Summary of the presentation:
'Enthusiastick' Uses of the Oriental Tale: English Translations of Ibn Tufayl's Hayy ibn Yaqdhan
in the Long Eighteenth Century.
Joint presentation by Claire Gallien (claire.gallien@univ-montp3.fr) and Louisiane Ferlier
(louisiane.ferlier@univ-paris-diderot.fr)
Séminaire, Construction de l'Orient,
Université Paris Diderot-Paris 7.
Hayy ibn Yaqdhan (which translates as “Alive, Son of the Awake”) is the title of a philosophical
tale authored by Ibn Tufayl in 12th century Al Andalusi. It tells the story of a child living in
complete isolation on an Indian island but reaching philosophical and religious truths through
sensorial experiments and reasoning. Modeled after earlier works by Ibn Sina, it seeks to
demonstrate that religion is reasonable. In this joint presentation the two speakers analyzed the
first three consecutive translations of Hayy Ibn Yaqdhan in English. After the text was diffused in
learned circles thanks to its translation in Latin in 1671 by Edward Pococke, son of the first
Laudian Professor of Arabic at the University of Oxford, it was ‘turned into English’ in three
very different editions in 1674, 1686 and 1708. The short span of time between each
publication can be explained by the theological controversies that each translation triggered.
Scottish Quaker George Keith –translator of the 1674 version– envisioned the text as a
theological illustration of the “Inner Light”, the “Immediate Revelation” at the core of his
Quaker doctrineii. Nonconformist George Ashwell thought his 1686 publication as an editorial
transformationiii. By cutting passages out of the text, omitting Tufayl’s original account of
“Eastern Philosophy”, erasing many expressions from the Koran and titling his translation, An
Indian Prince, he simplified the narrative to create an Oriental easy-read. But by adding after the
text a theological pamphlet entitled “The Book of Nature”, Ashwell also advocated a
contemplative religion inspired by Nature that inscribed Tufayl’s discourse in early modern
debates on “natural religion”. Simon Ockley, who acted at once as a specialist of Arabic and a
member of the Anglican clergy, was dissatisfied with the two previous translations and returned
in 1708 to the original Arabic textiv. Although his translation will be considered as a “minor
piece”v, it manifested the changing editorial policy regarding eastern publications: the addition
of engravings of Hayy’s coming of age and footnotes addressed to readers unfamiliar with the
Koran, Arabic or more generally “Oriental studies” were signs that the translator wanted to see
the oriental tale reach as wide a public as possible. Nevertheless, Ockley defended official
orthodoxy in his appendix to ensure that Tufayl’s depiction of religion as a matter of individual
reason would not undermine the authority of the Anglican Church.
The two speakers convoked the idea of commercial negociations with the text to underline that
the translators conceived their editions in order to reach a particular readership. The result of
this theological, narrative or scientific bargain is both a distortion of the text and the creation of
an imaginary Orient. Hayy Ibn Yaqdhan appears therefore at once as a unique editorial
phenomenon and as the revelator of the evolution of orientalist texts in the British book market
at the opening of the long eighteenth century.
i
Ibn Tufayl's Hayy ibn Yaqzān: a philosophical tale, translated with introduction and notes by Lenn
Evan Goodman. New York: Twayne, 1972. Le philosophe autodidacte, Ibn Tufayl, translated by
Léon Gauthier, edited by Séverine Auffret and Ghassan Ferzli, illustrations Marion Bataille.
Paris : Mille et une nuits, 1999.
George Keith, An account of the Oriental philosophy shewing the wisdom of some renowned men of the
East and particularly the profound wisdom of Hai Ebn Yokdan, both in natural and divine things, which
he attained without all converse with men, (while he lived in an island a solitary life, remote from all men
from his infancy, till he arrived at such perfection). London: s.n., 1674.
iii
George Ashwell, The History of Hai Eb’n Yockdan, an Indian Prince: or the Self-Taught Philosopher.
London: printed for Richard Chiswell, in S. Paul’s Churchyard, and William Thorp Bookseller
in Banbury, 1686.
iv
Simon Ockley, The Improvement of Human Reason, Exhibited in the Life of Hai Ebn Yokdhan.
London: Printed and Sold by Edm. Powell in Blackfriars, and J. Morphew near Stationers-hall,
1708.
v
A new and general biographical dictionary; containing an historical and critical account of the lives and
writings of the most eminent persons in every nation… 11 vols. London: printed for T. Osborne, J.
Whiston and B. White, W. Strahan, T. Payne, W. Owen, W. Johnston, S. Crowder, B. Law,
T. Field, T. Durham, J. Robson, R. Goadby, and E. Baker, MDCCLXI. [1761], vol. 9, p.14,
15.
ii