Translating Mystical Literature: Analyzing Arberry's Translation of Farid ud-Din ʿAṭṭār's Taḏkerat al-awliāʾ through a Postcolonial Lens

مطالعات زبان و ترجمه

Volume 57, Issue 3, November 2024, Pages 119-152   

Document Type: Research Article

DOI: 10.22067/lts.2024.89993.1295

Authors

marzieh malekshahi^{* 1}; Ghodrat Hassani²

¹Damghan university

²English Department, Damghan University

Abstract

This paper conducts a postcolonial analysis of A.J. Arberry's 1960 English translation of the Taḏkerat al-awliāʾ (Memorial of God's Friends) by Farid ud-Din ʿAṭṭār. While ʿAṭṭār's 12th-century biographical compilation offers profound insights into Persian Sufi traditions through its portraits of Islamic mystics, Arberry's translation reflects mid-20th century Orientalist perspectives common among Western scholars. Through close examination of Arberry's translation strategies—including selective abridgement, extractive appropriation, interpretive additions, mythologizing language, and reductive section divisions—this study reveals how his Orientalist positioning influenced his rendering of the text. The analysis demonstrates how Arberry's ideological framework led him to reshape ʿAṭṭār's work to align with Western expectations and colonial attitudes, thereby reinforcing unequal power dynamics in cross-cultural representation. The paper argues that Arberry's translation choices, from his organizational framework to his selective emphasis, ultimately serve to filter this seminal Persian text through a distinctly Orientalist lens.

Keywords

Postcolonialism; Orientalism; Translation; Taḏkerat al-awliā; Arthur John Arberry

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