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142-508: Arab Christians ( Arabic : ﺍﻟْﻤَﺴِﻴﺤِﻴُّﻮﻥ ﺍﻟْﻌَﺮَﺏ , romanized :  al-Masīḥiyyūn al-ʿArab ) are ethnic Arabs , Arab nationals, or Arabic speakers, who follow Christianity . The number of Arab Christians who live in the Middle East was estimated in 2012 to be between 10 and 15 million. Arab Christian communities can be found throughout the Arab world , but are concentrated in

284-477: A bicycle ( birota ), a cigarette ( fistula nicotiana ), a computer ( instrumentum computatorium ), a cowboy ( armentarius ), a motel ( deversorium autocineticum ), shampoo ( capitilavium ), a strike ( operistitium ), a terrorist ( tromocrates ), a trademark ( ergasterii nota ), an unemployed person ( invite otiosus ), a waltz ( chorea Vindobonensis ), and even a miniskirt ( tunicula minima ) and hot pants ( brevissimae bracae femineae ). Some 600 such terms extracted from

426-575: A collection of related dialects that constitute the precursor of Arabic, first emerged during the Iron Age . Previously, the earliest attestation of Old Arabic was thought to be a single 1st century CE inscription in Sabaic script at Qaryat al-Faw , in southern present-day Saudi Arabia. However, this inscription does not participate in several of the key innovations of the Arabic language group, such as

568-435: A corpus of poetic texts, in addition to Qur'an usage and Bedouin informants whom he considered to be reliable speakers of the ʿarabiyya . Arabic spread with the spread of Islam . Following the early Muslim conquests , Arabic gained vocabulary from Middle Persian and Turkish . In the early Abbasid period , many Classical Greek terms entered Arabic through translations carried out at Baghdad's House of Wisdom . By

710-1081: A dialect of Arabic and written in the Latin alphabet . The Balkan languages, including Albanian, Greek , Serbo-Croatian, and Bulgarian , have also acquired many words of Arabic origin, mainly through direct contact with Ottoman Turkish . Arabic has influenced languages across the globe throughout its history, especially languages where Islam is the predominant religion and in countries that were conquered by Muslims. The most markedly influenced languages are Persian , Turkish , Hindustani ( Hindi and Urdu ), Kashmiri , Kurdish , Bosnian , Kazakh , Bengali , Malay ( Indonesian and Malaysian ), Maldivian , Pashto , Punjabi , Albanian , Armenian , Azerbaijani , Sicilian, Spanish, Greek, Bulgarian, Tagalog , Sindhi , Odia , Hebrew and African languages such as Hausa , Amharic , Tigrinya , Somali , Tamazight , and Swahili . Conversely, Arabic has borrowed some words (mostly nouns) from other languages, including its sister-language Aramaic, Persian, Greek, and Latin and to

852-487: A lesser extent and more recently from Turkish, English, French, and Italian. Arabic is spoken by as many as 380 million speakers, both native and non-native, in the Arab world, making it the fifth most spoken language in the world, and the fourth most used language on the internet in terms of users. It also serves as the liturgical language of more than 2 billion Muslims . In 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked Arabic

994-529: A measure of communal autonomy, to be entitled to Muslim state's protection from outside aggression, to be exempted from military service , and to be exempted from the zakat . Like Arab Muslims , Arab Christians refer to God as " Allah ". As with the Christians of Malta , this practice is distinguished from the Islamic use of the word "Allah" which refers to the personal name of God in that faith. The use of

1136-690: A millennium before the modern period . Early lexicographers ( لُغَوِيُّون lughawiyyūn ) sought to explain words in the Quran that were unfamiliar or had a particular contextual meaning, and to identify words of non-Arabic origin that appear in the Quran. They gathered shawāhid ( شَوَاهِد 'instances of attested usage') from poetry and the speech of the Arabs—particularly the Bedouin ʾaʿrāb  [ ar ] ( أَعْراب ) who were perceived to speak

1278-736: A modern language, but the authoritative text, published in the Acta Apostolicae Sedis , is usually in Latin. Some texts may be published initially in a modern language and be later revised, according to a Latin version (or "editio typica"), after this Latin version is published. For example, the Catechism of the Catholic Church was drafted and published, in 1992, in French. The Latin text appeared five years later, in 1997, and

1420-489: A native Christian Himyarite, Sumyafa Ashwa , as his viceroy. The Aksumites thus conquered Himyar and their rule lasted until 575. The Abyssinians spread Christianity and their rulers built an extravagant building in honor of the Martyrs of Najran. It was known by its contemporaries for its beauty, adorned with ornaments, jewels, and prominent archways. Arabs called it the “Kaaba of Najran”. The Yemenis later rebelled against

1562-595: A prominent role in the development of Arab culture. It is agreed amongst historians the importance the roles played by the Arab Christians in this renaissance, and their role in the prosperity through participation in the diaspora. Given this role in politics and culture, Ottoman ministers began to include them in their governments. In the economic sphere, a number of Christian families like the Greek Orthodox Sursock family became prominent. Thus,

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1704-404: A pronunciation based on a fairly literal interpretation of Latin spelling. For example, in a radical break from the traditional system, a word such as ⟨ viridiarium ⟩ 'orchard' now had to be read aloud precisely as it was spelled rather than */verdʒjær/ (later spelled as Old French vergier ). The Carolingian reforms soon brought the new Church Latin from France to other lands where Romance

1846-687: A result of bombardment. The 1860 civil conflict in Mount Lebanon and Damascus was a civil conflict and later massacre during Ottoman rule, started by skirmishes occurring between the Maronites and the Druze of Mount Lebanon . Following decisive victories and massacres against Christians, the conflict spilled over into other parts of Ottoman Syria , particularly the city Damascus , where over ten thousand Christian residents of various denominations were killed by Druze and Muslim militiamen. With

1988-594: A result, many European languages have borrowed words from it. Arabic influence, mainly in vocabulary, is seen in European languages (mainly Spanish and to a lesser extent Portuguese , Catalan , and Sicilian ) owing to the proximity of Europe and the long-lasting Arabic cultural and linguistic presence, mainly in Southern Iberia, during the Al-Andalus era. Maltese is a Semitic language developed from

2130-462: A script derived from ASA attest to a language known as Hasaitic . On the northwestern frontier of Arabia, various languages known to scholars as Thamudic B , Thamudic D, Safaitic , and Hismaic are attested. The last two share important isoglosses with later forms of Arabic, leading scholars to theorize that Safaitic and Hismaic are early forms of Arabic and that they should be considered Old Arabic . Linguists generally believe that "Old Arabic",

2272-668: A significant proportion of the Middle Eastern diaspora, with sizable population concentrations across the Americas, most notably in Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, Colombia, and the US. However those emigrants to the Americas, especially from the first wave of emigration, have often not passed the Arabic language to their descendants. The concept of an Arab Christian identity remains contentious, with some Arabic-speaking Christian groups in

2414-470: A single language, despite mutual incomprehensibility among differing spoken versions. From a linguistic standpoint, it is often said that the various spoken varieties of Arabic differ among each other collectively about as much as the Romance languages . This is an apt comparison in a number of ways. The period of divergence from a single spoken form is similar—perhaps 1500 years for Arabic, 2000 years for

2556-507: A type of Arabic. Cypriot Arabic is recognized as a minority language in Cyprus. The sociolinguistic situation of Arabic in modern times provides a prime example of the linguistic phenomenon of diglossia , which is the normal use of two separate varieties of the same language, usually in different social situations. Tawleed is the process of giving a new shade of meaning to an old classical word. For example, al-hatif lexicographically means

