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Abstract

Abstract

This article examines the untranslatability of Arabo-Islamic literary terms, focusing on and its persistent mistranslation as ‘rhetoric.’ Drawing on comparative rhetoric, translation studies, and post-Eurocentric literary theory, it argues that such equivalences obscure the indigenous conceptual frameworks embedded in premodern Arabo-Islamic literary cultures. The study demonstrates how emerged within a distinct intellectual genealogy, intertwined with Qurʾānic exegesis, logic, and poetics, and cannot be fully captured by Greco-Roman rhetorical traditions. The article evidences that translating into ‘rhetoric’ risks imposing Euro-American categories laden with connotations of manipulation, emptiness, or sophistry, thereby distorting the intellectual and ethical frameworks of Arabo-Islamic literary cultures. Instead, must be studied as an indigenous category whose conceptual richness cannot be reduced to the historically and culturally burdened term ‘rhetoric.’ The article advocates for an emic–etic dual approach: grounding interpretation in indigenous terms (emic) while situating them within a broader comparative framework (etic).

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2025-10-24
2025-11-09

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  • Article Type: Research Article
Keywords: untranslatability ; non-Western rhetoric ; Arabo-Islamic literary and philosophical terms ; comparative rhetoric ; post-Eurocentric poetics

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