Narrated with its chain
Writing to Abu Musa al-Ash‘ari:
“ To proceed: gain understanding in the Sunna, gain understanding in Arabic, and recite the Qur'an with correct inflection, for it is Arabic; and live by the hardy ways of Ma'add, for you are of Ma'add.”
أَمّا بَعْدُ فَتَفَقَّهُوا فِي السُّنَّةِ وَتَفَقَّهُوا فِي العَرَبِيَّةِ، وَأَعْرِبُوا القُرْآنَ فَإِنَّهُ عَرَبِيٌّ، وَتَمَعْدَدُوا فَإِنَّكُمْ مَعَدِّيُّونَ
ع
Umar ibn al-Khattab
d. 23 AH / 644 CE
Via a reliable witness
Writing to Abu Musa al-Ash‘ari:
“ Order those under you to learn Arabic, for it guides to correct speech; and order them to transmit poetry, for it points to noble character.”
مُرْ مَنْ قِبَلَكَ بِتَعَلُّمِ العَرَبِيَّةِ فَإِنَّهُ يَدُلُّ عَلَى صَوابِ الكَلامِ، وَمُرْهُمْ بِرِوايَةِ الشِّعْرِ فَإِنَّهُ يَدُلُّ عَلَى مَعالِي الأَخْلاقِ
ع
Umar ibn al-Khattab
d. 23 AH / 644 CE
Via a reliable witness
“ Hisham ibn 'Urwa said: My father came out to us one day while our teacher was teaching us grammar; when he appeared, the teacher silenced us. My father sat down and said to the teacher: "Tell them to go on learning; no one has acquired a refinement more pleasing to me than grammar."”
قالَ هِشامُ بْنُ عُرْوَةَ: خَرَجَ عَلَيْنا أَبِي يَوْماً وَمُعَلِّمُنا يُعَلِّمُنا النَّحْوَ، فَلَمّا خَرَجَ أَبِي أَسْكَتَنا المُعَلِّمُ، فَجَلَسَ أَبِي، فَقالَ لِلمُعَلِّمِ: مُرْهُمْ فَلْيَتَعَلَّمُوا؛ فَما أَحْدَثَ أَحَدٌ مُرُوءَةً هِيَ أَعْجَبُ إِلَيَّ مِنَ النَّحْوِ.
ع
'Urwa ibn al-Zubayr
d. 94 AH / 713 CE
Narrated with its chain
“ Yahya ibn 'Atiq said: I asked al-Hasan, "Abu Sa'id, a man learns Arabic, seeking good speech by it and to recite correctly?" He said: "Good — let him learn it; for a man recites a verse, is at a loss over its meaning, and perishes by it."”
سُئِلَ الحَسَنُ عَنِ الرَّجُلِ يَتَعَلَّمُ العَرَبِيَّةَ يَلْتَمِسُ بِذَلِكَ حُسْنَ المَنْطِقِ وَيُقِيمُ بِها قِراءَتَهُ، فَقالَ: حَسَنٌ، يَتَعَلَّمُها؛ فَإِنَّ الرَّجُلَ يَقْرَأُ الآيَةَ فَيَعْيا بِوَجْهِها فَيَهْلِكُ بِها.
ح
al-Hasan al-Basri
d. 110 AH / 728 CE
Narrated with its chain
Answering ‘Amr ibn ‘Ubayd, who argued from the verses of threat that God cannot forgo a threatened punishment:
“ It is foreignness of tongue that has undone you, Abu ‘Uthman! A promise is not a threat.”
مِنَ العُجْمَةِ أُتِيتَ يا أَبا عُثْمانَ، إِنَّ الوَعْدَ غَيْرُ الوَعِيدِ.
ع
Abu ‘Amr ibn al-‘Ala’
d. 154 AH / 771 CE
Narrated with its chain
Recounting what happened with his teacher al-A‘mash:
“ [Waki' said:] I came to al-A'mash to hear hadith from him, and I would sometimes make grammatical mistakes. He said: 'Abu Sufyan, you have left what is more fitting for you than hadith.' I said: 'Abu Muhammad, what is more fitting than hadith?' He said: 'Grammar.' So al-A'mash dictated grammar to me, and then dictated hadith.”
أَتَيْتُ الْأَعْمَشَ أَسْمَعُ مِنْهُ الْحَدِيثَ، وَكُنْتُ رُبَّمَا لَحَنْتُ، فَقَالَ لِي: يَا أَبَا سُفْيَانَ، تَرَكْتَ مَا هُوَ أَوْلَى بِكَ مِنَ الْحَدِيثِ! فَقُلْتُ: يَا أَبَا مُحَمَّدٍ، وَأَيُّ شَيْءٍ أَوْلَى مِنَ الْحَدِيثِ؟ فَقَالَ: النَّحْوُ. فَأَمْلَى عَلَيَّ الْأَعْمَشُ النَّحْوَ، ثُمَّ أَمْلَى عَلَيَّ الْحَدِيثَ.
و
Waki‘ ibn al-Jarrah
d. 197 AH / 812 CE
From the author's own Arabic
“ The tongue of the Arabs is the widest of tongues in its ways and the richest in words; we know of no one but a prophet who encompasses all of it, yet none of it is lost to the Arabs as a whole, so that there is always someone among them who knows it.”
وَلِسانُ العَرَبِ أَوْسَعُ الأَلْسِنَةِ مَذْهَباً وَأَكْثَرُها أَلْفاظاً، وَلا نَعْلَمُهُ يُحِيطُ بِجَمِيعِ عِلْمِهِ إِنْسانٌ غَيْرُ نَبِيٍّ، وَلَكِنَّهُ لا يَذْهَبُ مِنْهُ شَئٌ عَلَى عامَّتِها حَتَّى لا يَكُونَ مَوْجُوداً فِيها مَنْ يَعْرِفُهُ
ش
al-Shafi'i
d. 204 AH / 820 CE
From the author's own Arabic
“ Every Muslim must learn as much of the tongue of the Arabs as his effort can reach, so that by it he may bear witness that there is no god but God and that Muhammad is His servant and messenger, and recite by it the Book of God.”
فَعَلَى كُلِّ مُسْلِمٍ أَنْ يَتَعَلَّمَ مِنْ لِسانِ العَرَبِ ما بَلَغَهُ جُهْدُهُ حَتَّى يَشْهَدَ بِهِ أَنْ لا إِلَهَ إِلّا اللَّهُ وَأَنَّ مُحَمَّداً عَبْدُهُ وَرَسُولُهُ، وَيَتْلُوَ بِهِ كِتابَ اللَّهِ
ش
al-Shafi'i
d. 204 AH / 820 CE
Via a reliable witness
Reported of him by al-Nahhas in ʿUmdat al-kuttab:
“ We have found that the speech of the Arabs has an excellence over the language of every other nation – a distinction God, Mighty and Majestic, gave them, and an honour with which He honoured them: He sent His Messenger Muhammad from among them, and revealed to him a Qurʾan in a clear Arabic tongue.”
وَجَدْنا لِلُغاتِ العَرَبِ فَضْلاً عَلَى لُغَةِ جَمِيعِ الأُمَمِ، اخْتِصاصاً مِنَ اللَّهِ عَزَّ وَجَلَّ لَهُمْ، وَكَرامَةً كَرَّمَهُمْ بِها، فَبَعَثَ مِنْهُمْ رَسُولَهُ مُحَمَّداً ﷺ، وَأَنْزَلَ عَلَيْهِ قُرْآناً بِلِسانٍ عَرَبِيٍّ مُبِينٍ.
ف
al-Farraʾ
d. 207 AH / 822 CE
Narrated with its chain
Al-Qadi ʿIyad relates with his chain from Abu Dawud al-Sinji: I heard al-Asmaʿi say:
“ What I fear most for a student of knowledge who does not know grammar is that he will fall under the Prophet’s words, “Whoever lies about me, let him take his seat in the Fire”; for the Prophet never erred in his speech, so whenever you relate from him and err in it, you have lied about him.”
إِنَّ أَخْوَفَ ما أَخافُ عَلَى طالِبِ العِلْمِ إِذا لَمْ يَعْرِفِ النَّحْوَ أَنْ يَدْخُلَ فِي جُمْلَةِ قَوْلِ النَّبِيِّ ﷺ: «مَنْ كَذَبَ عَلَيَّ فَلْيَتَبَوَّأْ مَقْعَدَهُ مِنَ النّارِ»؛ لِأَنَّهُ لَمْ يَكُنْ يَلْحَنُ، فَمَهْما رَوَيْتَ عَنْهُ وَلَحَنْتَ فِيهِ كَذَبْتَ عَلَيْهِ.
أ
al-Asmaʿi
d. 216 AH / 831 CE
Narrated with its chain
Reported by his student Harb al-Kirmani, in his chapter on naming the months in Persian:
“ I said to Ahmad: The Persians have days and months that they call by names that are not known. He disliked that with the strongest dislike.”
قُلْتُ لِأَحْمَدَ: فَإِنَّ لِلْفُرْسِ أَيَّاماً وَشُهُوراً يُسَمُّونَهَا بِأَسْمَاءٍ لَا تُعْرَفُ؛ فَكَرِهَ ذَلِكَ أَشَدَّ الكَرَاهَة.
أ
Ahmad ibn Hanbal
d. 241 AH / 855 CE
Read in the original
“ The Christian young men, exalted by Arabic eloquence, most eagerly handle the books of the Chaldeans [i.e. the Arabs]… Alas, for shame! The Christians do not know their own language.”
Arabico eloquio sublimati, volumina Chaldæorum avidissime tractant […] Heu, proh dolor! linguam suam nesciunt Christiani.
أ
Paulus Alvarus of Córdoba
c. 800 – c. 861
From the author's own Arabic
Al-Jahiz records a debate on which preserves deeds best – books, buildings or poetry; one of those present said:
“ The excellence of poetry belongs to the Arabs alone and to those who speak their tongue. Poetry cannot be translated; once it is turned into another tongue its order is broken, its metre is lost, its beauty goes and what made it wonderful falls away.”
وَفَضِيلَةُ الشِّعْرِ مَقْصُورَةٌ عَلَى العَرَبِ، وَعَلَى مَنْ تَكَلَّمَ بِلِسَانِ العَرَبِ، وَالشِّعْرُ لا يُسْتَطَاعُ أَنْ يُتَرْجَمَ، وَلا يَجُوزُ عَلَيْهِ النَّقْلُ، وَمَتَى حُوِّلَ تَقَطَّعَ نَظْمُهُ وَبَطَلَ وَزْنُهُ، وَذَهَبَ حُسْنُهُ وَسَقَطَ مَوْضِعُ التَّعَجُّبِ.
ج
al-Jahiz
d. 255 AH / 869 CE
From the author's own Arabic
“ The excellence of the Qur'an is known only to one who has studied much, whose learning is broad, and who understands the ways of the Arabs, their versatility in modes of expression, and what God singled out their language for above all other languages.”
وَإِنَّما يَعْرِفُ فَضْلَ القُرْآنِ مَنْ كَثُرَ نَظَرُهُ، وَاتَّسَعَ عِلْمُهُ، وَفَهِمَ مَذاهِبَ العَرَبِ وَافْتِنانَها فِي الأَسالِيبِ، وَما خَصَّ اللَّهُ بِهِ لُغَتَها دُونَ جَمِيعِ اللُّغاتِ
ق
Ibn Qutayba
d. 276 AH / 889 CE
Narrated with its chain
Abu Jaʿfar al-Nahhas relates that the scholars of Arabic never ceased to prefer the Book of Sibawayh, until al-Mubarrad said:
“ No book in any science has ever been composed like the Book of Sibawayh: books written in the sciences need other books, but whoever understands the Book of Sibawayh needs nothing else.”
