Ibrahim Al-Yazigi
Encyclopedia
Ibrahim al-Yaziji was a Lebanese
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...

 philologist, poet and journalist. He belonged to the Christian Catholic population in Lebanon.

Biography

Yaziji's family is originally from Homs
Homs
Homs , previously known as Emesa , is a city in western Syria and the capital of the Homs Governorate. It is above sea level and is located north of Damascus...

 in Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....

, and emigrated before he was born to Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...

.

He was editor of several newspapers and magazines such as Nagah, Tabib, Diya, and was instructed by Jesuits to translate the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...

 into Arabic. The translation, from 1876 to 1880, was published and linguistically richer than the first translation of the Protestants. It was the second Bible translation in the Arabic language. The first translation was approved by the Protestant missionaries under the leadership of the missionary Cornelius Van Dyke, the founder of the American University of Beirut
American University of Beirut
The American University of Beirut is a private, independent university in Beirut, Lebanon. It was founded as the Syrian Protestant College by American missionaries in 1866...

 in order of two Christian Lebanese writers and philologists Butrus al-Bustani
Butrus al-Bustani
Buṭrus al-Bustānī was a notable writer and scholar from present day Lebanon.-Life:Al-Bustani was born to a Maronite Christian family in the village of Dibbiye in the Chouf region, in January 1819...

 and Nasif al-Yaziji
Nasif Al-Yaziji
Nasif al-Yaziji was a Lebanese author and father of Ibrahim al-Yaziji. He was one of the leading figures in the Nahda movement....

. Their Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...

 translation appeared in 1856.

One of Yaziji's most significant innovations was the creation of a greatly simplified Arab font. By reducing Arabic character forms from 300 to 60 he simplified the symbols so that they more closely resembled Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

 characters. It was a process that contributed to the creation of the Arabic typewriter
Typewriter
A typewriter is a mechanical or electromechanical device with keys that, when pressed, cause characters to be printed on a medium, usually paper. Typically one character is printed per keypress, and the machine prints the characters by making ink impressions of type elements similar to the pieces...

.

The Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...

 translations of Bustāni, Nasif al-Yaziji
Nasif Al-Yaziji
Nasif al-Yaziji was a Lebanese author and father of Ibrahim al-Yaziji. He was one of the leading figures in the Nahda movement....

 and Ibrahim al-Yaziji were the first in modern Arabic language.

Literature

  • Raif Georges Khoury :-Importance et rôle des traductions arabes au XIX siècle comme moteur de la Renaissance arabe moderne. In : Les problématiques de la traduction arabe hier et aujourd’hui. Textes réunis par Naoum Abi-Rached. Strassbourg 2004. 47-95.
  • Raif Georges Khoury : Quelques remarques sur le rôle des libanais dans la renaissance arabe moderne. In : Romanciers Arabes du Liban. Hrg. Edgard Weber. Toulouse 2002. 7-48.
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