2698-507: A variety of regional vernacular Arabic dialects , which are not necessarily mutually intelligible. Classical Arabic is the language found in the Quran , used from the period of Pre-Islamic Arabia to that of the Abbasid Caliphate . Classical Arabic is prescriptive, according to the syntactic and grammatical norms laid down by classical grammarians (such as Sibawayh ) and the vocabulary defined in classical dictionaries (such as

2840-531: A vowel is generally pronounced /tsi/ (unless preceded by ⟨s⟩ , ⟨d⟩ or ⟨t⟩ ). Such speakers pronounce consonantal ⟨v⟩ (not written as ⟨u⟩ ) as /v/ as in English, not as Classical /w/ . Like in Classical Latin, double consonants are pronounced with gemination . The distinction in Classical Latin between long and short vowels

2982-476: A wider audience." In the wake of the industrial revolution and European hegemony and colonialism , pioneering Arabic presses, such as the Amiri Press established by Muhammad Ali (1819), dramatically changed the diffusion and consumption of Arabic literature and publications. Rifa'a al-Tahtawi proposed the establishment of Madrasat al-Alsun in 1836 and led a translation campaign that highlighted

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3124-687: Is a Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world . The ISO assigns language codes to 32 varieties of Arabic , including its standard form of Literary Arabic, known as Modern Standard Arabic , which is derived from Classical Arabic . This distinction exists primarily among Western linguists; Arabic speakers themselves generally do not distinguish between Modern Standard Arabic and Classical Arabic, but rather refer to both as al-ʿarabiyyatu l-fuṣḥā ( اَلعَرَبِيَّةُ ٱلْفُصْحَىٰ "the eloquent Arabic") or simply al-fuṣḥā ( اَلْفُصْحَىٰ ). Arabic

3266-631: Is a Christian broadcasting network that was founded in 1995; it targets primarily Arab Christians in North Africa and the Middle East . These media networks produce dozens of Arabic-language Christian films , musical works, as well as radio and television programmes. Syro-Lebanese Melkite Saleem Takla and his brother Beshara founded the Al-Ahram newspaper in 1875 in Alexandria ; now

3408-590: Is a minimum level of comprehension between all Arabic dialects, this level can increase or decrease based on geographic proximity: for example, Levantine and Gulf speakers understand each other much better than they do speakers from the Maghreb. The issue of diglossia between spoken and written language is a complicating factor: A single written form, differing sharply from any of the spoken varieties learned natively, unites several sometimes divergent spoken forms. For political reasons, Arabs mostly assert that they all speak

3550-559: Is a sister language rather than their direct ancestor. Arabia had a wide variety of Semitic languages in antiquity. The term "Arab" was initially used to describe those living in the Arabian Peninsula , as perceived by geographers from ancient Greece . In the southwest, various Central Semitic languages both belonging to and outside the Ancient South Arabian family (e.g. Southern Thamudic) were spoken. It

3692-478: Is believed that the ancestors of the Modern South Arabian languages (non-Central Semitic languages) were spoken in southern Arabia at this time. To the north, in the oases of northern Hejaz , Dadanitic and Taymanitic held some prestige as inscriptional languages. In Najd and parts of western Arabia, a language known to scholars as Thamudic C is attested. In eastern Arabia, inscriptions in

3834-408: Is credited with establishing the rules of Arabic prosody . Al-Jahiz (776–868) proposed to Al-Akhfash al-Akbar an overhaul of the grammar of Arabic, but it would not come to pass for two centuries. The standardization of Arabic reached completion around the end of the 8th century. The first comprehensive description of the ʿarabiyya "Arabic", Sībawayhi's al - Kitāb , is based first of all upon

3976-472: Is credited with standardizing Arabic grammar , or an-naḥw ( النَّحو "the way" ), and pioneering a system of diacritics to differentiate consonants ( نقط الإعجام nuqaṭu‿l-i'jām "pointing for non-Arabs") and indicate vocalization ( التشكيل at-tashkīl ). Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi (718–786) compiled the first Arabic dictionary, Kitāb al-'Ayn ( كتاب العين "The Book of the Letter ع "), and

4118-531: Is ignored, and instead of the ' macron ' or ' apex ', lines to mark the long vowel, an acute accent is used for stress. The first syllable of two-syllable words is stressed; in longer words, an acute accent is placed over the stressed vowel: adorémus 'let us adore'; Dómini 'of the Lord'. The complete text of the Bible in Latin, the revised Vulgate, appears at Nova Vulgata – Bibliorum Sacrorum Editio. New Advent gives

4260-574: Is not present in the spoken varieties, but deletes Classical words that sound obsolete in MSA. In addition, MSA has borrowed or coined many terms for concepts that did not exist in Quranic times, and MSA continues to evolve. Some words have been borrowed from other languages—notice that transliteration mainly indicates spelling and not real pronunciation (e.g., فِلْم film 'film' or ديمقراطية dīmuqrāṭiyyah 'democracy'). The current preference

4402-803: Is official in Mali and recognized as a minority language in Morocco, while the Senegalese government adopted the Latin script to write it. Maltese is official in (predominantly Catholic ) Malta and written with the Latin script . Linguists agree that it is a variety of spoken Arabic, descended from Siculo-Arabic , though it has experienced extensive changes as a result of sustained and intensive contact with Italo-Romance varieties, and more recently also with English. Due to "a mix of social, cultural, historical, political, and indeed linguistic factors", many Maltese people today consider their language Semitic but not

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4544-572: Is the third most widespread official language after English and French, one of six official languages of the United Nations , and the liturgical language of Islam . Arabic is widely taught in schools and universities around the world and is used to varying degrees in workplaces, governments and the media. During the Middle Ages , Arabic was a major vehicle of culture and learning, especially in science, mathematics and philosophy. As

4686-756: Is the Christian cemetery outside the Medina towards the well of 'Anbasa, confirmed by al-Maqdisi , as well as the conversion to Christianity by some members of the Quraish . Following the fall of large portions of former Byzantine and Sasanian provinces to the Arab armies, a large indigenous Christian population of varying ethnicities came under Arab Muslim dominance. Historically, a number of minority Christian sects were persecuted as heretic under Byzantine rule (such as non-Chalcedonians ). The Islamic conquests set forth two processes affecting these Christian communities:

4828-530: Is the variety used in most current, printed Arabic publications, spoken by some of the Arabic media across North Africa and the Middle East, and understood by most educated Arabic speakers. "Literary Arabic" and "Standard Arabic" ( فُصْحَى fuṣḥá ) are less strictly defined terms that may refer to Modern Standard Arabic or Classical Arabic. Some of the differences between Classical Arabic (CA) and Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) are as follows: MSA uses much Classical vocabulary (e.g., dhahaba 'to go') that

4970-413: Is to avoid direct borrowings, preferring to either use loan translations (e.g., فرع farʻ 'branch', also used for the branch of a company or organization; جناح janāḥ 'wing', is also used for the wing of an airplane, building, air force, etc.), or to coin new words using forms within existing roots ( استماتة istimātah ' apoptosis ', using the root موت m/w/t 'death' put into

5112-524: Is used to denote concepts that have arisen in the industrial and post-industrial era , especially in modern times. Due to its grounding in Classical Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic is removed over a millennium from everyday speech, which is construed as a multitude of dialects of this language. These dialects and Modern Standard Arabic are described by some scholars as not mutually comprehensible. The former are usually acquired in families, while

