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97-458: Constantin Zurayk ( Arabic : قنسطنطين زريق , romanized :  Qunsṭanṭīn Zurayq ; [qun.sˤɑnˈtˤiːn zuˈrajq] ; April 18, 1909 – August 11, 2000) was a prominent Syrian intellectual who was one of the first to pioneer and express the importance of Arab nationalism . He stressed the urgent need to transform stagnant Arab society utilizing rational thought and radical modification of

194-562: A collection of related dialects that constitute the precursor of Arabic, first emerged during the Iron Age . Previously, the earliest attestation of Old Arabic was thought to be a single 1st century CE inscription in Sabaic script at Qaryat al-Faw , in southern present-day Saudi Arabia. However, this inscription does not participate in several of the key innovations of the Arabic language group, such as

291-435: A corpus of poetic texts, in addition to Qur'an usage and Bedouin informants whom he considered to be reliable speakers of the ʿarabiyya . Arabic spread with the spread of Islam . Following the early Muslim conquests , Arabic gained vocabulary from Middle Persian and Turkish . In the early Abbasid period , many Classical Greek terms entered Arabic through translations carried out at Baghdad's House of Wisdom . By

388-1077: A dialect of Arabic and written in the Latin alphabet . The Balkan languages, including Albanian, Greek , Serbo-Croatian, and Bulgarian , have also acquired many words of Arabic origin, mainly through direct contact with Ottoman Turkish . Arabic has influenced languages across the globe throughout its history, especially languages where Islam is the predominant religion and in countries that were conquered by Muslims. The most markedly influenced languages are Persian , Turkish , Hindustani ( Hindi and Urdu ), Kashmiri , Kurdish , Bosnian , Kazakh , Bengali , Malay ( Indonesian and Malaysian ), Maldivian , Pashto , Punjabi , Albanian , Armenian , Azerbaijani , Sicilian, Spanish, Greek, Bulgarian, Tagalog , Sindhi , Odia , Hebrew and African languages such as Hausa , Amharic , Tigrinya , Somali , Tamazight , and Swahili . Conversely, Arabic has borrowed some words (mostly nouns) from other languages, including its sister-language Aramaic, Persian, Greek, and Latin and to

485-483: A lesser extent and more recently from Turkish, English, French, and Italian. Arabic is spoken by as many as 380 million speakers, both native and non-native, in the Arab world, making it the fifth most spoken language in the world, and the fourth most used language on the internet in terms of users. It also serves as the liturgical language of more than 2 billion Muslims . In 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked Arabic

582-677: A millennium before the modern period . Early lexicographers ( لُغَوِيُّون lughawiyyūn ) sought to explain words in the Quran that were unfamiliar or had a particular contextual meaning, and to identify words of non-Arabic origin that appear in the Quran. They gathered shawāhid ( شَوَاهِد 'instances of attested usage') from poetry and the speech of the Arabs—particularly the Bedouin ʾaʿrāb  [ ar ] ( أَعْراب ) who were perceived to speak

679-407: A national Arab unity based on a "secular democracy in which diverse individuals and communities can fulfill themselves in a framework of tolerance and mutual respect". Since Zurayk grew up in an Orthodox Christian family, tolerance was a key tenet. In order to have a unified and sufficient Arab society, Zurayk asked for openness to interfaith dialogue and conflict resolution with such communities as

776-593: A number of high schools into colleges such as the Graduate Schools of Medicine and Agriculture. He is also credited with establishing a number of new universities and he was the head of the Cultural Heritage of the Ministry of Education Ibrāhīm al-Ibyārī  [ ar ] . Hussein proposed that Al Azhar University should be closed down in 1955 after his tenure as education minister ended. Taha Hussein held

873-400: A radical change in Arab life. He called "for science and productivity," and warned that the advancement of Arab society is dependent on whether that notion became a part of Arab's "feelings and thoughts and a source of their will". Although science and technology were of utmost importance, Zurayk considered ideals of citizenship, nationalism, and unity as additional, necessary requirements for

970-576: A result, many European languages have borrowed words from it. Arabic influence, mainly in vocabulary, is seen in European languages (mainly Spanish and to a lesser extent Portuguese , Catalan , and Sicilian ) owing to the proximity of Europe and the long-lasting Arabic cultural and linguistic presence, mainly in Southern Iberia, during the Al-Andalus era. Maltese is a Semitic language developed from

1067-462: A script derived from ASA attest to a language known as Hasaitic . On the northwestern frontier of Arabia, various languages known to scholars as Thamudic B , Thamudic D, Safaitic , and Hismaic are attested. The last two share important isoglosses with later forms of Arabic, leading scholars to theorize that Safaitic and Hismaic are early forms of Arabic and that they should be considered Old Arabic . Linguists generally believe that "Old Arabic",

