In these excerpts from the seventh/thirteenth-century literary collection, author ʿAlī b. Ḥāmid b. Abī Bakr al-Kūfī details the process of translating the book from Arabic into Persian(zabān-i Pahlawī) or the “language of the people of the ʿAjam” (lugha-yi ahl-i ʿajam). Kūfī contends that the translation was critical to making the text accessible to “the people of Fārs or other non-Arab countries.” In his chapter on translation and identity in early Islamic courts in Justice and Leadership in Early Islamic Courts, Mahmood Kooria points to these and other excerpts to suggest that the use of translation to ensure that justice and wisdom prevail plays a prominent role in Kūfī’s text.
This source is part of the Online Companion to the book Justice and Leadership in Early Islamic Courts, ed. Intisar A. Rabb and Abigail Krasner Balbale(ILSP/HUP 2017)—a collection of sources and other material used in and related to the book.