MAPPING TRANSLATION HISTORY IN IRAN: A SCIENTOMETRIC STUDY OF JOURNAL ARTICLES

This study presents a scientometric analysis of scholarly publications on the history of translation in Iran, encompassing 370 articles published over a fifty-year period. Using VOSviewer for data visualization, the research identifies and maps eight key dimensions of the articles: journal titles, journal affiliation, publication date, publication place, historical periods, themes, theoretical frameworks, and text genres. The findings reveal a significant increase in publication volume in recent years, particularly from 2011 onward, coinciding with the academic institutionalization of translation studies in Iran. Tehran and Mashhad emerged as the dominant centers of scholarly output, reflecting their status as hubs for major universities and specialized journals. Thematic analysis uncovered 56 recurring themes, with a predominant focus on linguistic and bibliographical aspects of translation as well as translation movement. The most studied historical periods were the Contemporary, Abbasid, Qajar, Islamic Republic of Iran, and Pahlavi eras, while literary and religious texts were the most commonly examined genres. Although only a minority of articles engaged with explicit theoretical frameworks, the field shows clear signs of development. Overall, the study offers a broad picture of how research on translation history has evolved in the Iranian academic context over the past five decades.