Teaching Oriental languages in St. Petersburg University in the 19<sup>th</sup> century: “Russian-Arabic Conversations” by Abdallah Kelzi and his translations of Krylov's fables

Abstract

The article deals with the appendix to the publication "Russian-Arabic Conversations" by the teacher of Arabic and Turkish languages at the Oriental Faculty of St. Petersburg University, Abdallah (Fedor Il’ich) Kelzi (1819–1912). The appendix comprises ten fables by Ivan Andreevich Krylov (1769–1844) translated into Arabic. This is the first instance when his fables received a translation into Arabic. The Author shows that A. Kelzi’s choice of the source for translation was hardly accidental. The text of Krylov's fables easily falls to discrete “blocks”. These "blocks" were rather convenient for building new sentences and, therefore, for describing various situations. This fact enabled a student to save efforts while memorizing the Russian examples for translation and to concentrate on a deeper study of Arabic vocabulary and idioms by students. The vocabulary itself was also not artificial and chosen for the occasion: Krylov wrote in the living, folk language of the 19th century. The Arabic words and expressions, which A. Kelzi used, as well as the Arabic style of his translation, were also imitated. The study shows that A. Kelzi relied on the edition of the Arabic text of Luqman's Fables, published in France in 1850.