Professor Juan Cole of Informed Comment is starting a project to:
translate important books by great Americans and about America into Arabic, and to subsidize their publication so that they can be bought inexpensively. I hope also to subsidize their distribution. This is a non-profit project, but until it grows large enough to become a proper foundation, it will not be tax-deductible.The project will begin with a selected set of passages and essays by Thomas Jefferson on constitutional and governmental issues such as freedom of religion, the separation of powers, inalienable rights, the sovereignty of the people, and so forth.
This seems like an extremely worthwhile idea. The professor explains there are very few books about American history, philosophy, or diplomacy available in Arabic anywhere in the Middle East, and book publishing is a spotty business in that part of the world.
You know, if you were an Arab intellectual in Cairo, Amman or even Baghdad, and you wanted to read a book that collected some central writings of Thomas Jefferson in Arabic, you almost certainly could not get hold of such a book. I repeat: The major classics of American thought either have not been translated into Arabic, or were published in tiny editions and are now impossible to find. I just checked. Bernard Mayo's Jefferson Himself appeared in Cairo in 1959 and 1960. Nobody now could find a copy, I am sure. I searched for the Federalist Papers in Arabic and got nothing. Abbas Mahmud al-`Aqqad's book on Benjamin Franklin was published in 1955, and appears to be the last word on the subject.
Click here if his idea makes sense to you; you can contribute via Visa or Mastercard. And pass the word along, too.
Posted by Linkmeister at February 13, 2004 12:01 AMI agree with you, Linky..
However, there are Americans in this country that cannot read or write English and are American Citizens. And with our library's having to curtail certain books about our own history--are we too headed down this path???
But, I am hoping that with an increase in our American History to the Arabic nations-maybe, just maybe- they would have a better understanding of our country and appreciate it in some way....