It is an old issue; I mean the issue of translating scientific books into Arabic. Before going into the importance of translation, it worth mentioning that Europeans, who were suffering from darkness, ignorance and backwardness, found their way to enlightenment and scientific discoveries by translating material on different areas of knowledge, including scientific and philosophical works produced by the Islamic civilization.
If we look to another part of the world, we have the example of Asian countries that are progressing after having translated books on different areas of knowledge into their local languages.
People from China, Japan and South Korea resorted to translation to achieve excellence. Students of science and engineering in these countries study in their local languages. They have removed the language barrier, which hinders many from studying science.
I recently read about a network that comprises full-time professional translators and part-time amateurs translating books on health and medical sciences.
This group consists of people who handle the subjects in their original languages. Others work on the texts after they have been translated.
The group includes users of the translated texts, including medical students and teachers, those who write in these fields, and education officials, including deans of colleges, university administrators and ministers.
The network’s name is ‘Ahsan’. The aim of establishing this translation network is to translate books on health sciences and other subjects. It is founding document states the following aims:
1. Enhancing communication between those interested in translation of books on health and medical sciences and promoting their work for others to benefit from them.
2. Coordinating to ensure availability of products in the market and preventing wastage of effort and money due to repetitive production of some translated works and neglect of others.
If this network is a social initiative, our government should do the following: First, establish certified centres for translation of scientific books. Second, it should teach foreign languages so that we have a large number of professional translators capable of producing quality translations.
Members of this network have managed to translate the unified medical dictionary. This work is considered one of the greatest in this century as it has enriched the Arabic language, which had remained static for centuries, with modern medical concepts.
Finally, we need to make huge efforts to enrich the body of Arabic scientific literature, because we can keep in step with the rest of the world only with the help of science, or else we will remain in the darkness of ignorance and backwardness as consumers of what others produce.
