What they said about Arabic From the author's own Arabic
Writing in the first issue of the journal of the Arabic Language Academy in Cairo, 1934:
“It did not stall like an impoverished language that finds, neither in its words nor in the principles of its coinage and use, enough for the needs of the sciences and of civilisation; rather, it was the language that had room for the sciences in all their subjects, and for civilisation in all its forms… 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.”
Muhammad al-Khidr Husayn
1876–1958
Tunisian scholar of Algerian origin, a founding member of the Arabic Language Academy in Cairo and Shaykh of al-Azhar (1952–1954).
The Arabic original
فلم تقف وقفةَ اللغة المُعْسِرة، لا تجد في ألفاظها ولا أصول وضعها واستعمالها ما يكفي حاجاتِ العلوم والحضارة، بل كانت اللغةَ التي تسع العلومَ على اختلاف موضوعاتها، والحضارةَ على كثرة مظاهرها… وَسِعت هذه اللغةُ العلمَ والسياسةَ والصناعةَ وضروبَ المعاملات، وكلَّ معنًى يُراد نقلُه من ذهنٍ إلى آخر.
Source
Muhammad al-Khidr Husayn, “al-Majaz wa-l-naql wa-atharuhuma fi hayat al-lugha al-ʿarabiyya”, Journal of the Royal Arabic Language Academy, Cairo, no. 1, October 1934; in his Collected Works, ed. ʿAli al-Rida al-Husayni, Syria: Dar al-Nawadir, 2010, vol. 6 (part 2), p. 4
The English translation is Voice of Arabic's, made from the original.
He is describing Arabic as it spread with Islam among peoples with sciences and civilisations of their own. Checked against the Collected Works, which cite the journal.
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