https://blogs.bl.uk/asian-and-african/2022/08/translating-piracy.html Skip to main content * Catalogues & Collections * Discover & Learn * What's on * Visit * Business Support * Shop * Join THE BRITISH LIBRARY Asian and African studies blog * All our blogs * Latest posts * Batak * Bugis * Burmese * Javanese * Malay * Persian * Thai * About this blog Search this blog [ ] Search Search Main Previous post Next post 28 August 2022 Translating Piracy: On the origin of the Arabic words qursan/qarsanah The terms pirate(s) and piracy feature heavily in India Office Records relating to the Persian Gulf during the nineteenth century. Many of these records have now been digitised through the British Library / Qatar Foundation partnership and can be accessed on the Qatar Digital Library accompanied by catalogue descriptions in English and Arabic. In these records, "piracy" was used to justify British naval presence in the Gulf, forming the basis of the early agreements signed with local tribal leaders. However, the Arabic versions of these agreements indicate that the Arab inhabitants of the region did not have an equivalent concept in their lexicon. So where did today's Standard Arabic word for piracy come from? And why wasn't it used in these agreements? Text in Latin script followed by Arabic script in black ink on cream-coloured paper with a Latin-script title centred at the top of the image. Article 1 of the English (IOR/L/PS/10/606, p. 131r) and Arabic (IOR/L /PS/10/606, p. 146v) versions of the 1820 treaty between Britain and the Arab tribes of the Persian Gulf. The word piracy is translated as gharat [raids]. Tracing the Etymology Modern Arabic dictionaries list the terms qursan (pirate) and qarsanah (piracy) under the trilateral root Q-R-S, giving the impression that this is a true Arabic word derived from this root (which generally means 'to pinch/sting'). In fact, some Arabic sources devoted to the subject of piracy define qarsanah as a derivative of that root (see for example, Hamid 2016: 22). However, this is a common misattribution. The term is actually a relatively recent addition to the Arabic language, and is a cognate of the English term 'corsair' from the Latin cursarius. The earliest Arabic dictionary to include qursan to mean 'sea thief' is al-Bustani's Muhit al-Muhit (1870), where it is listed as a plural noun and marked as 'foreign' (frnjy@). Further clues can be found in Reinhart Dozy's Supplement aux dictionnaires arabes (1877-1881) which includes colloquialisms and foreign borrowings in Arabic. Dozy lists qrSl ( qursul), qrSl (qursal) and krsly (kursali) in addition to qursan to mean both 'pirate' and 'warship', and he links them to Spanish (corsario) and Italian ( corsale). Also listed are the now common forms qarasinah (pirates) and qarsanah (piracy). Black text in Latin and Arabic scripts in spaced lines on cream-coloured paper The entries for qrSl (qarsala) and qrSn (qarsana ) in Dozy's Supplement aux dictionnaires arabes (1881, p. 329). Public Domain. Image taken by author. As a Semitic language, Arabic has a root-and-pattern morphology. Words are formed by casting (typically 3-letter) roots into a variety of templates to produce different meanings. In the case of the borrowed word for piracy, it was a happy coincidence that it could be filed under the existing root Q-R-S. Early Use All this confirms that the words qursan and qarsanah are of foreign origin, and that their meanings did not stabilise until modern times. One of the earliest attested uses of qursan in Arabic comes from a 1767 maritime treaty between the Sultan of Marrakesh, Muhammad V (1710-1790) and the King of France, Louis XV (1710-1774). Colour image of two manuscript pages with handwritten cramped text in Latin script on the top two thirds of the left page, and spaced Arabic script in Maghribi style on the right above and below a stylized floral seal Image of the 1767 treaty signed between the Sultan of Marrakesh and the King of France. Public Domain. Article 17 of the Arabic version begins: dh dkhl qrSn mn qrSyn lfrnsys lmrs~ mn mrsy lyl@ lmwlwy@ fn lqwnSw lHDr fy lwqt blbld ykhbr Hkmh bdhlk lytHfZ `l~ l'sr~ ldhyn blbld ly'l yhrbw llsfyn@ lmdhkwr@... Translation: If a qursan (of the qarasin) of the French enters one of the harbours of the Mawlawi territory, the attending [French] Consul in the town must inform its governor so that he may take precautions over prisoners in the country to prevent them from fleeing to the aforementioned ship... There is no doubt that qursan and qarasin (pl.) refer to a type of ship in this context. Other parts of the treaty mention qarasin flying the French flag and carrying French passports. While we can assume that qarasin here means military rather than pirate ships, the line between piracy and naval warfare had been blurred in the Mediterranean for centuries. This is particularly clear in accounts of Ottoman Berber "pirates", or the infamous "Barbary corsairs". Colour image of a painting of naval battle with a ship with many full sails topped by flags in the middle of a rough sea, and a smaller ship with sails in the left foreground. 