Translating in ninth century Cordoba. Notes on the urjūzah of Ḥafs ibn Albar al-Qūṭī to his Arabic poetic version of Sifr al-zubūr

Abstract

Ḥafṣ ibn Albar al-Qūṭī’s verse translation of the Book of Psalms contains a prologue and an interesting introduction, an urjūzah in which the translator explained the method of translation he used. Our aim in this article is to comment some techniques and strategies adopted by the translator to realize the goal of this urjūzah. This is preceded by a section in which we offer a series of considerations on the socio-linguistic situation of Cordoba in the ninth century and the relationship between Arabisation and translation.