All sayings · What They Said About the Arabs and Arabic

What others said about Arabic 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.”

Edward Henry Palmer
Edward Henry Palmer
1840–1882
British orientalist, professor of Arabic at Cambridge, translator of the Qur'an for «The Sacred Books of the East».

In Arabic

لغةُ القرآنِ مُسلَّمٌ عندَ الجميعِ بأنّها أكملُ صورةٍ للكلامِ العربيّ. فقريشٌ، بوصفها سادنةَ البيت الذي يحجّ إليه العرب جميعاً وصاحبةَ الأرض التي كانت تُقام فيها الأسواق الكبرى والمواسم الأدبيّة لجزيرة العرب كلّها، كان طبيعيّاً أن تستوعب في لهجتها كثيراً من ألفاظ القبائل الأخرى وتعابيرها، ولذلك كان المتوقّع أن تكون لغتُها أوسعَ وأرشقَ من لغة جيرانها.

Source

The Qur'ân, Part I (The Sacred Books of the East, vol. VI), Introduction, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1880, p. lxxvi

The opening sentence reports a consensus; Palmer then qualifies it in the same paragraph, calling the language «noble and forcible» but not «elegant» in the sense of literary refinement.

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