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157-537: The Arabic word saqifa denotes a covered communal place for conversation but the term is synonymous in historical texts with the specific meeting immediately after Muhammad's death in which his succession was debated. The earliest reports about the Saqifa affair were put into writing in the first half of the second century AH or later. By this time, the Muslim community was firmly divided into Sunni and Shia camps. As

314-556: A bowl of meat stew or clarified butter or milk to Muhammad, who took it with him as he visited each of his wives in turn. From March 624 until May 627 Sa'd hosted al-Miqdad ibn Amr and Khabbab ibn al-Aratt in his home. At the Battle of the Ditch he supplied the army with a load of dates. Soon after Muhammad's arrival in Medina, Sa'd fell sick. He received a visit from Muhammad, who

471-679: A broad shura in favor of Ali. For Keaney, the Meccan elite were concerned that Ali's caliphate would have kept the future leadership of the community out of their hands and within the Banu Hashim. Lammens believes that Arabs disliked hereditary leadership while Madelung limits this attitude to Bedouin Arabs. Among the Quraysh, he argues, hereditary leadership was not uncommon, reflecting their belief that noble qualities were inherited. This view

628-575: 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

785-518: A contract between "Muhammad ibn Abdullah and Suhayl". The Jews of Khaybar had an alliance with the Ghatafan tribe, so Muhammad sent Sa'd to the Ghatafan chief to pay them to forsake the alliance. The chief refused this offer. Sa'd was wounded in the battle, but nevertheless carried the flag in the subsequent attack on Wadi'l-Qura . When the Quraysh reminded Muhammad to leave Mecca after

942-435: 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

1099-472: A couple of years earlier. Muhammad only answered, "God is greater! Be of good cheer, you Muslims." When Sa'd ibn Mu'adh pronounced the death-sentence on the Qurayza tribe, Sa'd ibn Ubadah and Habab ibn Mundhir came to tell Muhammad: "The Aws tribe detest the killing of the Qurayza tribe because we have such an important alliance." Sa'd ibn Mu'adh countered: "The good Aws do not detest it. May God disappoint

1256-1081: 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

1413-597: A formal assembly. In terms of merits, the same arguments that favored Abu Bakr over the Ansar (kinship, service to Islam, lineage, etc.) would have likely favored Ali over Abu Bakr, as often evoked by Shia authors in support of Ali's right to succession. For Jafri, the Sunni arguments that justify Abu Bakr's caliphate on the basis that he led the prayer in Muhammad's final days reflect later theological developments. He also finds

1570-696: A friend from Mecca gave Sa'd a sheep, which he slaughtered and shared with all the Muslims. When the Treaty of Hudaybiya was being written, Suhayl ibn Amr referred to Muhammad as "Muhammad ibn Abdullah" because he did not believe he was God's Messenger. Sa'd ibn Ubadah and Usayd ibn Hudayr seized the clerk’s hand and warned him: "Write 'Muhammad, the Messenger of God' or the sword will be between us. We won't allow this insult to our religion!" Muhammad tried to calm them and gestured for quiet, before agreeing to write

1727-581: A gift of dates and ten camels for slaughter, "What a good man Sa'd ibn Ubadah is! The best of the people in Islam are those who were the best in the Jahiliya when they understand the religion." On the way to the Farewell Pilgrimage , Sa'd heard that Abu Bakr had lost his camel. He and his son Qays came at once to Muhammad to give him a new camel laden with provisions. Muhammad tried to refuse

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1884-487: 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

2041-671: A little money to put myself right and put right with it." He was annoyed when Muhammad once described the Abdulashhal clan as the best of the Ansar , followed by the Najjar, the Harith, the Sa'ida and then all the rest. He asked, "Are we only fourth?" and had to be dissuaded from confronting Muhammad about it to his face. Sa'd had commercial relationships with Mecca . He guaranteed the safety of

2198-409: A loud quarrel in the mosque. Usayd ibn Hudayr retorted, "Liar yourself! We would certainly kill him, despite your efforts. You are a hypocrite who defends hypocrites! By God, if the Messenger desired the head of my closest relative, I would bring it to him before he could stand up. But I don’t know what the Messenger wants." Sa'ad told him: "You Aws insist on treating us with the resentment that

