The Origin of Structural Errors in Translations of Nahj al-Balaghah Sermons: Infinitive Derivatives of estefal

Various Arabic to Persia translations of Nahj al-Balaghah are available. Still, due to the shortcomings, many critics have criticized these translations. The present study aims to study the translators' challenges while translating infinitive derivatives of estefal through descriptive-analytical method. To this aim, the authors used different lexical dictionaries, morphological and syntactic books, and explanations of Nahj al-Balaghah. Therefore, the authors extracted the eight infinitive derivatives of estefal in six Persian translations of Nahj al-Balaghah (Faiz al-Islam, Ansari, Shahidi, Zamani, Dashti, and Agha Mirzaei). The findings of this study show that 'error in recognizing individual structure' and 'error in recognizing plural structure' are the most fundamental errors in the translation of derivatives. Quantitatively, the statistical report of the translators' performance in the studied samples indicated that Shahidi's translation had been the most successful translation without any error in recognizing individual and plural structure in translating derivatives. The second most successful translation belonged to Faizat al-Islam translation in identifying individual structures without any error.