This paper explores the theoretical approaches to translation and the dynamics of language politics during the ʻAbbāsid-era translation movement through the lens of three prominent figures of the ʿAbbāsid era, Ḥunayn ibn Isʹhāq, Mattā bin Yūnus and al-Jāḥiẓ. In conversation with Emily Apter's concept of untranslatability and current concerns about translation into and out of Arabic, this paper examines the cultural implications of claims to translatability and untranslatability. The ʿAbbāsid era presents a particularly useful comparison to the present because rather than being marginal, Arabic was the language of an expanding empire, and also because the ʿAbbāsid era was a kind of 'Golden Age' of translation. The ʿAbbāsid era was an enormously productive period, with translators rendering nearly the entirely corpus of available Greek manuscripts into Arabic. This outpouring of translation activity not only provided an influx of new ideas but provoked a wide-ranging debate among the literati of the time about the possibilities and problems of translation. Examining the figures of al-Jāḥiẓ, Mattā bin Yūnus and Ḥunayn ibn Is'hāq provides a window into this theoretical conversation. Al-Jāḥiẓ, as one of the foremost authorities on Arabic rhetoric, gave voice to more than one view of translation, in part defining Arabic writing as too unique to be translated while elsewhere claiming translations from other languages as the inheritance of the Arab culture. The Aristotelian translator Mattā bin Yūnus provides an example of backlash against translation in which foreign ideas were seen as a threat to Arab identity. Ḥunayn ibn Is'hāq, one of most highly regarded translators of his day, reveals a pragmatic approach to translation which integrated Greek works into Arab society. These three figures reorient the poles of translatability and untranslatability, revealing the potential of both to strengthen hegemony, and show the positive and negative aspects of an Arabocentric and Islamocentric universalism. / text

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This dissertation is a study of the Futūḥ Miṣr (Conquest of Egypt) of Ibn 'Abd al-Ḥakam (d. 257/871), the earliest extant Arabic history of Egypt. Its primary aim is not to assess whether its information is 'authentic' - i.e. corresponding to an objective historical reality - though my findings are of relevance for those engaged in debates over authenticity. My goal instead is to explore the ideas about the past which are conveyed by this particular conglomeration of historical information and to propose methods through which we can expose and analyse different layers and types of authorial activity within a multi-vocal text like Futūḥ Miṣr. Ultimately, I use this analysis as the basis of a case study suggesting how we might more effectively historicise the generation and transmission of historical ideas in the early Islamic period. Part I of the thesis consists of three chapters which explore Futūḥ Miṣr as a whole, literary text which can be understood as an instantiation of the historical worldview of its composer. Part II of the thesis contains three chapters which each illuminate features of Ibn 'Abd al-Ḥakam's historical practice which are important prerequisites for the stratigraphic reading of Futūḥ Miṣr performed in Part III. Part III of the thesis uses the understanding of Ibn 'Abd al-Ḥakam's authorial techniques developed in Part II to expose the earlier packages of historical information which underpin Futūḥ Miṣr. These final three chapters demonstrate how Ibn 'Abd al-Ḥakam reinvested these pre-existing narratives with meaning at a micro-level - by interjecting commentary and accounts from other sources - and at a macro-level - by integrating them into the larger narrative structure of Futūḥ Miṣr. In sum, this thesis is the first systematic study of the sources, structure, and authorship of an early Arabic history, which both tests and expands our current understanding of the dynamics of early Islamic historical writing, and sheds light on numerous aspects of the changing uses of the past among the Muslim scholars of Umayyad and 'Abbāsid Egypt.

Nesta pesquisa analisamos passagens de A História dos Mensageiros e dos Reis, obra histórica de aṭ-Ṭabarī, estudioso que viveu entre os séculos nono e décimo da era cristã, no Iraque. A análise compreende o período em que governou o califa al-Ma\'mūn (198- 218 a.H./813-833 e.c.) e o momento anterior a isso, quando houve o conflito pelo califado entre esse califa e seu irmão, al-\'Amīn. Investigando premissas de políticas oficiais que favorecem ou desfavorecem a comunidade dos muçulmanos e de paradigmas religiosos que servem de guia para a compreensão da história do islã, corroboramos duas hipóteses acerca do escopo da História dos Mensageiros e dos Reis: a centralidade de sua preocupação com a comunidade dos muçulmanos e a produção de reflexões históricas. Apresentamos, antes da análise, uma breve discussão historiográfica do período de aṭ-Ṭabarī. Durante a análise e nas considerações finais, abordamos as operações narrativas internas de sua crônica histórica. / In this research, we analyze some episodes of the History of Messengers and Kings, aṭ-Ṭabarī\'s historical work, who lived between the ninth and tenth century of the Christian era, in Irak. The analysis comprehends the period when al-Ma\'mūn (198-218 AH/813-833 C.E.) was caliph and the moment right before it, when he was fighting against his brother al-\'Amīn for the caliphate. By investigating premises of official polices which acted in favor or against the muslim community and of the religious paradigms which served as guides to the comprehension of the history of Islam, we corroborate two hypothesis about the escope of the History of the Messengers and the Kings: the centrality of its concern with the muslim community and the production of historical reflections. Before the analysis, we present a brief historical discussion of aṭ-Ṭabarī\'s time. During the analysis and in the final considerations, we approach the internal narrative operations of his historical chronicle.

