Mein Kampf in the Arabic language
Encyclopedia
Mein Kampf
(My Struggle, kifāḥī), Adolf Hitler
's 900-page autobiography outlining his political views, has been translated into Arabic
a number of times since the early 1930s.
, the German
ambassador to the Kingdom of Iraq
, initiated a project to translate the complete book into Arabic. Grobba suggested modifying the text "in ways that correspond to the sensitivities of the race conscious Arabs", such as changing "anti-Semitic" to "anti-Jewish" and toning down arguments for the supremacy
of the "Aryan race
".
It took two years for Hitler to accept the changes to his book in its Arabic version, but Bernhard Moritz, an Arabist
consultant for German Government rejected the proposed translation, and this particular attempt ended at that time.
Subsequently, the Ministry of Propaganda of Germany decided to proceed with the translation via the German bookshop Overhamm in Cairo
. The translator was Ahmad Mahmud al-Sadati, a Muslim and the publisher of one of the first Arabic books on National Socialism: Adolf Hitler, za'im al-ishtirakiya al-waṭaniya ma' al-bayan lil-mas'ala al-yahudiya. "(A.H., leader of National Socialism, together with an explanation of the Jewish question)." The manuscript was presented for Dr. Moritz's review in 1937. Once again, he rejected the translation.
and James Jankowski, the Sadati translation did not receive wide circulation. However, a local Arab weekly published Hitler's quote from the book that the Arabs are a "decadent people composed of cripples." The quote raised angry responses. Hamid Maliji, an Egyptian attorney wrote:
Another commentator, Niqula Yusuf, denounced the militant nationalism of Mein Kampf as "chauvinist".
The Egyptian journal al-Isala stated that "it was Hitler's tirades in Mein Kampf that turned anti-Semitism into a political doctrine and a program for action". al-Isala rejected Nazism in many publications.
to India
," he wrote, opining that it should be written in a style "that every Muslim understands: the Koran." Eventually the translation was sent to Shakib Arslan. Arslan, who lived in Geneva, Switzerland, was an editor of La Nation arabe. He also was a confidant of Haj Amin al-Husseini, a Palestinian
Arab nationalist
and Muslim leader in the British Mandate of Palestine, who met with Hitler.
Arslan's 960 page translation was almost completed when the Germans requested to calculate the cost of the first 10,000 copies to be printed with "the title and back of the flexible cloth binding... lettered in gold." On 21 December 1938 the project was rejected by the German ministry of propaganda
because of the high cost of the projected publication.
According to a September 8, 1999, Agence France Presse report, Mein Kampf ranked sixth on the bestseller list compiled by Dar el-Shuruq bookshop in Ramallah
, with sales of about 10 copies a week. The bookshop owner attributed its popularity to its having been unavailable in the Palestinian territories due to an Israeli ban, and the Palestinian National Authority
recently allowing it to be sold. As of 2002, newsdealers on Edgware Road in central London, an area with a large Arab population, were selling the translation. In 2005, the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center
, an Israeli think tank, confirmed the continued sale of the Bisan edition in bookstores on Edgeware. In 2007 an Agence France-Presse
reporter interviewed a bookseller at the Cairo International Book Fair
who claimed he had sold many copies of Mein Kampf.
According to Jeffrey Herf, "To be sure, the translations of Hitler's Mein Kampf and The Protocols of the Elders of Zion
into Arabic were important sources of the diffusion of Nazi ideology and anti-Semitic conspiracy thinking to Arab and Muslim intellectuals. Although both texts were available in various Arabic editions before the war began, they played little role in the Third Reich's Arab propaganda."
