103-679: The Banu Munqidh ( Arabic : بنو منقذ , romanized : Banū Munqidh ), also referred to as the Munqidhites , were an Arab family that ruled an emirate in the Orontes Valley in northern Syria from the mid-11th century until the family's demise in an earthquake in 1157 . The emirate was initially based in Kafartab before the Banu Munqidh took over the fortress of Shayzar in 1081 and made it their headquarters for
206-575: 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
309-681: A combination of wealth, diplomatic acumen and military skills, the Banu Munqidh survived as a local power and successfully resisted attempts by the Crusaders and stronger Syrian Muslim dynasties to seize their strategic fortress in Shayzar. Among their allies and enemies alike, the Banu Munqidh gained a reputation for "martial valor, honor, piety and courtly refinement" in the words of historian Adnan Husain. Their rural lands, which were largely populated by Greek Orthodox Christians , were distinguished for their well-kept and prosperous state. From early on,
412-527: A consequence, Usama and his brothers were exiled from Shayzar, finding asylum with Nur al-Din , the Zengid emir of Aleppo. After Sultan's death in 1154, Taj al-Mulk Muhammad succeeded him without incident. Taj al-Mulk, his children, and all members of the Banu Munqidh present in Shayzar, except for Taj al-Dawla's wife, died in the collapse of the Shayzar citadel during the August 1157 earthquake , which devastated
515-435: 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
618-551: A few smaller places, in addition to Shayzar and Kafartab. Ali was succeeded by his son Nasr. The principal challenge the Banu Munqidh faced during Nasr's reign was the expansion of Seljuk rule into Syria. Like during their previous encounter with the Uqaylids, the family employed the same strategy of paying a large sum of money to stave off an attack by the Seljuk ruler Sulayman ibn Qutulmush in 1085. Moreover, Nasr's conviction that
721-775: A greater level of security for the family's domains. This was interrupted by a short siege of Shayzar by the Imad al-Din's principal Muslim rival, the Burid ruler of Damascus Shams al-Mulk Isma'il , in 1133 and a greater crisis by the Byzantine–Crusader siege of Shayzar in 1138 led by John II Komnenos . The Byzantine-led army initially attacked the Banu Munqidh-held forts of Kafartab and Hisn al-Jisr, causing their inhabitants to flee, before proceeding in their assault against Shayzar. Arabic and Greek sources both indicate that
824-487: 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
927-635: A long period of stability and prosperity beginning in 1138. Shayzar and it's dependencies remained under the control of Sultan who ruled under the authority of the Zengid dynasty. However, in 1140/41 the Ismai'ils captured the fortress of Masyaf from the Banu Munqidh, who had purchased it in 1127/28. It thereafter became the Isma'ilis' main stronghold in Syria. This generally peaceful period also coincided with tensions between Sultan and his nephews. Murshid's position as
1030-690: 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
1133-545: A number of other towns in the area. This brought an end to their rule of the Shayzar principality, which was soon after seized by Nur al-Din to prevent its capture by the Crusaders. Nur al-Din did not seek to find any surviving members of the Banu Munqidh to resume their lordship of Shayzar, whose fortifications he had promptly restored. Instead, he handed the town over to a certain Sabiq al-Din Uthman ibn al-Daya. The latter's family,
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#17327730538541236-473: A recurrence. The following year, a Muslim–Crusader coalition composed of Roger of Antioch , Toghtekin of Damascus and Ilghazi of Mardin besieged Shayzar in response to the plans of the Banu Munqidh's ally Mawdud of Mosul to conquer Syria. In 1127 Sultan put the Banu Munqidh under the suzerainty of the ascendant Muslim ruler of Mosul and Aleppo, founder of the Zengid dynasty Imad al-Din , which allowed for
1339-462: 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",
1442-470: 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
1545-507: 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
1648-507: 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
1751-557: A wide reputation for martial valor, honor, piety, and courtly refinement" by historian Adnan Husain. From the citadel of Shayzar, perched on a rocky hilly enveloped by the Orontes River, the Banu Munqidh ruled a relatively a small emirate largely inhabited by Greek Orthodox Christians. Throughout their rule, their emirate was surrounded by frequently hostile powers, whether local or regional Muslim lords, Crusader principalities, or Bedouin tribes. In addition to their military abilities,
1854-476: 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
1957-590: 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
2060-559: 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
2163-478: 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
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#17327730538542266-408: 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
