Arabic to Persian Translation

This direction comes into play when an Arabic document has to be put before a Persian-speaking procedure. The target is most often an official procedure in Iran; Afghanistan and regional procedures also fall into this direction. The source may be a diploma, a civil registry record, a commercial document or a religious or legal text from an Arab country. Both languages use an alphabet of Arabic origin, and that apparent closeness is the source of the most frequent error.

The typical users are people with a connection between the Arab world and Iran: someone submitting a diploma obtained in a Gulf or Levantine country for recognition in Iran, a firm putting an Arabic commercial contract before a procedure in Iran, someone having an Arabic document translated into Persian for a regional official procedure. In these profiles the root cause of errors is losing sight of the fact that, despite sharing an alphabet, these are two separate languages.

The particular difficulties of this pair

Persian uses an extended script that adds four letters to the Arabic alphabet (پ, چ, ژ, گ); reading the Arabic text correctly and transferring it into the Persian letter repertoire calls for care. The two languages share a great many words, but some of the Arabic words that have passed into Persian have shifted in meaning; relying on these apparent equivalents leads to errors in an official text. Since both languages are written from right to left, writing direction poses no problem.

The second difficulty is at the level of calendars and dates, and it is the most distinctive technical issue of this pair. While the Arab world uses either the Gregorian or the Hijri lunar calendar, Iran works on the Hijri solar calendar; the conversion between these three systems has to be done correctly, and where necessary the dates shown together. A wrong conversion can shift a date of birth or of issue by years. Personal names are transliterated consistently according to the spelling in the official record; the father’s and grandfather’s names in an Arabic chain of names are preserved.

Third, carrying Arabic legal and religious formulas into Persian calls for care; since the shared root can be misleading, a concept is rendered by its current official meaning in Persian. Document names and titles are translated by their function; registry and file numbers are not translated, and the record they belong to is stated. The content of seals and certification annotations in the source document is translated, and their position is preserved with a note. In multi-document files, names, the date format and the renderings of institution names are kept consistent throughout.

Where Iran is the target, the chain of approval is a layered process that goes beyond the translation itself, and this determines from the outset how the document is to be prepared. Since Iran expects the translation to be produced by an official translator authorised by the judiciary and certified by the relevant authority, which approval is obtained at which stage is planned according to the target institution. As Iran is not party to the Hague Apostille Convention, documents usually follow the route of consular certification; the position of the source Arab country on the apostille may also differ. In the Persian target text, the form preferred by the target is observed in writing numerals; renderings of names and institutions are kept in a single form across every document. Because words of shared origin can be misleading, legal and religious concepts are given with their current official meaning in Persian; the substance of the concept is not altered but conveyed in a form the receiving side will understand. Attending to these details together prevents the document being returned on a formal ground and spares the process needless repetition; telling us the target authority before you send the document helps us plan the certification route from the start.

Which documents call for this direction

Diplomas, transcripts and professional documents lead the way; they are followed by birth, marriage and civil registry records and then by commercial contracts, powers of attorney and official correspondence. In recognition and official procedures the accuracy of the date conversion is especially important.

• Diplomas, transcripts and professional documents
• Birth, marriage and civil registry records
• Commercial contracts, powers of attorney and official correspondence

The chain of approval

Iran requires the translation to be produced by an official translator authorised by the judiciary (مترجم رسمی) and certified by the relevant authority. As Iran is not party to the Hague Apostille Convention, documents generally follow the route of consular certification (legalisation); the position of the source Arab country on the apostille may also vary. It is therefore essential to confirm the country approval regime and the certification route for both the source and the target.

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The account here summarises the typical case; notarisation and apostille steps are costed as separate items. Clarifying the form the institution wants at the outset saves repeat work later.