What others said about Arabic Read in the original
“Being conversant with several languages, I can attest from my own personal experience that no language I know comes even near to Arabic in its power of rhetoricism, in its ability to penetrate beneath and beyond intellectual comprehension directly to the emotions and make its impact upon them. In this respect, Arabic can be compared only to music.”
Raphael Patai
1910–1996
Hungarian-born American cultural anthropologist, author of The Arab Mind.
In Arabic
وَأَنَا أَعْرِفُ عِدَّةَ لُغَاتٍ، فَأَشْهَدُ مِنْ تَجْرِبَتِي أَنَّهُ مَا مِنْ لُغَةٍ أَعْرِفُهَا تَقْتَرِبُ مِنَ العَرَبِيَّةِ فِي قُوَّتِهَا البَيَانِيَّةِ، وَفِي قُدْرَتِهَا عَلَى أَنْ تَنْفُذَ مِنْ تَحْتِ الفَهْمِ العَقْلِيِّ وَمِنْ وَرَائِهِ إِلَى المَشَاعِرِ مُبَاشَرَةً فَتَتْرُكَ فِيهَا أَثَرَهَا. وَلَا تُشَبَّهُ العَرَبِيَّةُ فِي هَذَا إِلَّا بِالمُوسِيقَى.
Source
The Arab Mind, ch. "Under the Spell of Language", New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1973, p. 48
The version in circulation
إنّني أشهد من خبرتي الذاتيّة أنّه ليس ثمّة من بين اللغات التي أعرفها لغةٌ تكاد تقترب من العربيّة…
Usually cited from: متداولٌ معزوّاً إلى «The Arabes Men»، نيويورك ١٩٧٦م، ص٤٨
How it differs from the original: Faithful; the book is The Arab Mind, and the closing sentence comparing Arabic to music was dropped.
The book is widely criticised for its portrayal of Arabs; the testimony here concerns the language.
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