2369-472: 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
2472-478: 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 is the third most widespread official language after English and French, one of six official languages of
2575-523: Is first mentioned in c. 960 when he was taken captive by the Byzantines during an attack against the Hamdanid rulers of northern Syria in which the prominent Hamdanid poet and governor Abu Firas al-Hamdani was also captured. It was not until the 11th century that the Banu Munqidh emerged in regional politics. At that time, the family entered the service of Salih ibn Mirdas , founder of
2678-574: 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
2781-906: 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
2884-777: 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 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
2987-590: 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
3090-413: 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
3193-524: 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
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3296-445: 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
3399-584: The Aleppo -based Mirdasid dynasty . According to the historian Suhayl Zakkar, the Banu Munqidh were numerous and strong enough at the time to "play an influential role in the life of the Mirdasid dynasty". Upon capturing Aleppo in 1025, Salih granted the Munqhidite chieftain, Muqallad ibn Nasr ibn Munqidh, the lands around Shayzar as an iqṭāʿ (land tax grant; plural: iqṭāʿat ); the town of Shayzar itself
3502-720: The Ayyubid sultans as governors, administrators or envoys in the late 12th and early 13th centuries. The Banu Munqidh were an Arab family belonging to the Kinana branch of the Banu Kalb tribe. Although the Banu Kalb were largely concentrated around Damascus in the late 10th century, the Kinana inhabited the eastern environs of the Orontes River in northern Syria . A member of the family, Ali ibn Munqidh ibn Nasr al-Kinani,
3605-681: The Banu al-Daya , remained the lords of Shayzar through Ayyubid rule until 1233. Among those of the Banu Munqidh who were not present during the earthquake was Usama, who became the best known member of the family. He left the Zengids' service in 1164 to work for the Artuqids of Hisn Kayfa , where he remained for ten years. Afterward, through his son Murhaf's good offices with the Ayyubid sultan Saladin , who had taken over Damascus in 1174, he entered
3708-580: The Battle of Manzikert in 1071. In 1076, Ali began the construction of the Hisn al-Jisr fortress, which would limit Shayzar's access to the Orontes River. Hisn al-Jisr was used to hamper the flow of supplies into Shayzar from the Byzantine mainland. At the time, it was also utilized by Ali for diplomatic efforts amid the struggle for Syria between the ascendant Seljuks and their opponents. In 1078/79, he sheltered
3811-733: The Isma'ili da'i of Aleppo, Ibrahim, when the Assassins fled Seljuk persecution by Alp Arslan al-Akhras in 1113. Usama ibn Munqidh's accounts show the family were avid hunters and went on expeditions in the wetlands of the Orontes valley west of Shayzar and in the hills south of the city. The expeditions were led by the heads of the family, who led retinues containing tens of horsemen, including relatives and mamluks . Equipped with various birds of prey, dogs, and cheetahs, they hunted francolin , waterfowl, hares, wild boars and partridges. However,
3914-568: 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
4017-501: The coastal mountains of northern Syria and the newly arrived Crusaders . During Sultan's reign, the Banu Munqidh had become more numerous and Sultan chiefly depended on his own kinsmen in confrontations with the constellation of powers, local and regional, that controlled northern Syria. He could also rely on his Kinana tribesmen and the militia of Shayzar. To a much lesser extent the family recruited Kurdish mercenaries and Turkish mamluks (slave soldiers). Meanwhile, an alliance
4120-494: 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
4223-419: 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
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4326-746: 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. Shayzar Too Many Requests If you report this error to
4429-454: 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
4532-519: 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
4635-834: 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
4738-644: The Banu Kilab, who favored Sabiq's brother Waththab. After a number of major battles between the opposing sides and amid severe famine in Aleppo, Muslim ibn Quraysh , the Uqaylid emir of Mosul saw an opportunity to take the city. In the aftermath of his entry into Aleppo in 1080 and the refusal of the Mirdasids to surrender the citadel, Ali intervened to mediate between the two sides. Ultimately, Ali facilitated
4841-603: The Banu Munqidh and Baldwin II enabled Usama ibn Munqidh to play a mediating role in the diplomatic negotiations of the early 1130s between Baldwin II and Taj al-Muluk Buri , the Burid ruler of Damascus in whose court Usama served. Despite generally peaceful relations with the Crusaders, the Banu Munqidh remained loyal to their Muslim suzerains, fighting alongside the Muslim rulers of Aleppo and Damascus in their battles and campaigns against
