Interestingly,
from the vantage point of very early Islamic history, the conflation is not
entirely unreasonable. It could be argued that Islam began as a chosen-people
religion aimed exclusively at the Arabs; the
Quran (12: 2, and 43: 3) states that it is in the Arabic language ‘so that you
may understand [its message]’, a statement that assumes its audience to be
Arabic-speakers. Moreover, under the Umayyad caliphs, the conversion of
non-Arabs to Islam was normally discouraged and those who did convert were made
‘clients’ of Arab tribes. In other words, to be a Muslim one had to be an Arab
– or at least an honorary one. And for centuries, Jews in Muslim lands (usually
in Persia) argued that Muhammad was indeed a true Prophet sent by God to spread
monotheism, but only amongst the pagan Arabs who needed it. (Persian Jews no longer
subscribe to this theory.) Support for such an idea comes from the Quran itself
(46: 12), which states: ‘And before this, was the Book of Moses as a guide and
a mercy: And this Book confirms (it) in the Arabic tongue . . .’
Clearly,
however, that is not the only way of looking at things and is certainly not how
things turned out. Still, the Arabs and their culture have been central to all
Muslims in a number of ways. The early association of Islam with Arabs,
together with the long-standing objection (now obsolete) to translating the Quran, have
meant that even non-Arab Muslims have had reason to learn at least the basics
of Arabic. And it does no harm that Arabic is regarded – even amongst Persians
– as the language of God (though most Muslim historians hold that Adam and Eve spoke
Aramaic). Crucially, those who want to read the seminal works of
Islamic law, theology, Quranic studies, hadith, history, and so forth must have
a thorough grounding in Arabic. As Islam spread for the most part in regions
and periods where literacy was very limited, a Muslim’s first experience of
literacy often involved learning to read and write God’s language.
Consequently,
even non-Arabic languages came to be written in a version of the Arabic script
modifi ed to accommodate the particularities of the spoken languages. Persian,
Urdu (Hindi in Arabic script), and – until relatively recently – Turkish, as well
as a host of other languages, use the Arabic alphabet and contain
numerous Arabic words. For these reasons, in the first few centuries of Islamic
history all authors regardless of ethnicity would compose their works in
Arabic. Arabic might thus be compared with Chinese, the stability of which over
millennia allowed Chinese scholars to read about and build on their
predecessors’ ideas, with the result that many world-changing inventions originated
there – from paper, printing, the compass, and gunpowder, to magic tricks and
kung-fu. As a scholarly language shared by non-native speakers, Arabic also brings
to mind the use of Latin in pre- and early-modern Europe.
The spread of
Arabic as a scholarly language allowed scholars, Muslim and non-Muslim alike,
to communicate their ideas across boundaries and generations, with truly
impressive results in many fields. In the 9th century, for instance, a
considerable portion of the ancient Greek writings was translated into Arabic under caliphal
auspices, at a time when most in the West had lost the ability to enjoy this
heritage, and it is through translations into Latin of these Arabic versions of
Greek texts that Europe rediscovered many of these works and their ideas. Thus,
it has been argued (if not widely accepted) that the Renaissance as we know it
would not have happened had the Arabs and their language remained in Arabia.
