On the translations of al-Ḥarīrī’s maqāmas into Russian in the first half of the nineteenth century. (some historical and textological aspects)

The Russian poet Dmitrij Oznobišin is known for his numerous imitations and adaptations of Arabic and Persian literary works. It was he who, according to the opinions of some specialists in the field of Russian literature, translated two stories (maqāmas) by al-Ḥarīrī directly from Arabic out of a total amount of six translated into Russian in the nineteenth century. However, some scholars in the field of Arabic and Islamic studies in the 1980s questioned whether he was really capable of translating one of these maqāmas and suggested that it was Józef Sękowski who translated that story. Therefore, the aim of this study is to find out whether Oznobišin indeed translated these two maqāmas from Arabic or whether it was somebody else. The historical facts, archival materials and textual analysis of Oznobišin’s works reveal that he certainly could not translate these maqāmas by al-Ḥarīrī directly from Arabic and the true translator of one story was, in fact, Sękowski.

Keywords: translation; maqāma; al-Ḥarīrī; Delibürader; Dmitrij Oznobišin; Józef Sękowski