This article examines two French translations of Alisher Navoiʼs work “Mahbub ul-Qulub”– François-Alphonse Bélinʼs 1866 translation “Moralistes orientaux” and Alexandre Papasʼs 2018 monograph “Ainsi parlait le derviche” from a comparative translation studies perspective. The purpose of the research is to determine the selection of the workʼs content in the two editions, and how the authorʼs voice, the relationship between prose and poetry, religious-mystical terms, and social images are re-expressed in French. The study employed semantic-contextual, comparative translation, source study, and paratextual analysis methods. A direct tripartite comparative analysis was based on the segments of the introduction found in both French interpretations. In the remaining sections, the selection of chapters, the translation of titles, and the semantic function of the commentaries were examined. The results show that Bélin translated the moral-mystical chapters more extensively, explaining terms through transliteration, French equivalents, and footnotes. Papas, on the other hand, linked the social strata in the first part to the historical context, preserving more of the poetic forms interspersed within the prose. An analysis of the common passages in the introduction revealed that the tone of modesty and genre shifts are conveyed more fully by Papas, though semantic shifts occurred in certain units. The study substantiates that translation gains and losses occur not only through lexical choices but also in text selection, genre structure, and academic commentary.