لَمْ يُعْمَلْ كِتَابٌ فِي عِلْمٍ مِنَ العُلُومِ مِثْلُ كِتَابِ سِيبَوَيْهِ، وَذَلِكَ أَنَّ الكُتُبَ المُصَنَّفَةَ فِي العُلُومِ مُضْطَرَّةٌ إِلَى غَيْرِهَا، وَكِتَابُ سِيبَوَيْهِ لا يَحْتَاجُ مَنْ فَهِمَهُ إِلَى غَيْرِهِ.
م
al-Mubarrad
d. 286 AH / 899 CE
Via a reliable witness
To the logician Matta ibn Yunus, in their Baghdad debate on Arabic grammar and Greek logic:
“ Grammar is a logic, but one drawn out of Arabic; and logic is a grammar, but one understood through language.”
وَالنَّحْوُ مَنْطِقٌ وَلَكِنَّهُ مَسْلُوخٌ مِنَ العَرَبِيَّةِ، وَالمَنْطِقُ نَحْوٌ وَلَكِنَّهُ مَفْهُومٌ بِاللُّغَةِ.
س
Abu Saʿid al-Sirafi
d. 368 AH / 979 CE
From the author's own Arabic
“ Whoever is ignorant of the breadth of the Arabic tongue, the abundance of its words and its many ways of expression is ignorant of the substance of the knowledge of the Book; and whoever knows it, grasps its ways and understands how the commentators interpreted it, is freed of the doubts that befall those of the people of whims and innovations who are ignorant of its tongue.”
فَإِنَّ مَنْ جَهِلَ سَعَةَ لِسانِ العَرَبِ وَكَثْرَةَ أَلْفاظِها، وَافْتِنانَها فِي مَذاهِبِها، جَهِلَ جُمَلَ عِلْمِ الكِتابِ، وَمَنْ عَلِمَها وَوَقَفَ عَلَى مَذاهِبِها، وَفَهِمَ ما تَأَوَّلَهُ أَهْلُ التَّفْسِيرِ فِيها، زالَتْ عَنْهُ الشُّبَهُ الدّاخِلَةُ عَلَى مَنْ جَهِلَ لِسانَها مِنْ ذَوِي الأَهْواءِ وَالبِدَعِ
م
Abu Mansur al-Azhari
d. 370 AH / 980 CE
Via a reliable witness
When his pupil Abu Hayyan al-Tawhidi asked him whether any eloquence surpasses that of the Arabs, he said this could be known only by one who spoke every language with mastery and weighed them one by one; then he said:
“ But we have heard many languages from their own people – I mean from their best and most eloquent – and, as far as it appeared and seemed to us, we found no language like Arabic: its ways are wider, its articulation finer, its steps loftier; its letters are more complete, its nouns greater, its meanings deeper, its allusions more comprehensive; and it has this grammar, whose share in it is the share of logic in the mind.”
وَلَكِنْ قَدْ سَمِعْنَا لُغَاتٍ كَثِيرَةً مِنْ أَهْلِهَا، أَعْنِي مِنْ أَفَاضِلِهِمْ وَبُلَغَائِهِمْ، فَعَلَى مَا ظَهَرَ لَنَا وَخُيِّلَ إِلَيْنَا لَمْ نَجِدْ لُغَةً كَالعَرَبِيَّةِ؛ وَذَلِكَ لِأَنَّهَا أَوْسَعُ مَنَاهِجَ، وَأَلْطَفُ مَخَارِجَ، وَأَعْلَى مَدَارِجَ، وَحُرُوفُهَا أَتَمُّ، وَأَسْمَاؤُهَا أَعْظَمُ، وَمَعَانِيهَا أَوْغَلُ، وَمَعَارِيضُهَا أَشْمَلُ، وَلَهَا هَذَا النَّحْوُ الَّذِي حِصَّتُهُ مِنْهَا حِصَّةُ المَنْطِقِ مِنَ العَقْلِ.
س
Abu Sulayman al-Mantiqi al-Sijistani
d. c. 375 AH / 985 CE
From the author's own Arabic
Speaking of the beauty of God’s making of man and of his speech:
“ …Then He formed every nation upon a language, made them speak it and made it easy for them; and He made the Arabic tongue the sweetest of tongues in its sounds, the most even in its course, the clearest in expression and the widest in its variety; and He made case-endings an ornament for the tongue, a rein upon it, and a line that divides wherever its meanings might be confused.”
…ثُمَّ جَبَلَ كُلَّ أُمَّةٍ مِنَ الأُمَمِ عَلَى لُغَةٍ أَنْطَقَهُمْ بِهَا، وَيَسَّرَهُمْ لَهَا، وَجَعَلَ اللِّسَانَ العَرَبِيَّ أَعْذَبَ الأَلْسِنَةِ مَخْرَجاً، وَأَعْدَلَهَا مَنْهَجاً، وَأَوْضَحَهَا بَيَاناً، وَأَوْسَعَهَا افْتِنَاناً، وَجَعَلَ الإِعْرَابَ حَلْياً لِلِّسَانِ، وَزِمَاماً وَفَصْلاً لِمَا اخْتُلِفَ فِيهِ مِنْ مَعَانِيهِ.
ب
Abu Bakr al-Zubaydi
d. 379 AH / 989 CE
From the author's own Arabic
Discussing whether language is revealed or conventional:
“ When I consider the state of this noble, generous and subtle language, I find in it such wisdom, precision, refinement and delicacy that it takes hold of my thought, until it almost carries it beyond the farthest reach of magic.”
وَذَلِكَ أَنَّنِي إِذا تَأَمَّلْتُ حالَ هَذِهِ اللُّغَةِ الشَّرِيفَةِ الكَرِيمَةِ اللَّطِيفَةِ، وَجَدْتُ فِيها مِنَ الحِكْمَةِ وَالدِّقَّةِ وَالإِرْهافِ وَالرِّقَّةِ ما يَمْلِكُ عَلَيَّ جانِبَ الفِكْرِ حَتَّى يَكادُ يَطْمَحُ بِهِ أَمامَ غَلْوَةِ السِّحْرِ
ج
Ibn Jinni
d. 392 AH / 1002 CE
From the author's own Arabic
Comparing Arabic with other languages:
“ We ask scholars of Arabic whose origin is non-Arab, and who were trained in their own language before they took up Arabic, about the two languages: they will not put them side by side — they will hardly even accept the question, so remote does it seem to them, so far does the subtlety of Arabic stand ahead in their judgement and their feeling. I asked Abu 'Ali about this more than once, and his answer was much as I have related.”
وَذَلِكَ أَنّا نَسْأَلُ عُلَماءَ العَرَبِيَّةِ مِمَّنْ أَصْلُهُ عَجَمِيٌّ عَنْ حالِ اللُّغَتَيْنِ، فَلا يَجْمَعُ بَيْنَهُما، بَلْ لا يَكادُ يَقْبَلُ السُّؤالَ عَنْ ذَلِكَ؛ لِبُعْدِهِ فِي نَفْسِهِ، وَتَقَدُّمِ لُطْفِ العَرَبِيَّةِ فِي رَأْيِهِ وَحِسِّهِ.
ج
Ibn Jinni
d. 392 AH / 1002 CE
From the author's own Arabic
In his chapter on the religious errors that knowledge of Arabic guards against:
“ Most of those among the people of the religious law who strayed from its right course and turned from the best path to it were led astray, and their judgement made light of, by their weakness in this noble and generous language in which all people were addressed.”
وَذَلِكَ أَنَّ أَكْثَرَ مَنْ ضَلَّ مِنْ أَهْلِ الشَّرِيعَةِ عَنِ القَصْدِ فِيها وَحادَ عَنِ الطَّرِيقَةِ المُثْلَى إِلَيْها، فَإِنَّما اسْتَهْواهُ "وَاسْتَخَفَّ حِلْمَهُ" ضَعْفُهُ فِي هَذِهِ اللُّغَةِ الكَرِيمَةِ الشَّرِيفَةِ، الَّتِي خُوطِبَ الكافَّةُ بِها
ج
Ibn Jinni
d. 392 AH / 1002 CE
From the author's own Arabic
“ The science most deserving to be learned and most worthy of being memorised, after knowledge of God, is the science of rhetoric and the knowledge of eloquence, by which the inimitability of God's Book is known.”
اعْلَمْ- عَلَّمَكَ اللَّهُ الخَيْرَ، وَدَلَّكَ عَلَيْهِ، وَقَيَّضَهُ لَكَ، وَجَعَلَكَ مِنْ أَهْلِهِ- أَنَّ أَحَقَّ العُلُومِ بِالتَّعَلُّمِ، وَأَوْلاها بِالتَّحَفُّظِ- بَعْدَ المَعْرِفَةِ بِاللَّهِ جَلَّ ثَناؤُهُ- عِلْمُ البَلاغَةِ، وَمَعْرِفَةُ الفَصاحَةِ، الَّذى بِهِ يُعْرَفُ إِعْجازُ كِتابِ اللَّهِ تَعالَى
ه
Abu Hilal al-'Askari
d. 395 AH / 1005 CE
From the author's own Arabic
In al-Basaʾir wa-l-dhakhaʾir, after explaining a definition of eloquence:
“ Yet this is not confined to Arabic: it is common to all souls, drawn from the mind, and known in every language. But Arabic, to our mind, is of all speech the finest in its sounds, the widest in its ways, the most attached to the heart, the lightest on the tongue, and the surest to reach the ear.”
ثُمَّ لَيْسَ هَذَا المَعْنَى مَقْصُوراً عَلَى العَرَبِيَّةِ، بَلْ هُوَ شَائِعٌ فِي النُّفُوسِ، مُسْتَمَدٌّ مِنَ العُقُولِ، مَعْرُوفٌ بِاللُّغَاتِ، لَكِنَّ العَرَبِيَّةَ عِنْدَنَا أَحْسَنُ الأَلْفَاظِ مَخَارِجَ، وَأَوْسَعُهَا مَنَاهِجَ، وَأَعْلَقُهَا بِالقَلْبِ، وَأَخَفُّهَا عَلَى اللِّسَانِ، وَأَوْصَلُهَا إِلَى الآذَانِ.
ح
Abu Hayyan al-Tawhidi
d. c. 400 AH / 1010 CE
From the author's own Arabic
In al-Imtaʿ wa-l-muʾanasa, answering the vizier Ibn Saʿdan, who had asked him whether one nation excels another:
“ We have heard many languages – though we have not mastered them – from every nation… and we found in none of them the clarity of Arabic – I mean the openings within its words, the space we find between its letters, the distance between its points of articulation, the balance we taste in its patterns, and the undeniable evenness of its forms.”
وَقَدْ سَمِعْنَا لُغَاتٍ كَثِيرَةً – وَإِنْ لَمْ نَسْتَوْعِبْهَا – مِنْ جَمِيعِ الأُمَمِ… فَمَا وَجَدْنَا لِشَيْءٍ مِنْ هَذِهِ اللُّغَاتِ نُصُوعَ العَرَبِيَّةِ، أَعْنِي الفُرَجَ الَّتِي فِي كَلِمَاتِهَا، وَالفَضَاءَ الَّذِي نَجِدُهُ بَيْنَ حُرُوفِهَا، وَالمَسَافَةَ الَّتِي بَيْنَ مَخَارِجِهَا، وَالمُعَادَلَةَ الَّتِي نَذُوقُهَا فِي أَمْثِلَتِهَا، وَالمُسَاوَاةَ الَّتِي لَا تُجْحَدُ فِي أَبْنِيَتِهَا.
