Translating Ancient Texts in the Middle of the Desert

Sarah Baldwin talks with Elias Muhanna [https://vivo.brown.edu/display/emuhanna] about an essay he wrote for the New Yorker [https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/a-new-history-of-arabia-written-in-stone] in May 2018 in which he describes recent advances in translating pre-Islamic Arabic texts. The conversation focuses on the groundbreaking translations of Muhanna's friend and colleague Ahmad Al-Jallad and how his work has changed our understanding of life on the Arabian peninsula before Islam. Editing by Babette Thomas '19 Theme music composed by Henry Ross Bloomfield: www.heybloomfield.com You can read a transcript of this episode here: [https://watson.brown.edu/files/watson/imce/news/podcast/trending-globally/transcripts/E68_Elias%20Final%20mp3%20Bounce_mixdown.pdf]