Kant auf Arabisch: Übersetzungsprobleme und deren Lösungen durch die Übersetzer der Schriften "Beantwortung der Frage: Was ist Aufklärung?" und "Kritik der reinen Vernunft"

Abstract

Translating the works of German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) into Arabic is difficult for two reasons. Firstly, Kant’s language is so complex that some Kant researchers and linguists go so far as to deny the translatability of his works into any other language. Secondly, the special lexical and grammatical characteristics of the Arabic language lead some Arabic intellectuals to doubt the ability of Arabic to express ideas of modern philosophy in general. Notwithstanding these difficulties, Kant’s works have been translated into Arabic. This article examines how the translators of Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason and An Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment?, Aḥmad aš-Šībānī, Mūsā Wahba, Ismāʿīl al-Muṣaddaq und ʿAbd al-Ġaffār Mikkāwī, coped with the above-mentioned difficulties and how they solved lexical and syntactic problems. It will be argued that the way the translators coped with these problems depended on their personal target cultures and the goals they pursued with their translations, and that therefore, the translations have to be considered as facts of a translator’s personal target culture.