5254-482: Is valuable to historians, as it is the only account written by a survivor of a mob attack. Emir Abdelkader al-Jazairi , the exiled Algerian Muslim military leader, ordered his sons and soldiers to protect and shelter Damascene Christians from impending interpersonal violence that was spreading throughout the city, thereby saving thousands, preserving this ancient community from complete devastation. Melkite Greek Catholic and Maronite Christians suffered negligence from

5396-612: The Falastin newspaper in 1911. The paper was Palestine's most consistent critic of the early Zionist movement. In Lebanon, the influential Greek Orthodox Tueni family founded the An-Nahar newspaper in 1933, also one of the leading newspapers today. Shireen Abu Akleh worked as a reporter for the Arabic -language channel Al Jazeera for 25 years. Popular Lebanese singer Fairuz has over 150 million records sold worldwide, making her

5538-445: The Lisān al-ʻArab ). Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) largely follows the grammatical standards of Classical Arabic and uses much of the same vocabulary. However, it has discarded some grammatical constructions and vocabulary that no longer have any counterpart in the spoken varieties and has adopted certain new constructions and vocabulary from the spoken varieties. Much of the new vocabulary

5680-406: The koine Greek , while adapting the meanings of some Latin words to those of the koine Greek originals, which are sometimes themselves translations of Hebrew originals. At first there was no distinction between Latin and the actual Romance vernacular, the former being just the traditional written form of the latter. For instance, in ninth-century Spain ⟨ saeculum ⟩ was simply

5822-1188: The Ave Maria , and the Credo in Latin." In the Anglican Church , the Book of Common Prayer was published in Latin, alongside English. John Wesley , the founder of the Methodist churches , "used Latin text in doctrinal writings", as Martin Luther and John Calvin did in their era. In the training of Protestant clergy in Württemberg , as well as in the Rhineland , universities instructed divinity students in Latin and their examinations were conducted in this language. The University of Montauban, under Reformed auspices, required that seminarians complete two theses, with one being in Latin; thus Reformed ministers were "Latinist by training", comparable to Catholic seminarians. Ecclesiastical Latin continues to be

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5964-616: The Eastern Mediterranean region of the Levant and Egypt , with smaller communities present throughout the Arabian Peninsula and North Africa . The history of Arab Christians coincides with the history of Eastern Christianity and the history of the Arabic language ; Arab Christian communities either result from pre-existing Christian communities adopting the Arabic language, or from pre-existing Arabic-speaking communities adopting Christianity. The jurisdictions of three of

6106-576: The Ghassanids . In modern times, Arab Christians have played important roles in the Nahda movement, and they have significantly influenced and contributed to the fields of literature , politics, business, philosophy , music, theatre and cinema, medicine, and science. Today Arab Christians still play important roles in the Arab world, and are relatively wealthy, well educated, and politically moderate. Emigrants from Arab Christian communities also make up

6248-824: The Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem , Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch , Melkite Greek Catholic Church, Maronite Church , and Oriental Orthodox Churches , though some are also members of other churches, including the Catholic Latin Church and Protestant Churches , such as the Lutheran, Anglican, and Reformed traditions. Modern: Saint Mark's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral , Cairo, Egypt Modern: Bkerké , Lebanon Modern: Mariamite Cathedral , Damascus , Syria Modern: Cathedral of Saint George , Damascus, Syria ; (historically Mor Hananyo Monastery , Tur Abdin ) Modern: Cathedral of Our Lady of

6390-630: The Iraq war . The Mahjar (one of its more literal meanings being "the Arab diaspora") was a literary movement that succeeded the Nahda movement. It was started by Christian Arabic-speaking writers who had emigrated to America from Lebanon, Syria and Palestine at the turn of the 20th century. The writers of the Mahjar movement were stimulated by their personal encounter with the Western world and participated in

6532-581: The Kaaba of Mecca and Ghamdan Palace . On the organizational level, the Archbishop of Yemen held the title " Catholicos " which follows the " Patriarch " in rank. The spread of Christianity amongst Arabs reached Upper Mesopotamia , where Banu Bakr and Banu Mudar lived, both famous for their staunch Christian beliefs and for honoring Sergius the Military Saint . Ibn Khallikan mentioned that all

6674-733: The Latin Church , as well as the Western Rite of the Eastern Orthodox Church . It is occasionally used in Anglican Church and Lutheran Church liturgies as well. Today, ecclesiastical Latin is primarily used in official documents of the Catholic Church, in the Tridentine Mass , and it is still learned by clergy. The Ecclesiastical Latin that is used in theological works, liturgical rites and dogmatic proclamations varies in style: syntactically simple in

6816-643: The Nabataeans alone reached forty according to Ibn Duraid . The first Arab bishop of the Arabs, Saint Moses , spent many years in the 4th century as a hermit between Syria and Egypt. His piety impressed Mavia , Arab warrior- queen of the Tanukhids , and she made his consecration as a bishop over her people a condition to any truce with Rome. The Jordan Valley and the Balqa was under Arab Christian rule by

6958-704: The Ottoman authorities and a naval blockade from France and Britain, resulting in the Great Famine of Mount Lebanon (1915–1918) during World War I , which ran in conjunction with the Armenian genocide , the Assyrian genocide and the Greek genocide . The Mount Lebanon famine caused the highest fatality rate by population during World War I . Around 200,000 people starved to death when the population of Mount Lebanon

7100-641: The Palestinian diaspora and 6–7 million Brazilians are estimated to have Lebanese ancestry. Mass Arab immigration started in the 1890s as Lebanese and Syrian people fled from the political and economic instability which was caused by the collapse of the Ottoman Empire . These early immigrants were known as Syro-Lebanese, Lebanese and Palestinians, or Turks . According to the United States census , there were at least 3.5 million Arabs living in

7242-478: The SSNP ) against insurgents today. When the conflict in Syria began, it was reported that Christians were cautious and avoided taking sides, but that due to the increased violence in Syria and ISIL's growth, Arab Christians have shown support for Assad, fearing that if Assad is overthrown, they will be targeted. Christians support the Assad regime based on fear that the end of the current government could lead to instability. The Carnegie Middle East Center stated that

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7384-421: The Vulgate Bible , hieratic (very restrained) in the Roman Canon of the Mass , terse and technical in Thomas Aquinas 's Summa Theologica , and Ciceronian (syntactically complex) in Pope John Paul II 's encyclical letter Fides et Ratio . The use of Latin in the Church started in the late fourth century with the split of the Roman Empire after Emperor Theodosius in 395. Before this split, Greek

7526-454: The Western Roman Empire . The loss of Greek in the Western half of the Roman Empire, and the loss of Latin in the Eastern half of the Roman Empire were not immediate, but changed the culture of language as well as the development of the Church. What especially differentiates Ecclesiastical Latin from Classical Latin is the consequences of its use as a language for translating, since it has borrowed and assimilated constructions and vocabulary from

7668-467: The Xth form , or جامعة jāmiʻah 'university', based on جمع jamaʻa 'to gather, unite'; جمهورية jumhūriyyah 'republic', based on جمهور jumhūr 'multitude'). An earlier tendency was to redefine an older word although this has fallen into disuse (e.g., هاتف hātif 'telephone' < 'invisible caller (in Sufism)'; جريدة jarīdah 'newspaper' < 'palm-leaf stalk'). Colloquial or dialectal Arabic refers to

