KR

ʿAbbās al-Dūrī said: I heard Abu ʿUbayd say, “I have associated with people and debated with the ahl al-kalām (speculative theologians), and I have never seen a group more filthy in their defilement, weaker in argument, or more foolish than they. When I served as judge of the frontier district, I expelled three Jahmīs (followers of the Jahmiyyah sect)… … and another Jahmī.” (6)

The above is the AI translation from Siyar A’lam ‘l-Nubala under the entry of Abu Ubayd Al-Qasim Ibn Sallam (d. 224 AH). Here is the link: https://kutub.io/en/book/10906/6753 The Arabic passage in the same link is as follows: قَالَ عَبَّاسٌ الدُّوْرِيُّ: سَمِعْتُ أَبَا عُبَيْدٍ يَقُوْلُ: عَاشَرتُ النَّاسَ، وَكَلَّمْتُ أَهْلَ الكَلاَمِ، فَمَا رَأَيْتُ قَوْماً أَوْسَخَ وَسَخاً، وَلاَ أَضْعَفَ حُجَّةً مِنْ ... ، وَلاَ أَحْمَقَ مِنْهُم، وَلَقَدْ وَلِيتُ قَضَاءَ الثَّغْرِ، فَنَفَيتُ ثَلاَثَةً جَهْمِيَّيْنَ ... ،... وَجَهْمِيّاً (٦) . Unfortunately, this is a distortion of the passage by the editor. The correct version of the passage is as follows: قال عباس الدوري: سمعت أبا عبيد يقول: عاشرت الناس وكلمت أهل الكلام، فما رأيت قوما أوسخ وسخا ولا أضعف حجة من الرافضة ولا أحمق منهم، ولقد وليت قضاء الثغر فنفيت ثلاثة جهميين ورافضي أو رافضيين وجهميا. See https://majles.alukah.net/showthread.php?t=66248 for a demonstration of the distortion in the Mu’assasah print. Now let’s put this correct version back onto ChatGPT for a translation:

ʿAbbās al-Dūrī said: “I heard Abū ʿUbayd say: ’I have lived among people and debated the practitioners of speculative theology (

ahl al-kalām

). I have never seen a people filthier in conduct, weaker in argument, or more foolish than the Rāfiḍah. When I served as the judge (

qāḍī

) of the frontier district, I expelled three Jahmīs, and one Rāfiḍī—or perhaps two Rāfiḍīs—and one Jahmī.’”

Compare the two translations and you’ll note the problem. Lesson: Not only is your AI translation as good or bad as your print, but AI hallucinates when it is trying to make sense and f a poorly edited or outright distorted passage. Without a human in the loop, any translation of a scholarly text must be rejected.