In October 1938, anti-Jewish treatises that included extracts from Mein Kampf were disseminated at an Islamic parliamentarians' conference "for the defense of Palestine" in Cairo.
in 1956, Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir
claimed that the Arabic translation of Mein Kampf was found in Egyptian
soldiers' knapsacks. In the same speech she also described Gamal Abdel Nasser
as a "disciple of Hitler who was determined to annihilate Israel". After the war, Ben-Gurion likened Nasser's Philosophy of the Revolution to Hitler's Mein Kampf, a comparison also made by French Prime Minister Guy Mollet
, though Time Magazine at the time discounted this comparison as "overreaching". "Seen from Washington and New York, Nasser was not Hitler and Suez was not the Sinai," writes Philip Daniel Smith, dismissing the comparison. According to Benny Morris
, Nasser however had not publicly called for the destruction of Israel until after the war, but other Egyptian politicians preceded him in this regard. The second generation of Israeli history textbooks included a photograph of Hitler's Mein Kampf found at Egyptian posts during the war. Elie Podeh writes that the depiction is "probably genuine", but that it "served to dehumanize Egypt (and especially Nasser) by associating it with the Nazis."
Mein Kampf
Mein Kampf is a book written by Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. It combines elements of autobiography with an exposition of Hitler's political ideology. Volume 1 of Mein Kampf was published in 1925 and Volume 2 in 1926...
(My Struggle, kifāḥī), Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
's 900-page autobiography outlining his political views, has been translated into Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
a number of times since the early 1930s.
Translations
The first attempts to translate Mein Kampf into Arabic started in the early 1930s, with the first publications of the book's extracts appearing in Arab newspapers in 1934. Fritz GrobbaFritz Grobba
Fritz Konrad Ferdinand Grobba is best remembered for being a German diplomat during the interwar period and World War II.-Biography:...
, the German
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
ambassador to the Kingdom of Iraq
Kingdom of Iraq
The Kingdom of Iraq was the sovereign state of Iraq during and after the British Mandate of Mesopotamia. The League of Nations mandate started in 1920. The kingdom began in August 1921 with the coronation of Faisal bin al-Hussein bin Ali al-Hashemi as King Faisal I...
, initiated a project to translate the complete book into Arabic. Grobba suggested modifying the text "in ways that correspond to the sensitivities of the race conscious Arabs", such as changing "anti-Semitic" to "anti-Jewish" and toning down arguments for the supremacy
Nazism and race
Nazism developed several theories concerning races. The Nazis claimed to scientifically measure a strict hierarchy of human race; at the top was the master race, the "Aryan race", narrowly defined by the Nazis as being identical with the Nordic race, followed by lesser races.At the bottom of this...
of the "Aryan race
Aryan race
The Aryan race is a concept historically influential in Western culture in the period of the late 19th century and early 20th century. It derives from the idea that the original speakers of the Indo-European languages and their descendants up to the present day constitute a distinctive race or...
".
It took two years for Hitler to accept the changes to his book in its Arabic version, but Bernhard Moritz, an Arabist
Arabist
This is an article about the western scholars known as Arabists, not the political movement Pan-Arabism.An Arabist is someone normally from outside the Arab World who specialises in the study of the Arabic language and Arab culture, and often Arabic literature.-Origins:Arabists began in medieval...
consultant for German Government rejected the proposed translation, and this particular attempt ended at that time.
Subsequently, the Ministry of Propaganda of Germany decided to proceed with the translation via the German bookshop Overhamm in Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
. The translator was Ahmad Mahmud al-Sadati, a Muslim and the publisher of one of the first Arabic books on National Socialism: Adolf Hitler, za'im al-ishtirakiya al-waṭaniya ma' al-bayan lil-mas'ala al-yahudiya. "(A.H., leader of National Socialism, together with an explanation of the Jewish question)." The manuscript was presented for Dr. Moritz's review in 1937. Once again, he rejected the translation.
1937 translation
Al-Sadati published his translation of Mein Kampf in Cairo in 1937 without German approval. According to Yekutiel GershoniYekutiel Gershoni
Yekutiel Gershoni is an Israeli historian and a former paralympic champion.Gershoni was injured in November 1969 during his service with the IDF. He was Captain at the time, patrolling near the Israeli-Jordanian border, when a mine was operated from a distance and amputated his arms...
and James Jankowski, the Sadati translation did not receive wide circulation. However, a local Arab weekly published Hitler's quote from the book that the Arabs are a "decadent people composed of cripples." The quote raised angry responses. Hamid Maliji, an Egyptian attorney wrote:
Another commentator, Niqula Yusuf, denounced the militant nationalism of Mein Kampf as "chauvinist".
