2012/01/01 by Peter Burke · 1 citation
Social Sciences · Arts and Humanities · #Historical and Linguistic Studies #Ottoman Empire History and Society #Linguistics and Cultural Studies
paper · doi:10.1163/9789004194908_009
openalex publication_date 2012/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2025/11/06
This chapter examines the translation of foreign languages as an example of the translation of foreign cultures, using the term 'cultural translation' in the sense given it by Malinowski, Evans- Pritchard and other anthropologists and thus including the translation of political regimes, from democracy to despotism. This chapter is concerned with the cultural translation of the Turks by western travelers writing in their own language, and also with the translations of those translations into other languages, especially Latin, Italian, French, English, German, and Dutch. In early modern Europe, the Ottoman Empire and Turkish culture were translated in two very different ways. On one side we see the persistence of traditional stereotypes, and on the other we find examples of a fresher vision, generally the result of direct observation at close quarters. The translation of books from Turkish into western languages was rare in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Keywords:cultural translation; democracy; despotism; Ottoman Empire; traditional stereotypes; Turks; western travelers