Introduction — The development of Arabic as a written language

Author(s): Christian Julien Robin

Source: Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies, Vol. 40, Supplement: The
Development of Arabic as a Written Language. Papers from the Special Session of the
Seminar for Arabian Studies held on 24 July, 2009 (2010), pp. 1-3
Published by: Archaeopress Publishing Ltd.
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/41224040
Accessed: 08-04-2019 11:25 UTC

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M.C.A. Macdonald (ed.), The development of Arabic as a written language. (Supplement to the Proceedings of the
Seminar for Arabian Studies 40). Oxford: Archaeopress, 2010, pp. '-b.

Introduction - The development of Arabic as a written language

Christian Julien Robin

Summary
Any discussion of how Arabic came to be used as a written language is based on two types of sources. One consists of the traditions
concerning their past which the Arabs collected after the rise of Islam, and the other of original texts from the pre-Islamic era
which have survived the hazards of history. The second category is constantly being augmented, so a regular re-examination of the
evidence will always open new perspectives on the subject.

Keywords: Arabic language, Arabic script, poetry, inscriptions

It is a good idea to devote a Special Session to the subject 267 = 12/6). The other was at Najrän, where it was said
of the development of Arabic as a written language. The that a bishop was "the school master", sãhib madãrisi-
Arabic language, as we know, is a key part of the national him (Ibn Hishäm n.d.: 579; Guillaume 1955: 271).
identity of the Arabs. It is also central to the religious In addition to these relatively abundant narrative
identity of Muslims, for whom it is the language of the sources, we also have an equally important number
Revelation, and thus the language of heaven. There are of everyday documents. On the one hand, there are
of course other opinions on the language of heaven: for papyri from Egypt and Palestine. These are often
the Jews it is Hebrew and for the Christians of Syria it is dated: the earliest, found at Annas, being from 22/643
obviously Syriac. while others, from Nastän (Nessana in Greek) in
Academic interest in the Arabic language is far from Palestine date from the early Umayyad period. On the
new. Outside the Arabo-Islamic world, it was already other hand, there are inscriptions and coins (Hoyland
present in Europe in the sixteenth century, while the 1997: 687-703).
more specific question of the development of the Arabic Since the study of the development of the Arabic
language in ancient times as a means of communication language is by no means a recent phenomenon, one can
and composition, had already engendered numerous legitimately ask whether our Session can provide any
studies and heated debates 150 years ago. new insights.
In fact, our sources are exceptionally varied and Surprisingly, the answer is a definite "yes". The main
abundant and consist of a vast corpus of reports and reason is that our predecessors were not very interested
anecdotes gathered by the Arabs of the early centuries in everyday documents. They based their research on the
of Islam to illustrate their past. Although this "Arabo- Arabic narrative sources, i.e. on what the Arabs said about
Islamic tradition" contains various opinions on the their own history. A good example is provided by the
creation of the Arabic script, only one would seem papyri of Nastän, which I have just mentioned. They are
to have any historical value. This places its invention the earliest documents of the Arab fiscal administration,
in the valley of the Euphrates, whence it spread first and are composed in Arabic and Greek. Yet the huge
to al-Hïrah, and then to the Arabian Peninsula, and Encyclopaedia of Islam has not a single reference to them.
particularly to Mecca (Robin 2006: 327). This tradition An initial field of research is thus open to us, namely the
also informs us that writing was hardly practised at all comparison of the narrative sources with the information
at the time of Muhammad.1
from everyday documents.
For the period immediately before Islam, we hear of This comparison is ongoing, and this brings me to
only two centres where writing was taught. One was at the second interesting aspect of this Session. Every year,
Yathrib: the Jewish bayt al-midrãs of Mäsikah/Qaynuqac more documents come to light, most frequently in the
at al-Quff (Lecker 1997: 263-264; al-Isfahanï 1994, xii:
Arabian Peninsula, and particularly in Saudi Arabia. I
1 However, see Ghabbãn (this volume). [Ed.] would like to present four examples of recent progress

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 2 Christian Julien Robin

in this sphere. ForFrom

thethe region of Madä'inISälih
first, shall take
oldest documents in the Arabic languag
Ghabbãn 2008, from Qãc al-Muctadil, 17 km south of
"Arabic" documents using the definite
MadãDin Sãlih/al-Hijr
the mid-twentieth century - and for this
1. b-smHlh
synthesis produced by Régis Blachère (
2. эпэ zhyr ktbt zmn twjy < h> cmr snh Drbc
the oldest documents in the Arabic languag
3. w- c s hry n
sixth century AD. These were two Christi
from Syria found 1. Ы-smiHlãh
at Zebed (in the region
at Hamm (in the 2. anã Zuhayrsouth
Laja3, katabtu zaman tawafja cUmar sanat
of Damasc
can take this date arbď
back more than ten cen
2003). Thus, the 3. wa-cishrínof
period putting things
of codification began much earlier tha
From the region of Najrãn
Nevertheless, another question comes to m
this written ArabicKawatoko, Tokunaga & Iizuka
restricted to2005:periphera
8-10, from al-
up to the sixth century AD?
Khushaybah, approximately 110 km north-north-east of
Other important Najrãn
new discoveries can be
One concerns the formation
1 . trhm Hlh cly yzyd bn cbd Hlh Ί-slly of the Ara
years ago a number2. ktbfy
of gmdygraffiti
mn snh sbc were disco
Arabia, which constitute
3. w-cshryn the "missing lin
Late Nabataean and the Arabic scripts.
1 . tarahhama Allãh calã Yazid b. cAbd Allah al-Salull Th
support the hypothesis that
2. kataba β jumãdã the
min sanat sabc Arabi
derived from the Nabataean. 3. wa-cishrm
Another discovery is that of three rhymed poems in
South Arabia, dating from the first to the fourth centuries
Note
AD (Stein 2008). These reopen discussion on the pre-
- the absence of л/z/representing [a:] in medial position
Islamic Arabic poetry and the question of whether there
- sanat spelt with taD mar but ah.
was a specific poetic language (sometimes called a koine)
It is interesting that these three texts, all found in
and, more generally, of the language which served as a
Saudi Arabia, come from different regions. This implies
substrate to Quranic Arabic.
that the use of the Arabic language and script must have
Finally, I would like to mention three recently
been spread throughout the whole of Arabia shortly after
published Arabic inscriptions, dating to the twenties of
the Islamic conquest. They also confirm that the use of
the hijrah:
the era of the hijrah, created in 17/638 on the iniative of
From the region of Yanbuc the Caliph cUmar (13-23/634-644), must have come into
use immediately in the Muslim empire.
Kawatoko 2005: 52, pl. 8/1 3a, from al-Muthallath, Thus, recent discoveries are reviving the question of
apparently in the region of Yanbuc the development of Arabic as a written language. This
1. ktbslmh deserves re-examination because we now know so much
2. thlth w-cshryn more about the linguistic situation of Arabia in antiquity
1 . kataba Salmah and on the eve of Islam, as will be apparent in diverse
2. thalãth wa-cishrïn ways in the papers of this Session.

References

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 Introduction - The development of Arabic as a written language 3

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Stein P.

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Author s address

Christian Julien Robin, Villa Entrebois, Chemin de la Tour de César, Plateau de Beauregard, Les Pinchinats, 13100-
Aix-en-Provence, France.

e-mail christian.robin@ivry.cnrs.fr

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