7810-515: The iPod and co-inventor of the iPhone Tony Fadell , mathematician Michael Atiyah , professor Charles Elachi , intellectual Edward Said , and Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry Elias James Corey and Nobel Prize winner in Physiology or Medicine Peter Medawar . Other notables include legendary White House reporter Helen Thomas , activist and presidential candidate Ralph Nader , judge Rosemary Barkett , and US governor and academic administrator Mitch Daniels . Arab Christians mainly belong to

7952-494: The northern Hejaz . These features are evidence of common descent from a hypothetical ancestor , Proto-Arabic . The following features of Proto-Arabic can be reconstructed with confidence: On the other hand, several Arabic varieties are closer to other Semitic languages and maintain features not found in Classical Arabic, indicating that these varieties cannot have developed from Classical Arabic. Thus, Arabic vernaculars do not descend from Classical Arabic: Classical Arabic

8094-402: The traditional English pronunciation of Latin , which has now been largely abandoned for reading Latin texts. Within the Catholic Church and in certain Protestant churches, such as the Anglican Church , a pronunciation based on modern Italian phonology , known as Italianate Latin , has become common since the late 19th century. Ecclesiastical Latin is the language of liturgical rites in

8236-488: The "association" that was accompanied by the birth of Arab nationalism and the demand for reformation in the Ottoman Empire . This led to the calling of the establishment of modern states based on Europe. It was during this stage that the first compound of the Arabic language was introduced along with the printing of it in letters, and later the movement influenced the fields of music, sculpture, history, humanities, economics and human rights. This cultural renaissance during

8378-419: The "learned" tradition (Classical Arabic). This variety and both its classicizing and "lay" iterations have been termed Middle Arabic in the past, but they are thought to continue an Old Higazi register. It is clear that the orthography of the Quran was not developed for the standardized form of Classical Arabic; rather, it shows the attempt on the part of writers to record an archaic form of Old Higazi. In

8520-730: The "purest," most eloquent form of Arabic—initiating a process of jamʿu‿l-luɣah ( جمع اللغة 'compiling the language') which took place over the 8th and early 9th centuries. Kitāb al-'Ayn ( c.  8th century ), attributed to Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi , is considered the first lexicon to include all Arabic roots ; it sought to exhaust all possible root permutations —later called taqālīb ( تقاليب ) — calling those that are actually used mustaʿmal ( مستعمَل ) and those that are not used muhmal ( مُهمَل ). Lisān al-ʿArab (1290) by Ibn Manzur gives 9,273 roots, while Tāj al-ʿArūs (1774) by Murtada az-Zabidi gives 11,978 roots. Ecclesiastical Latin Its pronunciation

8662-454: The 11th and 12th centuries in al-Andalus , the zajal and muwashah poetry forms developed in the dialectical Arabic of Cordoba and the Maghreb. The Nahda was a cultural and especially literary renaissance of the 19th century in which writers sought "to fuse Arabic and European forms of expression." According to James L. Gelvin , " Nahda writers attempted to simplify the Arabic language and script so that it might be accessible to

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8804-545: The 1st century. The interests of the Arabs before the 9th century A.D. were focused primarily on the recording and translating of pre-Islamic poetry . The early Arab Christians recorded Syriac hymns , Arabic poetry, ecclesiastical melodies, proverbs, and ḥikam (rules of governance). They did not otherwise record religion, which gave way to conflicting accounts and sparse evidence for specific practices over several centuries. From classical antiquity to modern times, Arab Christians have played important roles contributing to

8946-462: The 4th to the 6th centuries, the Nabataean script evolved into the Arabic script recognizable from the early Islamic era. There are inscriptions in an undotted, 17-letter Arabic script dating to the 6th century CE, found at four locations in Syria ( Zabad , Jebel Usays , Harran , Umm el-Jimal ). The oldest surviving papyrus in Arabic dates to 643 CE, and it uses dots to produce the modern 28-letter Arabic alphabet. The language of that papyrus and of

9088-603: The 8th century, knowledge of Classical Arabic had become an essential prerequisite for rising into the higher classes throughout the Islamic world, both for Muslims and non-Muslims. For example, Maimonides , the Andalusi Jewish philosopher, authored works in Judeo-Arabic —Arabic written in Hebrew script . Ibn Jinni of Mosul , a pioneer in phonology , wrote prolifically in the 10th century on Arabic morphology and phonology in works such as Kitāb Al-Munṣif , Kitāb Al-Muḥtasab , and Kitāb Al-Khaṣāʾiṣ    [ ar ] . Ibn Mada' of Cordoba (1116–1196) realized

9230-451: The Abyssinians and demanded independence. History records Christian influence from Ethiopia to Arab lands in pre-Islamic times, and some Ethiopian Christians may have lived in Mecca . Yemen had an important share in ancient Christianity. In the second century, the Greek theologian Pantaenus left Alexandria and headed towards Yemen as a missionary after his conversion. Historians such as Rufinus and Orosius mentioned that Matthew

9372-457: The Apostle was the missionary of Yemen and Abyssinia. A special relationship developed between the people of Yemen and the Syrian Church , as inferred by the works of Ephrem the Syrian , the biography of Simeon Stylites , and the historian Philostorgius , who said that some villages and settlements established in Yemen were Syriac -speaking. The famous Al-Qalis Church in Sana'a was built to serve aderents and to attract pilgrims travelling to

9514-425: The Arab hinterland as their political lodestar. In 1982 Israel invaded Lebanon with the aim of destroying the PLO , which it besieged in West Beirut . Israel was later obliged to withdraw as a result of multiple guerrilla attacks by the Lebanese National Resistance Front and increasing hostility across all forces in Lebanon to their presence. With the events of the Arab Spring , the Syrian Arab Christian community

9656-551: The Arab world have made significant contributions to Arab civilization since the introduction of Islam, and they have had a notable impact contributing the culture of the Mashriq . Many Arab Christians today are physicians, entertainers, philosophers, government officials and people of literature. Arab Christians throughout history have been noted for their impact on academia and literature. Arabic-speaking Christian scholars wrote extensive theological and philosophical works and treatises in Arabic in which they not only responded to

9798-432: The Arabic language, or from pre-existing Arabic-speaking communities adopting Christianity. Arab Christians include the indigenous Christian communities of Western Asia who became majority Arabic-speaking after the consequent seventh-century Muslim conquests in the Fertile Crescent . The Christian Arab presence predates the early Muslim conquests , and there were many Arab tribes that converted to Christianity, beginning in

9940-475: The Book ", Christians in the region were accorded certain rights under Islamic law to practice their religion (including having Christian law used for rulings, settlements or sentences in court). In contrast to Muslims , who paid the zakat tax, they paid the jizya , an obligatory tax. The jizya was not levied on slaves, women, children, monks, the old, the sick, hermits , or the poor. In return, non-Muslim citizens were permitted to practice their faith, to enjoy

10082-439: The Christian Salihids and Ghassanid Kingdom . There are poetic verses by the pre-Islamic poet al-Nabigha in which he praises the kings of Ghassan, congratulating them on Palm Sunday . Bordering Syria, the Sinai was administratively affiliated with the Egyptian Church based in Alexandria . There are documents from the late third century of Dionysius , Pope of Alexandria , in which he mentions his Arab Christian subjects in

10224-491: The Christian Armenians and applied to the Christians in Mount Lebanon." During the 1948 Arab–Israeli War , a number of Palestinian Greek Orthodox and Melkite communities were ethnically cleansed and driven out of their towns, including al-Bassa , Ramla , Lod , Safed , Kafr Bir'im , Iqrit , Tarbikha , Eilabun and Haifa . Many Christian towns or neighborhoods were ethnically cleansed and destroyed during

