Zabihollah Mansouri and the Enigma of Pseudotranslating

Abstract

Zabihollah Mansouri’s translations have stirred up heated debates among scholars and critics for more than half a century as for authenticity and fidelity, to the extent that some have imparted these texts with authorship in the guise of translation, i.e., pseudotranslation. This study is to present a classification of Mansouri’ books which are catalogued and received as translation based on the alleged sources and elucidate his oeuvre against the contours of pseudotranslation as presented by scholars, particularly those specified by Toury (1995). Accordingly, it is shown that form among the various types of translations classified, only those falling within translation proper and adaptation proper can enjoy the status of translation. The various other translations in his translation bibliography, i.e., those which cannot be tracked down to a specific source text or else are modeled on a number of texts are in step with pseudotranslation criteria.