'A Sea Fight with Barbary Corsairs' (after 1681) by Flemish painter Laureys a Castro. Public Domain. Transmission and Popularisation Given these encounters, it is not surprising that the term qursan entered the Arabic language through North Africa. The Arab tribes of the Persian Gulf lived on the other side of the Arabic-speaking world, so this neologism would have taken time to reach them. When they entered into maritime treaties with Britain in the nineteenth century, there was no distinct word in their vocabulary to denote 'piracy' as something that is exclusively perpetrated at sea. The final step in the accession of the term into Arabic came with the language standardisation efforts of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a period known as the Arabic nahdah. This period saw a flurry of production of dictionaries that standardised the term qursan as a singular form meaning 'sea thief'. Advancements in education, media, and transport networks across the Arabic-speaking world ensured the establishment and transmission of the term. Along with the term itself, a stereotypical Western image of the pirate also spread into modern Arab culture. Ironically, this Western image was influenced by contact with Ottoman and Arab "pirates". For instance, the character of Redbeard is based on the Ottoman "corsair" Baba Oruc (Barbarossa), while the characteristic eye-patch is inspired by the Qasimi "pirate" Rahmah bin Jabir al-Jalhami. Black and white sketch of a man in Arabian-style robes with his face covered, and a brief textual description in Latin script at the bottom. Sketch of Rahmah bin Jabir al-Jalhami from Ellms' (1837) The Pirate's own Book. Public Domain. The British narrative of piracy has been challenged by writers from the region in recent years. Two notable examples are The Myth of Arab Piracy in the Gulf by scholar and ruler of Sharjah, Sultan Muhammad al-Qasimi, and The Corsair by Qatari journalist and novelist Abdulaziz Al-Mahmoud. The latter is a fictionalised account of the exploits of Rahmah bin Jabir al-Jalhami from an anti-imperial point of view. Its original Arabic title is al-Qursan. Even where the narrative is challenged, its language has stuck. Modern Use In the modern world, the term "piracy" has come to stand for so much more than aggression at sea, and the Arabic term qarsanah has evolved in tandem. An example of this is the now commonly used expression ' pirated films' and its Arabic equivalent alflam muqarsanah 'flm muqarSana@. White page with black text in two columns, with Latin script on the left and Arabic script on the right, and some words highlighted in yellow. Screenshot of concordance results for the term piracy and its translation in memoQ, the translation management system used by BL/ QFP translators. As BL/QFP translators, wherever the English term piracy appears in catalogue descriptions, we translate it using the now established Modern Arabic word qarsanah. However, this does not reflect historical usage and it is unlikely that the nineteenth-century Arab inhabitants of the Gulf would have heard this word, let alone used it. Mariam Aboelezz, Arabic Translator British Library / Qatar Foundation Partnership CCBY Image References: al-Bustani, Butrus (1870) Muhit al-Muhit: qamus mutawwal li-l-lughah al-'Arabiyah. Beirut (OIE 492.73) Al-Mahmoud, Abdulaziz (2011) al-Qursan. Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing Al-Mahmoud, Abdulaziz (2013) The Corsair. Noweira, Amira (trans.). Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing (H.2015/.9446) al-Qasimi, Sultan Muhammad (2016) The Myth of Arab Piracy in the Gulf . London: Routledge (DRT ELD.DS.562531) Majma' al-Lughah al-'Arabiyah (1961). al-Mu'jam al-Wasit (1961). Cairo (14589.c.21) Dozy, Reinhart P. A. (1881). Supplement aux dictionnaires arabes, Vol II. Leiden: Brill (X.985/73) Ellms, Charles (2004[1837]) The Pirate's own Book. Project Gutenberg [accessed 23 June 2022] Hamid, Hamid S. M. (2016) al-Qarsanah al-Bahariyyah: bayn al-asbab wa-l-tada'iyat wa-l-ru'a al-istratijiyyah . Cairo: al-Markaz al-Qawmi li-l-Isdarat al-Qanuniyah London, British Library, 'File 2902/1916 'Treaties and Engagements between the British Government and the Chiefs of the Arabian Coast of the Persian Gulf'' IOR/L/PS/10/606. Qatar Digital Library [accessed 23 June 2022] Rida, Muhammad R. (1904) Kitab al-Musalahah al-Muntazimah bayn Sultan Marakish wa Luwiz al-Khamis 'ashr Malik Faransa. Majallat al-Manar, 7, pp. 783-791. Al-Maktabah al-Shamilah [accessed 23 June 2022] Woodbridge, David, Aboelezz, Mariam and Abu Shaban, Tahani (2021) "Piracy" in the India Office Records: some historical context . Qatar Digital Library [accessed 23 June 2022] Posted by Michael Erdman at 11:00 PM Tags Arabic, Gulf, Language studies, Qatar Asian and African studies blog recent posts * Glimpses from the 'Golden Land': Decorative manuscript art in Thailand and beyond * Translating Piracy: On the origin of the Arabic words qursan/ qarsanah * 40 more Javanese manuscripts now accessible online * Stories of the Prophets: an illustrated Persian manuscript by Nishapuri * Disfigured Ghosts and Gory Tortures in Phra Malai Manuscripts and Thai Cosmological Parks * Golden Connections * Ratu Ageng Tegalreja, Prince Dipanagara, and the British Library's Serat Menak manuscript * Beneath the glitter: Kinzan emaki, inside the gold mines of Sado * A Historical Narrative of the Ka'ba and the Hajj Season Reflecting on the Visual Materials Found in the IOR * The provenance histories of Batak manuscripts in the British Library (2): The India Office collection Tweets by blasia_africa Archives * September 2022 * August 2022 * July 2022 * June 2022 * May 2022 * April 2022 * March 2022 * February 2022 * January 2022 * December 2021 More... 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