According to Bloomberg.com, “Arabs have translated about 100,000 books over the past millennium; that’s almost the average that Spain translates in a year, according to one United Nations report by Arab scholars.
The number of non-religious works issued in Arabic remains tragically low, the study adds, noting a lack of reliable data. Perhaps the International Prize for Arabic Fiction could help change this sad record. The contest’s first winner, Egyptian Baha Taher, was selected in Abu Dhabi today.
Columnist George Walden writes: Arab reluctance to translate Western works is reciprocated: Western publishers hesitate to issue novels from the Mideast. So an added bonus to this new prize is that Tetra Pak heiress Sigrid Rausing, who owns U.K. publishers Granta and Portobello, has pledged to fund an English translation of the winner.
No doubt squalls lie ahead, as this or that mullah or authoritarian regime proscribes this or that winning novel. Yet if stable and open societies are ever to emerge in the Middle East, the key battles must be fought with ideas, and by Arabs themselves.”
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