2355-690: 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

2512-594: 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

2669-573: A result, prominent men ceased to speak to Ali, as related in a Sunni hadith attributed to Aisha . Those who initially supported Ali gradually turned away and pledged their allegiance to Abu Bakr, adds Jafri. At the same time, Ali turned down proposals to advance his claims by force, possibly for the unity of a nascent Islam. While there is considerable uncertainty about the events, Ali most likely did not pledge allegiance to Abu Bakr until his wife Fatima died within six months of her father Muhammad, as reported by some canonical Sunni works. In Shia sources,

2826-503: A result, the reports of the Sunni Ibn Sa'd ( d.  230/845 ), al-Baladhuri ( d.  279/892 ), and even al-Tabari ( d.  310/923 ) reflect the Sunni beliefs, while those authors with Shia sympathies favored their views, including Ibn Ishaq ( d.  151/768 ), al-Ya'qubi ( d.  284/897-8 ), and al-Mas'udi ( d.  345/956 ). Jafri thus emphasizes the need for surveying all reports to obtain

2983-462: 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",

3140-470: 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

3297-593: A sound account of the event. For instance, Ibn Sa'd presents a highly polemic account of the Saqifa affair in his Kitab al-Tabaqat al-kabir , where Ali is absent in particular. Jafri regards him as a pioneer of the Sunni "pious" technique, which preserves only the best qualities of companions and suppresses any controversial reports. Similarly, the late works of the Shia al-Tabarsi ( d.  548/1153 ) and al-Majlesi ( d.  1699 ) are polemic in nature with little historical value, claims Jafri. The earliest report

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3454-507: 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

3611-509: A valuable palm-tree garden. Sa'd fought in most of Muhammad's battles. He is listed at Uhud , at Dumat al-Jandal , at the Battle of the Ditch , at Muraysi , at Khaybar , at the Conquest of Mecca , (at the last three of which he carried the Ansars' banner), at Hunayn and at Ta'if . When Muhammad heard that Abu Sufyan 's caravan was returning from Syria , he consulted

3768-507: 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

3925-472: A veteran of the Battle of Badr , countered Abu Bakr with the suggestion that the Quraysh and the Ansar should choose their separate rulers among themselves. A heated argument then followed, reports Umar, until he asked Abu Bakr to stretch his hand and pledged allegiance to him. Others followed suit, he claims, adding that, "Then we jumped upon Sa'd until one of them called out: 'You killed Sa'd ibn Ubada.' I said, 'May God kill Sa'd.'" The outburst of violence at

4082-415: A voice in the matter. Jafri notes the prominence of Abu Bakr but comments that his appointment was the decision of a group of companions, hastily forced upon others, and its success was due to the delicate group conflicts in Medina. Some contemporary authors have further criticized the Saqifa affair as a "backroom deal" and a "coup" which was heavily influenced by the pre-Islamic tribal politics. The evil of

4239-476: 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

4396-737: 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

4553-590: 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

4710-559: 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

4867-509: Is also noted by al-Ya'qubi and al-Tabari, and also by the contemporary Momen . Madelung, however, considers it unlikely that Abu Bakr brought up the Quraysh's kinship with Muhammad as that would have invited questions about the rights of the Banu Hashim , Muhammad's clan and his closest kin. Returning to Ibn Ishaq's account, Abu Bakr then reportedly invited the Ansar to choose Umar or Abu Ubaida as Muhammad's successor. Umar reports that he

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5024-478: 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

5181-429: Is believed to have retired from public life during the caliphates of Abu Bakr, Umar, and Uthman, which has been interpreted as a silent censure of the first three caliphs. While he reputedly advised Abu Bakr and Umar on government and religious matters, the mutual distrust and hostility of Ali with the two caliphs is well-documented, but largely downplayed or ignored in Sunni sources. Their differences were epitomized during

