The impact of translation on the Arabic language and thought, ancient and modern

Language is the most important component of civilized existence and the distinguishing feature of nations. The importance of language in shaping the identity of a people and strengthening their bonds of belonging to the nation is obvious. Language is a verbal and written means used to shape thought, and its development is dependent on the development of the mind. It is impossible for thought to develop unless it is accompanied by linguistic development that accommodates everything new and emerging within it. Cognitive development is dependent on cultural communication. No thought has emerged and progressed through the ranks of advancement without translation and acculturation, whether literary, scientific, or philosophical. As long as language is a human product, it interacts with its environment, influencing and being influenced, and its death or life depends on the death or life of its people. Translation is the factor that builds bridges of cognitive cross-pollination between the products of others and the particularities of the self, making itself the primary means of cultural interaction. It has been, and continues to be, alongside other means, the most prominent channel for transferring knowledge between nations. It is the gateway through which foreigners enter the local culture, and thus it has a significant impact on directing its thought and developing its language. What we have devoted our efforts to in this book is clarifying the impact of transmission and translation on the language and thought of the Arabs in the past, as well as the influence of translation on the Arabic language and thought in the present. We have revealed how translation, past and present, has immersed the Arabs in new cognitive worlds with which they had previously been unfamiliar, exposed them to the products of the minds of other nations, opened the doors of scientific knowledge to them, and how it has leapt them beyond the limits of their cognitive horizon. We have highlighted how translation activity has directed intellectual practice among the Arabs and changed the direction of their thought, both in the past and the present. We then endeavored to demonstrate the impact of translation on the Arabic language and how it led to the expansion of its horizons, as well as how the impact of translation on the system of Arabic thought resulted in the development of its vocabulary and a change in its basic structure. We have worked to expand and elaborate on all of this, and the details and branches that fall under it, within the folds of this research.