4944-533: The Banu Munqidh and the people of Shayzar resisted the siege and the Byzantines' catapults for several days before John II's army withdrew. However, the Arabic sources claim the Byzantines left after hearing of the arrival of Zengid reinforcements, while the Greek sources claim the withdrawal was precipitated by a Zengid attack on Edessa and Sultan's offer to pay off John II. The domain of the Banu Munqidh entered
5047-460: The Banu Munqidh continued paying the annual tribute to Antioch. Shayzar also became a target of the Isma'ilis subsequent to their exodus to the coastal mountains due to persecution they faced in Syria's major cities. They attempted to seize Shayzar in 1114 while the Banu Munqidh family were away participating in the Easter celebrations of their Orthodox Christian subjects. The attack was launched by
5150-401: The Banu Munqidh's second highest-ranking leader enabled the latter's sons, including Usama , to rise politically within the emirate. They gained a reputation for their martial and diplomatic skills and Sultan viewed their prominence as a threat to his leadership. These tensions culminated after Murshid's death in 1136/37 and the birth of Sultan's son Taj al-Mulk Muhammad in the following year. As
5253-663: The Banu Munqidh's wealth. Arabic language Arabic (endonym: اَلْعَرَبِيَّةُ , romanized : al-ʿarabiyyah , pronounced [al ʕaraˈbijːa] , or عَرَبِيّ , ʿarabīy , pronounced [ˈʕarabiː] or [ʕaraˈbij] ) 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
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#17327730538545356-524: The Crusaders in 1111, 1115 and 1119. The family also fended off Crusader attacks against their domains between 1122 and 1124. The family maintained friendly ties with a number of the semi-independent Muslim lords of other fortress towns who shared their social standing, including the Fatimid lord Iftikhar al-Dawla of Abu Qubays and the Banu Salim ibn Malik family of Qal'at Ja'bar . The former's sister
5459-412: 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
5562-690: 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
5665-576: 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
5768-525: The Seljuks could not be defeated led him to cede his family's territories in Latakia, Apamea and Kafartab to the sultanate in exchange for their firm recognition of the Banu Munqidh's possession of Shayzar in 1086/87. Through his good offices with the Seljuk ruler of Aleppo, Aq Sunqur al-Hajib , he was able to return the ceded towns to the Banu Munqidh in 1091. However, in 1096 Apamea and Kafartab were lost to
5871-444: 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 a result, many European languages have borrowed words from it. Arabic influence, mainly in vocabulary,
5974-429: The anonymous Syriac Chronicle of 1234 as "a good sort of people, friendly to all and good mediators at any time". The Banu Munqidh often provided asylum for refugees and exiles. In 1041, they gave temporary refuge in Kafartab to the Fatimid governor of Syria, Anushtakin al-Dizbari , when he was ousted from Damascus and then escorted him safely to the Citadel of Aleppo . Al-Dizbari had been denied refuge in Hama and
6077-418: The city's surrender to Ibn Quraysh in return for the allotment of iqṭāʿat to the Mirdasids in Aleppo's hinterland. Meanwhile, the Banu Munqidh led renewed efforts to capture the Shayzar fortress in what historian Hugh N. Kennedy described as a "long, drawn out process". The catalyst of these efforts was the weakening grip of the Byzantines in northern Syria following their defeat by the Seljuk Sultanate at
6180-509: 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
6283-430: The detriment of the [Banu] Kilab , a lordship over the middle Orontes [valley]." The Banu Kilab were the Bedouin tribe to which the Mirdasids belonged, and a branch of the tribe, the Ja'far, dwelt in the middle Orontes. During the chaotic succession process following Mahmud's death, Ali was instrumental in installing Mahmud's son Sabiq as Aleppo's emir in 1076. However, Sabiq's succession was opposed by other Mirdasids and
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#17327730538546386-412: 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
6489-413: The emirate extending from the Mediterranean port of Latakia to Apamea . The Seljuk conquest of Syria in 1085 and subsequent struggles with local Muslim lords reduced the Munqidh emirate to Shayzar and its environs. Under Emir Sultan ibn Ali ( r. 1098–1154 ), the Banu Munqidh alternated between combating the Crusaders who landed in Syria in 1099 and paying tribute to them. During this period,
6592-728: 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
6695-447: 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
6798-440: The families of the Seljuks' Turkish opponents from Aleppo and he hosted the Seljuk general Afshin, persuading him to spare both Kafartab and Byzantine Shayzar from his pillaging. These were early demonstrations of how "diplomatic skills, more than military power, enabled the Banu Munqidh to maintain their precarious independence", according to Kennedy. The Banu Munqidh's pressure on Shayzar compelled its Byzantine rulers to surrender
