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Tradition, Tension and Translation in Turkey
Edited by Şehnaz Tahir Gürçağlar, Saliha Paker and John Milton
[Benjamins Translation Library 118] 2015
► pp. 53–72

Exploring Tercüman as a culture-bound concept in Islamic mysticism

Ottoman/Turkish translation tradition is rich with various practices as well as concepts, which have different significations other than their conventional meanings. This article explores one of these concepts, tercüman (the Turkish word for translator; from the Arabic tarjumān), within the tradition of Islamic mysticism. In addition to this signification of the concept, the paper also deals with the relationship between the sufi and the tercüman, presenting a descriptive analysis of examples from the paratexts of Muhyiddin Ibn al-Arabi’s Fusus al-Hikam in the Turkish and English translations. This analysis will demonstrate how tercüman is employed by the mystic to name or present himself as the divinely inspired “translator” of God’s truth. The study aims to contribute to the metaphorics of translation and the role and image of translators across different cultures.

Keywords: Alevi-Bektashi tradition, Fusus al-Hikam, Islamic mysticisim, Muhyiddin Ibn al-Arabi, tercüman, translator
Published online: 10 July 2015
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https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.118.02akb
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Gambier, Yves
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