ABSTRACT
An Andalusian scholar of Islamic law, Hadiṯh, Qur‘anic exegesis, theology, and linguistics. Al-Shaṯibi’s best known book, it is considered to have founded the systematic study of the objectives of the Shari’a. Al-Shaṯibi’s analysis of the modes of semantic significance, though focused on the Qu‘ran, moves the discussion of meaning and translation beyond the elementary utterance/meaning dichotomy employed in many contemporary debates. It would be useful in this connection to examine Ibn Qutaiba’s argument, employed by al-Shaṯibi against translating the Qur‘an. Ibn Qutaiba’s attitude invokes a position that recognizes linguistic difference on the restricted level described by al-Shaṯibi as a barrier to full translation, but sees languages as unequal in this difference, and consequently in their levels of (un)translatability.