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1164-465: A single language, despite mutual incomprehensibility among differing spoken versions. From a linguistic standpoint, it is often said that the various spoken varieties of Arabic differ among each other collectively about as much as the Romance languages . This is an apt comparison in a number of ways. The period of divergence from a single spoken form is similar—perhaps 1500 years for Arabic, 2000 years for

1261-560: A society of insects. They must behave like ants in an anthill or like bees in a hive." Hussein urged the Egyptian government to reject neutrality and fight the Germans in the war. In 1950, he was appointed Minister of Education, in which capacity he led a call for free education and the right of everyone to be educated. He also transformed many of the Quranic schools into primary schools and converted

1358-503: A type of Arabic. Cypriot Arabic is recognized as a minority language in Cyprus. The sociolinguistic situation of Arabic in modern times provides a prime example of the linguistic phenomenon of diglossia , which is the normal use of two separate varieties of the same language, usually in different social situations. Tawleed is the process of giving a new shade of meaning to an old classical word. For example, al-hatif lexicographically means

1455-499: A variety of regional vernacular Arabic dialects , which are not necessarily mutually intelligible. Classical Arabic is the language found in the Quran , used from the period of Pre-Islamic Arabia to that of the Abbasid Caliphate . Classical Arabic is prescriptive, according to the syntactic and grammatical norms laid down by classical grammarians (such as Sibawayh ) and the vocabulary defined in classical dictionaries (such as

1552-470: A wider audience." In the wake of the industrial revolution and European hegemony and colonialism , pioneering Arabic presses, such as the Amiri Press established by Muhammad Ali (1819), dramatically changed the diffusion and consumption of Arabic literature and publications. Rifa'a al-Tahtawi proposed the establishment of Madrasat al-Alsun in 1836 and led a translation campaign that highlighted

1649-727: Is a Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world . The ISO assigns language codes to 32 varieties of Arabic , including its standard form of Literary Arabic, known as Modern Standard Arabic , which is derived from Classical Arabic . This distinction exists primarily among Western linguists; Arabic speakers themselves generally do not distinguish between Modern Standard Arabic and Classical Arabic, but rather refer to both as al-ʿarabiyyatu l-fuṣḥā ( اَلعَرَبِيَّةُ ٱلْفُصْحَىٰ "the eloquent Arabic") or simply al-fuṣḥā ( اَلْفُصْحَىٰ ). Arabic

1746-585: Is a minimum level of comprehension between all Arabic dialects, this level can increase or decrease based on geographic proximity: for example, Levantine and Gulf speakers understand each other much better than they do speakers from the Maghreb. The issue of diglossia between spoken and written language is a complicating factor: A single written form, differing sharply from any of the spoken varieties learned natively, unites several sometimes divergent spoken forms. For political reasons, Arabs mostly assert that they all speak

1843-542: Is a sister language rather than their direct ancestor. Arabia had a wide variety of Semitic languages in antiquity. The term "Arab" was initially used to describe those living in the Arabian Peninsula , as perceived by geographers from ancient Greece . In the southwest, various Central Semitic languages both belonging to and outside the Ancient South Arabian family (e.g. Southern Thamudic) were spoken. It

1940-469: Is believed that the ancestors of the Modern South Arabian languages (non-Central Semitic languages) were spoken in southern Arabia at this time. To the north, in the oases of northern Hejaz , Dadanitic and Taymanitic held some prestige as inscriptional languages. In Najd and parts of western Arabia, a language known to scholars as Thamudic C is attested. In eastern Arabia, inscriptions in

2037-408: Is credited with establishing the rules of Arabic prosody . Al-Jahiz (776–868) proposed to Al-Akhfash al-Akbar an overhaul of the grammar of Arabic, but it would not come to pass for two centuries. The standardization of Arabic reached completion around the end of the 8th century. The first comprehensive description of the ʿarabiyya "Arabic", Sībawayhi's al - Kitāb , is based first of all upon

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2134-468: Is credited with standardizing Arabic grammar , or an-naḥw ( النَّحو "the way" ), and pioneering a system of diacritics to differentiate consonants ( نقط الإعجام nuqaṭu‿l-i'jām "pointing for non-Arabs") and indicate vocalization ( التشكيل at-tashkīl ). Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi (718–786) compiled the first Arabic dictionary, Kitāb al-'Ayn ( كتاب العين "The Book of the Letter ع "), and

2231-516: Is not present in the spoken varieties, but deletes Classical words that sound obsolete in MSA. In addition, MSA has borrowed or coined many terms for concepts that did not exist in Quranic times, and MSA continues to evolve. Some words have been borrowed from other languages—notice that transliteration mainly indicates spelling and not real pronunciation (e.g., فِلْم film 'film' or ديمقراطية dīmuqrāṭiyyah 'democracy'). The current preference

