ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Reviving Islamic Ethos Editor's Introduction In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful The College of Divinity and Islamic Studies of Tehran University published a booklet entitled: ("Revival of Islamic Thought"). In 1982 it commemorated the subsequent fourth anniversary of the martyrdom of Ustad Allama Ayatullah Murtada Mutahhari, the author of the booklet's five lectures delivered in 1970 at the Husseiniyeh Irshad Lecture Hall, Tehran.

The lectures discussed mainly the Persian version of a book in English entitled: "The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam", by Allama Dr. Shaikh Muhammad Iqbal (d. 1938), published at Lahore in 1934. The publishers of the booklet evidently refrained from editing the tapes or transcriptions of the lectures beyond insertion of numerous subtitles. Thus, it represented more or less an incoherent transcription of the lectures, in that not even the Quranic and other references were identified.

These and similar other deficiencies were reflected in the draft English version given to this writer for editing. It did show the translator's effort to avoid repetitions. Nevertheless the editor found it necessary to redo himself the first two chapters completely and revise partly the others. Despite rigorously sustained efforts, a few references could not be traced at all and the draft English version remained to be fully recast and improved.

With the anticipated further co-operation of all concerned, it is to be hoped that the next edition of this booklet will be a fully revised one. In this context, it seems worthwhile to point out the broad nature and content of the difficulties encountered while editing the proposed English version. These do highlight the language and comprehension problems arising from two things.

Firstly, a translator's or an editor's task involves recognition of an author's or speaker's lack of familiarity with the original language of a book, which is indicated by the latter's reliance on its translation - with all the incidental merits and demerits, This was the case with Murtada Mutahhari's evaluation of the above-mentioned book by Iqbal.

Secondly, a mere linguistic approach is often insufficient, as when any painstaking editor finds it necessary to revise an almost literal translation of an originally unedited and, as such, virtually incoherent contents of a book.