Translators training at the School of Arabic Studies of Granada

Abstract

At the end of the 1940s the School of Arabic Studies of Granada (Spain) became a center for the initial training of translators and interpreters of Arabic and Berber to be employed by the Spanish Protectorate in Morocco. Research conducted in the School's archives has shed new light on this unique collaborative project between the academic field of Arabism and the Spanish colonial body, an initiative actively promoted by its director at the time, Luis Seco de Lucena. The project was intended to provide candidates for admission to the Arabic and Berber Interpretation Corps of the Protectorate and at the same time help ensure the survival of the University's Arab Studies department, which was also in need of new personnel. The results, however, were both poor and ephemeral. Only two promotions graduated from the School in Granada and headed to Tetouan, capital of the Protectorate, to continue their studies and only four candidates ended up joining the aforementioned Corps. Moreover, only one of them, José Aguilera, engaged in noteworthy activity in both the world of professional translation/interpreting and the University. This fruitless experience can be viewed as yet another indication of the human and material deficiencies faced by that period's Arabism in its ability to train professionals of Arabic.