The Karbala International Conference on Translation of Shiite Texts: A Short Report

Quite recently, on ۱۶ and ۱۷ December ۲۰۱۶, al- Abbas 's holy shrine in Karbala launched a two-day international symposium and a workshop on spotting and solving problems associated with translating Shiite texts (from mainly Arabic) into English for global audience. Interestingly, the language of this academic event was English. As for the audience, a great majority of them came from Iraqi universities. Besides, there were guests from Egypt to Oman. From amongst Iranian academics, only the present writer was invited, plus Dr. Mardani, a high school teacher of philosophy from the Golestan Province, was also invited.  There was a British female academic, plus a UK-based Pakistani researcher; both of them were Shiites.  The papers read and discussed were mainly concerned with linguistic, mainly pragmatic, issues that typical Arab translators find difficult to tackle. Also of interest was that it proved necessary to develop the right bilingual translation dictionaries to facilitate the tasks of future translators in the field. Given this academic event was planned and held by al- Abbas 's holy shrine, it is promising that such a movement has already been initiated, it is a blessed indication that in the future the shrine will shoulder greater,  more global projects to represent the truly Shiite worldview and values.