What they said about Arabic From the author's own Arabic
On grammar:
“The faculty the Arabs acquired in this was the finest of faculties and the clearest in expressing what is meant.”
Ibn Khaldun
d. 808 AH / 1406 CE
'Abd al-Rahman ibn Khaldun, historian, author of the Muqaddima
The Arabic original
اعْلَمْ أَنَّ اللُّغَةَ فِي المُتَعارَفِ هِيَ عِبارَةُ المُتَكَلِّمِ عَنْ مَقْصُودِهِ… وَكانَتِ المَلَكَةُ الحاصِلَةُ لِلعَرَبِ مِنْ ذَلِكَ أَحْسَنَ المَلَكاتِ وَأَوْضَحَها إِبانَةً عَنِ المَقاصِدِ
Source
Ibn Khaldun, al-Muqaddima, ed. Shihada, Dar al-Fikr, 1981, vol. 1, p. 753
The English translation is Voice of Arabic's, made from the original.
«Malaka» is his word for an ingrained linguistic habit; he goes on to credit the case endings and particles.
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