6901-399: The family also had to contend with Ismai'li newcomers encroaching on their domains. To firmly protect the emirate, Sultan ultimately put the Banu Munqidh under Zengid suzerainty. After the death of Emir Muhammad ibn Sultan ( r. 1154–1157 ) and his family in the 1157 earthquake, the emirate passed to the Zengid emir Nur al-Din , who granted it to the Banu al-Daya family. Through
7004-414: The family often pursued diplomacy and alliances with their larger neighbors. Their martial skills and diplomatic maneuvers enabled their survival. According to an account of a conversation between an emissary of Roger of Antioch and Sultan in 1116, the lands of the Banu Munqidh were developed and prosperous, distinguishing them from the ruinous state of the surrounding region. This was an apparent testament to
7107-443: The family was also known to provide refuge for a wide array of people, ranging from Muslim refugees fleeing Crusader assaults or exiled Muslim generals, officials and other dignitaries. The best-known member of the family, Usama ibn Munqidh (1095–1188), went on to have a proficient career in literature and diplomacy, serving the courts of the Fatimids , Zengids and Artuqids . He and a number of his Munqidhite kinsmen ultimately served
7210-494: The family's Arab rival, Khalaf ibn Mula'ib , the formerly semi-independent lord of Homs . Ibn Mula'ib was a former subordinate of Nasr who he gradually had to contend with as a frequently hostile neighbor of the Banu Munqidh. In one encounter, Nasr was badly defeated in an ambush by Ibn Mula'ib during an attack outside Shayzar. In 1098, Nasr died and the lordship of Shayzar passed to his brothers. For unknown reasons, Nasr's brother and chosen successor, Murshid, withdrew himself from
7313-430: The family's other erstwhile rivals, the Turkish Ibn Qaraja emirs of Hama and Homs. The principal Crusader threat to the Banu Munqidh was posed by the neighboring Principality of Antioch . The ruler of Antioch, Tancred attacked and plundered the Banu Munqidh's emirate in 1110 and imposed a heavy tribute on Shayzar, a testament to its wealth at the time. The following year, Tancred built the Tell Ibn Ma'shar fortress along
7416-493: The family's territory. Shortly after, when the Crusaders encamped along the Orontes near Shayzar, Sultan, alarmed at their proximity to his fortress, threatened to ban trade with them unless they withdrew further south. He sent them two guides who led them southward to a valley where they could plunder. The accord with the newly arrived Crusaders in Ma'arrat al-Nu'man spared Shayzar the Crusaders' devastating raids. Intermittent warfare in
7519-465: The form of raids and clashes partly characterized the contact between the Banu Munqidh and the Crusader states, but they largely maintained practical ties. In 1108, a large annual tribute was imposed by the Crusaders on the Banu Munqidh. In addition to the financial sums, they also had to provide guides for the emissaries of the neighboring Principality of Antioch on their way to Jerusalem . The family
7622-634: The fortress to Ali in December 1081 in exchange for an unknown sum and guarantees of upkeep of the local bishop's home. Shayzar became the center of the Munqidhite emirate (principality). The family under Ali soon after faced a siege by the Uqaylids but leveraged their significant wealth to settle with Ibn Quraysh. By the time of Ali's death in 1082, the Munqidhite emirate extended to the Mediterranean port town of Latakia and included Apamea and
7725-510: 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
7828-742: 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
7931-417: The governments of the Ayyubid sultans al-Adil ( r. 1200–1218 ) and al-Kamil ( r. 1218–1238 ). He died shortly after being appointed governor of Harran in 1229. The Banu Munqidh initially reacted to the Crusader invasion of coastal Syria by offering the Crusaders in early 1099 a tributary arrangement, the provisioning of food supplies, and protection for Christian pilgrims passing through
8034-597: 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
8137-613: 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
8240-604: 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)
8343-420: 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
8446-661: The latter's service. By 1176 Usama was forced into retirement, during which time he composed his anthology Lubab al-adab and memoirs, Kitab al-I'tibar , the latter of which is an important historical source for the Crusades. Usama's nephew Abd al-Rahman ibn Muhammad (d. 1201) served as Saladin's envoy to the Almohad Caliphate in the Maghreb . Usama's cousins Mubarak ibn Kamil ibn Ali and Hittan ibn Kamil ibn Ali had been part of Saladin's administration in Egypt. In 1174
8549-485: The line of succession in favor of his younger brother Sultan, who had served as the Banu Munqidh's governor in Latakia. Murshid maintained a prominent leadership role as his then-childless brother's deputy. At the turn of the 11th century, the Banu Munqidh's possessions were under threat not only by their Turkish suzerains, but also the encroachments of the Banu Kilab, the growing presence of the Nizari Ismailis in
