Translation of Poetry from Persian to Arabic: ʿAbd al-Qāhir al-Jurjānī and Others

Abstract

ʿAbd al-Qāhir al-Jurjānī (d. 471/1078 or 474/1081) wrote in his Asrār al-balāgha that he had translated a line of Persian poetry, and he used that Arabic translation to illustrate the rhetorical figure of ḥusn al-taʿlīl. He did not provide the Persian original, but when the Asrār was integrated, via al-Sakkākī (d. 626/1229) and al-Qazwīnī (d. 739/1338), into al-Taftazānī’s (d. 793/1390) Muṭawwal, a number of Ottoman readers wrote a Persian verse in the margin. This paper investigates al-Jurjānī’s translation theory, other translations of Persian poetry, the marginalia, and Perseo-Arabic-Turkic multilingualism, while comparing al-Jurjānī’s attitude to language and translation with some European and Anglophone discussions.