Why Translate Science? - by Dimitri Gutas (Paperback)

About the Book

A collection of documents from antiquity to the 16th century in the historical West (Bactria to the Atlantic), in the original languages with an English translation and introductory essays, about the motivations and purposes of translation from and into Greek, Syriac, Middle Persian, Arabic, Hebrew, and Latin, as given in the personal statements...

Book Synopsis

From antiquity to the 16th century, translation united culturally the peoples in the historical West (from Bactria to the shores of the Atlantic) and fueled the production and circulation of knowledge. The Hellenic scientific and philosophical curriculum was translated from and into, to mention the most prevalent languages, Greek, Syriac, Middle Persian, Arabic, Hebrew, and Latin.
To fill a lack in existing scholarship, this volume collects the documents that present the insider evidence provided in contemporary accounts of the motivations and purposes of translation given in the personal statements by the agents in this process, the translators, scholars, and historians of each society. Presented in the original languages with an English translation and introductory essays, these documents offer material for the study of the historical contextualization of the translations, the social history of science and philosophy in their interplay with traditional beliefs, and the cultural policies and ideological underpinnings of these societies.

Contributors
Michael Angold, Pieter Beullens, Charles Burnett, David Cohen, Gad Freudenthal, Dag Nikolaus Hasse, Anthony Kaldellis, Daniel King, Felix Mundt, Ignacio Sánchez, Isabel Toral, Uwe Vagelpohl, and Mohsen Zakeri.

Review Quotes

"The volume considers science in its broader historical sense, including medicine, astrology, and philosophy alongside mathematics and natural science, but excluding religious texts. Each contributed chapter provides an introductory essay contextualizing its sources within a specific historical period and culture. English translations of selected passages concerning the methodology of translation itself are rendered by chapter authors or from standard editions. Those same excerpts are also presented in the working translator's original language and script. Translations from and into Arabic, Greek, and Latin--and into Hebrew--receive the most attention, but Middle Persian and Syriac are also represented as target languages. Given its cost and focus, the volume will primarily be appropriate for institutions with robust history, philology, or philosophy programs, and will likely be of most use to advanced scholars in those disciplines."
P. M. Crowley, Choice Connect May 60.9 (2023).

About the Author

Dimitri Gutas, Ph.D. (1974), Yale University, is Professor Emeritus of Arabic at Yale. He has published on the medieval Graeco-Arabic translation movement, the transmission of Greek philosophical texts into Arabic (most recently Aristotle's Poetics, Brill, 2012), and Arabic philosophy (most recently, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 2^nd ed., Brill, 2014).

Charles Burnett, Ph.D. (1976), Cambridge University, is Professor of the History of Arabic/Islamic Influences in Europe at the Warburg Institute, University of London. His research centres on the transmission of texts from the Arab world to the West in the Middle Ages.

Uwe Vagelpohl, Ph.D. (2003), Cambridge University, is a research fellow at the Warburg Institute, University of London. His research centers on the reception of antique learning in the medieval Islamic world.

Contributors
Michael Angold, Pieter Beullens, Charles Burnett, David Cohen, Gad Freudenthal, Dag Nikolaus Hasse, Anthony Kaldellis, Daniel King, Felix Mundt, Ignacio Sánchez, Isabel Toral, Uwe Vagelpohl, and Mohsen Zakeri.