What others said about Arabic Via a reliable witness
On his years at university:
“I spent four years studying Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Tatar and some Semitic languages such as Hebrew, and above all ancient Ethiopic… I often thought of going on with it and going deeper, but Arabic overcame its rival and drew me wholly to itself.”
Ignaty Krachkovsky
1883–1951
Dean of Russian Arabists, member of the Academy of Sciences and corresponding member of the Arab Academy of Damascus; author of «Arabic Geographical Literature» and «Among Arabic Manuscripts».
The Arabic original
فصرفتُ أربعَ سنواتٍ في دراسةِ اللغةِ العربيّة والفارسيّة والتركيّة والتتاريّة وبعض اللغات الساميّة كالعبرانيّة، ولا سيّما الحبشيّةِ القديمة… ولطالما فكّرتُ أن أمضيَ فيها وأتعمّق، لكنّ اللغةَ العربيّةَ غلبَت ضَرّتَها وجذبتني جُملةً إليها.
Source
His autobiographical note, written in Arabic, Majallat al-Majma' al-'Ilmi al-'Arabi (Damascus), vol. 7 (1927), pp. 122–126; reprinted by Salah al-Din Uthman Hashim in the preface to his Arabic translation of «Arabic Geographical Literature», Cairo 1963, vol. 1, p. 4
The English translation is Voice of Arabic's, made from the original.
Krachkovsky wrote this in Arabic himself, so these are his own words. Arabic's «rival» is the ancient Ethiopic he was studying under Turaev. We read it as reprinted by his translator; the 1927 issue itself is not online.
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