ح
Abu Hayyan al-Tawhidi
d. c. 400 AH / 1010 CE
From the author's own Arabic
“ Whoever loves God loves His Messenger Muhammad; whoever loves the Arab Messenger loves the Arabs; whoever loves the Arabs loves Arabic, in which the best of books was sent down to the best of non-Arabs and Arabs; and whoever loves Arabic cares for it, persists in it and devotes his effort to it، Arabic is the best of languages and tongues, and turning to understand it is part of religion, for it is the instrument of knowledge, the key to understanding religion, and a means of setting right this life and the next.”
وَمَنْ أَحَبَّ الرَّسُولَ العَرَبِيَّ أَحَبَّ العَرَبَ، وَمَنْ أَحَبَّ العَرَبَ أَحَبَّ العَرَبِيَّةَ الَّتِي بِها نَزَلَ أَفْضَلُ الكُتُبِ… وَالعَرَبِيَّةُ خَيْرُ اللُّغاتِ وَالأَلْسِنَةِ.
ث
al-Tha'alibi
d. 429 AH / 1038 CE
From the author's own Arabic
In the preface to his book on drugs – his own first language was Khwarazmian:
“ Into the tongue of the Arabs the sciences were carried from every region of the world, and they were adorned by it and settled in hearts, and the beauties of the language flowed through their arteries and veins، To be satirised in Arabic is dearer to me than to be praised in Persian.”
إِلَى لِسانِ العَرَبِ نُقِلَتِ العُلُومُ مِنْ أَقْطارِ العالَمِ فَازْدانَتْ وَحَلَّتْ فِي الأَفْئِدَةِ وَسَرَتْ مَحاسِنُ اللُّغَةِ مِنْها فِي الشَّرايِينِ وَالأَوْرِدَةِ، وَالهَجْوُ بِالعَرَبِيَّةِ أَحَبُّ إِلَيَّ مِنَ المَدْحِ بِالفارِسِيَّةِ
ب
al-Biruni
d. 440 AH / 1048 CE
From the author's own Arabic
In the introduction to his Hebrew grammar, justifying the use of Arabic to explain obscure Hebrew:
“ We did not scruple to cite, for what has no attestation in Hebrew, what we found agreeing and cognate with it in the Arabic tongue, for it is, after Syriac, the language most like ours.”
لَمْ نَتَحَرَّجْ عَنِ الاسْتِشْهادِ عَلَى ما لا شاهِدَ عَلَيْهِ مِنَ العِبْرانِيِّ بِما وَجَدْناهُ مُوافِقاً وَمُجانِساً لَهُ مِنَ اللِّسانِ العَرَبِيِّ، إِذْ هُوَ أَكْثَرُ اللُّغاتِ بَعْدَ السُّرْيانِيِّ شَبَهاً بِلِسانِنا.
ج
Abu al-Walid Marwan ibn Janah
c. 990 – c. 1050
From the author's own Arabic
Discussing how Arabic, Hebrew and Syriac came to differ:
“ What holds fast a nation’s language, its sciences and its history is the strength of its state and the energy and leisure of its people.”
فَإِنَّما يُقَيِّدُ لُغَةَ الأُمَّةِ وَعُلُومَها وَأَخْبارَها قُوَّةُ دَوْلَتِها وَنَشاطُ أَهْلِها وَفَراغُهُمْ.
ح
Ibn Hazm
d. 456 AH / 1064 CE
From the author's own Arabic
“ Once God had sent the best of His messengers from among the Arabs and sent down to him the last of His books in the tongue of the Arabs, it became an obligation on people to learn the tongue of the Arabs, even if a communal one, so that they might understand from God His command and prohibition, His promise and warning, and grasp from His Messenger his explanation and his conveying of the message.”
بَعْدَ أَنْ بَعَثَ اللَّهُ أَفْضَلَ رُسُلِهِ مِنَ العَرَبِ وَأَنْزَلَ عَلَيْهِ آخِرَ كُتُبِهِ بِلِسانِ العَرَبِ فَصارَ عَلَى النّاسِ فَرْضاً أَنْ يَتَعَلَّمُوا لِسانَ العَرَبِ وَإِنْ كانَ ذَلِكَ مِنْ فُرُوضِ الكِفايَةِ لِيَعْقِلُوا عَنِ اللَّهِ أَمْرَهُ وَنَهْيَهُ وَوَعْدَهُ وَوَعِيدَهُ، وَيَفْهَمُوا عَنْ رَسُولِهِ - ﷺ - بَيانَهُ وَتَبْلِيغَهُ
ب
al-Bayhaqi
d. 458 AH / 1066 CE
From the author's own Arabic
In Sirr al-fasaha, admitting that he knew no language but Arabic:
“ This language has been put to uses I do not think any other language has been put to, and in everything it was used for, in verse and in prose, it has been found nothing but pliant and sweet; and to this day it stops at no limit in that, nor reaches an end.”
وَقَدْ تُصُرِّفَ فِي هَذِهِ اللُّغَةِ بِما لَمْ أَظُنَّهُ تُصُرِّفَ فِي غَيْرِها مِنَ اللُّغاتِ، فَلَمْ تُوجَدْ إِلَّا طَيِّعَةً عَذْبَةً فِي كُلِّ ما اسْتُعْمِلَ فِيهِ نَظْماً وَنَثْراً، وَهِيَ إِلَى الآنَ لا تَقِفُ عَلَى غايَةٍ فِي ذَلِكَ، وَلا تَصِلُ إِلَى نِهايَةٍ.
س
Ibn Sinan al-Khafaji
d. 466 AH / 1073 CE
From the author's own Arabic
Answering those who belittle Arabic while depending on it:
“ They see that discussion in most chapters and questions of legal theory rests on the science of grammar, and that the commentaries are packed with reports from Sibawayh, al-Akhfash, al-Kisa'i and al-Farra'.”
وَيَرَوْنَ الكَلامَ فِي مُعْظَمِ أَبْوابِ أُصُولِ الفِقْهِ وَمَسائِلِها مَبْنِيّاً عَلَى عِلْمِ الإِعْرابِ، وَالتَّفاسِيرَ مَشْحُونَةً بِالرِّواياتِ عَنْ سِيبَوَيْهِ وَالأَخْفَشِ وَالكِسائِيِّ وَالفَرّاءِ
ز
al-Zamakhshari
d. 538 AH / 1144 CE
From the author's own Arabic
On the hermaphrodite, commenting on Q 42:49–50:
“ We say: this is ignorance of the language, dullness to where eloquence draws its lines, and a failure to grasp the breadth of God's power.”
قُلْنَا: هَذَا جَهْلٌ بِاللُّغَةِ، وَغَبَاوَةٌ عَنْ مَقْطَعِ الْفَصَاحَةِ، وَقُصُورٌ عَنْ مَعْرِفَةِ سَعَةِ الْقُدْرَةِ.
ب
Abu Bakr ibn al-‘Arabi
d. 543 AH / 1148 CE
From the author's own Arabic
In his chapter on language, at the start of the fifth inquiry:
“ Since knowledge of our religious law goes back to the Qur’an and the Prophetic reports, and both came in the language of the Arabs, their grammar and their morphology, knowing our law depends on knowing these.”
لَمّا كانَ المَرْجِعُ فِي مَعْرِفَةِ شَرْعِنا إِلَى القُرْآنِ وَالأَخْبارِ، وَهُما وارِدانِ بِلُغَةِ العَرَبِ وَنَحْوِهِمْ وَتَصْرِيفِهِمْ، كانَ العِلْمُ بِشَرْعِنا مَوْقُوفاً عَلَى العِلْمِ بِهَذِهِ الأُمُورِ.
ف
Fakhr al-Din al-Razi
d. 606 AH / 1210 CE
From the author's own Arabic
In al-Mathal al-saʾir he tells of a conversation in his company in Egypt, and endorses it:
“ One day a Jewish man came to see me – I was in Egypt at the time – a man the Jews held in high regard for his learning in their religion and in other things, and, by my life, so he was. Talk turned to languages, and to Arabic being the mistress of languages, the noblest of them in standing and the finest in its making. That man said: ‘How could it not be so, when it came last, rejected what was ugly in the languages before it, and took what was fine?’”
وَحَضَرَ عِنْدِي فِي بَعْضِ الأَيّامِ رَجُلٌ مِنَ اليَهُودِ، وَكُنْتُ إِذْ ذاكَ بِالدِّيارِ المِصْرِيَّةِ، وَكانَ لِليَهُودِ فِي هَذا الرَّجُلِ اعْتِقادٌ؛ لِمَكانِ عِلْمِهِ فِي دِينِهِمْ وَغَيْرِهِ، وَكانَ لَعَمْرِي كَذَلِكَ، فَجَرَى ذِكْرُ اللُّغاتِ، وَأَنَّ اللُّغَةَ العَرَبِيَّةَ هِيَ سَيِّدَةُ اللُّغاتِ، وَأَنَّها أَشْرَفُهُنَّ مَكاناً، وَأَحْسَنُهُنَّ وَضْعاً؛ فَقالَ ذَلِكَ الرَّجُلُ: كَيْفَ لا تَكُونُ كَذَلِكَ، وَقَدْ جاءَتْ آخِراً فَنَفَتِ القَبِيحَ مِنَ اللُّغاتِ قَبْلَها وَأَخَذَتِ الحَسَنَ؟
ض
Diyaʾ al-Din Ibn al-Athir
d. 637 AH / 1239 CE
From the author's own Arabic
In the introduction to Lisan al-ʿArab, explaining why he wrote it:
“ I compiled this book in an age whose people take pride in a language other than its own, and I built it as Noah built the Ark while his people mocked him.”
فَجَمَعْتُ هَذا الكِتابَ فِي زَمَنٍ أَهْلُهُ بِغَيْرِ لُغَتِهِ يَفْخَرُونَ، وَصَنَعْتُهُ كَما صَنَعَ نُوحٌ الفُلْكَ وَقَوْمُهُ مِنْهُ يَسْخَرُونَ.
م
Ibn Manzur
d. 711 AH / 1311 CE
From the author's own Arabic
“ Know that habitual use of a language has a strong and evident effect on the mind, on character and on religion; it also brings one closer to the first generation of this community, the Companions and their Successors, and resembling them increases mind, religion and character. Moreover, the Arabic language itself is part of the religion, and knowing it is an obligation: understanding the Book and the Sunna is obligatory, they cannot be understood without understanding Arabic, and whatever an obligation cannot be fulfilled without is itself obligatory.”
وَاعْلَمْ أَنَّ اعْتِيادَ اللُّغَةِ يُؤَثِّرُ فِي العَقْلِ وَالخُلُقِ وَالدِّينِ تَأْثِيراً قَوِيّاً بَيِّناً… فَإِنَّ نَفْسَ اللُّغَةِ العَرَبِيَّةِ مِنَ الدِّينِ، وَمَعْرِفَتَها فَرْضٌ واجِبٌ.
ت
Ibn Taymiyya
d. 728 AH / 1328 CE
From the author's own Arabic
“ It is well known that learning and teaching Arabic is a communal obligation. The forebears used to discipline their children for grammatical mistakes. We are commanded, by way of obligation or recommendation, to preserve the Arabic rule and to correct tongues that stray from it, so that our way of understanding the Book and the Sunna, and of following the Arabs in their speech, is preserved. Were people left to their mistakes, it would be a deficiency and a fault.”
وَمَعْلُومٌ أَنَّ تَعَلُّمَ الْعَرَبِيَّةِ وَتَعْلِيمَ الْعَرَبِيَّةِ فَرْضٌ عَلَى الْكِفَايَةِ، وَكَانَ السَّلَفُ يُؤَدِّبُونَ أَوْلَادَهُمْ عَلَى اللَّحْنِ… فَلَوْ تُرِكَ النَّاسُ عَلَى لَحْنِهِمْ كَانَ نَقْصاً وَعَيْباً.
