ˁAbbās Maḥmūd al-ˁAqqād and Tāhā Ḥusayn: Translation and the Mutual Knowledge of Peoples

In a 1929 debate conducted in a series of periodical articles, ˁAbbās Mahmūd al-ˁAqqād and Tāhā Husayn consider the fundamental causes of intercultural exchange through translation. They disagree over whether it is motivated by inequality resulting from defeat or by the inherent sociality of human nature. They likewise differ in explaining a resemblance between a Japanese story and a Arabic folk tale: al-ˁAqqād sketches a pattern of historical transmission from the Far East through Turkey to Aswan in northern Egypt, whereas ḥusayn cites a notion of universal humanity that transcends history. For Al-ˁAqqād, translations are capable of offering different interpretations of source texts, whether by superficially exoticizing foreign cultures or by incisively probing them. Husayn calls for the institution of a government-run translation agency overseen by cultural elites.