relating to the Middle East. Because Arabic is an ancient language and Modern Standard Arabic was still in transition, Dawood was in- strumental in coining new words in Arabic to apply to new terminology, not far removed from what Eliezer Ben-Yehuda achieved for Modern Hebrew. He contributed to specialized English/Arabic and Arabic/English dictionaries. Ever multi-talented, Dawood learned Arabic calligraphy, following in the footsteps of the great 12th-century Andalusian-Jew- NESSIM AND Juliet Dawood’s wedding in London in 1954. (Courtesy) ish scholars and translators. (According to Richard, Dawood’s first Arabic calligraphy teacher was an Egyp- tian Jew by the name of Cohen.) Dawood and his team created ornate, complex artwork for logos, coins, cur- rency, stamps and passports across the Middle East. In 1969, he was invited by Princeton University Press to edit and abridge the Franz Rosenthal translation of The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History (the most important Islamic history of the pre-modern world, by medieval Arab scholar Ibn Khaldun), re- ducing it from its original three volumes to just one. This work had been groundbreaking in the 14th century, laying the foundations for several fields of study including the philosophies of history, sociology, eth- nology and economics. In the 1970s, Dawood assisted in the development of Arabic desktop publishing systems, working ini- tially with the Monotype Corporation and subsequently with Linotype. He became active in the voice-over and dubbing field, and his own voice was a familiar one across the Arabic-speaking world. His company eventually became known as Aradco, and continues to be a source of high-quality translations and artwork in Arabic and other languages.

ALSO DURING the ’70s, Dawood was to make a life- long dream come true, buying a house in a small vil- lage near Stratford-upon-Avon, so even though his main home continued to be in London, he was able to spend time close to the Royal Shakespeare Theater and see his favorite plays. His knowledge of Shakespeare was encyclopedic, and he loved English literature and the English countryside. Aware of Dawood’s reputation, Dore Gold, former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, approached him in 2006 for help with a key issue that he had encountered while writing his book The Fight for Jerusalem (later to become a New York Times best-seller). “I told him about the project I had begun about Is- NESSIM (left) and his younger brother Fouad (Gad Eshed) ride bikes in Tel Aviv in 1973. rael’s rights in Jerusalem in light of the legal and dip-

12 January 23, 2015 ‘We met repeatedly as I progressed with my book... Nessim was a master of language’ – Ambassador Dore Gold

Bridging PRESIDENT OF the Jerusalem civilizations Center for Public Affairs Dore Gold. (Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) DORE GOLD

essim Dawood was a mentor and a friend. Visiting him and his wife, Juliet, in their London home was an encounter with a unique kind of aristocracy. Nor- mally the elites of Iraqi Jewry in London lomatic struggles that it had undertaken,” Gold told the areN associated with the great merchant families that Post. “I pointed out that in 2000, at the last great sum- established themselves over the centuries along the mit with [US president Bill] Clinton and [prime minister coastal cities of Asia from India to Hong Kong. He rep- Ehud] Barak, [PA chairman Yasser] Arafat made a claim resented an aristocracy of knowledge. Like his friend that the Temple had never existed. Subsequently [Ara- Prof. Elie Kedourie, he served as a critical intellectual fat] said that it was perhaps in Nablus or Yemen if it had bridge between the Middle East and Britain, which existed at all. Clinton reprimanded him, saying, ‘I am a had multiple diplomatic, military and commercial Christian, we read the Gospel, and according to the New ties that needed and used his skills. Testament Jesus lived in Jerusalem and went up to the These men came from an Iraq that was crumbling. Temple, so this is an affront to the Christians also.’ At the time of the First World War, the Jewish com- “Temple denial began spreading to [Chief PLO nego- munity of Baghdad made up approximately one third tiator Saeb] Erekat, [PA President Mahmoud] Abbas and of the city’s population. Jews had evolved to become others, such as Nabil Shaath,” said Gold. part of the establishment, with some becoming se- He told Dawood he contested this in his book, sup- nior ministers. But with the rise of pro-Axis senti- porting his arguments with archeological evidence ment in Iraq during the Second World War, and es- proving the Temple’s existence, “and that this was not pecially after the violent Farhud, or pogrom, against just a ‘belief.’” Baghdad’s Jews in 1941, many saw that the situation Nevertheless, Gold wanted to see what the Koran had was becoming untenable. As a youth, he personally to say about it. witnessed the brutality of Iraqi mobs against two Brit- “Nessim asked me if I had studied Arabic. He took out ish sergeants that undoubtedly affected his choices a very old Koran, which was laid out similar to a Tal- of where to build his home later in life. But he never mud, with the text in the center and commentary on let these experiences cloud his passion for the Arabic the sides, and pointed to the 17th surah, which refers to language and culture, though privately he had his Muhammad’s journey from the “sacred Mosque” to the own strong views of trends in the Middle East. “farthest Mosque.” For the more intolerant in that region, and their lo- “We sat and studied together a number of the famous cal branches in the UK, the idea that an Iraqi Jew would Muslim commentaries including those of “Jalaleyn,” specialize in Arabic and translate an Islamic text was the two Jalals, a great commentator and his son, from difficult. They had forgotten 12th-century Spain, where the 15th and 16th centuries. Jews and Muslims became aware and even influenced “Nessim told me that many ask the question: ‘Where by each other’s philosophical texts, particularly those of was the farthest mosque?’ referring to it as Bayt al-Maqdis. Maimonides, who wrote many works in Judeo-Arabic. “You can see the similarity to the Hebrew name for the As the Middle East goes through the enormous Temple, Beit Hamikdash,” explained Gold. “The point changes it is witnessing, Nessim Dawood’s wise coun- Nessim was making was that if you studied the original sel will be needed, but tragically he will not be with Arabic sources, which Nessim lived, Arafat’s claims de- us. For this writer, I will always think of him as my in- fied not only Jewish history, but also Arabic tradition.” formal teacher who made my book on Jerusalem pos- “We met repeatedly as I progressed with my book, sible. What is an essential truth is that a good teacher Gold said. “Every time I would visit Britain I would see is always remembered in the hearts of students, con- him. Once my book was published, a senior Israeli com- tinuing to give them inspiration even after they are plimented me on it, but I didn’t want to disclose that ALADDIN IS trapped by the sorcerer in the gone. ■ Nessim had been behind me; there were people in var- magic cave, an illustration by Paris artist Albert ious governments who sent him official documents to Robida. (Wikimedia Commons) The writer is president of the Jerusalem Center for Pub- translate. lic Affairs and former Israeli ambassador to the United “Nessim was a master of language.” ■ Nations.