10366-654: The Dormition , Damascus , Syria Modern: Cathedral of Mary Mother of Sorrows , Baghdad , Iraq Modern: Cathedral of Evangelismos , Alexandria, Egypt Modern: Ankawa , Erbil , Iraq Modern: Syriac Catholic Cathedral of Saint Paul , Damascus , Syria Modern: Cathedral of Our Lady of Egypt , Cairo , Egypt Arabic language Arabic (endonym: اَلْعَرَبِيَّةُ , romanized :  al-ʿarabiyyah , pronounced [al ʕaraˈbijːa] , or عَرَبِيّ , ʿarabīy , pronounced [ˈʕarabiː] or [ʕaraˈbij] )

10508-883: The French text was corrected to match the Latin version, which is regarded as the official text. The Latin-language department of the Vatican Secretariat of State (formerly the Secretaria brevium ad principes et epistolarum latinarum ) is charged with the preparation in Latin of papal and curial documents. Sometimes, the official text is published in a modern language, e.g., the well-known edict Tra le sollecitudini (1903) by Pope Pius X (in Italian) and Mit brennender Sorge (1937) by Pope Pius XI (in German). There are not many differences between Classical Latin and Church Latin. One can understand Church Latin knowing

10650-680: The Israeli and Palestinian communist party . Nayif Hawatmeh is the founder and leader of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine , and Kamal Nasser and Hanan Ashrawi were members of the PLO Executive Committee . Christians developed Arabic-speaking Christian media , including various newspapers, radio stations, and television networks such as Télé Lumière , Aghapy TV , CTV , and SAT-7 , which

10792-869: The Latin of classical texts, as the main differences between the two are in pronunciation and spelling, as well as vocabulary. In many countries, those who speak Latin for liturgical or other ecclesiastical purposes use the pronunciation that has become traditional in Rome by giving the letters the value they have in modern Italian but without distinguishing between open and close ⟨e⟩ and ⟨o⟩ . ⟨ae⟩ and ⟨oe⟩ coalesce with ⟨e⟩ . ⟨c⟩ and ⟨g⟩ before ⟨ae⟩ , ⟨oe⟩ , ⟨e⟩ , ⟨y⟩ and ⟨i⟩ are pronounced /t͡ʃ/ (English ⟨ch⟩ ) and /d͡ʒ/ (English ⟨j⟩ ), respectively. ⟨ti⟩ before

10934-439: The Middle East , such as Assyrians , Armenians , Greeks and others, rejecting an Arab identity . Individuals from Egypt's Coptic Christian community and Lebanon's Maronite community sometimes assume a non-Arab identity. The history of Arab Christians coincides with the history of Christianity and the history of the Arabic language ; Arab Christian communities result either from pre-existing Christian communities adopting

11076-412: The Middle East and North Africa have become a badge of sophistication and modernity and ... feigning, or asserting, weakness or lack of facility in Arabic is sometimes paraded as a sign of status, class, and perversely, even education through a mélange of code-switching practises." Arabic has been taught worldwide in many elementary and secondary schools, especially Muslim schools. Universities around

11218-484: The Nahda led the Muslims and Christians to a cultural renaissance and national general despotism. This solidified Arab Christians as one of the pillars of the region and not a minority on the fringes. The Massacre of Aleppo of 1850 often referred to simply as The Events was a riot perpetrated by Muslim residents of Aleppo , largely from the eastern quarters of the city, against Christian residents, largely located in

11360-565: The New Testament as the Apostle Paul references his journey to Arabia following his conversion (Galatians 1: 15–17). Later, Eusebius discusses a bishop named Beryllus in the see of Bostra , the site of a synod c. 240 AD and two Councils of Arabia . The New Testament signals an early entry of Christianity among the Arabs; in addition to what was narrated by al-Tabari , Abu al-Fida , al-Maqrizi , Ibn Khaldun and al-Masoudi ,

11502-690: The Qur'an is referred to by linguists as "Quranic Arabic", as distinct from its codification soon thereafter into " Classical Arabic ". In late pre-Islamic times, a transdialectal and transcommunal variety of Arabic emerged in the Hejaz , which continued living its parallel life after literary Arabic had been institutionally standardized in the 2nd and 3rd century of the Hijra , most strongly in Judeo-Christian texts, keeping alive ancient features eliminated from

11644-736: The Qur’an . Another sect called "The Davidians" ( Al-Dāwudiyyūn ) were known for their exaggerations in honoring King David . Some contemporary historians classified it as a Judeo-Christian heresy. In Mecca , the Banu Jurhum embraced Christianity at the hands of their sixth king, Abd al-Masih ibn Baqia, and supervised the service of the Haram for a period of time. Banu Azd and Banu Khuza’a became Christians with them according to Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani . The earliest indications of Christianity in Mecca

11786-576: The Romance languages. Also, while it is comprehensible to people from the Maghreb , a linguistically innovative variety such as Moroccan Arabic is essentially incomprehensible to Arabs from the Mashriq , much as French is incomprehensible to Spanish or Italian speakers but relatively easily learned by them. This suggests that the spoken varieties may linguistically be considered separate languages. With

11928-642: The Sinai and the persecution they faced during the days of the pagan Roman emperor Diocletian . Later, forty martyrs fell in 309 in Mount Sinai during a raid by pagan Arabs on their hermitages . The monks fortified their new monasteries, and the most fortified is still in use today, Saint Catherine's Monastery , built by the commission of Roman emperor Justinian in 565. It has hosted a number of Church bishops and theologians, Ghassanid and Lakhmid kings, and pre-Islamic poets. The southern Arabian city of Najran

12070-551: The United States in the year 2000, with around 40% of them originating from Lebanon . The majority of them are members of the Christian faith, making up 63% of the overall Arab American population. Historical events that caused the mass-emigration of Arab Christians include: 1860 civil conflict in Mount Lebanon and Damascus , 1915–1918 Great Famine of Mount Lebanon , 1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight , 1956–57 exodus and expulsions from Egypt , Lebanese civil war , and

12212-739: The Yemeni Arabs in Iraq converted to Christianity, including Taym al-Lat , Kalb , Lakhm and Tanukh , and many had moved towards Bahrain by the fourth century. In Medina there was a Christian sect that was rejected by the official church and considered heretical. They deified the Virgin Mary and gave her offerings. This sect was mentioned by a number of historians, including Epiphanius and Ibn Taymiyyah , who called them "The Marians" ( Al-Maryamiyyun ). Likewise, al-Zamakhshari and al-Baydawi referred to this sect in their interpretation of

12354-716: The book appear on a page of the Vatican website. The Latinitas Foundation was superseded by the Pontifical Academy for Latin ( Latin : Pontificia Academia Latinitatis ) in 2012. Latin remains an oft-used language of the Holy See and the Latin liturgical rites of the Catholic Church. Until the 1960s and still later in Roman colleges like the Gregorian, Catholic priests studied theology using Latin textbooks and

12496-465: The connivance of the military authorities and Turkish soldiers, Druze and allied paramilitary groups organised pogroms in Damascus which lasted three days (9–11 July). By the war's end, around 20,000 Christians had been killed, and many villages and churches were destroyed. The Christian quarter of old Damascus was destroyed and houses were plundered. Historian Mikhail Mishaqas' memoir of the massacre

12638-574: The conversion of Semitic mimation to nunation in the singular. It is best reassessed as a separate language on the Central Semitic dialect continuum. It was also thought that Old Arabic coexisted alongside—and then gradually displaced— epigraphic Ancient North Arabian (ANA), which was theorized to have been the regional tongue for many centuries. ANA, despite its name, was considered a very distinct language, and mutually unintelligible, from "Arabic". Scholars named its variant dialects after

