THE PHILOLOGICAL FUNCTION OF GLOSSA, CONJECTURE, AND INTERPOLATION IN RECREATING INTERRUPTED-YEAR EVENTS IN THE ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS OF THE BABURNAMA

Abstract

This article examines the interrupted-year events and textual lacunae found in the English translations of Zahiriddin Muhammad Babur’s Baburnama, with particular attention to the use of glossa, conjecture, and interpolation as reconstructive strategies. The study analyzes the translation practices of John Leyden, William Erskine, L.U. King, Annette Susannah Beveridge, and Wheeler M. Thackston in relation to textual restoration, annotation, and the philological reconstruction of narrative gaps. Glossa is interpreted as a means of semantic clarification, conjecture as a scholarly attempt to restore logical continuity within the text, and interpolation as a source-based reconstruction of missing or interrupted passages. The findings demonstrate that the recreation of interrupted events in the English translations of the Baburnama is not merely a translational procedure, but a complex scholarly process situated at the intersection of translation studies, textual criticism, source studies, and historical philology.