The Joint Translation Venture

The Joint Translation Venture Project between Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought and the Institute of Islamic and Traditional Arts / Al-Balqa’ Applied University was established as a result of the need to enrich the Arabic library with the literature related to understanding Islamic art, its philosophy, its Islamic origins, and its relationship with the substance of the religion of Islam. Its purpose is to familiarise the interested students and researchers of Islamic art with what has been published in the field of Islamic arts, including articles and books written in languages other than Arabic by Muslim thinkers and scholars who are acquainted with what Islamic art is and its sanctity which entitles it to rank foremost among the sacred arts that are strongly attached to the Truth, the Mighty and Sublime.

The researcher in the field of Islamic architecture and art finds a great richness in the literature which is continuously published in this aspect in languages other than Arabic. Subsequently, acquaintance with such knowledge becomes limited to only those who read the languages in which they were written.

Therefore, this joint venture project aims:

First: to widen the scope of acquaintance with this abundant thought on Islamic Arts.

Second: to establish a sound conception able to present authentic visions and outlooks on Islamic arts which entail expanding various fields before the researchers and the students. In such a manner, the Arabic library will be enriched with this precious knowledge.

This joint translation venture project not only contributes to imparting the Islamic terminological and intellectual knowledge into the Arabic language, but also to establishing a background of terminological knowledge related to various concepts of the Islamic arts, and it opens the way to attribute them to their original Arabic designations which early Muslim scholars used. This is expected to be a preliminary step towards reviving the original Arabic terminology that has been long absent from the arena of our contemporary Arabic writings on Islamic thought and arts.

Moreover, it seeks to translate what has been written on the concept of “Beauty” from an Islamic perspective, with the aim of giving a wide latitude to carry out Arabic research and studies based on the literature of the early Muslim scholars such as: Abd al-Karim Al-Jili, Ibn Sina, Ikhwan Al-Safa (the Brethren of Purity) Abu Hayan al-Tawhidi, Al-Farabi and many others. Thus, the concept of beauty was confirmed by many prophetic Hadiths, among which are: “God is beautiful in Himself and loves beauty”, “God has written the mark of beauty upon all things“, and “I am a man who is supremely endeared by beauty”.

Finally, translating into Arabic what has been written on the Islamic metaphysics and cosmology and other metaphysical sciences which all have one common origin - that is their attachment to the Truth the Exalted and Sublime - will be considered a step forward of grave importance and good progress in this regard.