8652-883: 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
8755-782: 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
8858-424: 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
8961-549: 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
9064-410: 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
9167-479: The remainder of their rule. The capture of Shayzar was the culmination of a long, drawn-out process beginning with the Banu Munqidh's nominal assignment to the land by the Mirdasid emir of Aleppo in 1025, and accelerating with the weakened grip of Byzantine rule in northern Syria in the 1070s. Under the reign of Emir Ali ibn Muqallad ( r. 1059–1082 ), the Banu Munqidh reached their territorial peak with
9270-458: 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
9373-458: 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
9476-563: 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
9579-447: The town's Isma'ili inhabitants, who had been generally well-tolerated by the Banu Munqidh. About one hundred Isma'ilis seized the citadel, expelling its residents. A bloody struggle ensued upon the Banu Munqidh's return to Shayzar, and involved the participation of the family's women. The Ismai'ili attackers were all killed by the Banu Munqidh, as well as all the Isma'ilis living in Shayzar. The family applied unspecified measures to prevent
9682-501: 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
9785-488: The two brothers accompanied the Ayyubid emir Turan Shah in the conquest of Yemen, where they each successively served as governors of Zabid . While Mubarak returned to Egypt and served in a high-ranking administrative position until his death in 1193, Hittan was ultimately executed in 1183/84 for the harshness of his rule and conflicts with other Ayyubid lieutenant governors in Yemen. Mubarak's son Jamal al-Din Isma'il served in
9888-411: The ultimate prey of the Munqidhite emirs were lions and leopards, the slaying of which were an apparent symbol and function of the emir's authority. According to Kennedy, "killing lions and leopards" was "one of the ways" an emir "demonstrated his protection of and care for the people who lived on his lands". The Banu Munqidh were described as an "elite, patrician family of well-known warriors who enjoyed
9991-506: The west bank of the Orontes, across from Shayzar, to prepare an assault against the city. Sultan reached out to Mawdud , the Seljuk ruler of Mosul, for military support, while Tancred gathered a larger Crusader coalition including the rulers of Jerusalem and Tripoli . In the ensuing Battle of Shayzar , which according to Kennedy was more of "a prolonged confrontation" than a battle, the Crusader armies retreated in October 1111. Nonetheless,
10094-451: 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
10197-454: Was escorted to Kafartab by Muqallad and 2,000 of his men. The size of Muqallad's force was indicative of the Banu Munqidh's size and power at the time, according to Zakkar. Later, in the Crusader era, the Banu Munqidh gave refuge to Muslim families fleeing the siege of Ma'arrat al-Nu'man in 1098; the son of their erstwhile rival Khalaf ibn Mula'ib of Apamea in 1106; the ousted Muslim ruler of Tripoli, qadi Fakhr al-Mulk ibn Ammar , in 1109; and
10300-429: Was formed with Ibn Mula'ib despite the wounding of Sultan and Murshid in a battle with him in 1104. Together, the Banu Munqidh and Ibn Mula'ib attacked a small Crusader-held fort in their region in 1106, but Ibn Mula'ib betrayed the Banu Munqidh by deserting and stealing their horses. Before the family could retaliate, Ibn Mula'ib was killed by an Ismai'il assassin. At this time, friendly relations were also established with
10403-434: Was in Byzantine hands, however. With their assignment to Shayzar being in name only, the Banu Munqidh instead used Kafartab as their headquarters. Muqallad died in 1059, after which his son Sadid al-Mulk Ali inherited his iqṭāʿ . Tensions with the Mirdasid emir of Aleppo, Mahmud ibn Nasr , led Ali to depart Aleppo for Tripoli . The historian Thierry Bianquis notes that Ali afterward "was able to carve out for himself, to
10506-451: Was married to Sultan and the emirs of Qal'at Ja'bar shared similar Arab tribal origins as the Banu Munqidh. The Banu Munqidh's emirs paid visits to Iftikhar al-Dawla, while keeping frequent contact with Shihab al-Din Salim ibn Malik via letters, couriers, and the exchange of gifts. The emirs of Qal'at Ja'bar played a similar diplomatic role as the Banu Munqidh and both families were described in
10609-480: Was particularly close to King Baldwin II of Jerusalem ( r. 1118–1131 ) and hosted him in Shayzar in 1124 at the request of his Muslim captor and ruler of Aleppo, Timurtash, son of Ilghazi, during negotiations for Baldwin II's release. Sultan and Murshid successfully mediated the ransom for Baldwin II's freedom. Subsequent to his release, Baldwin II relieved the Banu Munqidh of their tribute and services in appreciation of their generosity. The bonds forged between
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