Opening of the "Translated Manuscripts" Conference at the BA
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Alexandria—
Dr. Ismail Serageldin, Director of the Library of Alexandria; Dr. Youssef Zeidan, Director of the Manuscripts Center and Museum; and General Safaa El-Din Kamel, Deputy Governor of Alexandria, inaugurated the fourth annual manuscript conference entitled "Translated Manuscripts" on Tuesday, 29 May 2007. The four-day Conference discusses the role of translation movement in preserving heritage and translated manuscripts from different languages into Arabic.
General Safaa El-Din Kamel started his opening speech by welcoming the Conference guests. He praised the efforts exerted by the Manuscripts Center in reviving the traditions of the Ancient Library of Alexandria and rendering the New Library a beacon of science and knowledge.
In his opening speech, Dr. Serageldin also welcomed scholars and heritage specialists in the BA. He added that Arab Heritage commenced with the translation works of Early Arabs in Bayt al-Hikma (Wisdom House) in Baghdad and in all other bastions of science and knowledge, and that Arabs carried the torch of civilization and knowledge for many centuries. Translation was the spark that transmitted Arab cultural and scientific creativity to the entire world, at a time when the Arab region was the beacon of science and knowledge in the world.
Dr. Serageldin stated that, although the Conference's topic is relevant to heritage, it sheds light on the status quo of our Arab culture, which can not interact with the successive knowledge revolutions taking place in the world without translation. He also praised the efforts of the Manuscript Center this year in various fields including: microfilms, manuscript cataloguing, e-publishing, and upgrading the scanned collection of manuscript to 35,000 manuscripts.
Dr. Youssef Zeidan gave a lecture at the outset of the Conference sessions entitled "On the Concept of Translated Manuscripts". Dr. Zeidan said that the conference is an attempt to contemplate the huge stack of knowledge extended to us by our predecessors, known as heritage. He referred to the fact that the translation and preservation movements took place in successive episodes and was supported by a suitable environment which gave each episode its distinguished nature. He added that interaction among human civilizations takes place in manifold forms and that translation, perhaps the most important of such; from Hieroglyphic into Greek, from Oriental languages into Greek, from Greek into Syrian, from both Greek and Syrian into Arabic, and from Arabic into Latin and other European languages. Translation remains one of the factors that has enriched and influenced human history to its core.
Dr. Zeidan stressed that the Conference does not closely examine the translation and preservation movement into Arabic language or from the Arabic into other languages only, but also seeks to understand the nature of Arabic language, and how it interacted with other languages throughout history.
On the Conference title and the use of the term "manuscript", Dr. Zeidan said that translation took place from/into variable text format, whether manuscripts or printed. The term "manuscript" refers to what was translated in the past, and the texts relevant to heritage that are translated now. The Conference is concerned with the heritage aspect of translation and its countless impacts.
At the end of his lecture, Dr. Zeidan concluded that the Conference revises translations of living versus bygone heritage, and how translation influences the shaping of human history and the nature of contemporaneous and successive civilizations.