What others said about Arabic Read in the original
On Arabic, before the seventh century the language of the desert alone:
“It is as if that language which before the seventh century had been used only by rude barbarians had been predestined to become one of the main vehicles of religion and of science in the world. […] The Qur'ān helped to standardize the Arabic language; it could not prevent the growth of many dialects for common use, especially when Arabic began to be spoken by men of other nations, but it provided an international standard for the highest needs of life.”
George Sarton
1884–1956
Belgian-American historian of science (Harvard), founder of Isis.
In Arabic
كأنّما قُدِّر لتلك اللغة — التي لم يستعملها قبل القرن السابع إلّا أعرابٌ أجلافٌ — أن تصير إحدى الأداتين الكُبْرَيَيْن للدين وللعلم في العالم… وقد أعان القرآنُ على توحيد العربيّة؛ ولم يكن ليمنع نشأةَ لهجاتٍ كثيرةٍ للتخاطب، ولا سيّما حين أخذ يتكلّمها رجالٌ من أُممٍ أُخرى، ولكنّه جعل لها معياراً دوليّاً لأرفع حاجات الحياة.
Source
The Incubation of Western Culture in the Middle East, Washington: Library of Congress, 1951, p. 20
The version in circulation
وهب اللهُ اللغةَ العربيّةَ مرونةً جعلتها قادرةً على أن تدوّن الوحيَ أحسنَ تدوين… بجميع دقائق معانيه ولغاته، وأن تعبّر عنه بعباراتٍ عليها طلاوةٌ وفيها متانة.
Usually cited from: من قضايا اللغة العربيّة المعاصرة (المنظّمة العربيّة للتربية والثقافة والعلوم)، ص٢٧٤
How it differs from the original: Sarton said this of the Prophet as "a master of language", not of the language; "God endowed Arabic with flexibility" is not his.
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