The Eloquence Gap: AI and the Untranslatable in Classical Arabic Sermons "A Case Study of Qotri ibn al-Fujaʾa’s Oration"
Artificial intelligence–based translation systems have made rapid progress in recent years, offering unprecedented access to multilingual communication. Despite these advancements, questions remain about the ability of AI to handle highly stylistic and culturally saturated texts, particularly Arabic heritage literature, which is known for its dense rhetorical structures, intertextual references, and emotionally charged sermonic discourse. This research investigates how AI renders Qotri ibn al-Fujaʾa’s renowned ascetic sermon—an exemplar of ornate early Islamic prose marked by sajʿ (assonance or rhymed prose), parallelism, Quranic allusions, and intense moral admonition. The analysis is centered on a comparative evaluation between the original Arabic Source Text (ST), provided in Appendix A, and its AI-generated English translation, provided in Appendix B. The study seeks to determine the degree to which AI retains semantic content, rhetorical craftsmanship, and cultural–theological resonance, situating its findings within the broader context of translation studies and digital humanities.
Artificial intelligence–based translation systems have made rapid progress in recent years, offering unprecedented access to multilingual communication.
The modern translation industry is using machine translation post-editing (MTPE) widely, and the translation industry in the Arab World is following the global lead.