Bilal Dindar (Mikeladze): Translator of Rustaveli’s The Knight in the Panther’s Skin into Turkish

Abstract

The present study is devoted to Bilal Dindar, a scholar and translator based in Turkey, who produced the first complete Turkish translation of Rustaveli’s The Knight in the Panther’s Skin, a landmark of world literature and the crown jewel of Georgian cultural tradition. The translation was published in 1991.
Bilal Dindar’s contribution to Georgian culture is particularly significant in that he remains the only translator to have rendered the poem in its entirety into Turkish. Through his work, Turkish readers gained the opportunity to engage more profoundly with this seminal Georgian masterpiece, a text composed centuries ago yet still resonant and relevant in contemporary literary discourse.
Dindar did not translate the poem directly from the Georgian original. As he himself notes, he relied primarily on Sergi Tzuladze’s French translation and on the Azerbaijani version produced in the 1930s by the poet Ahmad Javad, first published in 1978.
Owing to this methodological approach, both Turkologists and Rustvelologists observe numerous inaccuracies in his translation. These are partly attributable to the challenges inherent in mediated translation and partly to the cultural distance between Christian and Muslim cultural traditions. Nevertheless, despite the existing critical assessments, it should be recognized that Dindar—together with his Azerbaijani colleague, Associate Professor Zeynalabidin Maka—managed to overcome the considerable difficulties posed by the poem’s complex metrical structure, semantic depth, and rich historical and cultural layers.
It is particularly noteworthy that, to this day, no direct Turkish translation of The Knight in the Panther’s Skin from the Georgian original exists. Consequently, Dindar’s Turkish rendition remains an invaluable contribution, opening a new avenue for the reception of Georgian classical literature. Thus, Bilal Dindar’s translation of Shota Rustaveli’s brilliant epic not only fosters the development of Georgian–Turkish cultural relations but also enhances the global visibility and intellectual recognition of Georgian literary heritage.