The point of departure for this special issue of Alif is that knowledge is 'produced' rather than 'discovered,' and that translation is a core mechanism for the production and circulation of all forms of knowledge. This topic has received relatively limited attention in translation studies to date, and even less in related disciplines such as cultural studies and the history of ideas. This issue aims to encourage sustained engagement with the role played by translation in the production of knowledges across the entire spectrum of human activities. Contributors offer theoretical, empirical, and historical accounts of the impact of translation on the production, renegotiation, and reification of knowledge.

English and French Section:
¿ Spencer Scoville: Translating Orientalism into the Arabic Nahda
¿ Samuel England: An Ayyubid Renaissance: Saladin, from Knighthood to Nah¿a
¿ Rafael Y. Schögler: Translation in the Social Sciences and Humanities: Circulating and Canonizing Knowledge
¿ Karen Bennett: Translation and the Desacralization of the Western World: From Performativity to Representation
¿ Simon Labrecque et René Lemieux: Traduire la virtù de Machiavel en anglais
¿ Rita Filanti: Self-Censorship and Fascism
¿ Samah Selim: Politics and Paratext: On Translating Arwa Salih's al-Mubtasarun
¿ Anna Bogic: Translation and Feminist Knowledge Production: The Serbian Translation of Our Bodies, Ourselves
¿ Mark Shuttleworth: Translation and the Production of Knowledge in Wikipedia: Chronicling the Assassination of Boris Nemtsov
¿ Henry Jones: Wikipedia, Translation, and the Collaborative Production of Spatial Knowledge
¿ Maeve Olohan: A Practice-Theory Analysis of Scientific Editing by Translators
¿ Iulia Mihalache: Les traducteurs et les technologies : Un mode de réflection dans l'action
¿ Lydia H. Liu: The Battleground of Translation: Making Equal in a Global Structure of Inequality (Interviewed by James St. André)
Arabic Section:
¿ Sameh Hanna: Knowledge Production and Identity Formation in Two Arabic Translations of the Bible
¿ Mariam Saeed El Ali: "Do You Know What this Bird is Saying?": Translating Animal Language as Spiritual Knowledge
¿ Tarek Shamma: Early Translations of Aristotle's Poetics: Wasted Opportunity or Creative Adaptation?
¿ Richard Jacquemond: Palestinian Literature Translated into French: History and Impact
¿ Ahmed Haikal: Israeli Responses to Hebrew Translations of Darwish's Poetry
¿ Mahmoud Alhirthani: Translation and the Re-Production of Knowledge: The Example of Edward Said
¿ Mustafa Riad: Translation and Modern Nation-Building in Egypt: Tahtawi as Translato
¿ Rana Roshdy: Translation and Liberation from Western Hegemony: Al-Sanhuri's 1948 Law
¿ Sayyed Daifallah: Translation and Acculturation: On Cultural Criticism
¿ Ashraf Abdel Fattah and Rashid Yahiaoui: Media Translation and Trans-Editing: News Reporting or Reality Representation?
¿ Khaled Mattawa: Translation and Identity (Introduced and Interviewed by Samia Mehrez)

Mona Baker is Professor Emerita of Translation Studies at the University of Manchester, and director of the Baker Centre for Translation and Intercultural Studies at Jiao Tong University, Shanghai. She is the author of Translation and Translation and Conflict: A Narrative Account and editor of the award-winning Translating Dissent: Voices from and with the Egyptian Revolution.