To readers: I apologise for the slowdown in production of articles and posts recently, as I have been completing a couple of book projects for Routledge and Manchester University Press. The following article I feature and translate below appeared in the pan-Arab newspaper al-Quds al-Arabi in late August and is in fact related to one of my book projects. Specifically, the author looks at the Historia Arabum (“History of the Arabs”) by Toledan archbishop Rodrigo Ximénez de Rada (d. 1247 CE) and my Arabic translation of it that was published in 2022 CE by Dar Khutut in Jordan. You can purchase a copy here if you are interested. I am also pleased to say that you can read the Historia Arabum and Rodrigo’s other ‘minor histories’ in my forthcoming English translation and study due to be published by Manchester University Press in January 2026, with pre-order being available here.
Given the Historia Arabum’s significance as the first surviving Western monograph on Arab history, the author argues that the work is important in completing the picture of the history of Muslim Spain (al-Andalus) among Arab audiences, despite what she sees as its negative portrayal of Islam and Arabs (in contrast interestingly with some who see a more objective picture that develops later within the book). In effect, for the author, the book allows the reader to understand a more ‘indigenous’ viewpoint about the Muslim conquest of Spain and its aftermath. In general then, translation is a particularly important enterprise for historical study.
Below is the article (with slight editing and correction), which constitutes a sequel to the author’s review of my Arabic translation and study of the Mozarabic Chronicle (Chronicle of 754) published earlier this year in Damascus.
The impact of translation in completing the picture of history
By Nour Kourko (Syrian writer)
20 August 2025
Throughout the ages, translation has helped transmit much science and literature, and we have known that it prospered among the Arabs in the Abbasid era. For the entry of people from various states into Arab lands and their learning of its sciences and languages, called in contrast for review of what science and knowledge their own culture possessed. This could only be done through transition, for it is the link between what minds possess and what is contained in books, whose author may perish while they remain to revive his memory. What is most surprising in our time is the distancing from translated books in our academic studies, out of fear of grammatical mistakes, or lack of accuracy in translating the idea intended by the original author. At the same time, we don't have the linguistic strength in other languages to read books in their original, so knowledge among us remains cut off and limited to our own books.
In this study, we have relied on a historical book that reflects a point of view different from what we have authored in our own books about al-Andalus and the life of the Prophet. The question is as follows: are all Muslims really barbaric? Does the entire West think in the same way?
This is what we see, according to the words of the Toledan bishop Rodrigo, who wrote the book 'History of the Arabs' that I have taken as a model study, for in it I have found what resembles our present day, as the translator was able to inspire me through his clear language to pay attention to what is behind the wall of the author's personality, and the necessity of writing about history and its developments in order to distinguish the usurper from the land's owner.
First of all, we should note the subjects about which the book speaks, including: the life of the Prophet, the history of the Rashidun caliphs, the rise of the Umayyad emirate in al-Andalus, the fitna of al-Andalus and the tawa'if kingdoms. All these subjects seem well-known as we have studied them more than once in Andalusian history and literature, but some of them as they appear in this book contain what we have not read in our history nor in the life of the Prophet. For the author looks at the life of the Prophet impartially and without knowledge, as though he is deliberately distorting the Messenger's image. For he does not know Arabic, and it is most likely that he did not read the books that contain the life of the Prophet whereas he did ask someone to translate the Noble Qur'an into Latin. Had he known the language he would not have needed to translate God's book, and as they say, he is a cleric, meaning that he is among the people who should understand heavenly books.
In terms of the errors he transmitted in the life of the Prophet, they are distributed over a number of pages in the Book: the most prominent being that the Prophet's father was Ali and his grandmother Halima, and that he studied the doctrines of Judaism and Christianity at the hands of a Jewish astrologer who was his father's friend, and that he was born in Yathrib and worked for a woman called Hadiya. We would not have seen this biography had it not been for the translation, and thus we realise that it is important for us to transmit and translate in order to clarify the likes of these falsehoods and show what is correct. For if the author is not knowledgeable and does not know what he is writing and describing, but is influential and trusted among his people, it is a disaster of thought.