12780-550: The correct way to spell [sjeɡlo] , meaning 'century'. The writer would not have actually read it aloud as /sɛkulum/ any more than an English speaker today would pronounce ⟨knight⟩ as */knɪxt/ . The spoken version of Ecclesiastical Latin was created later during the Carolingian Renaissance . The English scholar Alcuin , tasked by Charlemagne with improving the standards of Latin writing in France, prescribed

12922-595: The culture of the Mashriq , in particular those in the Levant, Egypt and Iraq. The New Testament has a biblical account of Arab conversion to Christianity recorded in the Book of Acts . When Saint Peter preaches to the people of Jerusalem, they ask, And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born? [...] Arabians , we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God. (Acts 2:8, 11 KJV ) The first mention of Christianity in Arabia occurs in

13064-650: The disciples of Christ (including Matthew , Bartholomew and Thaddeus ) were the ones who went to Arabia as preachers of the religion. Sozomen of Gaza said that the Arabs converted to Christianity through the efforts of priests and monks who spread to Arab regions, and the strength of Christianity increased with the conversion of the major tribes. The religion was organised in many dioceses controlled by bishops and archbishops . The Arab bishops were divided into types: urban bishops residing in cities, and “tent bishops” who resided in tents and moved with their tribes from one place to another. The number of Arab bishops among

13206-587: The emergence of Central Semitic languages, particularly in grammar. Innovations of the Central Semitic languages—all maintained in Arabic—include: There are several features which Classical Arabic, the modern Arabic varieties, as well as the Safaitic and Hismaic inscriptions share which are unattested in any other Central Semitic language variety, including the Dadanitic and Taymanitic languages of

13348-913: The entire Bible, in the Douay version, verse by verse, accompanied by the Vulgate Latin of each verse. In 1976, the Latinitas Foundation ( Opus Fundatum Latinitas in Latin) was established by Pope Paul VI to promote the study and use of Latin. Its headquarters are in Vatican City . The foundation publishes an eponymous quarterly in Latin. The foundation also published a 15,000-word Italian-Latin Lexicon Recentis Latinitatis ( Dictionary of Recent Latin ), which provides Latin coinages for modern concepts, such as

13490-728: The eve of the conquests: Northern and Central (Al-Jallad 2009). The modern dialects emerged from a new contact situation produced following the conquests. Instead of the emergence of a single or multiple koines, the dialects contain several sedimentary layers of borrowed and areal features, which they absorbed at different points in their linguistic histories. According to Veersteegh and Bickerton, colloquial Arabic dialects arose from pidginized Arabic formed from contact between Arabs and conquered peoples. Pidginization and subsequent creolization among Arabs and arabized peoples could explain relative morphological and phonological simplicity of vernacular Arabic compared to Classical and MSA. In around

13632-607: The fact that they participate in the innovations common to all forms of Arabic. The earliest attestation of continuous Arabic text in an ancestor of the modern Arabic script are three lines of poetry by a man named Garm(')allāhe found in En Avdat, Israel , and dated to around 125 CE. This is followed by the Namara inscription , an epitaph of the Lakhmid king Imru' al-Qays bar 'Amro, dating to 328 CE, found at Namaraa, Syria. From

13774-639: The first Arab nationalists. As early as 1877, Maronite leader Youssef Bey Karam proposed to Emir Abdelkader the separation of the Arabic-speaking provinces from the Ottoman Empire using the terms al-gins al-'arabi ("Arab race") and gaba'il al-arabiya ("Arab tribes"). In the early 20th century, many prominent Arab nationalists were Christians, like the Syrian intellectual Constantin Zureiq , Ba'athism proponent Michel Aflaq , and Jurji Zaydan , who

13916-553: The five patriarchates of the Pentarchy primarily became Arabic-speaking after the early Muslim conquests – the Church of Alexandria , the Church of Antioch and the Church of Jerusalem – and over time many of their adherents adopted the Arabic language and culture. Separately, a number of early Arab kingdoms and tribes adopted Christianity, including the Nabataeans , Lakhmids , Salihids , Tanukhids , ʿIbādī of al-Hira , and

14058-458: The fourth most useful language for business, after English, Mandarin Chinese , and French. Arabic is written with the Arabic alphabet , an abjad script that is written from right to left . Arabic is usually classified as a Central Semitic language . Linguists still differ as to the best classification of Semitic language sub-groups. The Semitic languages changed between Proto-Semitic and

14200-527: The highest selling Middle-Eastern artist of all time. Other Lebanese singers include Majida El Roumi , legendary folk veteran Wadih El Safi , 'Queen of Arab pop' Nancy Ajram , and Lydia Canaan . Syrian notables include George Wassouf and Nassif Zeytoun . Palestinians include Lina Makhul , Fadee Andrawos , and Israeli singer Mira Awad . The Nahda (meaning "the Awakening" or "the Renaissance ")

14342-597: The inclusion of new words into their published standard dictionaries. They also publish old and historical Arabic manuscripts. In 1997, a bureau of Arabization standardization was added to the Educational, Cultural, and Scientific Organization of the Arab League . These academies and organizations have worked toward the Arabization of the sciences, creating terms in Arabic to describe new concepts, toward

14484-495: The language of instruction in many seminaries was also Latin, which was seen as the language of the Church Fathers. The use of Latin in pedagogy and in theological research, however, has since declined. Nevertheless, canon law requires for seminary formation to provide for a thorough training in Latin, though "the use of Latin in seminaries and pontifical universities has now dwindled to the point of extinction." Latin

14626-613: The language. Software and books with tapes are an important part of Arabic learning, as many of Arabic learners may live in places where there are no academic or Arabic language school classes available. Radio series of Arabic language classes are also provided from some radio stations. A number of websites on the Internet provide online classes for all levels as a means of distance education; most teach Modern Standard Arabic, but some teach regional varieties from numerous countries. The tradition of Arabic lexicography extended for about

14768-604: The late 6th century AD, a relatively uniform intertribal "poetic koine" distinct from the spoken vernaculars developed based on the Bedouin dialects of Najd , probably in connection with the court of al-Ḥīra . During the first Islamic century, the majority of Arabic poets and Arabic-writing persons spoke Arabic as their mother tongue. Their texts, although mainly preserved in far later manuscripts, contain traces of non-standardized Classical Arabic elements in morphology and syntax. Abu al-Aswad al-Du'ali ( c.  603 –689)

14910-534: The late Ottoman rule was a quantum leap for Arabs in the post-industrial revolution, and is not limited to the individual fields of cultural renaissance in the nineteenth century, as the Nahda only extended to include the spectrum of society and the fields as a whole. Christian colleges (accepting of all faiths) like Saint Joseph University , American University of Beirut (Syrian Protestant College until 1920) and Al-Hikma University in Baghdad amongst others played

15052-420: The latter is taught in formal education settings. However, there have been studies reporting some degree of comprehension of stories told in the standard variety among preschool-aged children. The relation between Modern Standard Arabic and these dialects is sometimes compared to that of Classical Latin and Vulgar Latin vernaculars (which became Romance languages ) in medieval and early modern Europe. MSA

15194-638: The mainly Muslim and Arab nationalist 'leftist' National Movement , supported by the Druze, Greek Orthodox and the Palestinian community. The war was characterized by the kidnap, rape and massacre of those caught in the wrong place as each side eliminated 'enemy' enclaves – mainly Christian or Muslim low-income areas. In Lebanon, Maronites and Melkites looked to France and the Mediterranean world, whereas most Muslims and Greek Orthodox Christians looked to

