Translated Texts in Pre-constitutional Iran and their Thematic Evaluation

The present article tries to examine how translations of European texts in Iran appeared on the historical horizon of Iran and what effects they had on translation of texts in the pre-constitutional period. As far as the translation of European texts, together with the historical developments of Iran in the pre-constitutional period are concerned, there are two dominant views. The first view sees this move as the result of the efforts of some religious preachers and foreign political figures, including Gobineau. According to the followers of this view, the movement of the Orientalists and the representatives of foreign policy apparatuses was for the betterment of society as a whole or it was for religious propaganda and advancing the political goals of their respective countries. The second view maintains that the translation movement is for the insight and liberalism of a number of rulers and chancellors. According to this view, this group possessed an observational or epistemological knowledge of European developments, and they were aware of the historical developments of Europe. Therefore, they turned to translation to adapt new intellectual and cultural patterns and translation helped them experience the outside world. The proponents of each perspective took their stance on this issue; therefore, they failed to well-understand this issue. The relationship between the translation movement and the emergence of developments in this historical era must be considered dialectal; in other words, reciprocal influences. As a matter of fact, translating European scientific and intellectual thought and ideas formed a new historical horizon for Iranians, which paved the way for advancing developments in the Qajar era. Conversely, the quality of changes affected the content and orientations of the translation movement (a thematic typology of translations).