Purpose
Turath’s Young Translator Program provides new translators opportunities to learn and practice Arabic-English translation by working on texts for publication, through a collaborative team approach.
We started right before the pandemic, and to date:
Trained over twenty first-time translators, hailing from Zaytuna, Oxford, UChicago, SOAS, Cambridge Muslim College, and top madrasas
Translated seven key texts, including texts by Imam Ghazali and Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali’s Lataif al-Lata’if.
“Young Translators Bringing Forth Our Heritage” Featured in Muslim 500
“Being involved with Turath’s Young Translators Program has been an incredible development opportunity for me as a translator and person. Engaging deeply with texts brings one closer to the author and the paradigm that they inhabit, while working collaboratively engages the social aspect of language and comprehension. Working with others at different levels of language skill also provides opportunities for being both mentored and being a mentor.”
Why
Arabic-English translation volume is a small fraction of Spanish-English or other top 10 language translation volume. Most Muslim heritage remains inaccessible to the growing segment of English-speaking Muslims, despite Islamic civilization being built on scholarship and the great translation movements. Meanwhile, there are no institutions for the systematic training of translating Islamic texts. Turath’s Young Translator’s Program is our contribution to unlocking translations and translators.
What: Spring Program
A part-time remote program (5-7 hours a week) where teams of 3 or so new translators work with an editor to translate a text and compare / contrast lessons learned with other teams. The final work is edited and published by Turath. This program will run from early-June to mid-August 2022.