ت
Ibn Taymiyya
d. 728 AH / 1328 CE
From the author's own Arabic
“ The forebears never ceased to dislike changing the distinctive marks of the Arabs, even in dealings, namely speaking other than Arabic except out of need, as Malik, al-Shafi'i and Ahmad stated; Malik even said: whoever speaks other than Arabic in our mosque is to be put out of it. Other tongues may be spoken by their own people, but they allowed them for need and disliked them otherwise, to preserve the distinctive marks of Islam; for God sent down His Book in the Arabic tongue, sent with it His Arab Prophet, and made the Arab community the best of communities, so that preserving their emblem became part of fully preserving Islam.”
فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ أَنْزَلَ كِتَابَهُ بِاللِّسَانِ الْعَرَبِيِّ، وَبَعَثَ بِهِ نَبِيَّهُ الْعَرَبِيَّ… فَصَارَ حِفْظُ شِعَارِهِمْ مِنْ تَمَامِ حِفْظِ الْإِسْلَامِ.
ت
Ibn Taymiyya
d. 728 AH / 1328 CE
From the author's own Arabic
“ In interpreting the Qur'an and the Hadith one must know which words indicate what God and His Messenger meant, and how His speech is understood. Knowing the Arabic in which we were addressed helps us grasp what God and His Messenger meant by their words, and so does knowing how words signify meanings; for most of the error of the people of innovation came from this cause: they took the words of God and His Messenger to mean what they claimed them to indicate, when it was not so.”
فَمَعْرِفَةُ الْعَرَبِيَّةِ الَّتِي خُوطِبْنَا بِهَا مِمَّا يُعِينُ عَلَى أَنْ نَفْقَهَ مُرَادَ اللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِ بِكَلَامِهِ.
ت
Ibn Taymiyya
d. 728 AH / 1328 CE
From the author's own Arabic
“ The good way is to make addressing one another in Arabic a habit, so that children absorb it in the schools and at home; then the emblem of Islam and its people becomes manifest, and it is easier for Muslims to understand the meanings of the Book, the Sunna and the words of the forebears.”
وَإِنَّما الطَّرِيقُ الحَسَنُ اعْتِيادُ الخِطابِ بِالعَرَبِيَّةِ، حَتَّى يَتَلَقَّنَها الصِّغارُ فِي المَكاتِبِ وَفِي الدُّورِ فَيَظْهَرَ شِعارُ الإِسْلامِ وَأَهْلِهِ، وَيَكُونَ ذَلِكَ أَسْهَلَ عَلَى أَهْلِ الإِسْلامِ فِي فِقْهِ مَعانِي الكِتابِ وَالسُّنَّةِ وَكَلامِ السَّلَفِ
ت
Ibn Taymiyya
d. 728 AH / 1328 CE
From the author's own Arabic
On «the sciences of the Arabic language»:
“ Its pillars are four: lexicography, grammar, rhetoric and literature. Knowing them is necessary for the scholars of the religious law, since all legal rulings are taken from the Book and the Sunna, and these are in the language of the Arabs.”
أَرْكانُهُ أَرْبَعَةٌ، وَهِيَ اللُّغَةُ وَالنَّحْوُ وَالبَيانُ وَالأَدَبُ، وَمَعْرِفَتُها ضَرُورِيَّةٌ عَلَى أَهْلِ الشَّرِيعَةِ، إِذْ مَأْخَذُ الأَحْكامِ الشَّرْعِيَّةِ كُلِّها مِنَ الكِتابِ وَالسُّنَّةِ، وَهِيَ بِلُغَةِ العَرَبِ
خ
Ibn Khaldun
d. 808 AH / 1406 CE
From the author's own Arabic
Opening the first thing a chancery writer needs, the knowledge of Arabic:
“ There is no denying that it is the sturdiest of languages, the clearest in expression, the most fluent of tongue, the widest in its reach and the sweetest to the taste; and that is why God Most High chose it for the noblest of His messengers, the seal of His prophets, the chosen of His creation and the elect of His creatures.”
وَلا خَفاءَ أَنَّها أَمْتَنُ اللُّغاتِ وَأَوْضَحُها بَياناً، وَأَذْلَقُها لِساناً، وَأَمَدُّها رِواقاً، وَأَعْذَبُها مَذاقاً؛ وَمِنْ ثَمَّ اخْتارَها اللَّهُ تَعالَى لِأَشْرَفِ رُسُلِهِ، وَخاتَمِ أَنْبِيائِهِ، وَخِيَرَتِهِ مِنْ خَلْقِهِ، وَصَفْوَتِهِ مِنْ بَرِيَّتِهِ.
ق
al-Qalqashandi
d. 821 AH / 1418 CE
From the author's own Arabic
On the hadith «Do not lie about me», answering the Karramiyya who allowed forged hadith for exhortation:
“ Arguing that it is a lie «for him», not «against him» — which is ignorance of the Arabic language.”
وَاحْتَجّ بِأَنَّهُ كَذِبَ لَهُ لَا عَلَيْهِ، وَهُوَ جَهْلٌ بِاللُّغَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّةِ.
ح
Ibn Hajar al-‘Asqalani
d. 852 AH / 1449 CE
Read in the original
Bearing witness to Islam and Arabic in a hostile context, speaking of Arabic as the language of all Muslims:
“ …It has so far taken hold of the whole world that, were you to divide all the inhabited earth into three equal parts, scarcely one part could be found outside it… there is today no language, nor was there ever one, that has a place in so many parts of the world. I say nothing of the kinds of learning that the authors of that language have treated most brilliantly: to them we owe astronomy and the practice of medicine.”
…usque adeo orbem totum occupavit, ut si trifariam inque tria aequalia totam habitabilem dividas, vix una pars extra hanc possit reperiri. […] ut nulla sit hodie lingua, nec usquam olim fuerit, quae in tot orbis partibus locum habeat. Taceo genera disciplinarum praeclarissime ab illius linguae authoribus pertractata. Astrologiam, & rei medicae praxim illis debemus.
غ
Guillaume Postel
1510–1581
Read in the original
Answering the scholars of Europe, who read Avicenna and Rhazes in crude medieval Latin translations and scorned the Arabs as barbarous:
“ Someone will say: who does not know that to the common people the name of the Arabs means nothing but barbarous, rude and uncultivated? There is some truth in this, but I openly deny that it is true without qualification. For this is not the fault of the Arabs but of the translators. The Arabs, in their time the most learned, the sharpest and the most cultivated writers of all, have through the carelessness and ignorance of translators acquired the name of barbarism, which can hardly be washed away.”
At quis nescit, dicat quis, Arabum nomen apud vulgus aliud nihil, quàm barbarum, rude, & incultum sonare, audire, significare? Verum hoc quidem parte quadam, at in vniuersum hoc verum esse apertè nego. Arabum enim hæc culpa non est, sed interpretum. Arabes enim, scriptores omnium suo tempore doctissimi, acutissimi, cultissimi, interpretum oscitantia & inscitia, cognomen barbariei, vix eluendum, contraxerunt.
ب
William Bedwell
1563 – 1632
Read in the original
Telling scholars what Arabic holds for them:
“ There is no language, my reader (I except Greek and Latin), that contains more monuments of solid learning and of the whole circle of the sciences [than Arabic].”
Nulla, mi Lector, lingua est, (Græcam & Latinam excipio) quæ plura solidæ eruditionis & encyclopædiæ monumenta continet.
ب
William Bedwell
1563 – 1632
Read in the original
Describing how widely Arabic was written in his day:
“ From the Fortunate Isles [the Canaries] in the far West to the Moluccas [in today's Indonesia] in the far East… the privileges and diplomas of kings and princes, the instruments and contracts of merchants and nobles, and the letters of everyone, are written in this language [Arabic] almost alone.”
ab insulis Fortunatis (خالدات Chalidet Arabes vocant) ad Muluccarum vsque insulas […] Regum & Principum priuilegia & diplomata, Mercatorum & Nobilium instrumenta, & contractus […] Omnium denique literæ familiares hac ferè solâ concipiuntur, scribuntur.
ب
William Bedwell
1563 – 1632
Via a reliable witness
Addressing the students of Leiden in 1620:
“ If both languages are to be learnt, Arabic should be put first, since it is the easier and more regular and everywhere makes good the defects of Hebrew.”
فإن كان لا بدّ من تعلّم اللغتين، فأرى أن تُقدَّم العربيّة، لأنّها أيسرُ وأطردُ قياساً، وتسدّ نقصَ العبريّة في كلّ موضع.
إ
Thomas Erpenius
1584–1624
Read in the original
In the preface to his Arabic–Latin lexicon, “to the reader who loves and studies Arabic”:
“ For the Arabic language, born first in the very family of Eber, spread far with its people and, wiped out by no ruin in its own land, at length spread beyond it too, until today it almost joins the farthest bounds of East and West; across so vast an expanse of the earth it has for many centuries been the interpreter of the sacred and the profane, and of learned minds.”
Namque in ipsa Heberi familia primum nata Arabica lingua, cum gente sua late diffusa, neque ullo ejus excidio deleta in proprio solo, tandem quoque extra illud ita propagata fuit, ut hodie extremos fere Orientis & Occidentis terminos conjungat; per tanta Terrae latifundia, sacri & profani, doctarumque mentium, multis jam saeculis interpres.
Read in the original
“ Latin and Greek together, even if they joined forces, would come out far the smaller […]; from these first roots there grows an infinite forest of words.”
Nam primitiva, seu themata, longe numerosiora habet, & à primis hisce radicibus infinita vocum sylva succrescit.
Read in the original
“ I mean the Arabic language, which I may not undeservedly call an Ocean, since it takes the other Oriental languages into itself, just as the Ocean swallows the rivers.”
Linguam intelligo Arabicam, quam non immerito Oceanum dixerim, quippe quæ alias Linguas Orientales in se recipit, non secus ac fluvios absorbet Oceanus.
Read in the original
“ The Arabians are full of the commendations of their language, and not altogether without reason; for it claims the preference of most others in many respects, as being very harmonious and expressive, and withal so copious, that they say no man, without inspiration, can be perfect master of it in its utmost extent.”
والعربُ يُكثرون من الثناءِ على لغتهم، وليسوا في ذلك بغير حُجّةٍ تَماماً؛ فإنّها تستحقُّ التقديمَ على أكثر اللغات من وجوهٍ كثيرة، لأنَّها شديدةُ الانْسِجَامِ، بَلِيغةُ الإبانةِ، وهي مع ذلك من السَّعَةِ بحيث يقولون: إنَّه لا يُحيط بها في أقصى مَدَاها إنسانٌ إلّا بِوَحْيٍ.
Read in the original
“ The Arabick language, therefore, is almost wholly in our power; and, as it is unquestionably one of the most ancient in the world, so it yields to none ever spoken by mortals in the number of its words and the precision of its phrases.”
وكَمَا أَنَّها بلا رَيبٍ من أقدمِ لُغاتِ العَالَم، فإنّها لا تَتَأخَّر عن لُغَةٍ نطَق بها البشرُ قطُّ في كثرةِ ألفاظِها ودِقَّةِ عِبَاراتِهَا.
Sir William Jones
1746–1794
Read in the original
“ Whatever may be the pedigree of the Arabs, their language is derived from the same original stock with the Hebrew, the Syriac, and the Chaldæan tongues; the independence of the tribes was marked by their peculiar dialects; but each, after their own, allowed a just preference to the pure and perspicuous idiom of Mecca. In Arabia as well as in Greece, the perfection of language outstripped the refinement of manners; and her speech could diversify the fourscore names of honey, the two hundred of a serpent, the five hundred of a lion, the thousand of a sword, at a time when this copious dictionary was entrusted to the memory of an illiterate people.”
وفِي جَزِيرَةِ العَرَبِ، كَمَا فِي بِلادِ اليُونَانِ، سَبَقَ كَمَالُ اللُّغَةِ رُقِيَّ الأَخْلاقِ.
