Download THE ORIGIN OF THE ARABS: A CRITICAL EVALUATION OF THE

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 IIUM
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.
INTRODUCTION
• The 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).
• Evidence for this division is recorded in Ibn Ishaq’s and
Ibn Hisham’s Biography of the Prophet (alsirah alnabawiyyah) 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).
• 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.
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
‫ وقو َم نوحٍ من قب ُل إنّهم كانواْ ُه ْم أَظل َم‬،‫ وثمودَاْ فَ َما أبقى‬،‫﴿وأنّه أَ ْهلَكَ عادا ً األولى‬
﴾‫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 أبقى‬has 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 alArabi)
.
•
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’ (3rd 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 ـ ـال مشيهـ ــا وئي ـدا ***أجنـ ـ ـدل حيملن أو حدي ـدا‬
•
c) The poetries by Imru’ al-Qays indicated that the
Arabic language is well established since long time ago.
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 preIslamic 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)
• There is linguistic evidence which
would indicate that Arabic was
the mother of all ancient Semitic
languages:-
• 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.
• Amru' al-Qays remains the most revered of all the preIslamic 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.
• 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.
• (Sulayman ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Zayyid, QawÉÑid Lughah alNabaÏiyah
(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/Na
bataean .pdf , 2001), p.18, 21-25.
• Muhammad ÑÓ´´il al-ZaybÊ, NaÐrah min KhilÉl an-Nahwi alÑarabÊ Li MasÊÉ´il Nahwiyah FÊ al-Lughah al-MiÎriyah alQadÊmah 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.
• 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 preIslamic history of the peninsula
• 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.
THANK YOU VERY MUCH