By ASSOC PROF DR SOLEHAH HjYAACOB DEPT OF ARABIC LANGUAGE amp LITERATURE KULLIYAH IRKHS OF IIUM WHY DO I CHOOSE THIS TOPIC 1To reclaim the existence of Arabs and Arabic language before the time of prophet Muhammad ID: 212857
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Slide1
THE ORIGIN OF THE ARABS: A CRITICAL EVALUATION OF THE SOURCES
By
ASSOC. PROF. DR. SOLEHAH
Hj.YAACOB
DEPT. OF ARABIC LANGUAGE & LITERATURE, KULLIYAH IRKHS OF IIUMSlide2
WHY DO I CHOOSE THIS TOPIC?1)To reclaim the existence of Arabs and Arabic language before the time of prophet Muhammad (pbuh).2) To reconcile the orientalist views on the existence of ancient Arabs.
3) To identify the Arabic character which already
existed
in
its basic form and structure in ancient times. Slide3
INTRODUCTIONThe debates on ancient civilizations never end, historians continue to uphold their claim that the home of the first civilization was Mesopotamia. The research will therefore concentrate on the origins of the Arabs and their language at that time. Jawad Ali, the author of the Abridged History of the Arabs before Islam (Mufassal
ta’rikh
al’
arab
qabl
alislam
) suggests that the Arabs can be divided into three major groups; namely the ‘lost Arabs’ (al-‘
arab
al-
ba‘idah
), second the ’true Arabs’ (
al-‘
arab
al-
aribah
), and third the Arabized Arabs (
al-‘
arab
al-
mustaÑrabah
).
Slide4
Evidence for this division is recorded in Ibn Ishaq’s and Ibn Hisham’s Biography of the Prophet (alsirah
al-
nabawiyyah
) and
Tabari’s
History of the Communities and Kingdoms
(
Ta’rikh
alumam
walmuluk
). However, other scholars such as ‘
Abd
alSalam
al-
Jumahi
(a critic of early poetry) disagreed with
Ibn
Ishaq
that poems by Ad and
Thamud
proved the existence of the Arabs as a people before the time of Prophet Ibrahim (
a.s
).
Slide5
However, the biographer Ibn Nadim considered the verses cited by Ibn Ishaq as fraudulent and not genuine. It is a well-established fact that the corpus of ancient Arabic poetry had suffered a lot at the hands of forgers, plagiarists, misguided philologists, and dishonest narrators. For instance, a number of poems were falsely ascribed to Hassan bin
Thabit
, Prophet`s poet. Thus, this study aims at examining and assessing the validity of the Muslim sources on the issue pertaining to the origins of Arabs as a people.Slide6Slide7Slide8
ISSUES AND DISCUSIONS Is it the ‘Arabs al-Ba’idah are really lost ? How to proof
?
a) Pro : From
Quranic
verses an-
Najm
50-52
﴿
وأنّه أَهْلَكَ عاداً الأولى، وثمودَاْ فَمَا أبقى، وقومَ نوحٍ من قبلُ إنّهم كانواْ هُمْ أَظلمَ وأطغى
﴾
b)
Cont
:
i
) By words of al-
Tabari
on the existence of
Banu
Lawiyah
after extinction of ‘Ad and
Thamud
.
ii) Verse 50-51, al-
Najm
. The extinction of ‘Ad al-
Ula
indicated there were ‘Ad al-
Thani
, etc.
iii)
Tafsir
Ruh
al-
Maani
on
فما أبقى
has a deep structure meaning if
Maa
al-
Nafiah
precedes
Fi’il
Madhi
, the
object is not certain (
taqdeerat
)(
al-
Alusi
al-Baghdadi,
Tafsir
Ruh
al-
Ma`ani
(Beirut:
Ihya
` at-
Turath
al-
Arabi
)
.
Slide9
HOW TO SUPPORT THE EXISTENCE OF ANCIENT ARABS?
