The Graeco-Arab translation movement
pneumonia, and pleurisy, Ḥ unayn provides expanded translations with definitions and then adds the Arabic transliterations of the Greek ( farānī ṭ is, l ī ṯ ā r ġū s, b ā rbafl ū m ū niy ā , bal ū r ī ṭ is ) (Cooper, 2019).
The application of two Arabic words (usually adjectives) by Hunayn to capture the meaning of a single Greek term, which Glen Cooper called hendiadys (‘one via two’), shows his dedication to a ‘reader - oriented’ approach. In the translation of On Critical Days H ụ nayn renders the Greek word kalos , which implies both ‘good’ and ‘beautiful’, by h ạ san ǧ am ī l (‘good and beautiful’). Moreover, Hunayn maintains his ‘reader - oriented’ approach through his treatment of semantics. In his translations of Galen’s treatises on crisis theory, Ḥ unayn rendered stochazomai (‘conjecture’) with ḥ adasa (Cooper, 2019). Both of these terms have semantic associations with archery in their respective languages: stochazomai is from stochos (‘target’), and the primary sense of ḥ adasa is ‘to throw, hurl, or shoot (an arrow)’. The meaning ‘to conjecture’ is thus a metaphorical extension of this primary sense in both cases: to conjecture about something is like shooting at a dimly seen or unseen target, hoping to hit it (Cooper, 2019). This helps solve al-Jahiz's problem of untranslatability, as Hunayn successfully understands the author’s intent and gives an accurate representation in the TL. On occasion, Hunayn omitted parts of the source text because he found them redundant or difficult to work with. In al- Risālah he writes, ‘But I am not familiar with the language of Aristophanes, nor am I accustomed to it… therefore, omitted it’ (Goodin, 2014, p. 5). This shows a lack of understanding and a lack of mastery of the language that al- Jahiz wants from translators. Hunayn didn’t fully understand Ptolemy’s Almagest and this resulted in it being later retranslated by Thabit ibn Qurra (Montgomery, 2018). However, he did not specialize in Aristotle' s work, as he did with Galen’s, which he was successful in translating and said: ‘it would have been impossible for me to understand the meaning of the text had I not been so familiar with and accustomed to Galen’s Greek’ (Ahmad, 2016). History clearly shows Hunayn as a prolific and extremely well-respected translator, especially in the medical field. He not only had a positive impact on Islamic civilization but arguably, modern-day Europe too. Hunayn created a manual on disease classification that was translated into Latin from Arabic and became one of six books to be in the first medical curriculum of medieval Europe. The manual was studied in Europe’s leading medical schools and universities and was continuously reprinted until the sixteenth century (Chicco, 2014). The cornerstone of his success was his strong belief in conveying meaning into the TL and his ‘reader - oriented’ approach (current day gurus would possibly call him 100% customer-focused). With Galen’s work, Hunayn did not rely on translatin g word by word. Rather, he read the original text, understood the context, understood the connotations of the vocabulary and expressions, and then reproduced a text in the TL, which al-Jahiz would have been satisfied with as it shows a well-rounded understanding of the source text allowing for a more accurate translation. Hunayn also overcame the issue posed by al-Jahiz on the uniqueness of translation through his use of hendiadys, and how it captured the meaning of the SL and ensured that its meaning was transferred. Nevertheless, al- Jahiz may still argue that Hunayn couldn’t have known the exact implications of the works of the Greeks, as he would argue that they were cleverer (even though Hunayn’s knowledge of the translated languages seemed to be exceptionally strong). Whilst al-Jahiz believed that each language a translator knew would decrease the accuracy of the work, as each language would fight for control over the tongue, when one considers the facts, Hunayn was a very judicious translator. His
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