What kinds of ties connected intellectuals in Istanbul, Cairo and Beirut in the last decades of the Empire? To what extent did these intellectuals follow each other’s debates and engage with (or simply read) each other’s works? Is it possible to think of a common Ottoman intellectual field that is not confined by linguistic barriers? I propose to broach these questions by looking at translations between Arabic and Ottoman Turkish published in the three aforementioned cities, a topic that has elicited virtually no attention within the historiography of the late Ottoman Empire. This silence is particularly remarkable, when contrasted with the considerable (and well-deserved) attention paid to translations from European languages, and especially French, into both Arabic and Ottoman Turkish during this period. My paper will identify general trends, genres and themes among the texts that were translated and published in the period under study, as books or articles. It will also dwell on certain translators, their choices and reasons given for undertaking such translations, as well as the role of the state and specific ideologies in promoting translation projects. The paper will also give an idea of how specific concepts and texts were translated, and the translators’ strategies and interventions into the original text. Finally, I will raise the question of bilingualism and multilingualism in the last decades of the Empire.