2328-836: Is official in Mali and recognized as a minority language in Morocco, while the Senegalese government adopted the Latin script to write it. Maltese is official in (predominantly Catholic ) Malta and written with the Latin script . Linguists agree that it is a variety of spoken Arabic, descended from Siculo-Arabic , though it has experienced extensive changes as a result of sustained and intensive contact with Italo-Romance varieties, and more recently also with English. Due to "a mix of social, cultural, historical, political, and indeed linguistic factors", many Maltese people today consider their language Semitic but not

2425-559: Is the third most widespread official language after English and French, one of six official languages of the United Nations , and the liturgical language of Islam . Arabic is widely taught in schools and universities around the world and is used to varying degrees in workplaces, governments and the media. During the Middle Ages , Arabic was a major vehicle of culture and learning, especially in science, mathematics and philosophy. As

2522-414: Is the first duty enjoined on him by his nationality. He must come forward to study Islam and understand its true nature and thus sanctify the memory of the great Prophet to whom Islam was revealed". For Zurayk, the role of intellectuals remained crucial in efforts to "raise the level of the masses" and bring Arab society out of its weakened condition. Analyzing the Arab response to their failure to prevent

2619-486: Is the human being who becomes aware of these bonds and strives to overcome them, and who realizes the possibilities and works to fulfill them, who is the maker. It is with this awareness and this striving that civilizations rise and fall". Zurayk essentially rejected the doctrines of determinism and monism that prevailed in theories of culture such as the progressive reason in European Enlightenment thinking,

2716-584: Is the variety used in most current, printed Arabic publications, spoken by some of the Arabic media across North Africa and the Middle East, and understood by most educated Arabic speakers. "Literary Arabic" and "Standard Arabic" ( فُصْحَى fuṣḥá ) are less strictly defined terms that may refer to Modern Standard Arabic or Classical Arabic. Some of the differences between Classical Arabic (CA) and Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) are as follows: MSA uses much Classical vocabulary (e.g., dhahaba 'to go') that

2813-413: Is to avoid direct borrowings, preferring to either use loan translations (e.g., فرع farʻ 'branch', also used for the branch of a company or organization; جناح janāḥ 'wing', is also used for the wing of an airplane, building, air force, etc.), or to coin new words using forms within existing roots ( استماتة istimātah ' apoptosis ', using the root موت m/w/t 'death' put into

2910-516: Is used to denote concepts that have arisen in the industrial and post-industrial era , especially in modern times. Due to its grounding in Classical Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic is removed over a millennium from everyday speech, which is construed as a multitude of dialects of this language. These dialects and Modern Standard Arabic are described by some scholars as not mutually comprehensible. The former are usually acquired in families, while

3007-445: The Lisān al-ʻArab ). Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) largely follows the grammatical standards of Classical Arabic and uses much of the same vocabulary. However, it has discarded some grammatical constructions and vocabulary that no longer have any counterpart in the spoken varieties and has adopted certain new constructions and vocabulary from the spoken varieties. Much of the new vocabulary

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3104-660: The UN General Assembly in 1946. Zurayk later took an offer to become the vice president of the American University of Beirut in 1952, and completed his education by receiving his doctorate in literature at the University of Michigan in 1967. He died 11 August 2000 in Beirut . During the last fifty years of his life, Zurayk dedicated himself in attempting to solve the various issues revolving around Arab society. His goal

3201-557: The University of Alexandria . Taha Hussein was an intellectual of a modern Egyptian renaissance in the early to mid 20th century and a proponent of the ideology of Egyptian nationalism as an Arab nation within the Arab world, arguing in a series of public letters against the Pharaonist Tawfiq al-Haki that Arab identity is integral to Egyptian identity. Hussein criticized the lack of freedom in Nazi Germany , writing "They live like

3298-561: The Xth form , or جامعة jāmiʻah 'university', based on جمع jamaʻa 'to gather, unite'; جمهورية jumhūriyyah 'republic', based on جمهور jumhūr 'multitude'). An earlier tendency was to redefine an older word although this has fallen into disuse (e.g., هاتف hātif 'telephone' < 'invisible caller (in Sufism)'; جريدة jarīdah 'newspaper' < 'palm-leaf stalk'). Colloquial or dialectal Arabic refers to

3395-424: The evolutionary progress in the positivism of Darwin , and the will of God in monotheism . He believed the doctrines to be "superimposed on human history rather than derived from its concrete givens". Zurayk's first notable publication, based on a lecture that he gave in 1938, was entitled The Arab Consciousness (al-Wa`i al-`Arabi). In the book, he introduced the concept of the "Arab mission" and stated that

3492-494: The northern Hejaz . These features are evidence of common descent from a hypothetical ancestor , Proto-Arabic . The following features of Proto-Arabic can be reconstructed with confidence: On the other hand, several Arabic varieties are closer to other Semitic languages and maintain features not found in Classical Arabic, indicating that these varieties cannot have developed from Classical Arabic. Thus, Arabic vernaculars do not descend from Classical Arabic: Classical Arabic