15336-661: The majority of Christians are more in support of the regime because they fear a chaotic situation or to be under the control of the Islamist Western and Turkish backed armed groups. Millions of people are descended from Arab Christians and they live outside the Middle East, in the Arab diaspora . They mainly reside in the Americas , but many people of Arab Christian descent also reside in Europe , Africa and Oceania . Among them, one million Palestinian Christians live in

15478-883: The many national or regional varieties which constitute the everyday spoken language. Colloquial Arabic has many regional variants; geographically distant varieties usually differ enough to be mutually unintelligible , and some linguists consider them distinct languages. However, research indicates a high degree of mutual intelligibility between closely related Arabic variants for native speakers listening to words, sentences, and texts; and between more distantly related dialects in interactional situations. The varieties are typically unwritten. They are often used in informal spoken media, such as soap operas and talk shows , as well as occasionally in certain forms of written media such as poetry and printed advertising. Hassaniya Arabic , Maltese , and Cypriot Arabic are only varieties of modern Arabic to have acquired official recognition. Hassaniya

15620-619: The most widely circulated Egyptian daily newspaper. Similarly, Lebanese Protestant Faris Nimr co-founded Al Muqattam in 1888, a leading Cairo -based newspaper in circulation until 1954. In Palestine, Najib Nassar 's newspaper Al-Karmil was the first anti-Zionist weekly newspaper. It appeared in Haifa in 1908 and was shut down by the British in the 1940s. Likewise, the Arab Orthodox El-Issa family from Jaffa founded

15762-782: The need for a lexical injection in Arabic, to suit concepts of the industrial and post-industrial age (such as sayyārah سَيَّارَة 'automobile' or bākhirah باخِرة 'steamship'). In response, a number of Arabic academies modeled after the Académie française were established with the aim of developing standardized additions to the Arabic lexicon to suit these transformations, first in Damascus (1919), then in Cairo (1932), Baghdad (1948), Rabat (1960), Amman (1977), Khartum  [ ar ] (1993), and Tunis (1993). They review language development, monitor new words and approve

15904-608: The northern suburbs of the predominantly Christian neighbourhood Judayde (Jdeideh) and Salibeh. The Events are considered by historians to be particularly important in Aleppian history, for they represent the first time disturbances pitted Muslims against Christians in the region. The patriarch of the Syriac Catholic Church Peter VII Jarweh was fatally wounded in the attacks and died a year later. 20–70 people died from rioting and 5,000 died as

16046-533: The official language of the Catholic Church. The Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) decreed that the Mass would be translated into vernacular languages. The Church produces liturgical texts in Latin, which provide a single clear point of reference for translations into all other languages. The same holds for the texts of canon law . Pope Benedict XVI gave his unexpected resignation speech in Latin. The Holy See has for some centuries usually drafted documents in

16188-424: The one whose sound is heard but whose person remains unseen. Now the term al-hatif is used for a telephone. Therefore, the process of tawleed can express the needs of modern civilization in a manner that would appear to be originally Arabic. In the case of Arabic, educated Arabs of any nationality can be assumed to speak both their school-taught Standard Arabic as well as their native dialects, which depending on

16330-549: The overhaul of Arabic grammar first proposed by Al-Jahiz 200 years prior. The Maghrebi lexicographer Ibn Manzur compiled Lisān al-ʿArab ( لسان العرب , "Tongue of Arabs"), a major reference dictionary of Arabic, in 1290. Charles Ferguson 's koine theory claims that the modern Arabic dialects collectively descend from a single military koine that sprang up during the Islamic conquests; this view has been challenged in recent times. Ahmad al-Jallad proposes that there were at least two considerably distinct types of Arabic on

16472-532: The period between 1948 and 1953. All the Christian residents of Safed , Beisan , Tiberias were removed, and a big percentage displaced in Haifa , Jaffa , Lydda and Ramleh . Arab Christian Constantin Zureiq was the first to coin the term "Nakba" in reference to the 1948 Palestinian exodus. In 1975, the Lebanese Civil War occurred between two broad camps, the mainly Christian 'rightist' Lebanese Front consisting of Maronites and Melkites, and

16614-656: The polemics of their Muslim adversaries, but also provided systematic apologetic discussions of the Christian faith and practice. Notable Lebanese academics in the modern era include Carmelite linguist Anastas al-Karmal , novelist Tawfiq Yusuf 'Awwad , and philologist Ibrahim al-Yaziji , whose Bible translations were among the first in the modern Arabic language. There are many New Testament translations or portions into regional colloquial forms of Arabic. Noted Palestinian physician and ethnographer Tawfiq Canaan 's academic work serves as valuable resources to researchers of Palestinian history. Jordanian historian Suleiman Mousa

16756-607: The process of Arabization, causing them gradually to adopt Arabic as a spoken, literary, and liturgical language (often alongside their ancestral tongues), and the much slower, yet persistent process of Islamization. As Muslim army commanders expanded their empire and attacked countries in Asia, North Africa and southern Europe, they would offer three conditions to their enemies: convert to Islam, pay jizya (tax) every year, or face war to death. Those who refused war and refused to convert were deemed to have agreed to pay jizya. As " People of

16898-410: The region may be mutually unintelligible. Some of these dialects can be considered to constitute separate languages which may have "sub-dialects" of their own. When educated Arabs of different dialects engage in conversation (for example, a Moroccan speaking with a Lebanese), many speakers code-switch back and forth between the dialectal and standard varieties of the language, sometimes even within

17040-682: The renewal of Arabic literature, hence their proponents referred to as writers of the "late Nahda". The Pen League was the first Arabic-language literary society in North America, formed initially by Syrians Nasib Arida and Abd al-Masih Haddad . Members of the Pen League included: Kahlil Gibran , Elia Abu Madi , Mikhail Naimy , and Ameen Rihani . Eight out of the ten members were Greek Orthodox and two were Maronite Christians. The league dissolved following Gibran's death in 1931 and Mikhail Naimy 's return to Lebanon in 1932. Naimy

17182-458: The same sentence. The issue of whether Arabic is one language or many languages is politically charged, in the same way it is for the varieties of Chinese , Hindi and Urdu , Serbian and Croatian , Scots and English, etc. In contrast to speakers of Hindi and Urdu who claim they cannot understand each other even when they can, speakers of the varieties of Arabic will claim they can all understand each other even when they cannot. While there

17324-592: The second century AD. The Nabataeans , natives of the southern Levant, also converted to Christianity in the Late Roman Period . In Palmyra and near al-Qaryatayn there are Christian monuments and the remains of churches and inscriptions that indicate the spread of the religion into Syria proper. The administration of Jordan under Roman rule was given to the Quda'a tribe. This tribe had embraced Christianity according to Ya'qubi , and were later succeeded by

17466-458: The sole example of Medieval linguist Abu Hayyan al-Gharnati – who, while a scholar of the Arabic language, was not ethnically Arab – Medieval scholars of the Arabic language made no efforts at studying comparative linguistics, considering all other languages inferior. In modern times, the educated upper classes in the Arab world have taken a nearly opposite view. Yasir Suleiman wrote in 2011 that "studying and knowing English or French in most of

17608-498: The standardization of these new terms throughout the Arabic-speaking world, and toward the development of Arabic as a world language . This gave rise to what Western scholars call Modern Standard Arabic. From the 1950s, Arabization became a postcolonial nationalist policy in countries such as Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, and Sudan. Arabic usually refers to Standard Arabic, which Western linguists divide into Classical Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic. It could also refer to any of

