Murat Bayrak

Translating Cultural Heritage: Ottoman Tombs

The history of Ottoman Empire (1299-1922) is traditionally divided into five stages: foundation, expansion, stagnation, decline, and fall. The first six Ottoman Sultans – Osman I, Orhan, Murad I, Bayezid I, Mehmed I, Murad II – were entombed in Bursa, which served as the first capital city of the Ottomans from 1326 to 1402. Hence, Bursa has become an attraction centre for visitors who want to explore historical places, especially the tombs of these founder, conqueror and empire builder sultans.

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the information on the external signboards provided by the Bursa Metropolitan Municipality to introduce these historically eminent figures and architectural structures to domestic and international tourists. To this end, the information presented both in Turkish and English has been analysed to determine and describe several problematic issues with respect to translation. The results of the analysis indicate that both the source and target texts
contain lots of mistakes regarding semantic, syntactic, and lexical features which would impede the understanding of the correct information. Finally, it is suggested that these texts need to be revised by language experts and professional translators in terms of form and content.

Murat Bayrak, born in Bursa in 1980, majored in English Language Teaching in BA and MA. He holds a PhD degree in Translation and Cultural Studies. His professional path includes roles such as an EFL teacher, lecturer, a translator-interpreter. Notably, Bayrak’s administrative experience encompasses directorship positions at language schools & research, application and learning centres, as well as a Secretary General position at Bursa Technical University (BTU).

Currently, as an assistant professor at BTU Translation and Interpreting Department, he engages in academic pursuits related to translating humour, text types & textual analysis, translation and culture, foreign language teaching etc.