Analytic Comparison of Two Translations of the ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif With Particular Regard to Differences in the Translators’ Views

A work’s intended audience and the context from which it springs and in which it develops can determine and generate a new and altered content for certain concepts which are unitary at the origin. This influence becomes evident when a target text ends up being clearly attuned to the readers’ needs and concerns. Taking such influences into account, the present paper examines Suhriwardī’s ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif and two of its translations by Abū Manṡūr Ismāʿīl Iṡfahānī and ʿAbd al-Raḥman Buzğuš Šīrāzī. The author has chosen four criteria – the translators’ world view, the nature of their imagery, the influence of their personal convictions on their work, and the impact of their lifeworld – as yardsticks for assessing the two works. The comparison reveals that in Abū Manṡūr’s translation of the ʿAwārif his paying attention to the readers’ likes and dislikes makes him inclined to succinctness and leads him to exhibit his eloquence, whereas ʿAbd al-Raḥman, in his Maʿārif al-ʿAwārif forbears to meddle with the text in favour of a more literal rendition. It appears that Abū Manṡūr’s interference results in an alteration of Suhriwardī’s thought in a number of ways and that the translator in some places seizes control of the meaning replacing Suhriwardī’s statements and thoughts with his own theories. ʿAbd al-Raḥman, on the other hand, is striving, as far as possible, not to distort Suhriwardī’s thinking. It appears that the gloomy atmosphere of Isfahan during the reign of the Mongols prevented Abū Manṡūr from providing an exact and specialist translation, whereas the relatively safe and calm environment of the Fars province, where ʿAbd al-Raḥman lived and worked, proved conducive to a deeper understanding of Suhriwardī’s concepts and enabled him to give an accurate and scientific rendition of every single expression of the ʿAwārif.