Translation in the early days of Islam

الترجمة في عصر صدر الاسلام

In the early days of Islam which started as a new religion in the
Peninsula, there were two super powers; The Persian Empire, and The
Roman Empire.
At that time, due to lack of writing papers, Muhammad, The
Prophet of Islam, (PBBUH) sent a message to Hercules, a Roman military
leader at that time, written on a piece of animal skin.
The geographical and political situation at that time made Arabs
very interested in learning foreign languages such as Persian, Latin and
Greek,

Methods of Translation in the Abbasid Age
وسائل وطرق الترجمة في العصر العباسي
ذكر طريقتين من وسائل الترجمة اولهم :
1- yuhanna bin batriq method; the literal way- has some
demerits. This is due to the linguistic differences between Arabic and
Greek. Arabic, for instance, cannot provide equivalences to all words in
Greek. For this reason words like:
falsafa = Philosophy

2- Hunayn bin ishaq method - the free way- which has been
favoured and preferred to the literal method of bin Batriq, because it
gives the translator the liberty to omit what is not necessary and add
what is necessary for the understanding of the message to be translated.

3- These two general methods have dominated the process
of translation throughout its long history

Translation during the French Invasion of Egypt in 1789 ;

When Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Egypt in 1789, he
brought along with him translators and interpreters to help him
communicate with Egyptians with regard to political, social and
administrative affairs.
The task of these translators, who came from France, was to
translate official and administrative documents and sometimes they
acted as interpreters
However, translators like Jean-Michel Venture de Paradis (born
1776), looked at translation as a kind of linguistic exercise and pastime.
Jean-Michel Venture de