When considering the available sources for Islamic history between the seventh and eighth centuries CE, there are few which have greater importance than al-Balādhurī's (d. ca. 892 CE/279 AH) Kitāb Futūḥ al-Buldān (The Book of the Conquest of Lands). While the text and its author are recognized for their importance as a historical source for the early Islamic period, there has previously been no in-depth study of either. This dissertation works to correct these gaps in knowledge of the author and his text by investigating the construction, form, content, and early reception history of al-Balādhurī's book. This research begins by providing a manuscript tradition of Futūḥ al-Buldān, including a discussion of a previously unpublished manuscript. It thereafter illuminates the background of al-Balādhurī, bringing together much of the previous scholarship on the author while augmenting that information with an analysis of biographical sources and the text itself. It situates the author and his text in its ninth/third century milieu, a period of history where the early Arabic historical tradition was still in its infancy and only just being committed to writing. It suggests the text was likely completed at the end of the "anarchy at Sāmarrā'" in the late 860s CE, and highlights the author's role at the court of several 'Abbāsid Caliphs. After this, it discusses a number of al-Balādhurī's most important (and, in some cases, previously understudied) sources of information, and argues that the author chose to differentiate when he was learning information directly from a teacher and when he had access to written sources. It then analyzes the content and themes of the text, placing special attention on the unique form of Futūḥ al-Buldān and its importance in providing modern scholars with information on the conquest, settlement, and building projects of the early Islamic world. In considering these key themes, this research then argues that Futūḥ al-Buldān defies traditional modern genre classification by borrowing form and content from several different Arabic genres including conquest literature (futūḥ), legal texts, and administrative geographies. It contends that both the text's content and form suggest that it was written to be read by courtly administrators in the service of the state as both a site of memory (lieu de mémoire) and as an "administrator's handbook" during a time of upheaval in the 'Abbāsid realm. Finally, it considers the legacy of Futūḥ al-Buldān and the popularity of al-Balādhurī's book throughout the medieval period through an analysis of textual reuse.

Nesta pesquisa analisamos passagens de A História dos Mensageiros e dos Reis, obra histórica de aṭ-Ṭabarī, estudioso que viveu entre os séculos nono e décimo da era cristã, no Iraque. A análise compreende o período em que governou o califa al-Ma\'mūn (198- 218 a.H./813-833 e.c.) e o momento anterior a isso, quando houve o conflito pelo califado entre esse califa e seu irmão, al-\'Amīn. Investigando premissas de políticas oficiais que favorecem ou desfavorecem a comunidade dos muçulmanos e de paradigmas religiosos que servem de guia para a compreensão da história do islã, corroboramos duas hipóteses acerca do escopo da História dos Mensageiros e dos Reis: a centralidade de sua preocupação com a comunidade dos muçulmanos e a produção de reflexões históricas. Apresentamos, antes da análise, uma breve discussão historiográfica do período de aṭ-Ṭabarī. Durante a análise e nas considerações finais, abordamos as operações narrativas internas de sua crônica histórica. / In this research, we analyze some episodes of the History of Messengers and Kings, aṭ-Ṭabarī\'s historical work, who lived between the ninth and tenth century of the Christian era, in Irak. The analysis comprehends the period when al-Ma\'mūn (198-218 AH/813-833 C.E.) was caliph and the moment right before it, when he was fighting against his brother al-\'Amīn for the caliphate. By investigating premises of official polices which acted in favor or against the muslim community and of the religious paradigms which served as guides to the comprehension of the history of Islam, we corroborate two hypothesis about the escope of the History of the Messengers and the Kings: the centrality of its concern with the muslim community and the production of historical reflections. Before the analysis, we present a brief historical discussion of aṭ-Ṭabarī\'s time. During the analysis and in the final considerations, we approach the internal narrative operations of his historical chronicle.

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