Read in the original
In his Arabic grammar, on the structure of the language:
“ The means employed in the Arabic Language are precisely such, as with some improvements, a philosopher would probably chuse to adopt in the formation of a perfect system of Speech… there can be no doubt that the mechanism or fundamental principles of Arabic Inflexion, will be found to furnish the best model of imitation that can be obtained, or even devised.”
والوسائلُ التي تتّخذها العربيّة هي بعينها – مع شيءٍ من التحسين – ما يُرجَّح أن يختاره فيلسوفٌ لو أراد أن يضع نظاماً كاملاً للكلام… فلا ريبَ أنّ آليّةَ التصريف العربيّ، أو أصولَه الكبرى، ستكون خيرَ نموذجٍ يُحتذى، ممّا يمكن أن يُنال أو حتّى يُبتكر.
م
Matthew Lumsden
1777–1835
Read in the original
On studying a language by reasoning rather than memory alone:
“ The Arabic language above all seems to lend itself more readily than many others to this operation, whose instruments are analysis and synthesis; and I have sometimes been surprised to see how exactly the forms of this language answer to what clarity and precision of discourse require.”
La langue Arabe sur-tout semble se prêter plus aisément que beaucoup d'autres à cette opération, dont les instrumens sont l'analyse et la synthèse ; et j'ai quelquefois été surpris en voyant combien les formes de cette langue sont dans un juste rapport avec ce qu'exigent la clarté et la précision du discours.
Antoine-Isaac Silvestre de Sacy
1758–1838
Read in the original
In the preface to the letters written to him by Arabs from Tunis, Algiers, Aleppo, Damascus and Egypt:
“ From these letters – written by various men of various lands, Syrians, Egyptians and Moors – it might shine out more clearly that the way they write present-day Arabic does not differ at all among them, and that it is not far removed from the ancient Arabic used in the Qurʾan.”
Has autem epistolas edendi inter multas alias causas haec primaria fuit, ut ex illis, quippe a variis variarum terrarum viris, et Syris, et Aegyptiis et Mauris, conscriptis, luculentius elucesceret, inter horum linguam Arabicam hodiernam scribendi rationem nihil omnino differre, eamque ab antiqua, in Corano usitata, haud multum abhorrere. […] Cultiores enim in omnibus regionibus linguam suam colunt et uno eodemque fere modo scribere solent, atque ita etiam Arabes.
م
Maximilian Habicht
1775–1839
Read in the original
“ Which language of the West has […] kept the oldest monuments of its literature intelligible today, not only to the scholar but to the whole people, as they were then — as Chinese and Arabic have?”
Welche Sprache des Abendlandes hat […] die ältesten Denkmale ihrer Literatur noch heute, nicht nur dem Sprachgelehrten, sondern dem ganzen Volke wie damals verständlich erhalten, wie das Chinesische und Arabische?
Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall
1774–1856
Read in the original
On the Arab lexicons:
“ In the aggregate of these works, with all the strictness that is observed in legal proceedings, as will presently be shown, the utmost care and research have been employed to embody everything that could be preserved or recovered of the classical language; the result being a collection of such authority, such exactness, and such copiousness, as we do not find to have been approached in the case of any other language after its corruption or decay. The classical language they called, by reason of its incomparable excellence, “el-loghah,” or “the language.””
فَكَانتِ الثَّمَرَةُ مَجْمُوعَةً بَلَغَتْ مِنَ الحِجِّيَّةِ والدِّقَّةِ والسَّعَةِ مَا لَا نَجِدُ أَنَّ لُغَةً أُخْرى قَارَبَتْهُ… وَكَانُوا يُسَمُّونَ اللُّغَةَ الفُصْحَى، لِفَضْلِها الَّذِي لَا يُضَاهَى، «اللُّغَة».
Edward William Lane
1801–1876
Read in the original
“ The language of the Qur'ân is universally acknowledged to be the most perfect form of Arab speech. The Qurâis, as the guardians of the national temple and the owners of the territory in which the great fairs and literary festivals of all Arabia were held, would naturally absorb into their own dialect many of the words and locutions of other tribes, and we should consequently expect their language to be more copious and elegant than that of their neighbours.”
لُغَةُ القُرْآنِ مُسَلَّمٌ عِنْدَ الجَمِيعِ بِأَنَّهَا أَكْمَلُ صُورَةٍ للكَلامِ العَرَبِيّ.
Edward Henry Palmer
1840–1882
Read in the original
“ The Arabic language, having come to prevail throughout the whole empire, served as a binding agent and furthered the transmission of ideas.”
Die arabische Sprache, im ganzen Reiche zur Herrschaft gelangt, diente als Bindemittel und beförderte die Ideenübertragung.
Alfred von Kremer
1828–1889
Read in the original
“ This language, unknown before, shows itself to us suddenly in all its perfection, with its flexibility, its infinite richness… It has neither childhood nor old age.”
Cette langue, auparavant inconnue, se montre à nous soudainement dans toute sa perfection, avec sa flexibilité, sa richesse infinie […] Il n'y a pour elle ni enfance, ni vieillesse.
Read in the original
“ In Arabic the words seem, quite literally, to swim in a river of vowels that overflows them on every side, follows them, precedes them, joins them.”
Dans l'arabe, les mots semblent, à la lettre, nager dans un fleuve de voyelles, qui les déborde de toutes parts, les suit, les précède, les unit.
Read in the original
In the preface to his English–Arabic dictionary, speaking of himself in the third person, as authors of his day did:
“ …he will feel himself amply rewarded for the care and labour bestowed on it, if it affords aid and wins friends to the study of a language which not only possesses great beauties of its own, and a rich literature…”
…وسيرى المؤلّفُ أنّه جُزي عن عنايته وتعبه خيرَ الجزاء إن أعان هذا الكتابُ، وكسب أصدقاءَ، على درس لغةٍ تملك جمالاً عظيماً خاصّاً بها، وأدباً غنيّاً…
ف
Francis Joseph Steingass
1825–1903
From the author's own Arabic
In the introduction to his dictionary of synonyms, Nujʿat al-raʾid:
“ Whoever has studied what has come down from the speech of the Arabs, surveyed the prose of the masters of letters after them, and pondered the breadth and inventiveness of their styles, and their play with the moulds of words to bring out the forms of meaning bare and unveiled, will be certain that this language stands apart from all others in eloquence and clarity.”
فإنّ مَن اطّلع على المأثور من كلام العرب، واستقرى ما جاء بعدهم من كلام المترسِّلين من فحول علماء الأدب، وتدبّر ما لهم في أساليب اللغة من الاتّساع والإبداع، والتلاعبِ بقوالب اللفظ لإبراز صُوَر المعاني حاسرةً دون قناع، أيقن أنّ هذه اللغة قد انفردت عن سائر اللغات فصاحةً وبياناً.
ي
Ibrahim al-Yaziji
1847–1906
Read in the original
In his book on Islamic civilisation in the fourth century, on the art of the letter:
“ The letters of the fourth/tenth century are the finest flower of Muslim artistic craft, working with the noblest material of all: language.”
Die Briefe des 4./10. Jahrhunderts sind die feinste Blüte des muhammedanischen Kunsthandwerks, arbeitend mit dem edelsten Stoffe: der Sprache.
Read in the original
“ A great uniformity of speech overspread the land, whether due, as is usually assumed, to the general observance of the Pilgrimage to Mekkah and the meeting of the tribes at ‘Ukâdh, or to some other cause. The same masculine and expressive language was heard from al-Ḥîrah on the Euphrates, under the shadow of Persia, and Ghassân in Syria, beneath the great cathedral of Damascus, to Ṣan‘â and Aden in the far South, where a Persian governor ruled in the name of the Shâhanshâh, and the profession of the poet was everywhere honoured and rewarded.”
فَكَانَتِ اللُّغَةُ نَفْسُهَا، الجَزْلَةُ القَوِيَّةُ التَّعْبِيرِ، تُسْمَعُ مِنَ الحِيرَةِ عَلى الفُرَاتِ… إلى صَنْعَاءَ وَعَدَنَ فِي أَقْصَى الجَنُوبِ.
ل
Charles James Lyall
1845–1920
Read in the original
“ The Arab mind, on the other hand, is clear and positive, and the Arabic language nervous, virile and rich both actually and potentially. The old Arabs were an acute and observant people, and for all natural objects which fell under their notice they had appropriate and finely differentiated words.”
وَاللُّغَةُ العَرَبِيَّةُ قَوِيَّةٌ جَزْلَةٌ غَنِيَّةٌ بِمَا فِيهَا فِعْلاً وَبِمَا تَقْدِرُ عَلَيْهِ.
Edward Granville Browne
1862–1926
Read in the original
On Arabic medical terminology:
“ On the other hand, apart from the fairly copious anatomical, pathological and medical vocabulary properly belonging to the Arabic language, it has a great power of forming significant derivatives from existing roots, which, when formed, are at once intelligible. Thus there exists in Arabic a special form for the "noun of pain," wherein the first root-letter is followed by a short u and the second by a long ā (the form known to Arab grammarians as فُعال, fu‘āl), and this is the form assumed by the names of most diseases and ailments; as the already mentioned ṣudā‘ (صُداع), "a splitting headache," the "soda" of the Latino-Barbari; zukām (زُكام), "a catarrh"; judhām (جُذام), "elephantiasis," etc.”
فإنّ لها قدرةً عظيمةً على توليد مشتقّاتٍ دالّةٍ من الجذور الموجودة، تُفهَمُ حالَ صَوغِها.
Edward Granville Browne
1862–1926
Read in the original
“ My work was more or less influenced by the style of medieval Hebrew and Arabic grammar. It was historical analysis. But you can translate the basic ideas into a kind of a synchronic interpretation, a description of the system as it actually exists, and out of that came the early stages of generative grammar. […] When I got to college I started studying Arabic. I wanted to learn Arabic, and I got pretty far.”
كان عملي متأثّراً إلى حدٍّ ما بطريقة النحو العبريّ والعربيّ في العصور الوسطى؛ كان تحليلاً تاريخيّاً، ولكن يمكنك أن تنقل أفكارَه الأساسيّة إلى تفسيرٍ وصفيٍّ للنظام كما هو قائمٌ فعلاً، ومن ذلك خرجت المراحلُ الأُولى للنحو التوليديّ… ولمّا دخلتُ الجامعة بدأتُ أدرس العربيّة؛ أردتُ أن أتعلّمها، وقطعتُ فيها شوطاً بعيداً.
Read in the original
On the vocabulary of the Arabs within their narrow desert world:
“ Within this range, the slightest modification is expressed by a particular word. Classical Arabic is rich not only in words but in grammatical forms.”
Innerhalb dieses Kreises bezeichnen sie aber die kleinste Modification durch ein eignes Wort. […] Das classische Arabisch ist nicht bloss an Wörtern, sondern auch an grammatischen Formen reich.
Theodor Nöldeke
1836–1930
Read in the original
“ The Arabic language is of very great richness, and this richness has only kept growing through the addition of new expressions borrowed from the languages with which it came into contact. The dictionary of Ibn Sīda already ran to twenty volumes.”
La langue arabe est d'une richesse très grande, et cette richesse n'a fait que s'accroître constamment par l'adjonction d'expressions nouvelles empruntées aux idiomes avec lesquels elle s'est trouvée en contact. Le dictionnaire d'Ibhn Seid, mort en 1065, comprenait déjà vingt volumes.
Read in the original
Describing how Europe began by relying on al-Jawhari, al-Firuzabadi and Ibn Manzur to read Arabic texts:
“ Why should they have compiled dictionaries of their own, when the Arabic lexica offered comprehensive works whose reliability seemed guaranteed by the labour of many generations of scholars?”
