Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-2xdlg Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-19T12:34:16.228Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

1 - The Study of Arabic in the West

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 November 2022

Get access

Summary

In 632 CE, the Prophet of Islam, Muḥammad, died in thecity of Medina. The century of conquests thatfollowed brought both the Islamic religion and theArabic language to the attention of a world that upuntil then had possessed only the vaguest notion ofwhat went on in the interior of the Arabianpeninsula. Ever since this first confrontationbetween the Islamic world and Europe, the Arabs andtheir language have been part of the Europeanexperience. At first, the intellectual relationshipbetween the two worlds was unilateral. Greekknowledge and knowledge about Greek filtered throughinto the Islamic world, while the Byzantines did notshow themselves to be overly interested in thingsArabic. Although their military prowess was feared,the Arabs’ culture and language were not deemedworthy of study. Their religion was regarded aslittle more than the latest in the series ofChristian heresies that flourished in the East. Forthe Byzantines, the Greek heritage did not need anycontribution from the inhabitants of a desert, whoseonly claim to fame rested on their ability to harassthe Byzantine armies and contest Byzantine hegemonyin the eastern Mediterranean.

In Western Europe, for a long time information aboutthe Arabs and their religion remained limited tovague notions about paganism in the desert ofArabia. After the conquest of the Iberian peninsulain 711, the Arabs’ presence came to be seen as adirect threat to Europe and Christianity. Yet therewas another side to this confrontation, becausethrough the Arabs Western Europe got in touch with apart of its heritage that it had lost in the turmoilof the fall of the Roman Empire. Western medicineand philosophy became dependent on the Arab cultureof Islamic Spain for knowledge of Greek medical andphilosophical writings, which were practicallyunknown in the West. From the eleventh centuryonwards, after the fall of Toledo in 1085, thesewritings began to circulate in Latin translations ofthe Arabic versions. The Arabic language itself wasnot widely studied, since most scholars relied upontranslations that were made by a small group oftranslators, often Jews, who had familiarisedthemselves with the language either in Arab Sicilyor in al-ʾAndalus.

In the twelfth century, during the period of theCrusades, Western Europeans became acquainted withIslamic culture and Arabic on site.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Print publication year: 2014

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×