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What They Said About the Arabs and Arabic

What Arab and Muslim scholars have said about their language, and what scholars from outside the Arab world have said about it, and about the Arabs and their civilisation. Nothing is published until it was read in its author's own book or in a named, reliable witness; the Western sayings appear in their original languages beside a translation, each with a link to the page of the book.

105 sayings — 52 by Arab and Muslim scholars, 53 by others; 48 read in the original language of their author.

How these sayings were documented

Most sayings of Western scholars about Arabic circulate in Arabic translations taken from secondary sources, and many turned out to add to or cut from the original. We went back to the authors' own books, in scans of their pages, and publish the original text with a faithful translation, noting under each saying where the circulated version departs from it. Sayings whose original we have not yet found are not published.

Read in the original Read in its author's own language (French, German, Latin…) in a scan of the book; the original is printed beside any translation. From the author's own Arabic The author's own Arabic words, read in his book by edition, volume and page; the English is our translation. Narrated with its chain The speaker wrote no book of his own; this is read in a work that narrates it from him with its chain of transmission, by edition, volume and page. Via a reliable witness Reported by a named scholar without a chain, or not found in the author's own work.

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Narrated with its chain
“Yahya ibn 'Atiq said: I asked al-Hasan, "Abu Sa'id, a man learns Arabic, seeking good speech by it and to recite correctly?" He said: "Good — let him learn it; for a man recites a verse, is at a loss over its meaning, and perishes by it."”
سُئِلَ الحَسَنُ عَنِ الرَّجُلِ يَتَعَلَّمُ العَرَبِيَّةَ يَلْتَمِسُ بِذَلِكَ حُسْنَ المَنْطِقِ وَيُقِيمُ بِها قِراءَتَهُ، فَقالَ: حَسَنٌ، يَتَعَلَّمُها؛ فَإِنَّ الرَّجُلَ يَقْرَأُ الآيَةَ فَيَعْيا بِوَجْهِها فَيَهْلِكُ بِها.
al-Hasan al-Basri
d. 110 AH / 728 CE
 Via a reliable witness
“Most of those who became heretics in Iraq did so out of ignorance of Arabic.”
عامَّةُ مَنْ تَزَنْدَقَ بِالعِرَاقِ لِجَهْلِهِمْ بِالعَرَبِيَّةِ
Ayyub al-Sakhtiyani
d. 131 AH / 748 CE
 Narrated with its chain
“Those in the East who became heretics did so only out of ignorance of the speech of the Arabs and the foreignness of their hearts.”
ما تَزَنْدَقَ مَنْ تَزَنْدَقَ بِالمَشْرِقِ إِلّا جَهْلاً بِكَلامِ العَرَبِ، وَعُجْمَةَ قُلُوبِهِمْ
Abu al-Zinad
d. 130 AH / 748 CE
 Narrated with its chain
Answering ‘Amr ibn ‘Ubayd, who argued from the verses of threat that God cannot forgo a threatened punishment:
“It is foreignness of tongue that has undone you, Abu ‘Uthman! A promise is not a threat.”
مِنَ العُجْمَةِ أُتِيتَ يا أَبا عُثْمانَ، إِنَّ الوَعْدَ غَيْرُ الوَعِيدِ.
Abu ‘Amr ibn al-‘Ala’
d. 154 AH / 771 CE
 Narrated with its chain
On anyone who interprets the Qur'an without knowing the Arabs' language:
“No man who does not know the dialects of the Arabs will be brought to me for interpreting it [the Qur'an] without my making an example of him.”
لا أُوتَى بِرَجُلٍ غَيْرِ عالِمٍ بِلُغاتِ العَرَبِ يُفَسِّرُ ذَلِكَ إِلّا جَعَلْتُهُ نَكالاً
Malik ibn Anas
d. 179 AH / 795 CE
 From the author's own Arabic
On Q 4:24, «those of them whom you have enjoyed»:
“This is a verse over which some people have made a very grave mistake through their ignorance of the language.”
هَذِهِ آيَةٌ قَدْ غَلِطَ فِيها قَوْمٌ غَلَطاً عَظِيماً جِدّاً لِجَهْلِهِمْ بِاللُّغَةِ.
Abu Ishaq al-Zajjaj
d. 311 AH / 923 CE
 From the author's own Arabic
In his chapter on the religious errors that knowledge of Arabic guards against:
“Most of those among the people of the religious law who strayed from its right course and turned from the best path to it were led astray, and their judgement made light of, by their weakness in this noble and generous language in which all people were addressed.”
وَذَلِكَ أَنَّ أَكْثَرَ مَنْ ضَلَّ مِنْ أَهْلِ الشَّرِيعَةِ عَنِ القَصْدِ فِيها وَحادَ عَنِ الطَّرِيقَةِ المُثْلَى إِلَيْها، فَإِنَّما اسْتَهْواهُ "وَاسْتَخَفَّ حِلْمَهُ" ضَعْفُهُ فِي هَذِهِ اللُّغَةِ الكَرِيمَةِ الشَّرِيفَةِ، الَّتِي خُوطِبَ الكافَّةُ بِها
Ibn Jinni
d. 392 AH / 1002 CE
 From the author's own Arabic
On the hermaphrodite, commenting on Q 42:49–50:
“We say: this is ignorance of the language, dullness to where eloquence draws its lines, and a failure to grasp the breadth of God's power.”
قُلْنَا: هَذَا جَهْلٌ بِاللُّغَةِ، وَغَبَاوَةٌ عَنْ مَقْطَعِ الْفَصَاحَةِ، وَقُصُورٌ عَنْ مَعْرِفَةِ سَعَةِ الْقُدْرَةِ.
Abu Bakr ibn al-‘Arabi
d. 543 AH / 1148 CE
 From the author's own Arabic
“In interpreting the Qur'an and the Hadith one must know which words indicate what God and His Messenger meant, and how His speech is understood. Knowing the Arabic in which we were addressed helps us grasp what God and His Messenger meant by their words, and so does knowing how words signify meanings; for most of the error of the people of innovation came from this cause: they took the words of God and His Messenger to mean what they claimed them to indicate, when it was not so.”
فَمَعْرِفَةُ الْعَرَبِيَّةِ الَّتِي خُوطِبْنَا بِهَا مِمَّا يُعِينُ عَلَى أَنْ نَفْقَهَ مُرَادَ اللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِ بِكَلَامِهِ.
Ibn Taymiyya
d. 728 AH / 1328 CE
 Narrated with its chain
“To recite one verse with correct inflection is dearer to me than to recite so many verses without it.”
لَأَنْ أَقْرَأَ آيَةً بِإِعْرَابٍ أَحَبُّ إِلَيَّ مِنْ أَنْ أَقْرَأَ كَذَا وَكَذَا آيَةً بِغَيْرِ إِعْرَاب
A Companion of the Prophet

Some well-known sayings attributed to Western scholars have not been traced to an original and are not published: one credited to Krachkovsky (we searched the whole of his history of Arabic geographical literature), one credited to Germanus (not in any of his articles in al-Risāla), others credited to Marçais and Berque, and one credited to Brockelmann ("through the Qur’an Arabic reached an extent…"). The saying credited to al-Asma‘i is one he transmits from al-Khalil from Ayyub al-Sakhtiyani, whose saying is in this section. The saying credited to "William Work" has no such author: the name is a corruption of William H. Worrell, director of the American School of Oriental Research in Jerusalem, and its source has not been found. The claim that Chomsky was influenced by Sībawayh was denied by Chomsky himself in two published e-mails.