Translating Legal Texts during the Qajar Era and Its Impact: An investigation into translation settings, trends and styles

Abstract

Qajar thinkers, in quest of the reasons of Iran's backwardedness and innovative reformations, focused on the translation of western works in differing fields. Since the absence of law and legal structures was considered as the chief reason of Iran's backwardedness, a serious approach was developed towards legal works and law books of European countries. An investigation of the translated works in this field as well as the style of the translators may illustrate the effects of translations and their stylistic features on the concept of law and relevant institutions in Qajar society. The present paper examines the role of these translations and analyses their styles; it also focuses on the dominance of the writing style and its outcomes.