The Translation of Mystical Literature: An Analysis of Arthur John Arberry's Translation of Attar's Tadhkirat al-Awliya from a Postcolonial Perspective

This article is a scholarly essay examining Arthur John Arberry's 1966 English translation of Attar's Tadhkirat al-Awliya, a classical Persian work profiling eminent Islamic mystics, from a postcolonial perspective. The essay argues that Arberry's ideological position as an Orientalist shaped his translation choices in ways that produced a reading of Attar's text significantly different from the original. The study investigates how the Orientalist assumptions prevalent among mid-twentieth-century Western academics influenced Arberry's approach, ultimately distorting the spiritual and cultural depth that the Tadhkirat al-Awliya represents within the Iranian mystical tradition.