Analysis of Arab Abbasid and Modern Turkish Period Translation Activities With the Approach of Andre Lefevere

Abstract

Translation on its own is not a happening phenomenon. Beyond doubt there have to be some reasons bringing it to light. These can be expressed in one or more than one generic terms such as geographical, historical, political, commercial, and social reasons. It is possible that within different historical period, geography, culture, religion and interactions of communities there are some commonalities inducing translation. Given that the common work of translation environments implying such divergent aspects is translation, the question of which commonalities may exist becomes salient. The fact that concerning translation, there are indeed commonalities, is important for the emergence of generic terms in the field of translation. Applying the generic terms of Andre Lefevere developed for the field of translation, to the Arab Abbasid and Modern Turkish period translation activities, one may get an idea about how consistent these terms are. In order to understand the inclusiveness of these terms, it is suitable to describe and compare historical periods, cultures and large-scale translation efforts differing from each other in time and space. In this vein, possible commonalities and differences can be brought in light and by discussing them, the terms Lefevere formulated for the field of translation, can be further developed. The translation activities during Abbasid period and Modern Turkish period are both examined with this approach. With reference to translation history sources, period based data are obtained and these are especially evaluated in the focus of titles implying phenomena of the terms of Levefere translation study oriented terms. As a result of the comparison it is found that Lefevere?s terms are of illuminating character for both periods.