Wozu hätte man eigene Wörterbücher kompilieren sollen, da in den arabischen Lexika doch umfassende Werke vorlagen, deren Zuverlässigkeit durch die Arbeit vieler Generationen von Gelehrten verbürgt zu sein schien?
Via a reliable witness
“ I encompassed the Book of God in word and purpose, and was not too narrow for its verses and admonitions; how then should I be too narrow today to describe a machine or to arrange names for inventions? I am the sea, in whose depths pearls lie hidden; did they ask the diver about my shells?”
وَسِعْتُ كِتابَ اللَّهِ لَفْظاً وَغايَةً، وَما ضِقْتُ عَنْ آيٍ بِهِ وَعِظاتِ / فَكَيْفَ أَضِيقُ اليَوْمَ عَنْ وَصْفِ آلَةٍ، وَتَنْسِيقِ أَسْمَاءٍ لِمُخْتَرَعَاتِ / أَنَا البَحْرُ فِي أَحْشَائِهِ الدُّرُّ كامِنٌ، فَهَلْ سَأَلُوا الغَوَّاصَ عَنْ صَدَفَاتِي
ح
Hafiz Ibrahim
d. 1351 AH / 1932 CE
From the author's own Arabic
In his lectures at the Egyptian University:
“ Many languages never acquired enough means of making one clause govern another; only the languages of civilised peoples, of high intellectual culture, managed it… and Arabic is among them.”
وكثيرٌ من اللغات لم يتحصّلْ على غنًى كافٍ من وسائط إعمال الجمل في الجمل، ولم يوفَّق إلى ذلك غيرُ لغات الأقوام المتمدّنين، أصحابِ الحضارة العالية من جهة الفكر… ومنها اللغة العربيّة.
ب
Gotthelf Bergsträsser
1886–1933
From the author's own Arabic
Of the science of phonetics, opening his lecture on the sounds of Arabic:
“ None preceded the Westerners in this science but two peoples of the East: the people of India, that is the Brahmins, and the Arabs.”
ولم يسبق الغربيين في هذا العلم، إلّا قومان من أقوام الشرق، وهما أهل الهند، يعني البراهمة، والعرب.
ب
Gotthelf Bergsträsser
1886–1933
Read in the original
“ Arabic remains, for all Muslims who speak Persian, Turkish, Indian or African languages, the learned language par excellence.”
L'arabe reste pour tous les Musulmans de langue perse, ou turque, ou indienne, ou africaine, la langue savante par excellence.
Antoine Meillet
1866–1936
Read in the original
In the foreword to his English translation of the Qur’an:
“ The Book is here rendered almost literally and every effort has been made to choose befitting language. But the result is not the Glorious Koran, that inimitable symphony, the very sounds of which move men to tears and ecstasy.”
وقد نُقل الكتاب هنا نقلاً يكاد يكون حرفيّاً، وبُذل كلُّ جهدٍ في اختيار اللفظ اللائق. غير أنّ الحاصل ليس هو القرآنَ المجيد، تلك السمفونيّةَ التي لا تُحاكى، والتي تبعث أصواتُها نفسُها الناسَ على البكاء والوجد.
ب
Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall
1875–1936
From the author's own Arabic
“ As for language, it is the image of the nation's existence, with its ideas, its meanings and the realities of its soul, a distinct existence standing on its own characteristics; it is the nationhood of thought.”
أَمَّا اللُّغَةُ فَهْي صُورَةُ وُجُودِ الأمَّةِ بِأَفْكَارِهَا وَمَعَانِيهَا وَحَقَائِقِ نُفُوسِهَا، وُجُوداً مُتَمَيِّزاً قَائِماً بِخَصَائِصِه؛ فَهْيَ قَوْمِيَّةُ الفِكْر
م
Mustafa Sadiq al-Rafi'i
d. 1356 AH / 1937 CE
Read in the original
“ This enthusiasm seems to have been well merited. There is no doubt that the Arabic language is undergoing a renaissance, and there is every likelihood of its again becoming a great literary vehicle. This renaissance will be greatly aided by the reproduction in it of the great European classics, which still retain their place as the basis of the higher education and as models of taste and style.”
فَلَا شَكَّ أَنَّ اللُّغَةَ العَرَبِيَّةَ تَمُرُّ بِنَهْضَةٍ، وَكُلُّ الدَّلَائِلِ تُشِيرُ إِلَى أَنَّها سَتَعُودُ أَدَاةً أَدَبِيَّةً عَظِيمَة.
D. S. Margoliouth
1858–1940
Read in the original
Of the science of language among the Arabs, grammar, lexicon and metre, after noting what entered grammar from Greek logic, and that it kept its own character all the same:
“ At all events, it is an imposing production of the keenly-observing and diligently-collecting Arab intelligence, a production of which the Arabs might well be proud.”
Jedenfalls ist sie eine großartige Schöpfung des fein beobachtenden und fleißig sammelnden arabischen Geistes, darauf die Araber stolz sein durften.
Read in the original
“ Although the language of the pagan Bedouins did not survive intact—or survived, at any rate, only in the mouths of pedants and poets—it became, in a modified form, the universal medium of expression among the upper classes of Muhammadan society. During the early Middle Ages it was spoken and written by all cultivated Moslems, of whatever nationality they might be, from the Indus to the Atlantic; it was the language of the Court and the Church, of Law and Commerce, of Diplomacy and Literature and Science.”
كَانَ يَتَكَلَّمُهَا وَيَكْتُبُ بِهَا كُلُّ المُسْلِمِينَ المُثَقَّفِينَ، أَيّاً كَانَتْ أَجْنَاسُهُمْ، مِنَ السِّنْدِ إِلَى الأَطْلَسِيّ؛ وَكَانَتْ لُغَةَ البَلَاطِ والدِّينِ، وَالقَانُونِ والتِّجَارَةِ، والدُّبْلُومَاسِيَّةِ وَالأَدَبِ وَالعِلْم.
ن
Reynold A. Nicholson
1868–1945
From the author's own Arabic
Recalling his answer to a notable from Palestine who asked whether to keep his son at a school in Germany:
“ Any Arab child who does not learn the language of his family from an early age, and does not know himself as an Arab from an early age – though he reach the highest rank in learning, we could not call him a well-tended branch of this tree; we would count him a branch cut from it and planted in another field.”
كلُّ ولدٍ عربيٍّ لا يتعلّم لغةَ أهله منذ الصغر، ولا يعرف نفسَه عربيّاً منذ الصغر، لو بلغ من العلم أعلى درجةٍ لم يكن لنا أن ندعوه غصناً مهذّباً من أغصان هذه الشجرة، بل نعدّه غصناً اقتُطع منها وغُرس في حقلٍ آخر.
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In the conclusion of his book on the conquests, explaining why the language of the first Muslims became that of the state and of learning:
“ The early Muslims brought with them a great cultural self-confidence. God had spoken to them through His Prophet, in Arabic, and they were the bearers of true religion […] It is interesting to compare this with the Germanic invaders of western Europe in the fifth century. When they occupied the lands of the Roman Empire, they abandoned their old gods and converted to Christianity, the religion of the empire they had just conquered […] This cultural self-confidence meant that Arabic became the language of administration and the language of the new high culture.”
وقد جاء المسلمون الأوائل بثقةٍ ثقافيّةٍ عظيمة. فقد كلّمهم الله على لسان نبيّه، بالعربيّة، وكانوا حملةَ الدين الحقّ […] ومن الطريف أن نقارن هذا بالغزاة الجرمان في غرب أوروبا في القرن الخامس. فحين احتلّوا أراضي الإمبراطوريّة الرومانيّة تركوا آلهتهم القديمة واعتنقوا المسيحيّة، دينَ الإمبراطوريّة التي فتحوها لتوّهم […] وهذه الثقةُ الثقافيّة هي التي جعلت العربيّةَ لغةَ الإدارة ولغةَ الثقافة الرفيعة الجديدة.
Via a reliable witness
“ If we except China, there is no other people that may justly take pride, as the Arabs may, in the abundance of its books on the sciences of its language and in its early sense of the need to arrange its vocabulary according to principles and rules.”
وَإِذَا اسْتَثْنَيْنَا الصِّينَ فَلَا يُوجَدُ شَعْبٌ آخَرُ يَحِقُّ لَهُ الفَخَارُ بِوَفْرَةِ كُتُبِ عُلُومِ لُغَتِهِ، وَبِشُعُورِهِ المُبَكِّرِ بِحَاجَتِهِ إِلَى تَنْسِيقِ مُفْرَدَاتِهَا، بِحَسَبِ أُصُولٍ وَقَواعِدَ، غَيْرُ العَرَب.
Via a reliable witness
In the introduction to his dictionary, naming what the Arab dictionaries lacked, since their authors collected only the pure language, while granting in the same paragraph their fine sense of language:
“ All the words current in a language have equal rights in it.”
إنّ جميع الكلمات المتداولة في لغةٍ ما، لها حقوقٌ متساويةٌ فيها.
Via a reliable witness
On his years at university:
“ I often thought of going on with Ethiopic and going deeper, but Arabic overcame its rival and drew me wholly to itself.”
وَلَطَالَمَا فَكَّرْتُ أَنْ أَمْضِيَ فِيهَا [في الحبشيّة] وَأَتَعَمَّقَ، لَكِنَّ اللُّغَةَ العَرَبِيَّةَ غَلَبَتْ ضَرَّتَهَا وَجَذَبَتْنِي جُمْلَةً إِلَيْهَا.
ك
Ignaty Krachkovsky
1883–1951
Via a reliable witness
On the art of rhetoric (badīʿ):
“ The third is the Arabic, which became common to all the peoples of the Near East with the spread of Arab-Islamic civilisation; its direct influence covers the Persian, Turkish, Hindustani and Afghan literatures, and others.”
والصرحُ الثالث هو العربيّ الذي أصبح عامّاً لجميع شعوب الشرق الأدنى بانتشار الحضارة العربيّة الإسلاميّة، فنفوذُه المباشر يشمل الآدابَ الفارسيّة والتركيّة والهندستانيّة والأفغانيّة وغيرها.
ك
Ignaty Krachkovsky
1883–1951
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On Arabic, before the seventh century the language of the desert alone:
“ It is as if that language which before the seventh century had been used only by rude barbarians had been predestined to become one of the main vehicles of religion and of science in the world. […] The Qur'ān helped to standardize the Arabic language; it could not prevent the growth of many dialects for common use, especially when Arabic began to be spoken by men of other nations, but it provided an international standard for the highest needs of life.”
كَأَنَّمَا قُدِّرَ لِتِلْكَ اللُّغَةِ… أَنْ تَصِيرَ إِحْدَى الأَدَاتَيْنِ الكُبْرَيَيْنِ لِلدِّينِ وَلِلْعِلْمِ فِي العَالَم.
From the author's own Arabic
Writing in the first issue of the journal of the Arabic Language Academy in Cairo, 1934:
“ This language has had room for science, politics, industry and every kind of dealing, and for every meaning that one mind wishes to pass to another.”
وَسِعت هذه اللغةُ العلمَ والسياسةَ والصناعةَ وضروبَ المعاملات، وكلَّ معنًى يُراد نقلُه من ذهنٍ إلى آخر.
م
Muhammad al-Khidr Husayn
1876–1958
Via a reliable witness
“ The human organ of speech is a complete musical instrument, and no nation, ancient or modern, has used it to the full as well as the Arab nation has.”