Then the author has an extended chapter entitled: "Concerning Muhammad's elevation to the position of a king and his falsely contrived visions." It is clear that there is a long-standing and deep-seated hatred within the author, for we have not read of a Christian who harmed the prophet, but we have read of a Jew who did harm him.* This raises curiosity about this bishop's beliefs.
From the preceding, we find that translation has transmitted the viewpoint of the other side, and despite its clear falsehood, such a viewpoint can open before researchers the horizon of researching influential personalities in any age and learning how influential their works were on societies, and whether all people trusted those opinions. The importance of the matter lies in getting to know the other, and trying to correct mistakes, for how many old books still have an impact on minds while their information is not exact or correct. This is what we fear as researchers and investigators about the truth behind discourse and its aim.
The Western view of Arab Muslims in old history books:
If we look at the author's aim in his book, he said: "For my part, I have wished to record for future generations the successive events among them [the Arabs] and the affairs of their times, and let the reader's mind notice how the false revelation that came from the cunning man Muhammad devised an evil poison, by which he seemingly bound lustful soils in coils. Thus should the young learn to stay away from false tales, cling to the cords of Adam, and adhere to the bonds of kindness." If we analyse his words and ponder his aim: first, he is addressed those to come, then he distorts Islam's image, but he falsely claims to have relied on correct books and narrations. For we have seen how he distorted the Prophet's life, but he acknowledged without realising that he is a lying cleric who has arbitrary whims and does not accept the bounds of religion and reason.
What is noteworthy in the book is that the author did not talk much about the Andalusian rulers in terms of their defects and praiseworthy actions, whereas he did detail and speak about the Arab rulers, their conflicts and disputes and the barbarity of their behaviour, while only speaking a little about their victories, so he could prove to subsequent generations that those ruling the Arabs are unjust, and thus should not be trusted or followed, as a warning to those generations.
We can only say: now we have known how al-Andalus fell and how the Arabs lost from a different angle, and we have understood that the ambitions and repeated disagreements that were among them (whether as brothers or rulers) was what weakened their standing over the ages.
In conclusion, we can clarify a number of points, including: how the owner of the land transmits his sense of grievance on the basis of portraying the oppression inflicted by the ruler who deemed his land fair game to seize. For we have known al-Andalus, its literature and the period in its entirety, but we have not known the feelings of Spain's original inhabitants who lived in that period when the Arabs entered their land. With this book, we sometimes stand as analysts, and sometimes as neutral observers, for in the eyes of the usurper, all the wars are victories, while for the owner of the land, they are all grievances. So have we done justice to al-Andalus by transmitting the literature crated by the Arabs there? If we are fair, then where is the Andalusian literature of the original inhabitants? Did they have any art? Or in transmitting knowledge, does history become like the media, publicising what has more light shed on it, while smaller matters behind the scenes, only seen by those in the eye of the storm, are left out, with history not being allowed to speak about them because they may undermine the victories of others built on silence about them? Thus, I consider that the translation here has given this author the right to speak about what we have not seen in the numerous books of the Arabs!
For we have read about the victor and what he writes but we have not read about the owner of the land, nor have we received what he has written. It is true that the author was not exact, and deliberately portrayed the Arabs in an ugly light in most of the book, but it suffices for us to see another point of view that we have been used to seeing. Indeed, if all the history books were translated into our language, we could verify, correct and compare. For nothing is completed from one side. Rather, for knowledge to be complete, one must know of all its ways, and without translation, we close the door before the historical memory we have learned in schools and universities. For we were always the victorious side therein, and we become sad about our defeats, while history has concealed from us the joy of the other side. As such, reading history is important when points of view come together and they constitute a united front in the face of criticism and analysis, while translation remains the sole saviour amid technology and artificial intelligence has begun to tinker with content in accordance with the whims of its creators.
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* Referring to the traditional Prophetic biography.