The Egyptian journal al-Isala stated that "it was Hitler's tirades in Mein Kampf that turned anti-Semitism into a political doctrine and a program for action". al-Isala rejected Nazism in many publications.
Attempts at revision
A German diplomat in Cairo suggested that instead of deleting the offending passage about Arabs, it would be better to add to the introduction a statement that "Egyptian people 'were differentially developed and that the Egyptians standing at a higher level themselves do not want to be placed on the same level with their numerous backward fellow Egyptians.'" Otto von Hentig, a staff member of the German foreign ministry suggested that the translation should be redone in a more literary Arabic style. "A truly good Arabic translation would meet with extensive sympathy in the whole Arabic speaking world from MoroccoMorocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
to India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
," he wrote, opining that it should be written in a style "that every Muslim understands: the Koran." Eventually the translation was sent to Shakib Arslan. Arslan, who lived in Geneva, Switzerland, was an editor of La Nation arabe. He also was a confidant of Haj Amin al-Husseini, a Palestinian
Palestinian nationalism
Palestinian nationalism is the national movement of the Palestinian people. It has roots in Pan-Arabism and other movements rejecting colonialism and calling for national independence. More recently, Palestinian Nationalism is expressed through the Israeli–Palestinian conflict...
Arab nationalist
Arab nationalism
Arab nationalism is a nationalist ideology celebrating the glories of Arab civilization, the language and literature of the Arabs, calling for rejuvenation and political union in the Arab world...
and Muslim leader in the British Mandate of Palestine, who met with Hitler.
Arslan's 960 page translation was almost completed when the Germans requested to calculate the cost of the first 10,000 copies to be printed with "the title and back of the flexible cloth binding... lettered in gold." On 21 December 1938 the project was rejected by the German ministry of propaganda
Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda
The Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda was Nazi Germany's ministry that enforced Nazi Party ideology in Germany and regulated its culture and society. Founded on March 13, 1933, by Adolf Hitler's new National Socialist government, the Ministry was headed by Dr...
because of the high cost of the projected publication.
1963 translation
A new translation was published in 1963, translated by Luis al-Haj, a Nazi war criminal originally named Luis Heiden who fled to Egypt after World War II. The book was republished in 1995 by Bisan Publishers in Beirut.According to a September 8, 1999, Agence France Presse report, Mein Kampf ranked sixth on the bestseller list compiled by Dar el-Shuruq bookshop in Ramallah
Ramallah
Ramallah is a Palestinian city in the central West Bank located 10 kilometers north of Jerusalem, adjacent to al-Bireh. It currently serves as the de facto administrative capital of the Palestinian National Authority...
, with sales of about 10 copies a week. The bookshop owner attributed its popularity to its having been unavailable in the Palestinian territories due to an Israeli ban, and the Palestinian National Authority
Palestinian National Authority
The Palestinian Authority is the administrative organization established to govern parts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip...
recently allowing it to be sold. As of 2002, newsdealers on Edgware Road in central London, an area with a large Arab population, were selling the translation. In 2005, the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center
Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center
Not to be confused with the California-based "Terrorism Information Center".The Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center is an Israeli-based non-governmental organization with close ties to the Israel Defense Forces....
, an Israeli think tank, confirmed the continued sale of the Bisan edition in bookstores on Edgeware. In 2007 an Agence France-Presse
Agence France-Presse
Agence France-Presse is a French news agency, the oldest one in the world, and one of the three largest with Associated Press and Reuters. It is also the largest French news agency. Currently, its CEO is Emmanuel Hoog and its news director Philippe Massonnet...
reporter interviewed a bookseller at the Cairo International Book Fair
Cairo International Book Fair
The Cairo International Book Fair is the largest and oldest book fair in the Arab world, held every year in the last week of January in Cairo, Egypt, at the Cairo International Fair Grounds in Madinat Nasr, near Al-Azhar University, it is organised by the General Egyptian Book Organisation...
who claimed he had sold many copies of Mein Kampf.