إِنَّ جِهَازَ النُّطْقِ الإِنْسَانِيِّ أَدَاةٌ مُوسِيقِيَّةٌ وَافِيَةٌ لَمْ تُحْسِنِ اسْتِخْدَامَهَا عَلَى أَوْفَاهَا أُمَّةٌ مِنَ الأُمَمِ القَدِيمَةِ أَوِ الحَدِيثَةِ كَمَا اسْتَخْدَمَتْهَا الأمَّةُ العَرَبِيَّة
ع
'Abbas Mahmud al-'Aqqad
d. 1383 AH / 1964 CE
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“ It will be realized that with such manifold nuances at the disposal of every verb and noun the Arabic language could readily be adapted to express the scientific terminology of the classical world. […] The triliteral root with its ramifications through a thousand forms, each of which has an assonance with the same form of another root, produces a rhythm in Arabic as natural as it is inevitable. When we utter an abstract idea we have no thought of the primitive meaning of the word we employ. 'Association' sits very loosely to socius in the mind of the speaker. […] But in Arabic the material is never more than faintly obscured beneath the abstract; its presence can always be felt.”
إِنَّ الجَذْرَ الثُّلَاثِيَّ بِتَشَعُّبِهِ فِي أَلْفِ صِيغَةٍ… يُحْدِثُ فِي العَرَبِيَّةِ إِيقَاعاً طَبِيعِيَّاً لَا مَفَرَّ مِنْهُ… أَمَّا فِي العَرَبِيَّةِ فَالأَصْلُ الحِسِّيُّ لَا يَغِيبُ تَحْتَ المُجَرَّدِ إِلَّا غِيَابَاً خَفِيفَاً، وَيَظَلُّ حُضُورُهُ مَحْسُوسَاً أَبَداً.
غ
Alfred Guillaume
1888–1965
From the author's own Arabic
Writing in al-Basaʾir in 1948, under the title “Arabic in Algeria: a free noblewoman with no rival wife”:
“ Arabic in Algeria is neither a stranger nor an intruder; it is in its own home, among its guardians and supporters – its roots reaching deep into the past, its ties fast to the present, its branches stretching far into the future.”
اللغة العربيّة في القطر الجزائريّ ليست غريبةً ولا دخيلة، بل هي في دارها، وبين حُماتها وأنصارها، وهي ممتدّة الجذور مع الماضي، مشتدّة الأواخي مع الحاضر، طويلة الأفنان في المستقبل.
م
Muhammad al-Bashir al-Ibrahimi
1889–1965
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In his book British Orientalists:
“ The Arabic language… thus became a subject worthy of study; no occidental literature can in any way bear comparison with Arabic in the fields of grammar, rhetoric, lexicography and all the branches of philology.”
واللغةُ العربيّة… صارت بذلك موضوعاً جديراً بالدرس؛ ولا يقوى أيُّ أدبٍ غربيٍّ على أن يُقارَن بالعربيّة بحالٍ في ميادين النحو والبلاغة والمعجم وفروعِ فقه اللغة جميعاً.
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On the pre-Islamic odes:
“ It is probable, however, that the poets greatly enriched the language by absorption of dialect forms, and that they helped to fix its usages. The syntactical construction of the poems especially attains a degree of refinement unknown to any other Semitic language […].”
وَقَدْ بَلَغَ التَّرْكِيبُ النَّحْوِيُّ فِي هَذِهِ القَصَائِدِ خَاصَّةً دَرَجَةً مِنَ التَّهْذِيبِ لَمْ تَعْرِفْهَا لُغَةٌ سَامِيَّةٌ أُخْرَى.
ج
Sir Hamilton A. R. Gibb
1895–1971
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“ Arabic literature is the enduring monument of a civilization, not of a people. […] Yet even when Arabic was in the Eastern provinces displaced from its supremacy by the rise of a Persian literature, it maintained, and still maintains, its position as the universal language of Islamic theology, philosophy, and science.”
الأَدَبُ العَرَبِيُّ أَثَرٌ بَاقٍ لِحَضَارَةٍ، لَا لِشَعْبٍ بِعَيْنِهِ… وَحَتَّى حِينَ أُزِيحَتِ العَرَبِيَّةُ فِي الأَقَالِيمِ الشَّرْقِيَّةِ عَنْ سِيَادَتِهَا بِنُهُوضِ أَدَبٍ فَارِسِيٍّ، فَقَدْ حَافَظَتْ- وَلَا تَزَالُ تُحَافِظُ- عَلَى مَكَانَتِهَا لُغَةً جَامِعَةً لِعِلْمِ الكَلَامِ الإِسْلَامِيِّ وَالفَلْسَفَةِ وَالعِلْم.
ج
Sir Hamilton A. R. Gibb
1895–1971
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“ No language can match the dignity of Arabic, the chosen vehicle of God's ultimate message. But it is not only its spiritual rank which transcends the potentialities of the other tongues; its pre-eminence is rooted equally firmly in its objective features — above all, in the unparalleled vastness of its vocabulary. Where Greek frequently has but one word to denote many objects, Arabic offers many words to denote one. Phonetic beauty is added to its staggering richness in synonyms. Precision and concision of expression adorn Arabic speech. […] Arabic is distinguished by its unrivaled possibilities in the use of figurative speech. Its innuendoes, tropes, and figures of speech lift it far above any other human language.”
وَمَا مِنْ لُغَةٍ تَسْتَطِيعُ أَنْ تُطَاوِلَ العَرَبِيَّةَ فِي شَرَفِهَا، فَهْيَ الوَسِيلَةُ الَّتِي اخْتِيرَتْ لِتَحْمِلَ رِسَالَةَ اللهِ الأَخِيرَةَ… وَيُضَافُ جَمَالُ الصَّوْتِ إِلَى ثَرْوَتِهَا المُدْهِشَةِ فِي المُتَرَادِفَات.
غ
Gustave E. von Grunebaum
1909–1972
Via a reliable witness
On the Arab grammarians:
“ The rules laid down by the Arab grammarians, with tireless effort and admirable devotion, set out and portrayed classical Arabic in all its aspects – its sounds, its forms, the structure of its sentences and the meanings of its words – in a complete and comprehensive picture, so that their basic rules reached a level of perfection that leaves no room for anyone to add.”
ولقد تكفّلت القواعدُ التي وضعها النحاةُ العرب، في جهدٍ لا يعرف الكلل وتضحيةٍ جديرةٍ بالإعجاب، بعرض اللغة الفصحى وتصويرها في جميع مظاهرها، من ناحية الأصوات والصيغ وتركيب الجمل ومعاني المفردات، على صورةٍ محيطةٍ شاملة، بحيث بلغت القواعدُ الأساسيّة عندهم مستوًى من الكمال لا يسمح بزيادةٍ لمستزيد.
Via a reliable witness
On the rise of laḥn after the conquests:
“ These innovations were counted as mistakes (laḥn) by the Arabs, who had always had a very fine sense of the beauty of their language; and so a reaction against the corruption of the language began in their circles.”
وقد كانت هذه التجديداتُ تُعَدّ عند العرب، الذين كانوا ذوي إحساسٍ دقيقٍ جدّاً منذ القدم بجمال لغتهم، خطأً لغويّاً (لحناً)، ولهذا بدأت في دوائرهم ردودُ الفعل ضدّ فساد اللغة.
Via a reliable witness
On classical Arabic in the third Islamic century:
“ Yet in literature it remained the crowned queen to whom all who belonged to culture, by any tie, swore allegiance.”
بيد أنّها ظلّت في الأدب الملكةَ المتوّجة التي أقسم لها يمينَ الطاعة كلُّ من انتمى إلى الثقافة بسببٍ أو نسب.
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At the close of his history of Arabic studies in Europe, on the need for a comprehensive dictionary of Arabic:
“ …a thesaurus of the Arabic language, whose making will surely occupy more than one generation.”
…ein Thesaurus der arabischen Sprache, dessen Herstellung gewiß mehr als eine Generation beschäftigen wird.
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“ Mohammedanism carried not only the Koran, but also the once-isolated language of southern Arabia to vast regions of Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceania, where it influenced, more or less deeply, the native tongues; such languages as Persian, Hindustani, Turkish, Malay, Hausa are replete with Arabic words. […] Arabic, the tongue of medieval culture, gives us astronomical terms like "zenith" and "nadir," mathematical words like "algebra" and "cipher," chemical expressions like "alcohol," "alkali," "alchemy" and "chemistry" itself.”
والعَرَبِيَّةُ- لُغَةُ الثَّقَافَةِ فِي العُصُورِ الوُسْطَى- أَعْطَتْنَا- مَعْشَرَ النَّاطِقِينَ بِالإِنْجلِيزِيَّةِ — مُصْطَلَحَاتٍ فَلَكِيَّةً مِثْلَ «السَّمْتِ» و«النَّظِيرِ»، وَأْلْفَاظاً رِيَاضِيَّةً مِثْلَ «الجَبْرِ» و«الصِّفْرِ»، بَلْ كَلِمَةَ «الكِيمْيَاءِ» نَفْسَهَا.
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“ No people in the world, perhaps, manifest such enthusiastic admiration for literary expression and are so moved by the word, spoken or written, as the Arabs. Hardly any language seems capable of exercising over the minds of its users such irresistible influence as Arabic. Modern audiences in Baghdad, Damascus and Cairo can be stirred to the highest degree by the recital of poems, only vaguely comprehended, and by the delivery of orations in the classical tongue, though it be only partially understood.”
وَلَا تَكَادُ تَبْدُو لُغَةٌ قَادِرَةً عَلَى أَنْ تُمَارِسَ عَلَى عُقُولِ المُتَكَلِّمِينَ بِهَا مِثْلَ مَا تُمَارِسُهُ العَرَبِيَّةُ مِنْ تَأْثِيرٍ لَا يُقَاوَم.
ح
Philip K. Hitti
1886–1978
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“ For many centuries in the Middle Ages it was the language of learning and culture and progressive thought throughout the civilized world. Between the ninth and the twelfth centuries more works, philosophical, medical, historical, religious, astronomical and geographical, were produced through the medium of Arabic than through any other tongue.”
وقد ظلّت العربيّةُ قروناً كثيرةً في العصور الوسطى لغةَ العلمِ والثقافة والفكر التقدّميّ في أرجاء العالم المتحضّر كلِّه. وبين القرنين التاسع والثاني عشر أُلِّف بالعربيّة من الكتب — في الفلسفة والطبّ والتاريخ والدين والفلك والجغرافيا — أكثرُ ممّا أُلِّف بأيّ لسانٍ آخر.
ح
Philip K. Hitti
1886–1978
From the author's own Arabic
On Hebrew literature under Islamic rule:
“ Israelite literature in the Middle Ages revived greatly … under Islamic rule in al-Andalus, Egypt and Iraq; the Jews began imitating the Arabs in poetry.”
عَلَى أَنَّ الأَدَبَ الإِسْرَائِيلِيَّ فِي القُرُونِ الوُسْطَى قَدِ انْتَعَشَ انْتِعَاشاً عَظِيماً… فِي ظِلِّ الحُكْمِ الإِسْلَامِيِّ بِالأَنْدَلُسِ وَمِصْرَ وَالعِراقِ، فَقَدْ أَخَذَ اليَهُودُ فِي تِلْكَ العُهُودِ يُقَلِّدُونَ العَرَبَ فِي الشِّعْرِ.
و
Israel Wolfensohn
1899–1980
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In the foreword to his English translation of the Qur’an:
“ It was the language of the Arabian Peninsula: the language of a people endowed with that peculiar quick-wittedness which the desert and its feel of wide, timeless expanses bestows upon its children… This ellipticism (called ijaz by the Arab philologists) is an integral characteristic of the Arabic idiom and, therefore, of the language of the Qur’an.”
كانت لغةَ جزيرة العرب: لغةَ قومٍ وُهبوا تلك الفطنةَ السريعة الخاصّة التي تهبها الصحراءُ أبناءَها، بما تبعثه فيهم من إحساسٍ بالرحاب الواسعة التي لا يحدّها زمن… وهذا الحذفُ – ويسمّيه علماءُ العربيّة «الإيجاز» – سمةٌ أصيلةٌ من سمات العبارة العربيّة، ومن ثَمّ من سمات لغة القرآن.