5338-408: 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

5495-472: 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

5652-402: Is echoed by Aslan. Afsaruddin and Sharon maintain that kinship was not a factor in early Islam whereas Amir-Moezzi and Mavani have challenged this point. In particular, Mavani writes that tribal values were deeply entrenched in the Arab society of that time, according to which kinship and noble lineage were the primary marks of identity and source of authority. Keaney believes that leadership

5809-551: Is fonder of praise than God, on account of which he has promised Paradise." In the early period after Muhammad's arrival, Sa'd urged the Jews of Medina to accept Islam. "Fear God," he said, "for you know right well that [Muhammad] is God's Messenger, of whom you used to speak to us before his mission and describe him to us." The Jews replied: "We never said that to you, and God has sent down no book since Moses nor sent an evangelist or warner after him." Abdullah ibn Ubayy, chief of

5966-400: Is in my quiver and fight you with my followers from my own people." When Abu Bakr heard his reply, Bashir ibn Sa'd advised him, "Caliph, he insists on refusing. He will not give you allegiance, even if you kill him. Do not move against him, for he is no threat to you. He is a man alone." Abu Bakr accepted this advice and ignored Sa'd's defiance. Soon after Umar became Caliph, he met Sa'd on

6123-574: 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

6280-514: Is of the view that a broad shura , in which Ali was to be on option, would have led to the election of Ali: The Ansar would have supported Ali because of their family ties with Muhammad. Among the Muhajirun, the candidacy of Ali would have likely been supported by the powerful Abd Shams clan of the Quraysh because of their close ties with the Banu Hashim and despite their conflicts. Their chief Abu Sufyan indeed offered his support to Ali after

6437-855: 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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6594-460: Is otherwise distinctly Sunni. Similarly, al-Ya'qubi writes that the Ansar al-Mundhir ibn Arqam interrupted the proceedings and nominated Ali for succession. The contemporary Jafri, Lalani, and Momen state that some advocated the case of Ali at the Saqifa. Madelung is not certain whether the succession of Ali was discussed at the Saqifa but considers it likely, commenting that the Ansar would have naturally turned to Ali because of their family ties with

6751-507: Is that of Ibn Ishaq in his Sirat rasul Allah , the recension of which by the Sunni Ibn Hisham ( d.  218/833 ) has reached us. Uncharacteristically, Ibn Hisham refrains from modifying Ibn Ishaq's account of the Saqifa affair, which is thus a report written by a Shia author and approved by a Sunni editor-critic. Ibn Ishaq's account is the basis of the contemporary studies of Jafri and Madelung . In his Ansab al-ashraf ,

6908-460: Is that the young Ali, aged about thirty at the time, could have not been a serious candidate for the caliphate. This is the view of Veccia Vaglieri , Lammens , and also Shaban, who suggests that Ali was untried for the responsibility. In contrast, Aslan argues that Ali regularly took key responsibilities despite his youth when Muhammad was alive. Alternatively, Madelung argues that Ali's youth would have only mattered if there had been an agreement on

7065-572: 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

7222-590: 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

7379-413: 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

7536-524: 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

7693-602: The falta which, Umar thought, had been averted by God would erupt later in the form of the First Fitna , suggests Madelung. Umar in his sermon asserted that "the necks of all Muslims were stretched [in obedience] for Abu Bakr," though Madelung considers it more likely that his authority was highly precarious at first. After the Saqifa meeting, Abu Bakr reportedly headed to the Prophet's Mosque and gave his inaugural speech there. Abbas and Hazleton comment that Muhammad

7850-445: 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

8007-587: The Abbasid era. These conflicts after Muhammad's death are considered as the roots of the current division among Muslims. Those who accepted Abu Bakr's caliphate were later labeled Sunnis, while the supporters of Ali's right to caliphate went on to form the Shia. Arabic Arabic (endonym: اَلْعَرَبِيَّةُ , romanized :  al-ʿarabiyyah , pronounced [al ʕaraˈbijːa] , or عَرَبِيّ , ʿarabīy , pronounced [ˈʕarabiː] or [ʕaraˈbij] )

