Читать книгу A Dictionary of Islam. Being a cyclopedia of the doctrines, rites, ceremonies, and customs, together with the technical and theological terms, of the Muhammadan religion онлайн

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(See Abū ʾl-Fidāʾ; Gagnier’s Vie de Mahomet; Pocock, Specim. Arab. Hist.; Saiyid Ahmad K͟hān’s Essays; Sale’s Koran, Prelim. Dis.; Crichton’s Hist. Arabia.)

ARABIC. Lisānu-ʾl-ʿArab; Lug͟hatu ʾl-ʿArab. The classical language of Arabia is held to be the language of the Qurʾān, and of the Traditions of Muḥammad, and by reason of its incomparable excellence is called اللغة‎ al-lug͟hah, or “the language.” (See Qurʾān, Sūrah xvi. 105, “They say, Surely a person teacheth him [i.e. Muḥammad]. But the tongue of him at whom they hint is foreign, while this [i.e. the Qurʾān] is plain Arabic.”)

This classical language is often termed, by the Arabians themselves, the language of Maʿadd, and the language of Muẓar, and is a compound of many sister dialects, very often differing among themselves, which were spoken throughout the whole of the Peninsula before the religion of Muḥammad incited the nation to spread its conquering armies over foreign countries. Before that period, feuds among the tribes, throughout the whole extent of their territory, had prevented the blending of their dialects into one uniform language; but this effect of disunion was counteracted in a great measure by the institution of the sacred months, in which all acts of hostility were most strictly interdicted, and by the annual pilgrimage, and the yearly fair held at ʿUkāz̤, at which the poets of the various tribes contended for the meed of general admiration.