When Translation Makes History: The Misrepresentation of Muḥammad-Bāqir Majlisī in the Browne–Yāsmī Narrative

This study examines the translation of the word persecutor as “killer” (qātil) in the description of ‛Allāma Muḥammad-Bāqir Majlisī in Ghulām-Reḍā Rashīd Yāsmī’s Persian translation of Edward Browne’s A Literary History of Persia. It approaches this case as a classic example of the decisive role of contextual power in the construction of historical knowledge. Employing a comparative and critical methodology, the article demonstrates that this distortion emerged from the intersection of three influential contexts. First, the textual context: Browne’s reliance on highly partisan secondary sources, such as Tunikābunī, and the influence of polemical narratives, including Qazvīnī’s letter, on his perception of Majlisī. Second, the ideological context: the compatibility of this portrayal with the nationalist, ancientist, and secular discourses that were prominent during the Constitutional period and the early Pahlavi era, shaping the intellectual horizon of the translator, Rashīd Yāsmī. Third, the reception context: the institutionalization of this erroneous narrative to such an extent that later and more accurate translations—such as Bahrām Meqdādī’s rendering of persecutor as “oppressor” or “persecutor” (āzārgar)—failed to displace it.
The study argues that this case extends far beyond a mere lexical correction. Rather, it serves as a warning about the role of translation in constructing or distorting historical memory. Contextual forces can override textual accuracy and transform an error into a dominant historical narrative. Consequently, correcting such distortions requires a simultaneous critique of the text, the translation, and the broader contextual and discursive layers that shaped them. Restoring the more accurate equivalent, āzārgar (“persecutor”), can contribute to reopening the possibility of more balanced interpretations of history only when these mechanisms of symbolic power are properly understood.