Amman, Sept 30 (Petra) -- Panelists reflected on issues facing translation in the era of globalization at a seminar on Wednesday evening in the seminar hall of the Jordan International Exhibition Center at Makkah Mall in Amman.

The seminar was part of the cultural program of the 25th Amman International Book Fair, at which the Syrian Arab Republic is guest of honor. Participants were translator Dr. Basem al-Zoubi and Syrian thinker, translator, and academic Dr. Mohammed al-Arnaout. The session was moderated by novelist and translator Asef al-Khalidi.

Zoubi reviewed the movement of translation in the Abbasid era and touched on what Europeans translated from the Arabs in the Middle Ages. He said translation in those periods was subject to the translator's own culture and to his freedom to adapt the text.

He also addressed the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, signed in Bern, Switzerland, in 1886, which aims to protect literary and artistic works and the rights of their authors. He noted that Jordan was the first Arab country to issue a law protecting copyright and related rights.

Zoubi said translation in the Arab world lags far behind the rest of the world, adding that Spain alone translates 200 times as much each year as the Arab world does. He attributed the lag to a lack of attention to the field among Arab states and said developed countries constantly and consistently seek to monopolize knowledge by obtaining books and translating them into their own languages.

For his part, Arnaout said the development of the digital world and artificial intelligence (AI) poses a major challenge across many fields and dimensions, including translation. He pointed to the influence of ideologically driven criteria on the choice of works for translation, particularly in the Anglophone world.

Arnaout also paid tribute to the late Jordanian translator Ismail Abu al-Bandura, whom he described as one of those who regard translation as a mission and a calling rather than a job to earn a living. He praised Abu al-Bandura's role in introducing the entire Arab world to Bosnian literature and writers and reviewed his translation career, which spanned more than 45 years, and the awards he received.

Arnaout said Abu al-Bandura translated works by three generations of Bosnian writers, from the pioneers to the contemporary generation. He said the translator moved from Bosnian novels to Bosnian poetry and then to theater and was widely known as a translator of Bosnian literature both in the Arab world and in Bosnia itself.

He added that the University of Sarajevo awarded Abu al-Bandura its highest medal in recognition of his efforts in translating Bosnian literature. Arnaout said Jordan has become known as a center for Balkan studies and their translation, noting that no other Arab country has published as much on Balkan literature and related studies as Jordan has.

//Petra// AF

30/09/2026 23:28:38