17750-820: The term Allah in Arab churches predates Islam . During the Islamic Golden Age , Christians contributed to the Islamic civilization in various fields, and the institution known as the House of Wisdom employed Christian scholars to translate works into Arabic and to develop new knowledge. Arab Christians have always been the go-between the Islamic world and the Christian West, mainly down to mutual religious affinity. The Greek Orthodox share Orthodox ties with Russia and Greece ; whilst Melkites and Maronites share Catholic bonds with Italy, Vatican and France. Scholars and intellectuals agree Christians in

17892-501: The towns where the inscriptions were discovered (Dadanitic, Taymanitic, Hismaic, Safaitic). However, most arguments for a single ANA language or language family were based on the shape of the definite article, a prefixed h-. It has been argued that the h- is an archaism and not a shared innovation, and thus unsuitable for language classification, rendering the hypothesis of an ANA language family untenable. Safaitic and Hismaic, previously considered ANA, should be considered Old Arabic due to

18034-479: The vernacular has predominated since the liturgical reforms that followed the Second Vatican Council: liturgical law for the Latin Church states that Mass may be celebrated either in Latin or another language in which the liturgical texts, translated from Latin, have been legitimately approved. The permission granted for continued use of the Tridentine Mass in its 1962 form authorizes use of

18176-451: The world have classes that teach Arabic as part of their foreign languages , Middle Eastern studies , and religious studies courses. Arabic language schools exist to assist students to learn Arabic outside the academic world. There are many Arabic language schools in the Arab world and other Muslim countries. Because the Quran is written in Arabic and all Islamic terms are in Arabic, millions of Muslims (both Arab and non-Arab) study

18318-419: Was a cultural renaissance that began in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It began in the wake of the exit of Muhammad Ali of Egypt from the Levant in 1840. Beirut , Cairo , Damascus and Aleppo were the main centers of the renaissance and this led to the establishment of schools, universities, theater and printing presses. This awakening led to the emergence of a politically active movement known as

18460-544: Was entirely Christian when Dhu al-Nawas converted to Judaism , and that the people of Najran refused to convert to his faith, so he massacred them. The victims were mentioned by Ibn Ishaq and named in the Quran as the " People of the Ditch ". The Byzantine emperor Justin I was enraged and encouraged Kaleb of Axum to occupy Yemen and eliminate the Jewish king. Dhu al-Nawas was later deposed and killed, prompting Kaleb to appoint

18602-644: Was estimated to be 400,000 people. The Lebanese diaspora in Egypt funded the shipping of food supplies to Mount Lebanon, sent via the Syrian Island town of Arwad . On 26 May 1916, Lebanese-American writer Khalil Gibran wrote a letter to Mary Haskell that read: "The famine in Mount Lebanon has been planned and instigated by the Turkish government. Already 80,000 have succumbed to starvation and thousands are dying every single day. The same process happened with

18744-600: Was heavily hit in line with other Christian communities of Syria, being victimized by the war and specifically targeted as a minority by Jihadist forces. Many Christians, including Arab Christians, were displaced or fled Syria over the course of the Syrian Civil War , however the majority stayed and continue to fight with the Syrian Armed Forces and the allied Eagles of the Whirlwind (armed wing of

18886-487: Was made famous by the religious persecution of Christians by one of the kings of Yemen, Dhu Nuwas , who was an enthusiastic convert to Judaism . The leader of the Arabs of Najran during the period, al-Ḥārith, was canonized by the Catholic Church as Arethas . Aretas was the leader of the Christians of Najran in the early 6th century and was executed during the massacre of Christians by the king in 523. Ibn Khaldun , Ibn Hisham and Yaqut al-Hamawi mentioned that Najran

19028-755: Was made famous internationally for his spiritual writings, most notably The Book of Mirdad . Notable diaspora figures include Swiss businessman of Lebanese Greek Orthodox descent Nicolas Hayek , and Mexican business magnate of Maronite descent, Carlos Slim . From 2010 to 2013, Slim was ranked as the richest person in the world by the Forbes magazine. Figures in entertainment include actors Omar Sharif (Melkite-born), Jamie Farr , Salma Hayek , Tony Shalhoub , Vince Vaughn , Danny Thomas , Oscar award winner F. Murray Abraham and film director Youssef Chahine . Figures in academics include plant biologist Joanne Chory , scholar Nassim Nicholas Taleb , cardiac and vascular surgeon Michael DeBakey , inventor of

19170-406: Was partly standardized in the late 8th century during the Carolingian Renaissance as part of Charlemagne 's educational reforms, and this new letter-by-letter pronunciation, used in France and England, was adopted in Iberia and Italy a couple of centuries afterwards. As time passed, pronunciation diverged depending on the local vernacular language, giving rise to even highly divergent forms such as

19312-491: Was reputed to be the first Arab nationalist. Khalil al-Sakakini , a prominent Palestinian Jerusalemite , was Arab Orthodox, as was George Antonius , Lebanese author of The Arab Awakening . Grégoire Haddad , known as the "Red Bishop of Beirut", founded the "Lebanese Social Movement" with Shiite Imam Musa al-Sadr in 1960, and promoted in the following years Islamic-Christian dialogue. The first Syrian nationalists were also Christian. Although both Lebanese, Antoun Saadeh

19454-407: Was spoken. The use of Latin in the Western Church continued into the Early modern period . One of Martin Luther 's tenets during the Reformation was to have services and religious texts in the common tongue , rather than Latin, a language that at the time, many did not understand. Protestants refrained from using Latin in services, however Protestant clergy had to learn and understand Latin as it

19596-418: Was still spoken in recent international gatherings of Catholic leaders, such as the Second Vatican Council , and it is still used at conclaves to elect a new Pope . The Tenth Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in 2004 was the most recent to have a Latin-language group for discussions. Although Latin is the traditional liturgical language of the Western (Latin) Church , the liturgical use of

19738-538: Was the founder behind the Syrian Social Nationalist Party and Butrus al-Bustani is considered to be the first Syrian nationalist. Sa'adeh rejected Pan-Arabism and argued instead for the creation of a "United Syrian Nation" or "Natural Syria" . George Habash , founder of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine was Arab Orthodox, and so was Wadie Haddad , the leader of the PFLP's armed wing. Influential Palestinian Christians such as Tawfik Toubi , Daud Turki , Emile Touma and Emile Habibi became leaders of

19880-414: Was the language of higher learning and theological thought until the 18th century. After the Reformation , in the Lutheran churches , Latin was retained as the language of the Mass for weekdays, although for the Sunday Sabbath, the Deutsche Messe was to be said. In Geneva , among the Reformed churches , "persons called before the consistory to prove their faith answered by reciting the Paternoster ,

20022-449: Was the only author to write about Lawrence of Arabia and show the Arab perspective. Mousa noted that there were many books written to praise Lawrence, and all of them exaggerated his part in the Arab Revolt and failed to do justice to the Arabs themselves. Syrian writers include scholar Francis Marrash and writer Hanna Mina , described in Literature from the "Axis of Evil" as the country's most prominent. Arab Christians were among

20164-403: Was the primary language of the Church (the New Testament was written in Greek and the Septuagint – a Greek translation of the Hebrew bible – was in widespread use among both Christians and Hellenized Jews ) as well as the language of the eastern half of the Roman Empire . Following the split, early theologians like Jerome translated Greek and Hebrew texts into Latin, the dominant language of

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