Multiple Translation Activities

This second chapter contextualizes translation activities during the early Abbasid caliphate (132–early 5th century/750–early 11th century) by summarizing our knowledge about such practices elsewhere, as well as their thematic scope before, during and after the period of translations in the Abbasid capital Baghdad. It highlights the multiplicity of translation projects inside and outside Islamicate societies in Asia, Africa and Europe. It aims to clarify that translation was by no means a minor cultural practice in the chosen contexts and thus that translating from Greek into Arabic in Abbasid Baghdad was not as exceptional as has often been claimed.