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Copyright

Ofra Tirosh-Becker;

Published On

2025-03-07

Page Range

pp. 363–398

Language

  • English

Print Length

36 pages

Judaeo-Arabic Translations from the Bible to Robinson Crusoe: Centre versus Periphery

  • Ofra Tirosh-Becker (author)
Chapter of: Interconnected Traditions: Semitic Languages, Literatures, Cultures—A Festschrift for Geoffrey Khan: Volume 2: The Medieval World, Judaeo-Arabic, and Neo-Aramaic(pp. 363–398)
The article examines the evolution of Judaeo-Arabic translations, ranging from early biblical renditions to modern adaptations of European literature. Early pre-Saadian translations, written in a phonetic transcription, preceded Saʿadya Gaon’s Tafsīr (Bible translation), which adhered to ‘classical’ linguistic norms and became the authoritative translation for centuries. However, later translations introduced local dialectal features to meet the needs of diverse Jewish communities. The theoretical framework of ‘centre versus periphery’ is employed to analyse the dynamics of translation traditions, highlighting the interaction between cultural centres like Meknes, Morocco, and Constantine, Algeria, and their peripheries. By the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Judaeo-Arabic translations extended to Haskala novels and French and English classics such as Robinson Crusoe, demonstrating the influence of global cultural trends. The study emphasises the dual role of these translations in preserving Jewish identity and adapting to contemporary linguistic and cultural shifts.

Contributors

Ofra Tirosh-Becker

(author)
Bialik Professor of Hebrew Language and Professor at Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Ofra Tirosh-Becker (PhD, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem) is Bialik Professor of Hebrew Language in the Department of Hebrew Language at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem as well as a Professor in that institution’s Department of Arabic Language and Literature. She is Head of the Center of Jewish Languages at the Hebrew University, and a full member of the Academy of the Hebrew Language. Her research focuses on the contacts between Arabic and Hebrew, including: North-African Judaeo-Arabic; Judaeo-Arabic translations of the Bible and of post-biblical literature; Medieval Hebrew; the contact between Hebrew and Arabic in the Middle Ages; and Rabbinic Hebrew in Karaite writings. Selected publications include the two-volume monograph Rabbinic Excerpts in Medieval Karaite Literature (The Bialik Institute, 2011 [Hebrew]), (co-edited with Lutz Edzard) Jewish Languages: Text Specimens, Grammatical, Lexical, and Cultural Sketches (Harrassowitz, 2021), and the monograph The Judeo-Arabic Dialect of Constantine (Algeria): A Linguistic Analysis of the Spoken and Written Varieties (Brill).