3589-419: The "learned" tradition (Classical Arabic). This variety and both its classicizing and "lay" iterations have been termed Middle Arabic in the past, but they are thought to continue an Old Higazi register. It is clear that the orthography of the Quran was not developed for the standardized form of Classical Arabic; rather, it shows the attempt on the part of writers to record an archaic form of Old Higazi. In

3686-770: The "purest," most eloquent form of Arabic—initiating a process of jamʿu‿l-luɣah ( جمع اللغة 'compiling the language') which took place over the 8th and early 9th centuries. Kitāb al-'Ayn ( c.  8th century ), attributed to Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi , is considered the first lexicon to include all Arabic roots ; it sought to exhaust all possible root permutations —later called taqālīb ( تقاليب ) — calling those that are actually used mustaʿmal ( مستعمَل ) and those that are not used muhmal ( مُهمَل ). Lisān al-ʿArab (1290) by Ibn Manzur gives 9,273 roots, while Tāj al-ʿArūs (1774) by Murtada az-Zabidi gives 11,978 roots. Taha Hussein Taha Hussein

3783-399: The "revolution of reason," where he called for a national Arab unity based on a "secular democracy in which diverse individuals and communities can fulfill themselves in a framework of tolerance and mutual respect". For Zurayk, Arab nationalism was a "civilizational project rather than a defensive obsession with identity boundaries in need of protection". For the project to become successful,

3880-454: The 11th and 12th centuries in al-Andalus , the zajal and muwashah poetry forms developed in the dialectical Arabic of Cordoba and the Maghreb. The Nahda was a cultural and especially literary renaissance of the 19th century in which writers sought "to fuse Arabic and European forms of expression." According to James L. Gelvin , " Nahda writers attempted to simplify the Arabic language and script so that it might be accessible to

3977-562: The 4th to the 6th centuries, the Nabataean script evolved into the Arabic script recognizable from the early Islamic era. There are inscriptions in an undotted, 17-letter Arabic script dating to the 6th century CE, found at four locations in Syria ( Zabad , Jebel Usays , Harran , Umm el-Jimal ). The oldest surviving papyrus in Arabic dates to 643 CE, and it uses dots to produce the modern 28-letter Arabic alphabet. The language of that papyrus and of

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4074-812: The 8th century, knowledge of Classical Arabic had become an essential prerequisite for rising into the higher classes throughout the Islamic world, both for Muslims and non-Muslims. For example, Maimonides , the Andalusi Jewish philosopher, authored works in Judeo-Arabic —Arabic written in Hebrew script . Ibn Jinni of Mosul , a pioneer in phonology , wrote prolifically in the 10th century on Arabic morphology and phonology in works such as Kitāb Al-Munṣif , Kitāb Al-Muḥtasab , and Kitāb Al-Khaṣāʾiṣ    [ ar ] . Ibn Mada' of Cordoba (1116–1196) realized

4171-438: The Arab nation existed and prospered prior to Islam, while Islamists define the nation based on the religious community. Zurayk looked at the issue from a different perspective. In essence, he viewed Arab Nationalism as a spiritual movement much like any religion, Islam in particular. He made clear, "true nationalism cannot in any way contradict true religion, for in its essence it is a spiritual movement which aims at resurrecting

4268-495: The Arab world. In this book, Hussein expressed doubt about the authenticity of much early Arabic poetry, claiming it to have been falsified during ancient times due to tribal pride and inter-tribal rivalries. He also hinted indirectly that the Qur'an should not be taken as an objective source of history. Consequently, the book aroused the intense anger and hostility of religious scholars at Al Azhar as well as other traditionalists, and he

4365-580: The Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Unlike other Arab intellectuals, Zurayk did not see reason as the blind imitation of the West. Rather, he saw critical reason more as the "dominating characteristic of modernity, with all its achievements and weaknesses". Like enlightenment through critical reason, Arab unity still remained the ultimate goal in the eyes of Zurayk. His approach was distinguished by an "ethical concern for unity's ends and means. This unity, for him, [was] not

4462-412: The Middle East and North Africa have become a badge of sophistication and modernity and ... feigning, or asserting, weakness or lack of facility in Arabic is sometimes paraded as a sign of status, class, and perversely, even education through a mélange of code-switching practises." Arabic has been taught worldwide in many elementary and secondary schools, especially Muslim schools. Universities around

4559-672: The Qur'an is referred to by linguists as "Quranic Arabic", as distinct from its codification soon thereafter into " Classical Arabic ". In late pre-Islamic times, a transdialectal and transcommunal variety of Arabic emerged in the Hejaz , which continued living its parallel life after literary Arabic had been institutionally standardized in the 2nd and 3rd century of the Hijra , most strongly in Judeo-Christian texts, keeping alive ancient features eliminated from