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“ Being conversant with several languages, I can attest from my own personal experience that no language I know comes even near to Arabic in its power of rhetoricism, in its ability to penetrate beneath and beyond intellectual comprehension directly to the emotions and make its impact upon them. In this respect, Arabic can be compared only to music.”
وَأَنَا أَعْرِفُ عِدَّةَ لُغَاتٍ، فَأَشْهَدُ مِنْ تَجْرِبَتِي أَنَّهُ مَا مِنْ لُغَةٍ أَعْرِفُهَا تَقْتَرِبُ مِنَ العَرَبِيَّةِ فِي قُوَّتِهَا البَيَانِيَّةِ، وَفِي قُدْرَتِهَا عَلَى أَنْ تَنْفُذَ مِنْ تَحْتِ الفَهْمِ العَقْلِيِّ وَمِنْ وَرَائِهِ إِلَى المَشَاعِرِ مُبَاشَرَةً فَتَتْرُكَ فِيهَا أَثَرَهَا. وَلَا تُشَبَّهُ العَرَبِيَّةُ فِي هَذَا إِلَّا بِالمُوسِيقَى.
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“ Whom do its beauty, its euphony, its unique charm not overpower? Even the neighbours fall under its spell.”
Wen bezwingt nicht ihre Schönheit, ihr Wohllaut, ihr einzigartiger Charme? Selbst die Nachbarn verfallen ja ihrem Zauber.
From the author's own Arabic
He said of the Arabs:
“ Their language was the language of learning and authorship across the civilised world from end to end: the sacred, beloved language that people preferred to the languages they grew up with, in which they wrote their greatest and dearest works, and which they mastered as well as its own sons, and better.”
فكانت لغتُهم هي لغةَ العلم والتأليف في العالم المتمدّن من أقصاه إلى قَصاه، وهي اللغةُ المقدّسة الحبيبة التي يؤثرها الناس على لغاتهم التي نشأوا عليها، ويؤلّفون فيها أعظمَ مؤلّفاتهم وأحبَّ مؤلّفاتهم، ويتقنونها كأبنائها وأحسن.
ن
Abu al-Hasan ʿAli al-Nadwi
1914–1999
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“ The Arabic element was, after the Latin, the most important in the Spanish vocabulary until the sixteenth century. Counting the vocabulary proper together with place-names, it does not seem exaggerated to reckon a total of more than four thousand forms.”
El elemento árabe fue, después del latino, el más importante del vocabulario español hasta el siglo XVI. Sumando el léxico propiamente dicho y los topónimos, no parece exagerado calcular un total superior a cuatro mil formas.
Via a reliable witness
At the start of his book on Sibawayh:
“ Defining and describing this language in its ideal form was the chief achievement of the book that has kept Sibawayh’s name alive for twelve centuries, and it remains the founding document of everything that came after it in Arabic.”
تحديدُ هذه اللغة ووصفُها في صورتها المثاليّة كان الإنجازَ الأهمّ للكتاب الذي خلَّد سيبويه اثنيْ عشر قرناً، وما يزال الوثيقةَ التأسيسيّة لكلّ التطوّرات اللاحقة في اللغة العربيّة.
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At the opening of his book on what culture owes the Arabs of Spain, saying what he means by the word before he begins:
“ Let it be clear from the start that in using the word «Arab» I refer to no ethnic group and no religion, but to the language used by Arabs, Persians, Turks, Jews and Spaniards in the Middle Ages, which served as the vehicle for carrying the most varied learning of antiquity, classical or Eastern, to the world of Islam.”
Y conste de entrada que al emplear la palabra árabe no me refiero a ninguna etnia ni religión sino a la lengua utilizada por árabes, persas, turcos, judíos y españoles durante la Edad Media y que sirvió de vehículo para la transmisión de los más diversos saberes de la antigüedad – clásica u oriental – al mundo del Islam.
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After the conquests, when Arabic had become the language of an empire and of a culture:
“ The conquests made Arabic an imperial language, soon also the language of a great and diverse culture. Arabic expanded to meet these two needs, partly by borrowing new words and expressions, but mainly by development from within, forming new words from old roots, giving new meanings to old words. […] The language created in this way possessed a vivid, concrete and pictorial vocabulary, with each term having deep roots in a purely Arab past and tradition.”
وَاتَّسَعَتِ العَرَبِيَّةُ لِتَفِيَ بِهَاتَيْنِ الحَاجَتَيْنِ، بِالِاقْتِرَاضِ حِيناً، وَلِكِنْ بِالنُّمُوِّ مِنْ دَاخِلِهَا فِي الغَالِبِ: تَصُوغُ أََلْفَاظاً جَدِيدَةً مِنْ جُذُورٍ قَدِيمَةٍ، وَتَمْنَحُ الأَلْفَاظَ القَدِيمَةَ مَعَانِيَ جَدِيدَة.
Read in the original
“ It was the Arabisation of the conquered provinces rather than their military conquest that is the true wonder of the Arab expansion. By the eleventh century Arabic had become not only the chief idiom of everyday use from Persia to the Pyrenees, but also the chief instrument of culture, superseding old culture languages like Coptic, Aramaic, Greek and Latin.”
إِنَّ تَعْرِيبَ الأَقَالِيمِ المَفْتُوحَةِ، لَا فَتْحَهَا العَسْكَرِيَّ، هُوَ الأُعْجُوبَةُ الحَقَّةُ فِي التَّوَسُّعِ العَرَبِيِّ. فَبِحُلُولِ القَرْنِ الحَادِي عَشَرَ لَمْ تَعُدِ العَرَبِيَّةُ اللِّسَانَ الغَالِبَ فِي الاِسْتِعْمَالِ اليَوْمِيِّ مِنْ فَارِسَ إِلَى جِبَالِ البَرَانِسِ فَحَسْبُ، بَلْ صَارَتْ كَذَلِكَ الأَدَاةَ الأُولَى لِلثَّقَافِةِ، وَحَلَّتْ مَحَلَّ لُغَاتِ الثَّقَافَةِ القَدِيمَةِ كَالقُبْطِيَّةِ وَالآرَامِيَّةِ وَاليُونَانِيَّةِ وَاللَّاتِينِيَّة.
Read in the original
Opening his chapter on Islamic civilisation:
“ During the period of greatness of the Arab and Islamic Empires in the Near and Middle East a flourishing civilisation grew up that is usually known as Arabic. It was not brought ready-made by the Arab invaders from the desert, but was created after the conquests by the collaboration of many peoples, Arabs, Persians, Egyptians and others. Nor was it even purely Muslim, for many Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians were among its creators. But its chief medium of expression was Arabic, and it was dominated by Islam and its outlook on life. It was these two things, their language and their faith, which were the great contributions of the Arab invaders to the new and original civilisation which developed under their aegis.”
إِلَّا أَنَّ أَدَاةَ التَّعْبِيرِ الرَّئِيسِيَّةَ فِيهَا كَانَتِ اللُّغَةَ العَرَبِيَّةَ… وَكَانَ هَذَانِ الشَّيْئَانِ، أَيِ اللُّغَةُ وَالدِّينُ، أَعْظَمَ مَا قَدَّمَ العَرَبُ الفَاتِحُونَ إِلَى الحَضَارَةِ الجَدِيدَةِ الأَصِيلَة.
Read in the original
After listing the Persian, Hellenistic and other sources of Islamic civilisation:
“ Despite this diversity of its origins Islamic civilisation was no mere mechanical juxtaposition of previous cultures but rather a new creation in which all these elements were fused into a new and original civilisation by the transposition into Arabic and Islamic forms, recognisable and characteristic in every phase of its achievement.”
وَلَمْ تَكُنِ الحَضَارَةُ الإِسْلَامِيَّةُ… مُجَرَّدَ تَجْمِيعٍ آلِيٍّ لِلثَّقَافَاتِ القَدِيمَةِ، بَلْ هِيَ بِالأَحْرَى خَلْقٌ جَدِيدٌ… وَذَلِكَ بِأَنِ انْتَقَلَتْ إِلَى صُوَرٍ عَرَبِيَّةٍ إِسْلَامِيَّة.
Via a reliable witness
Concluding his paper for the King Saud University conference, 2020:
“ The grammarians’ tradition was built on general, universal principles… Even if we differ decisively among ourselves, all who study the tradition agree that it is an intellectual achievement unique of its kind, and that the study of the Arab grammarians’ ideas is of great value in itself.”
لقد بُنِيَ تراثُ النحويّين على مبادئ عامّةٍ وعالميّة… فحتّى لو كان بيننا اختلافاتٌ حاسمة، فيتّفق كلُّ الذين يبحثون في التراث بأنّه إنجازٌ ذهنيٌّ فريدٌ من نوعه، ودراسةُ أفكار النحويّين العرب هي فائدةٌ بالغةُ القيمة في حدّ ذاتها.
From the author's own Arabic
In his preface to the Arabic edition of The Zephyrs of Najd:
“ How I wished I had written this book – the book on the zephyrs of Najd – in Arabic… for in all likelihood I considered – and still consider – writing a book as ambitious as this one in the language that had to be the very medium of its subject… a task beyond my power.”
فكم تمنّيتُ أن أُؤلِّفَ هذا الكتاب – الكتابَ عن صَبا نجدٍ – باللغة العربيّة… لأنّني في أغلب الظنّ كنتُ أعدُّ – ولا أزالُ – مشروعَ تأليفِ كتابٍ طموحٍ مثلِ الكتاب الراهن باللغة التي كان لا بدّ أن تكون هي وسيلةَ التعامل بالموضوع… أمراً يفوق طاقتي.
ج
Jaroslav Stetkevych
1929–2021
From the author's own Arabic
In his preface to the Arabic edition of The Zephyrs of Najd:
“ If we are to ‘live’ this universal poetry in its essence and depth, with full awareness, we must begin from our point of departure, which is Arabic poetry.”
ومن شروط أن «نعيش» هذا الشعرَ الكلّيَّ كُنْهاً وعُمْقاً بكلّ وعيٍ، علينا أن نبتدئ من منطلقنا الذي هو الشعرُ العربيّ.
ج
Jaroslav Stetkevych
1929–2021
Read in the original
In his inaugural lecture at the Collège de France:
“ The Qur’an created neither the Arabic language nor Arabic letters. And yet… it renewed, structured and spread the old language, exalted its literature and created – in the full sense of the word this time – a civilisation.”
Le Coran n’a créé ni la langue ni les lettres arabes. Et pourtant… il a renouvelé, structuré, diffusé le vieux langage, exalté sa littérature et créé, au plein sens du terme cette fois, une civilisation.
Read in the original
In his inaugural lecture at the Collège de France:
“ Rising above the dialectal differences, the Qur’an… drew on the old tradition of a koinè already used on the great occasions of declamation, above all poetic declamation.”
Transcendant les variations dialectales, le Coran… puise à la vieille tradition d’une koiné déjà utilisée pour les grandes occasions de la déclamation, poétique surtout.
Read in the original
“ Before the end of the Medieval period they had produced the most exhaustive and copious dictionary in any language prior to the Nineteenth Century. The truth is that in lexicography — as in many other fields — the Arabs occupy a central position both in time and space; between the Ancient World and the Modern, between the East and the West.”
وَالحَقُّ أَنَّ العَرَبَ فِي المُعْجَمِ- كَمَا فِي مَيَادِينَ أُخْرَى كَثِيرَةٍ- يَحْتَلُّونَ مَكَانَ المَرْكَزِ زَمَاناً وَمَكَاناً: بَيْنَ العَالَمِ القَدِيمِ وَالحَدِيثِ، وَبَيْنَ الشَّرْقِ وَالغَرْب.
ه
John A. Haywood
20th century
