چكيده لاتين :
The History of Al-Uthman perfectly illustrates the events and happenings of the Ottoman government from the beginning of its emergence to the time of Ragheb Pasha. It also includes the events taking place after 1744. Besides its historical value, this work provides the audience with valuable knowledge about the social situation of the people, the behavior, and actions of the Ottoman rulers, cultural changes, and the way of thinking and the viewpoint of people during that era. The author of this work, Ahmad Judet Pasha, was born in 1823 in Bulgaria and was a very prominent and influential person in the Ottoman government. The translator is Mohammad Hossein Khoei and as said by his own words, he tried to translate this work by the order of Naser al-Din Shah in 1900. The prose of this work, excluding the introduction, which is an artificial one, is in colloquial language and is one of the anonymous texts of the Qajar era. There are two manuscripts of this book, both of them date back to the thirteenth century. However, the first version is complete and the second version is incomplete. Due to the importance of the Qajar colloquial language in the changes and developments of modern Persian, the present study aims to investigate the position of the author and translator and its translation style so as to elucidate the worth of this anonymous historical version alongside its linguistic significance.
Introduction
The identity of any nation relies on the history of that nation, and history is always extracted from the literary texts and manuscripts belonging to that nation's past. These literary and historical texts need special amendment and revision as a result of the passage of time and the countless alterations in them. The present study aims to answer the question of: What is the effect of translating the History of Al-Uthman and what are its stylistic features? Moreover, it pursues to completely present this manuscript to its audience, particularly those enthusiastic about manuscripts as well as students and researchers of history and literature. Regarding the History of the Ottomans in Iran, works such as The Chronicles of Al-Uthman by Muhammad ibn Haji Khalil al-Qanwi, The History of Uthman Pasha by Abu Bakr ibn Abdullah in the account of the Ottoman invasion of the Safavid Empire in the Caucasus and the conquest of these areas, Kunha al-Akhbar by Mustafa Ali have been published. Conversely, since this research has been done on manuscripts and the modification of this version has been the responsibility of the author of this research, there is no recorded background for it. Hence, it is for the first time that this book and its stylistics are introduced.
The History of Al-Uthman is a comprehensive work on the history and politics of the Ottoman government written in an introduction (in its biography and the reason for writing the book) and twelve articles. In the introduction of the work, the author recognizes that the depiction of the events and happenings of the Ottoman government endured in a state of ambiguity since 1677, (Judat Pasha, 1900, p. 5). He has made this work on the orders of Abdul Majid Khan.
The author of the History of Al-Uthman is Ahmad Judet Pasha was born in 1823 in the Bulgarian province of Lufcha and his father and grandfather were local dignitaries. Due to his inherent intelligence and pure nature, he became a member of the General Education Assembly and the manager of the Teachers' College. When he was young, he was appointed to write Ottoman history from 1774 to 1826, since the Yeniçeri Corps was dispersed (Judat, 1929, p. 3). When he was in charge of government officials, he wrote significant books including Tazkar, Judith History, Debates, and Al-Adwar Calendar, which are solicited works for understanding the history of that time. His works are deliberated as a turning point in the history of Turkish literature. Regarding Mohammad Hossein Khoei, the Persian translator of the book, unfortunately, there is no thorough account and our information is restricted to the statements of the translator himself in the introduction of the book. His name is not stated in the annual book of the government against Iran, where the names of the court translators, their nationality, and the language of their translation and the translators of the Qajar court from 1912 to 1935 are documented. According to the translator, he translated the book the History of Al-Uthman owing to Nasser al-Din Shah's personal interest in historical texts in 1900 (Judat Pasha, 1900, p. 5).
Materials and Methods
In order to better comprehend the style of the translation of the History of Al-Uthman, it is essential to investigate different ideological, lexical, syntactic, rhetorical, and pragmatic layers of the text during the stylistics of the text by Mohammad Taghi Bahar and Sirus Shamisa. Initially, at the lexical level, a number of indicators used in the author's language are recorded in separate tables. Remarking the high frequency of these symbolic words, we have tried to achieve the stylistics of the work and the hidden discourse behind the text. They have analyzed words as “many consider style to be the art of lexicography, and in the work of recognizing styles in comparison with anything else. This attitude is sometimes not so unsupported since the word is more recognizable than other structures of language and it is flourishing and dynamic as a human being” (Fotouhi, 2012, p. 246).
Discussion of Results and Conclusions
After reviewing this work, we conclude that the style of translations of the Qajar era is still not in conflict with the style of journalism and colloquial language notwithstanding being inadequate to the original text. The prose of Mohammad Hossein Khoei is artificial in the introduction of the book and is simplified in the subsequent parts. However, it is still not without literal terms in the hidden layers of inter-textual discourse.
The translator is largely bound by the original text, and excluding a few short slips and changes in sentence volume, no other changes are understood in the book to harm the historical content. Some of its stylistic features include: 1) Being closer to colloquial language and not providing much literary aspect, 2) the recurrent use of indefinite Arabic words, 3) the use of slangs in numbers and nouns, 4) the matching of adjectives and adjectives, 5) the use of compound verbs, 6) the common use of prepositions, 7) the use of verbs in the virtual meaning, 8) the use of compound adjectives for the subject, 9) the use of words, idioms, and slangs, 10) the use of Turkish pronunciation of foreign words, 11) the frequent use of synonymous words and short sentences in the main text, and 12) the confusion of sentence components and adherence to Arabic syntax, assurance and allusion, simile, metaphor, and irony.
Mohammad Hossein Khoei has used singular court and government ciphers, distinct names, personal, temporal, and spatial indicators in his translated lexical layer in order to authenticate his scientific text and historical report. However, this writing style is not entirely objective and scientific. For instance, he has applied virtual meaning and abstract words, and as stated, these codes are tools for his distinctiveness in the field of moral and religious guidance. The syntactic structure of this book provides a precise sign of a historical report through consecutive, short, and discrete sentences. On the other hand, the author has been able to display the power of his writing through adorning sentences with literary terms, and unquestionably he has not overstated in this work.
Most of the verbs and words used indicate the author's assurance and confidence in what he features out. The literary and rhetorical layers have provided a literary aspect to this historical text and this is one of the most noteworthy aspects of the significance and worth of this work. Among the literal terms, simile and, mostly, eloquent simile are the tools of the author's art and rhetoric. Correspondingly, in the current study, we found that the author used rhetoric and literary tools as a protection for his implicit thinkers in the text to assess his critical beliefs and in order to induce his audience. To this end, he has written his phrases in expressive and persuasive actions and has tried to use less obligatory, emotional, and desirable actions that have little certainty. We have explored this in the applied stylistic layers of this book.
