What others said about Arabic From the author's own Arabic
On Hebrew literature under Islamic rule:
“Yet Israelite literature in the Middle Ages revived greatly, rose strongly and took a new direction under Islamic rule in al-Andalus, Egypt and Iraq. In those times the Jews began imitating the Arabs in poetry: they borrowed the Arabic metres and cast them in a Hebrew mould and an Arabic measure, then went on to compose short pieces and odes, until Hebrew was enriched by this new kind of poetry … So too new styles appeared in Hebrew philosophical and legal prose, which had been influenced by Arabic styles, and the Jews took from it many Arabic terms and words.”
Israel Wolfensohn
1899–1980
Jewish orientalist who taught Semitic languages at Dar al-‘Ulum and the Egyptian University, writing in Arabic.
The Arabic original
عَلَى أَنَّ الأَدَبَ الإِسْرائِيلِيَّ فِي القُرُونِ الوُسْطَى قَدِ انْتَعَشَ انْتِعاشاً عَظِيماً وَنَهَضَ نَهْضَةً قَوِيَّةً وَاتَّجَهَ اتِّجاهاً جَدِيداً فِي ظِلِّ الحُكْمِ الإِسْلامِيِّ بِالأَنْدَلُسِ وَمِصْرَ وَالعِراقِ، فَقَدْ أَخَذَ اليَهُودُ فِي تِلْكَ العُهُودِ يُقَلِّدُونَ العَرَبَ فِي الشِّعْرِ، فَاقْتَبَسُوا البُحُورَ العَرَبِيَّةَ وَصاغُوها فِي قالَبٍ عِبْرِيٍّ وَوَزْنٍ عَرَبِيٍّ، ثُمَّ انْطَلَقُوا يُنْشِدُونَ المَقاطِيعَ وَالقَصائِدَ حَتَّى أَثْرَتِ العِبْرِيَّةُ بِهَذا النَّوْعِ مِنَ الشِّعْرِ الجَدِيدِ وَنَبَغَ فِيهِ كَثِيرٌ مِنَ اليَهُودِ… وَكَذَلِكَ ظَهَرَتْ أَسالِيبُ جَدِيدَةٌ فِي النَّثْرِ العِبْرِيِّ الفَلْسَفِيِّ وَالتَّشْرِيعِيِّ، إِذْ كانَ قَدْ تَأَثَّرَ بِالأَسالِيبِ العَرَبِيَّةِ، وَاقْتَبَسَ اليَهُودُ مِنْهُ كَثِيراً مِنَ الاصْطِلاحاتِ وَالأَلْفاظِ العَرَبِيَّةِ.
Source
Israel Wolfensohn, Ta’rikh al-lughat al-samiyya, Cairo 1929, p. 98
The English translation is Voice of Arabic's, made from the original.
Written in Arabic. First edition (1929), p. 98.
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