Translation as the Manufacturing of Meaning: A Few Words about the Title of Ibn Khaldūn’s History

Abstract

ABSTRACT Meaning is not a ready-made entity found in dictionaries as signified by a language sign, but rather something which is manufactured through a sense-positing procedure that starts with an initial intuition and runs until the text is written down. This initial intuition may have two interpretations, namely, a substance-based and a process-based readings. This option sets down a bifurcation point on a way towards the text’s final meaning. The translator’s task is, firstly, to understand which of the two possible routes, running from this bifurcation point, the author of the text opted for and, secondly, to accomplish the translation (i.e., to manufacture its meaning) accordingly. The cognitive models adopted by Arabic and Islamic authors serve as markers to highlight the author’s choice. The ẓāhir-bāṭin (“manifest-hidden”) opposition is one of such models which, provided it is correctly interpreted by the translator, enables him/her to adequately reproduce the meaning of the text. This article examines the opening pages of the English, French, and Russian translations of the “Introduction” to Ibn Khaldūn’s “History” which includes its title. It shows how the translators passed the initial bifurcation point and how their option affected the final meaning of their translations.