4656-561: The Romance languages. Also, while it is comprehensible to people from the Maghreb , a linguistically innovative variety such as Moroccan Arabic is essentially incomprehensible to Arabs from the Mashriq , much as French is incomprehensible to Spanish or Italian speakers but relatively easily learned by them. This suggests that the spoken varieties may linguistically be considered separate languages. With

4753-690: The Sorbonne awarded Hussein a second PhD, this time for his dissertation on the Tunisian historian Ibn Khaldun , who is regarded as one of the founders of sociology. In 1919 Hussein returned to Egypt with Suzanne, and he was appointed professor of history at Cairo University . He went on to become a professor of Arabic literature and of Semitic languages . At the Academy of the Arabic Language in Cairo , Taha Hussein

4850-448: The West would continue to impose itself on Arab society, it was imperative that the Arabs work to understand and comprehend it in order to confront it. Zurayk urged the Arab society to keep up with modern civilization and accept, rather than disregard, the scientific and technological influences of modern civilization. In order to revitalize the Arab society, Zurayk demanded that there must be

4947-644: The age of twenty-one. He immediately turned to teaching and became a professor of history at the American University of Beirut . After receiving his PhD, Zurayk focused his aims in teaching and politics. Alongside his work as a tenured professor, Zurayk experimented as the 1st Counselor to the Syrian Legation of the United States in 1945, and acted as the delegate to the UN Security Council and to

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5044-402: The aim of each nation was "the message it brings to human culture and general civilization" and that a nation without a mission was not worthy of the name. The consciousness of having a "national mission" would bring the Arab struggle for independence new strength and meaning and would regain for the Arabs their world role. As for the Arab mission itself, in the current age it would be "to absorb

5141-419: The community. He was a man of conviction who put up with persecution and humiliation all for the sake of inspiring and transforming his fellow companions to broaden their horizons and access their potentials to build a new civilization. Zurayk concluded his argument by saying: "Whatever his sect or religious community, therefore, it is the duty of every Arab to interest himself in his past culture. This interest

5238-567: The conversion of Semitic mimation to nunation in the singular. It is best reassessed as a separate language on the Central Semitic dialect continuum. It was also thought that Old Arabic coexisted alongside—and then gradually displaced— epigraphic Ancient North Arabian (ANA), which was theorized to have been the regional tongue for many centuries. ANA, despite its name, was considered a very distinct language, and mutually unintelligible, from "Arabic". Scholars named its variant dialects after

5335-577: The emergence of Central Semitic languages, particularly in grammar. Innovations of the Central Semitic languages—all maintained in Arabic—include: There are several features which Classical Arabic, the modern Arabic varieties, as well as the Safaitic and Hismaic inscriptions share which are unattested in any other Central Semitic language variety, including the Dadanitic and Taymanitic languages of

5432-476: The establishment of Israel , Zurayk wrote in his book The Meaning of Disaster ( Ma'na an-Nakba ) that: "Seven Arab states declare war on Zionism in Palestine, stop impotent before it, and turn on their heels. The representatives of the Arabs deliver fiery speeches in the highest international forums, warning what the Arab state and peoples will do if this or that decision be enacted. Declarations fall like bombs from

5529-728: The eve of the conquests: Northern and Central (Al-Jallad 2009). The modern dialects emerged from a new contact situation produced following the conquests. Instead of the emergence of a single or multiple koines, the dialects contain several sedimentary layers of borrowed and areal features, which they absorbed at different points in their linguistic histories. According to Veersteegh and Bickerton, colloquial Arabic dialects arose from pidginized Arabic formed from contact between Arabs and conquered peoples. Pidginization and subsequent creolization among Arabs and arabized peoples could explain relative morphological and phonological simplicity of vernacular Arabic compared to Classical and MSA. In around

5626-593: The fact that they participate in the innovations common to all forms of Arabic. The earliest attestation of continuous Arabic text in an ancestor of the modern Arabic script are three lines of poetry by a man named Garm(')allāhe found in En Avdat, Israel , and dated to around 125 CE. This is followed by the Namara inscription , an epitaph of the Lakhmid king Imru' al-Qays bar 'Amro, dating to 328 CE, found at Namaraa, Syria. From

5723-421: The fight for a modern Arab society, and only through rational thinking would the Arab society look towards the future, realize their human potentials, and build a higher civilization. Zurayk made it clear that Arab society must join the modern world, and to do this, they must change their previous ways. Zurayk even left a list of changes that must be made in order for a revolution to succeed: there must be use of

5820-501: The fourth most useful language for business, after English, Mandarin Chinese , and French. Arabic is written with the Arabic alphabet , an abjad script that is written from right to left . Arabic is usually classified as a Central Semitic language . Linguists still differ as to the best classification of Semitic language sub-groups. The Semitic languages changed between Proto-Semitic and

