About the translator - Keven Brown

The person doing the translating for the Windflower Translations Project is scholar, author and philosopher, Keven Brown. In 2006, he gained a Ph.D in Near Eastern Languages and Cultures from UCLA (History, Arabic, Persian, Medieval Philosophy). He describes himself as "a student of religion, classical philosophy, and science, with an interest in translating and publishing the great works of Islamic philosophers".

In the field of Baha'i Studies, Keven has written many works, most of them centred on issues to do with Baha'i philosophy. Perhaps the works that Keven is most known for include:

• "Creation: The Nature of God and the Creation of the Universe in Baha'i Cosmology", unpublished article. (2003)
• “‘Abdu’l-Baha’s Response to the Doctrine of the Unity of Existence.” The Journal of Baha'i Studies 11.3-4: 1-29. (2001)
• “‘Abdu’l-Baha’s Response to Darwinism: Its Historical and Philosophical Context.” Evolution and Baha'i Belief: ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s Response to Nineteenth Century Darwinism. Ed. Keven Brown. Los Angeles: Kalimat Press: 1-134. (2001)
• “Hermes Trismegistus and Apollonius of Tyana in the Writings of Baha’u’llah.” Revisioning the Sacred. Ed. Jack McLean. Los Angeles: Kalimat Press: 153-187. (1997)

A full list of Keven's Baha'i-related works can be found at the Baha'i Library Online.

Apart from Keven's work in Baha'i Studies, he has also done a ground-breaking study of the 17th century Iranian philosopher Mir Damad. Mir Damad is regarded as the founder of the School of Isfahan and was the teacher of Mulla Sadra. In 2009, Keven published his translation and analysis of one of Mir Damad's major works:

Kitāb al-Qabasāt: The Book of Blazing Brands, A Provisional English Translation, Introduction, and Notes, Including Selections from Sayyed Ahmad ‘Alawī’s Sharh Kitab al-Qabasat. New York: Global Scholarly Publications.

A good way to appreciate the extraordinary nature of this accomplishment in translation is to read the statement from the Wiki page on Mir Damad that:

"Mir Damad's philosophical prose is often accounted as being among the most dense and obtusely difficult of styles to understand, deliberately employing as well as coining convoluted philosophical terminology and neologisms that require systematic unpacking and detailed commentary."

In addition, since 2010, Keven has been employed by the Institute of Ismaili Studies in London to translate academic articles from Persian into English for the Encyclopaedia Islamica project, which is being run in collaboration with Brill Publishers in the Netherlands.

Keven is also bringing together his experience in translation by developing "A Guide for the Translation of Particles, Expressions, and Usage in Arabic Philosophical and Religious Texts," which he plans to publish as an aid for literary translators.

The following is an example of a provisional translation by Keven Brown. The passage is from Tablet of the Right of the People, in which Baha'u'llah explains how a person's rights are fulfilled in all the worlds of God:

"Whenever We purpose to explain this theme and expound upon the nature of the manifestations of things in the innumerable worlds, We make statements and give analogies that are easy to understand and comprehend. And there is no analogy more befitting than the dream world that We can set forth. The dream state is said to be the brother of death, inasmuch as recognizing a brother is by the likeness of the brother. Consider how in the world of vision thou beholdest certain things, and later while awake in this world, thou dost interpret and explain them by resorting to other names, forms, and characterizations. Then after a lapse of time, the same things thou didst interpret and explain are witnessed.

Therefore, O my brother, whenever thou art dreaming and behold such a thing in the world of vision, it will have another name and characterization there different from that which it hath here. Recognize, then, that this same disparity in forms applieth to the world after death. And know of a certainty that while the reality and the essence are one, the form and the characterization will vary. ...

[Baha'u'llah later discusses Joseph's dream, found in Qur'an 12:4]

Now reflect. What kind of world is that wherein His father and mother are seen as the sun and the moon, and His brothers appear in the form of stars? And what is this world wherein the inverse is seen: the sun and the moon in the form of His father and mother, and the stars in the form of His brothers? He saith, exalted be His sovereignty, 'I saw eleven stars, and the sun and the moon; I saw them bowing down before me.' The interpretation of this vision became clear once Joseph was established upon the throne of glory, and Jacob and Joseph’s eleven brothers prostrated themselves at His feet.

Now, since this question hath become established and ascertained, it is evident that the requital of every due taketh place in every world in a form befitting that world. Otherwise, assuredly the administration of justice could not be fulfilled."

Baha’u’llah, Tablet of the Right of the People (Lawh-i Haqqu’n-Nas), provisional translation by Keven Brown. Quoted from "The Unsearchable Wisdom of God. Regarding Dreams in the Baha’i Faith" Part 1, on the blog Baha'i Mosaic by Paul Mantle.