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philosophicalorhistorical,theyenvisionedtranslationasavehicleforsocialor
culturalchange.Intheirhands,translationwasusedprimarilyasameansof
education,andatoolfornationbuildingandculturalintegration.Almostallthe
majortranslatorsofthetime–YusofE‘tesāmAlMolk,Mohammad’Ali
Foruqi,‘AbbāsEqbālAshtiāni,Sa‘idNafisi,amongmanyothers–were
concernedessentiallywithservingtheIranianculturethroughintroducing
EuropeanculturalachievementstoIranianreaders.Almostallforumsfor
disseminatingideas–thebookindustry,literaryandpoliticalperiodicals,aswell
astheinstitutionsofhighereducationatalaterstage–includedtranslation
relatedactivitiesaspartoftheiragendaforacculturatingandenlighteningliterate
Iranians.Togiveonlyoneexample,Iranianjournals–Bahār,Dāneshkadeh,
Ermaghān,Vafā,andĀyandeh ,amongnumerousothers–reliedon
translationtoinformIraniansaboutthehistory,politicsandcurrentaffairsof
Europeannations,withtheexpressdesiretopropagatethemasmodelsfor
Iranianstofollow.Indoingso,theyhelpedtobringaboutanewwritingstyle,
newmeansandmethodsofcommunication,andeventuallyanewliterary
tradition.
FollowingWorldWarII,EnglishgraduallyreplacedFrenchasthemain
EuropeanlanguagetaughtatIran’ssecondaryschoolsanduniversities,aswell
astheprincipalmediumfortranslation.Atthesametime,throughatranslation
effortspearheadedbytheproSovietTudehPartyofIran,Marxistideas,
particularlyintheirStalinistinterpretations,begantogaincurrencyinIran.Soon,
theAmericans,havingwrenchedcontrolofIranfromtheBritish,enteredthe
sceneaswell.Bythe1960stranslationactivityhadenteredanewphaseas
competingpoliticalforcesadvancedtheirseparateagendas,inpartthrough
translation.
In1953,TheInstituteforTranslationandPublicationofBooks(Bongāhe
TarjomehvaNashreKetāb)wasfoundedinTehranontheinitiativeofa
youngWesterneducatedIranianscholarnamedEhsanYarshater.Underthe
auspicesoftheroyalcourt,theinstitutespearheadedatranslationeffortwhich
resultedinseveralseriesofbooks,includingtheforeignliteratureseries,the
childrenandyoungadultseries,theIranologyseries,andthePersiantexts
series.Althoughtheinstituteexpandedthescopeoftranslationbased
publicationsubstantially,itshistoricsignificanceliesprimarilyinthestandardsit
establishedtoensureauthenticity,accuracyandeditorialsupervision.Italso
providedamodelforothersimilarventures,mostnotablytheFranklinInstitute
ofIran,anAmericanpublishingenterprisefoundedin1954.Suchorgnaizations
alsotriedtopersuadetheIraniangovernmenttobecomeasignatorytothe
GenevaCopyrightConvention,tosetcopyrightrequirementsfortranslations,
andtosetstandardsforeditingtranslatedtexts.Theseeffortswereonlypartially
successful,asIransawnobenefitinjoiningtheinternationalcopyright
convention.
Meanwhile,translationhadremainedacentralcomponentofthelanguage
learningprocess,particularlyatuniversitylevel.However,theactivitywas
pursuedinfairlytraditionalwayswhichwerenotalwaysconducivetotraining
competent,professionaltranslatorsandinterpreters.Themainactivityconsisted
ofactualtranslations,withlittlediscussionofthetheoreticalunderpinningsorthe
principlesgoverningtheactualprocessoftextproduction.Typically,students
wouldoffertheirowntranslations,discussionswouldensue,andatextwould
besuggestedasthebestpossiblerenditionofagivenoriginal.
Throughthe1970s,effortswereundertakenatTehranUniversity,theCollege
ofTranslationandelsewhere,tointroduceanewapproachtoteachingliterary
translationfromEnglishintoPersianandviceversa.Teachingwasbased
essentiallyonexaminingexistingtranslationsanddiscussingtheirrelativemerits
andshortcomings.Italsoaimedtoinstilasenseofthecomparativegrammarsof
thelanguagesandtextsinvolved.Extensivediscussionsofthestyle,dictionand
contextofeachtextreplacedtherequirementoftextproduction.Importantasit
is,translationpedagogyhasneverbeenstudiedinIranasacrucialcomponent
oftranslationactivity.
Earlyinthe1980s,aspartoftheIslamicRepublicanState’seffortstoredirect
Iran’seducationalsystemtowardsitsideology,aCommitteeforTranslation,
CompositionandEditingwasestablishedattheHeadquartersfortheCultural
Revolution.Thiscommitteeseizedtheoccasionprovidedbythetemporary
closureofthecountry’ssystemofhighereducationto