5917-579: The inclusion of new words into their published standard dictionaries. They also publish old and historical Arabic manuscripts. In 1997, a bureau of Arabization standardization was added to the Educational, Cultural, and Scientific Organization of the Arab League . These academies and organizations have worked toward the Arabization of the sciences, creating terms in Arabic to describe new concepts, toward

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6014-403: The inner forces of the nation and at realizing its intellectual and spiritual potentialities". Furthermore, Zurayk explained the significance of Muhammad and his connection to Arab nationalism. He reiterated the importance of cultural heritage in that it must not be forgotten to build a modern Arab society. Zurayk explained how Muhammad came to the Arab world in a time of great need and unified

6111-407: The knowledge of the West and to join it with the views that have arisen in reaction to it, and to combine them in a new unity that will be a sign of the coming life, and that the Arabs will spread to the world as they spread their brilliant civilization in the past ages". It was also in this work that Zurayk called for a "national philosophy", which he expressed as the thought absorbed by the youth of

6208-608: The language. Software and books with tapes are an important part of Arabic learning, as many of Arabic learners may live in places where there are no academic or Arabic language school classes available. Radio series of Arabic language classes are also provided from some radio stations. A number of websites on the Internet provide online classes for all levels as a means of distance education; most teach Modern Standard Arabic, but some teach regional varieties from numerous countries. The tradition of Arabic lexicography extended for about

6305-599: The late 6th century AD, a relatively uniform intertribal "poetic koine" distinct from the spoken vernaculars developed based on the Bedouin dialects of Najd , probably in connection with the court of al-Ḥīra . During the first Islamic century, the majority of Arabic poets and Arabic-writing persons spoke Arabic as their mother tongue. Their texts, although mainly preserved in far later manuscripts, contain traces of non-standardized Classical Arabic elements in morphology and syntax. Abu al-Aswad al-Du'ali ( c.  603 –689)

6402-420: The latter is taught in formal education settings. However, there have been studies reporting some degree of comprehension of stories told in the standard variety among preschool-aged children. The relation between Modern Standard Arabic and these dialects is sometimes compared to that of Classical Latin and Vulgar Latin vernaculars (which became Romance languages ) in medieval and early modern Europe. MSA

6499-413: The machine on a wide scale, the state and religion must be separated, the scientific spirit of each individual and the society as a whole must be invigorated, and Arab society must be open toward the rational and spiritual values of other human civilizations. For Zurayk, the human powers that make culture are the civilizational powers of human reason in its critical and creative functions. Zurayk focused on

6596-883: The many national or regional varieties which constitute the everyday spoken language. Colloquial Arabic has many regional variants; geographically distant varieties usually differ enough to be mutually unintelligible , and some linguists consider them distinct languages. However, research indicates a high degree of mutual intelligibility between closely related Arabic variants for native speakers listening to words, sentences, and texts; and between more distantly related dialects in interactional situations. The varieties are typically unwritten. They are often used in informal spoken media, such as soap operas and talk shows , as well as occasionally in certain forms of written media such as poetry and printed advertising. Hassaniya Arabic , Maltese , and Cypriot Arabic are only varieties of modern Arabic to have acquired official recognition. Hassaniya

6693-479: The methods of thinking and acting. Some of his ideas, such as the "Arab mission" and "national philosophy" became key concepts for Arab nationalist thinkers. He was a strong proponent of the intellectual reformation of Arab society, emphasizing the need for rationalism and an ethical revolution. Zurayik is credited with coining the term Nakba (Arabic for "the catastrophe") to refer to the flight of Palestinians in his 1948 book Maʿna an-Nakba . Constantine Zurayk

6790-413: The modernization of Arab society. Zurayk insisted that the combination of rational powers and ethical powers would lead to a successful future. Zurayk delved deeper to describe the primary challenge of Arab civilization. He believed rationalism was the "prerequisite that encompassed all other prerequisites" for a future, modern Arab society. The cultural backwardness remained the most dangerous battle in

6887-436: The most part are still distant from this life and hostile to it. They live in the present and for the future, while we continue to dream the dreams of the past and to stupefy ourselves with its fading glory". Zurayk had a strong view on history and rejected all forms of "historical determinism and all forms of dogmatic ideological reading of history". His most critical belief was that of Arab history in particular. He rejected

6984-504: The mouths of officials at the meetings of the Arab League, but when action becomes necessary, the fire is still and quiet and steel and iron are rusted and twisted, quick to bend and disintegrate". Zurayk later reaffirms his thoughts on stagnant Arab society by stating: "The reason for the victory of the Zionists was that the roots of Zionism are grounded in modern Western life, while we for

