ABSTRACT
In the introduction to Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, al-Bustani states that the significance of the novel is that it was based on real events, emphasizing the realism of the plot, as well as the ethical value of the work. Clearly time can be adapted to the ebb and flow of pressures in relation to one’s endeavors. And such times that many spend in places of entertainment and in a state of idleness can be spent in producing works of benefit to them and to the children of their homeland. The contemporary common practice of adapting or rewriting foreign works instead of straightforward translation involved high visibility for the translator, sometimes reinforced in the peritextual material. Translator prefaces, footnotes, and epigraphs were employed by Nahda literary translators, of which al-Bustani made overt and extensive use when setting forth his version of Robinson Crusoe.