By the existence of rulers from Arabs genetics such as:
a) The name of ‘
Jundibu
’, the first Arab word appeared in ancient document by Assyrian King after a battle in
Qarqar
, the
Syriac
Province.
b) ‘
Zenobia
’ (3
rd
CE) : the ruler of Palmyra, an ancient Arabic kingdom, whereby
Ibn
‘
Aqil’s
commentary
contains a poem allegedly authored by the Queen herself :
ما
للجم
ــــ
ال
مشيه
ــــا
وئي
ــ
دا
***
أجن
ـــــ
دل
يحملن
أو
حدي
ــ
داً
c) The poetries by
Imru
’ al-
Qays
indicated that the Arabic language is well established since long time ago.Slide10
What is the Origin of the Arabic Language?The earliest extensive body of textual sources in the Arabic language is to be found in the corpus of pre-Islamic poetry. At the initial stage of investigation, has to be determined when Jahili literature was created. As its name correctly suggests, this collection of poems existed long before the dawn of Islam. (
Retso
, The Arab Antiquity,
pp.1-92
) Slide11
There is linguistic evidence which would indicate that Arabic was the mother of all ancient Semitic languages:-Slide12
The most famous poet among the Arabs was Amru` al-Qays (died 565 C.E.) .His phrase "Let us halt and weep" is contained in one of the seven Mu'allaqat, a selection of poems prized as the best examples of pre-Islamic Arabian verse which - according to the custom of the time - were publicly displayed in
Mekkah
. Slide13
Amru' al-Qays remains the most revered of all the pre-Islamic poets and has been a source of literary and national inspiration for Arabic intellectuals all the way into the 20th century. In the Dictionary of Literary Biography, Al-Tahir
Referring
that
Amru
al-
Qays
was of the tribe of
Kindah
and the first major Arabic literary figure.
(
Makki
, al-
Tahir
Ahmad. "
Imru
' al-
Qays
.", in
Dictionary of Literary Biography
, ed.
Cooperson
, Michael and
Toorawa
,
Shawkat
(Detroit: Thomson Gale, 2005), p. 311.Slide14
Further studies explained the evolution of specific Arabic letters by the combination of certain Nabataean letters. Recent heliographic manuscript studies have also contributed to the discussion by observing noticeable similarities between ancient Egyptian and Arabic syntax. In summary, De Sacy`s statement that the Arabs had no writing before Prophet Muhammad`s time has long been dispelled and is no longer considered worthy of serious academic consideration. Slide15
(Sulayman ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Zayyid, QawÉÑid Lughah
al-
NabaÏiyah
(e-book, Riyadh, 2011),
http://www.kfnl.gov.sa/idarat/alnsher%20el/Nabataen/klaf.htm
, p. 36; )
al-
Madkhal
IlÉ
QawÉÑid
al-
NuqËsh
al-
NabaÏiyah
(e-book
http://www.kfnl.gov.sa/idarat/alnsher%20el/Nabataean/Nabataean
.
pdf
, 2001), p.18, 21-25.
Muhammad ÑÓ´´
il
al-
ZaybÊ
,
NaÐrah
min
KhilÉl
an-
Nahwi
al-
ÑarabÊ
Li
MasÊÉ´il
Nahwiyah
FÊ al-
Lughah
al-
MiÎriyah
al-
QadÊmah
Min
Qisoh
al-
MalÉh
, Faculty of Arts, King Saud University (1995), p. 18.
D.S.
Margoliouth
,
The Relations Between Arabs and Israelites prior to the Rise of Islam
(London: Oxford University, 1924), for E-Book Jan. 1 , 2004, p. 7.Slide16
Even such notoriously biased and ostensibly Biblically inspired orientalists such Margoliouth could not help but submit to the sheer overwhelming evidence of ancient Arabic writing which was mostly preserved in the form of stone inscriptions found scattered throughout Arabia: Inscriptions in truly monumental alphabets accumulated to the number of some thousands, they were found to represent more than one kingdom and more than one dialect the names, records and dates, which they contained, cleared away some of the obscurity which veiled the pre-Islamic history of the peninsulaSlide17
Then he added: … The old Arabian alphabet was constructed is unknown, we have no record… it has however been pointed out that within that alphabet we can see a certain amount of evolution.From the above it can be safely established that Arabic existed already in its basic form and structure in ancient times. The preservation of classical pre-Islamic Arabic poetry was also not interrupted by the coming of Islam but rather continued in the works of early Muslim grammarians. The evolution of any language does not occur in complete isolation from other languages and cultures, thus, the possible influence of
Nabataean
writing and Egyptian syntax does not stand in contradiction to the independent development of the Arabic language as a unique form of expression of Arabic culture and civilization. Slide18
THANK YOU VERY MUCH