7081-426: The nation combined with their feelings to form a "nationalist creed." Such a philosophy, he declared, was necessary for national renewal. While many enlightened thinkers believed religion was not a determining factor of a nation, Zurayk "sought to establish a rapport between Islam and Arab nationalism". Throughout his research and observation, Zurayk indeed made a connection between religion and nationalism. Although he

7178-768: The need for a lexical injection in Arabic, to suit concepts of the industrial and post-industrial age (such as sayyārah سَيَّارَة 'automobile' or bākhirah باخِرة 'steamship'). In response, a number of Arabic academies modeled after the Académie française were established with the aim of developing standardized additions to the Arabic lexicon to suit these transformations, first in Damascus (1919), then in Cairo (1932), Baghdad (1948), Rabat (1960), Amman (1977), Khartum  [ ar ] (1993), and Tunis (1993). They review language development, monitor new words and approve

7275-424: The one whose sound is heard but whose person remains unseen. Now the term al-hatif is used for a telephone. Therefore, the process of tawleed can express the needs of modern civilization in a manner that would appear to be originally Arabic. In the case of Arabic, educated Arabs of any nationality can be assumed to speak both their school-taught Standard Arabic as well as their native dialects, which depending on

7372-549: The overhaul of Arabic grammar first proposed by Al-Jahiz 200 years prior. The Maghrebi lexicographer Ibn Manzur compiled Lisān al-ʿArab ( لسان العرب , "Tongue of Arabs"), a major reference dictionary of Arabic, in 1290. Charles Ferguson 's koine theory claims that the modern Arabic dialects collectively descend from a single military koine that sprang up during the Islamic conquests; this view has been challenged in recent times. Ahmad al-Jallad proposes that there were at least two considerably distinct types of Arabic on

7469-482: The position of chief editor of a number of newspapers. In the West he is best known for his autobiography, Al-Ayyam ( الأيام , The Days ) which was published in English as An Egyptian Childhood (1932) and The Stream of Days (1943). The author of "more than sixty books (including six novels) and 1,300 articles", his major works include: On November 14, 2010, Google celebrated Hussein's 121st birthday with

7566-410: The region may be mutually unintelligible. Some of these dialects can be considered to constitute separate languages which may have "sub-dialects" of their own. When educated Arabs of different dialects engage in conversation (for example, a Moroccan speaking with a Lebanese), many speakers code-switch back and forth between the dialectal and standard varieties of the language, sometimes even within

7663-672: The responsibilities of the Arab people were great. Zurayk emphasized that Arab culture must be "earned and created by human effort". In his book In the Battle for Culture (1964), Zurayk further stresses the importance of the decisive role of human agency: "The main factors in civilizational changes are in our view acquired volitional human factors.... Natural or environmental factors, such as race and heredity, geographic situation, economic system, and social, intellectual, and moral conditions, are all possibilities or bonds. And possibilities and bonds do not make life, nor do they give rise to cultures. It

7760-458: The same sentence. The issue of whether Arabic is one language or many languages is politically charged, in the same way it is for the varieties of Chinese , Hindi and Urdu , Serbian and Croatian , Scots and English, etc. In contrast to speakers of Hindi and Urdu who claim they cannot understand each other even when they can, speakers of the varieties of Arabic will claim they can all understand each other even when they cannot. While there

7857-458: The sole example of Medieval linguist Abu Hayyan al-Gharnati – who, while a scholar of the Arabic language, was not ethnically Arab – Medieval scholars of the Arabic language made no efforts at studying comparative linguistics, considering all other languages inferior. In modern times, the educated upper classes in the Arab world have taken a nearly opposite view. Yasir Suleiman wrote in 2011 that "studying and knowing English or French in most of

7954-556: The standardization of these new terms throughout the Arabic-speaking world, and toward the development of Arabic as a world language . This gave rise to what Western scholars call Modern Standard Arabic. From the 1950s, Arabization became a postcolonial nationalist policy in countries such as Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, and Sudan. Arabic usually refers to Standard Arabic, which Western linguists divide into Classical Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic. It could also refer to any of

8051-465: The telos of an inexorable ethnic or religious destiny, but a form of solidarity for mutual empowerment by democratic means aimed at serving both individuals' and communities' dignity and freedom". Arabic language Arabic (endonym: اَلْعَرَبِيَّةُ , romanized :  al-ʿarabiyyah , pronounced [al ʕaraˈbijːa] , or عَرَبِيّ , ʿarabīy , pronounced [ˈʕarabiː] or [ʕaraˈbij] )

8148-447: The thin view of Arab history that limited it to Islamic history. Zurayk felt Arab history needed to be understood in the widest sense possible and needed to be explored in connection with other ancient civilizations of the area. He firmly expressed that history should be judged with a mind completely free of dogma. Zurayk's "revolution of reason" proved to be his most influential contribution to modern Arab liberal thought. He called for

