What others said about Arabic Via a reliable witness
He opens his book:
“No event in the history of the Arabic language was more decisive for its destiny than the rise of Islam. In that age – more than thirteen hundred years ago – when Muhammad recited the Qur’an to his countrymen in a clear Arabic tongue, a close bond was sealed between his language and the new religion… The fall of the Arab (Umayyad) state in 750 did not touch the standing of Arabic; on the contrary, the flowering of the early Abbasid age saw the highest care ever given to Arabic grammar.”
Johann Fück
1894–1974
German Arabist, professor at Halle, historian of Arabic style.
In Arabic
لم يحدث حدثٌ في تاريخ اللغة العربيّة أبعدُ أثراً في تقرير مصيرها من ظهور الإسلام، ففي ذلك العهد- قبل أكثر من ١٣٠٠ عام- عندما رتّل محمّدٌ صلّى الله عليه وسلّم القرآنَ على بني وطنه بلسانٍ عربيٍّ مبين، تأكّدت رابطةٌ وثيقةٌ بين لغته والدين الجديد… ولم يؤثّر سقوطُ الدولة العربيّة (الأمويّة) سنة ٧٥٠م في مكانة اللغة العربيّة؛ بل لقد شهد عصرُ الازدهار في أوائل الدولة العبّاسيّة أقصى درجات العناية بالقواعد العربيّة.
Source
ʿArabiya (Berlin 1950), Arabic tr. Ramadan ʿAbd al-Tawwab, Cairo: al-Khanji, 1980, p. 13, opening of the introduction
The English is ours, from the reported Arabic.
Fück wrote in German (Berlin 1950); the text is from Ramadan ʿAbd al-Tawwab’s Arabic translation, checked letter by letter against the print. The English is our translation of the Arabic.
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