The TISHK Center for Kurdistan Studies is pleased to announce its ninth seminar in the 2025 series, entitled: "Translating Classical Greek Texts into Kurdish".
The seminar will be presented by Ali Fathi, renowned Kurdish writer and translator.
Ali Fathi was born in Shno, Eastern Kurdistan, where he completed his primary, secondary, and high school education. In 1986, he moved to Greece to continue his studies, earning a Master’s degree in architecture from the National Technical University of Athens. Due to his mastery and expertise in the Greek language, Fathi has been able to translate significant portions of historical and ancient Greek philosophical sources into Kurdish. In doing so, he not only contributes to Kurdish language development but also makes these foundational sources directly accessible to Kurdish-speaking readers.
This seminar honors the significant achievements of Ali Fathi, whose Kurdish translations of four major works of ancient Greek literature—Geographica by Strabo, Persica by Ctesias, Anabasis by Xenophon, and Histories by Herodotus—mark a critical step in Kurdish cultural and intellectual engagement with the classical world. Fathi’s work enables Kurdish readers to access these foundational texts directly, without reliance on intermediary translations in colonial languages that have historically shaped their encounter with global knowledge. The seminar will explore his vision of translation, the interpretive and linguistic challenges of rendering ancient Greek into Kurdish, and the broader importance of building a direct dialogue between Kurdish and classical civilizations. This event invites reflection on how translation can serve as an act of intellectual empowerment and cultural continuity.
The seminar will be led by Aram Keykhosrawi, a member of the TISHK Magazine editorial board and graduate of the Department of Political Science at Kharazmi University in Tehran.
Scheduled for Sunday, June 01, 2025, at 6 PM (Berlin time), the seminar will be conducted in Kurdish. The session includes a 10-minute introduction, a 30-minute presentation, a 25-minute Q&A session, and a 10-minute panel discussion and conclusion. Participants can join via Zoom using the provided link.

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