Role in Nazi propaganda
One of the leaders of the Syrian Ba'ath Party, Sami al-Jundi, wrote: "We were racialists, admiring Nazism, reading its books and the source of its thought... We were the first to think of translating Mein Kampf." This statement was incorrect. There were other translations or partial translations of the book well before 1939.According to Jeffrey Herf, "To be sure, the translations of Hitler's Mein Kampf and The Protocols of the Elders of Zion
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is a fraudulent, antisemitic text purporting to describe a Jewish plan for achieving global domination. It was first published in Russia in 1903, translated into multiple languages, and disseminated internationally in the early part of the twentieth century...
into Arabic were important sources of the diffusion of Nazi ideology and anti-Semitic conspiracy thinking to Arab and Muslim intellectuals. Although both texts were available in various Arabic editions before the war began, they played little role in the Third Reich's Arab propaganda."
Mein Kampf and Arab nationalism
Mein Kampf has been pointed to as an example of the influence of Nazism for Arab nationalists. According to Stefan Wild of the University of Bonn, Hitler's philosophy of National Socialism – of a state headed by a single, strong, charismatic leader with a submissive and adoring people – was a model for the founders of the Arab nationalist movement. Arabs favored Germany over other European powers, because "Germany was seen as having no direct colonial or territorial ambitions in the area. This was an important point of sympathy", Wild wrote. They also saw German nationhood - which preceded German statehood - as a model for their own movement.In October 1938, anti-Jewish treatises that included extracts from Mein Kampf were disseminated at an Islamic parliamentarians' conference "for the defense of Palestine" in Cairo.
During the Suez war
In a speech to the United Nations immediately following the Suez CrisisSuez Crisis
The Suez Crisis, also referred to as the Tripartite Aggression, Suez War was an offensive war fought by France, the United Kingdom, and Israel against Egypt beginning on 29 October 1956. Less than a day after Israel invaded Egypt, Britain and France issued a joint ultimatum to Egypt and Israel,...
in 1956, Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir
Golda Meir
Golda Meir ; May 3, 1898 – December 8, 1978) was a teacher, kibbutznik and politician who became the fourth Prime Minister of the State of Israel....
claimed that the Arabic translation of Mein Kampf was found in Egyptian
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
soldiers' knapsacks. In the same speech she also described Gamal Abdel Nasser
Gamal Abdel Nasser
Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein was the second President of Egypt from 1956 until his death. A colonel in the Egyptian army, Nasser led the Egyptian Revolution of 1952 along with Muhammad Naguib, the first president, which overthrew the monarchy of Egypt and Sudan, and heralded a new period of...
as a "disciple of Hitler who was determined to annihilate Israel". After the war, Ben-Gurion likened Nasser's Philosophy of the Revolution to Hitler's Mein Kampf, a comparison also made by French Prime Minister Guy Mollet
Guy Mollet
Guy Mollet was a French Socialist politician. He led the French Section of the Workers' International party from 1946 to 1969 and was Prime Minister in 1956–1957.-Early life and World War II:...
, though Time Magazine at the time discounted this comparison as "overreaching". "Seen from Washington and New York, Nasser was not Hitler and Suez was not the Sinai," writes Philip Daniel Smith, dismissing the comparison. According to Benny Morris
Benny Morris
Benny Morris is professor of History in the Middle East Studies department of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in the city of Be'er Sheva, Israel...
, Nasser however had not publicly called for the destruction of Israel until after the war, but other Egyptian politicians preceded him in this regard. The second generation of Israeli history textbooks included a photograph of Hitler's Mein Kampf found at Egyptian posts during the war. Elie Podeh writes that the depiction is "probably genuine", but that it "served to dehumanize Egypt (and especially Nasser) by associating it with the Nazis."