Missionary Translations: The Activities of the American Board in the Ottoman Empire (1820–1923)

Abstract

Beginning in the first half of the nineteenth century, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) established a significant presence in the Ottoman Empire through its activities in translation, printing, and education. From the 1820s to the early twentieth century, the Board produced a broad corpus of translated texts, including biblical works as well as textbooks in science, medicine, and the humanities. Approaching these activities from a translation studies perspective, this article argues that translation constituted a central institutional practice that structured the Board’s publishing and educational enterprises. Drawing on archival sources and missionary accounts, the study shows how translation shaped pedagogical practices, mediated the circulation of knowledge, and contributed to the codification of minority vernaculars in Anatolia. Missionary presses and educational institutions constituted key sites where translation was systematically carried out in conjunction with religious instruction and publishing activities. In particular, translations into Armenian and Bulgarian played a formative role in the development of modern written forms of these languages. By foregrounding translation as an analytical lens, the article reconsiders missionary activity in the Ottoman Empire and demonstrates the relevance of missionary translation to discussions of language planning, print culture, and sociocultural change in the nineteenth century.