The Manuscript Center 4th Annual Conference "Translated Manuscripts"
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Alexandria—
The BA Manuscript Center will hold its fourth annual conference entitled "Translated Manuscripts" during the period from 29-31 May 2007. The Conference will discuss the role of translation movement in preserving heritage and the translated manuscripts from different languages to Arabic. Fifty researchers from all over the world will participate in the Conference.
On the Conference's topic, Dr. Ismail Serageldin, Director of the Library of Alexandria, stated that the Conference exhibit discernible continuity in exploring un-trodden, neglected areas in Arabic/Islamic heritage.
The Conference will follow the pattern of its predecessors (Millenary Manuscripts Conference 2004, Signed Manuscripts Conference 2005, Commentary Manuscripts Conference 2006) in shedding light on one of the significant facets of Arabic heritage, namely, its contact with preceding and succeeding legacies of knowledge.
Interaction among human civilizations takes place in manifold forms. Translation, perhaps one of the most important of such. Dr. Serageldin added that translation remains one of the factors that has enriched and influenced human history to its core. Thanks to translators, Judaism and Christianity survived to the present. Translation is also credited for the transmission of Classical heritage to the Syriacs then to the Arabs, to be eventually adapted by the Latin world and finally into modern European languages.
He added that the Conference will tackle seven main themes, namely:
• First, the factors that led to the flowering of translation activities.
• Second, translations of living versus bygone heritage and their selection criteria, investigating, moreover, their influence on the shaping of human history and the nature of contemporaneous and successive civilizations.
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• Third, translations carried out by academic institutions or commissioned by patrons.
• Fourth, the impact of translation on reconstructing our awareness of preceding heritage and, subsequently, influencing the development of world knowledge, i.e. the authority of translation.
• Fifth, tracing the journey of a translated masterpiece, or rather two journeys: the first in its original culture and the other in the target culture.
• Sixth, the languages from/into which the translated manuscripts were transmitted. In particular, the languages that played a significant intermediary role bringing different cultures together.
• Seventh, translation theory and its applications. This theme will examine issues related to translation such as technical terminology and re-translation of a given work employing different techniques from the original translator.
Click here to view the program