Translation in Exile: Maḥmūd al-Ghūl’s Aeneid

This chapter deals with the significance of Virgil’s Aeneid for Palestinian historical memory. This Arabic prose translation of Virgil’s Aeneid, by the Palestinian Maḥmūd ʿAli al-Ghūl (1923–83), is extremely important for uncovering a relationship between Roman and Palestinian memorialization of their painful past and offers access to a yet untold history of the reception of classical studies in Palestine before 1948. The chapter discusses the importance of the Arab College in Jerusalem for the transmission of classical learning among Palestinians. Maḥmūd ʿAli al-Ghūl was born in Silwan village near Jerusalem and received a classical education both at the Arab College in Jerusalem and at King Fuad I University in Cairo, Egypt. He composed his translation of the Aeneid from 1942 to 1951, yet the work was published only posthumously in 2015. He worked on his Arabic translation while wandering as a refugee from one academic position to another.