Thesis (M.A.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Arts - Department of English

This study sets out to examine the politics of legal translation during the Nahda period of Egypt{u2019}s history, from the nineteenth to mid-twentieth century. Recently, there has been renewed interest in the history and mechanisms of translation in the Arab world. Translation has emerged as a powerful tool in steering the Nahda modernization projects, particularly in the domains of science and literature. However, the contribution of translating law to nation-building and cultural independence agendas has received little attention. In this respect, the first objective of this thesis is to examine the development of legal translation in the Nahda, and to explore the relationship between translation and knowledge production, as exemplified by its role in advancing the Egyptian jurisprudence and legal system. The second objective is to shed light on how translation policies and strategies reflect and enact ideological standpoints. This objective will be addressed by focusing on two legal translation trends in Egypt, the westernization and nationalist movements, to highlight their underlying political and ideological agendas. The research includes two case studies, the Egyptian Civil Codes of 1883 and 1948, which will be analyzed as prototypes of translations produced under the above-mentioned movements. A postcolonial framework to the translation norms theory will be developed and applied to analyze the translations of the Codes. This methodological approach attempts to reveal significant associations between socio-political factors and translation norms

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