Intertextuality of Translations Into and From Judaeo-Arabic as a Transformative Platform in Jewish-Arabic Universalism:The Case of Legal Monographs of the Late Geonim

摘要

In medieval times,translators of Judaeo-Arabic literature living in Islamic lands were fluent in Arabic as this was the lingua franca and,in many cases,their mother tongue.This is only rarely the case for the contemporary scholar.This creates enormous challenges for the modern translators of their works.However,this challenge is an opportunity to bridge cultural and historical gaps by increased accuracy the hallmark of modern scholarship.This interdisciplinary discourse establishes the co-religious Dasein.The research tools which demand knowledge not only of Jewish sources but rather of Islamic texts allow for greater appreciation of contacting influences.Rav Y.al-Barceloni of the 12th century,among others,translated into Hebrew several works of the Geonim with his own halakhic interpretations,interpolations,and expansions.When scholars come today to comprehend anew,these compilations they paradoxically are more reflective of the original text than scholars of the middle ages who were contemporaneous with these texts.Nonetheless insofar as the translations are into Hebrew,they produce insular affect on the cultural product,leaving it within the Jewish fold.This fact forces scholars who desire to communicate with the broader audience to publish their results in European languages.In mediaeval studies,this is not as often as one thinks.