Translating the Bible into Arabic: historical, text-critical and literary aspects

Arabic translations of the Bible exemplify the complexities of translation as a linguistic operation, and they also illustrate the intricate aspects of their embeddedness in particular cultural and social settings. They are particularly related to multiconfessional and multilingual backgrounds, and thus represent the potential of translation as a means of creating modes of expression, ideas and concepts on the ground of a mediating process. This was the guiding supposition for a conference on "Linguistic and Cultural Aspects of Translation – The Arabic Bible", held in Beirut in December 2008. This volume contains papers presented and results of the discussions during the conference and shows the interwoven character of different Bible editions during the last 500 years and before.