8245-501: The towns where the inscriptions were discovered (Dadanitic, Taymanitic, Hismaic, Safaitic). However, most arguments for a single ANA language or language family were based on the shape of the definite article, a prefixed h-. It has been argued that the h- is an archaism and not a shared innovation, and thus unsuitable for language classification, rendering the hypothesis of an ANA language family untenable. Safaitic and Hismaic, previously considered ANA, should be considered Old Arabic due to

8342-457: The universal outlook led to the replacement of the spiritual motivations with material ones". Although this process of decline was an internal cause, Zurayk attributed the cause of the Nahda, or modern Arab renaissance, to external factors. One of the external contributors, which Zurayk believed played a significant role in demanding change in Arab society, was "Western" or modern civilization. Because

8439-422: The values of honesty, hard work, perseverance, seriousness, commitment, responsibility, and freedom as the values that allow humans to acquire scientific knowledge and to develop a sense of beauty and justice. In this regard, Zurayk was inspired by the prominent Egyptian intellectual, Taha Hussein , who sternly believed that the advancement of Arab society was dependent on the education of every individual. Hussein

8536-451: The world have classes that teach Arabic as part of their foreign languages , Middle Eastern studies , and religious studies courses. Arabic language schools exist to assist students to learn Arabic outside the academic world. There are many Arabic language schools in the Arab world and other Muslim countries. Because the Quran is written in Arabic and all Islamic terms are in Arabic, millions of Muslims (both Arab and non-Arab) study

8633-415: Was accused of having insulted Islam. The public prosecutor stated, however, that what Taha Hussein had said was the opinion of an academic researcher; no legal action was taken against him, although he lost his post at Cairo University in 1931. His book was banned but was re-published the next year with slight modifications under the title On Pre-Islamic Literature (1927). He was the founding Rector of

8730-512: Was born in Damascus, Syria Vilayet on April 18, 1909, during the waning years of the ruling Ottoman Empire, to a Greek Orthodox Christian family. He received his primary and secondary education in the Orthodox school systems and had an obsession with acquiring knowledge. He continued his education at the American University of Beirut , and eventually received his PhD at Princeton University all by

8827-525: Was born in Izbet el Kilo, a village in the Minya Governorate in central Upper Egypt . He was the seventh of thirteen children of lower middle class parents. He contracted ophthalmia at the age of two, and as the result of false treatment by an unskilled practitioner, he became blind. After attending a kuttab , he studied religion and Arabic literature at El Azhar University ; but from an early age, he

8924-463: Was dissatisfied with the traditional education system. When the secular Cairo University was founded in 1908, he was keen to be admitted, and despite being poor and blind, he won a place. In 1914, he received a PhD for his thesis on the sceptic poet and philosopher Abu al-ʿAlaʾ al-Maʿarri . Taha Hussein left for Montpellier, enrolled in its university , attended courses in literature, history, French and Latin. He had studied formal writing, but he

9021-449: Was made responsible for the completion of Al-Mu'jam al-Kabir ( The Great Dictionary ), one of the academy's most important tasks. He also served as president of the academy. He was a member of several scientific academies in Egypt and internationally. A work of literary criticism, On Pre-Islamic Poetry ( في الشعر الجاهلي ), published in 1926, brought him fame and some notoriety in

9118-432: Was not Muslim himself, Zurayk believed Islam was the missing link for Arab nationalism. Arab society was spiritually awakened "wherever [Islam] was established and spread." To Zurayk, it was simple: whenever Islam was flourishing, so was Arab civilization; and whenever Islam "reduced itself to beliefs transmitted blindly and religious laws and statutes unwisely imposed, Arab civilization waned". Many Arab thinkers insisted

9215-632: Was not able to take full advantage of it as he "may be used to taking knowledge with his ears, not with his fingers." He was summoned to return to Egypt due to the poor conditions at then University of Cairo; but three months later, those conditions improved, and Taha Hussein returned to France. After obtaining his MA from the University of Montpellier, Hussein continued his studies at the Sorbonne University . He hired Suzanne Bresseau (1895–1989) to read to him, and subsequently married her. In 1917

9312-481: Was the Minister of Education at Cairo University in 1950 and was eventually able to provide free education for all Egyptians. Both intellectuals sought to help Arab people uncover their hidden gems that would lead to a more advanced Arab society. Zurayk focused on encouraging the Arab people to access their hidden human powers which would enable them to work toward a just and moral society. He introduced what he called

9409-403: Was to discover a means of radically and expeditiously transforming Arab society into a practical, rational, and scientific society. Zurayk focused his attention on contemporary Arab society and the current crisis of Arab civilization. He blamed the change in Arab personality as the reason for the weakened Arab civilization. Zurayk noted that the turning away from the "ideas of unity, loyalty, and

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