At the Crossroads of Translation and History-Writing: Büyük İran Tarihi as a Case of Writing History through Translation

Abstract

This article explores the relationship between translation and history-writing within the framework of translation studies by analyzing Büyük İran Tarihi (Great history of Iran) translated by Ömer Halis from Persian into Ottoman Turkish in 1926. Questioning whether the distinction between the translation and the original and the distinction between the translator and the history writer were blurred in this case of translation and whether the translator used strategies that reflect his ideology during the translation process, a descriptive analysis of the extratextual elements surrounding the translation and of the textual elements has been conducted. Drawing on the analysis of the extratextual sources and the textual sources with a focus on the translation strategies such as omissions, additions and modifications, it is claimed that Ömer Halis intervenes in the translation in line with his ideological stance and becomes both a visible translator and a history writer who enters into a communication, starts a dialogue and a discussion with the author of the source text, who evaluates and construes the information in the source text from his ideological point of view and who writes a history that serves his ideology. It is further claimed that, the boundary between the translator and the historian and the boundary between translation and history-writing become eliminated in this specific case of translation, which might be considered as a constituent of the ‘history translation repertoire’ of the period in question.