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8164-605: The Ansar were "close to a complete breach with the Muhajirun ". Umar ended the debate by declaring, "Stretch out your hand, Abu Bakr," and then paying him homage. All the Muhajirun paid homage to Abu Bakr, and then the Ansar followed. In the process people leapt on Sa'd, and someone wrongly said that he had been killed. Umar replied, "God has killed him!" Later Abu Bakr sent for Sa'd instructing him to give allegiance like everyone else. Sa'd replied, "No, by Allah! I will not give allegiance until I shoot you with what

8321-493: The Banu Zuhra , of Zubayr , and finally of Ali. Al-Baladhuri reports that the Banu Hashim and some companions gathered at Ali's house after learning about the appointment of Abu Bakr. Among them were Muhammad's uncle Abbas and Zubayr . These protesters held that Ali was the rightful successor to Muhammad, possibly referring to Muhammad's announcement at Ghadir Khumm . Miqdad , Salman , Abu Dharr , Talha were also among

8478-546: The Juhayna tribe in October 629. There was no food and the men were hungry. Qays began to buy camels on his father's credit to slaughter for the army. After three days of this, Abu Ubayda stopped him, saying that he must not spend his father's money without permission. Umar supported Abu Ubayda's argument, and Qays was "most rude" to Umar. When Sa'd heard about the army's hunger, he said: "If I know Qays, he will slaughter for

8635-507: The Muhajirun , who had converted to Islam in Mecca and migrated to Medina with Muhammad, and the Ansar , who were originally from Medina and had invited Muhammad to govern their city. In the immediate aftermath of Muhammad's death in 11/632, a gathering of the Ansar took place at the Saqifa ( lit.   ' courtyard ' ) of the Banu Sa'ida clan, while his close relatives prepared for

8792-480: The Muhajirun , who nevertheless should remain guests in the Ansar homes. Muhammad sent Sa'd ibn Ubadah and Sa'd ibn Muadh to investigate rumours that the Jews of the Qurayza tribe were planning to abandon the defence and join the besiegers. The two Sa'ds found that the situation was even worse than they had imagined, for the Jews denied that they had ever had a treaty with Muhammad. Sa'd ibn Ubadah insulted

8949-497: The Quraysh ] and to usurp the rule from us." Abu Bakr then rose and warned the Ansar that Arabs will not recognize the rule of anyone outside of Muhammad's tribe, the Quraysh. The Muhajirun, Abu Bakr argued, were the best of Arabs in lineage and location, as quoted by Ibn Ishaq. Abu Bakr also noted that the Muhajirun had accepted Islam earlier and were closer to Muhammad in kinship, adds al-Baladhuri. The Quraysh's relation with Muhammad

9106-616: The Siege of the Nadir , Muhammad consulted Sa'd ibn Ubadah and Sa'd ibn Mu'adh, chief of the tribe, about the distribution of spoils. He asked whether the Ansar would prefer that the land be given to the Muhajirun , who would then be independent and able to leave the Ansar homes, or whether he should enrich the Ansar on the understanding that they would continue to host the Muhajirun . The two Sa'ds replied that Muhammad should give it all to

9263-568: 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

9420-494: 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

9577-419: 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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9734-814: 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. Sa%CA%BDd ibn %CA%BDUbadah Saʽd ibn ʽUbadah ibn Dulaym Al Ansari ( Arabic : سعد بن عبادة بن دليم ) (d. 637)

9891-454: 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

10048-571: 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

10205-834: 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

10362-666: The Ansar at the Saqifa. Ibn Ishaq and Caetani attribute this to an earlier collusion between the Muhajirun and the Banu Aws , the rival tribe of the Banu Khazraj among the Ansar. Madelung rejects this as unlikely but suggests that Usaid ibn Hudair , a chief of the Banu Aws, must have backed Abu Bakr at the Saqifa and carried with him the majority of the Aws, as also apparent from a related report by al-Tabari. Jafri likewise suggests that

10519-572: The Ansar gathered at the Saqifa. Madelung rejects this, noting that Abu Bakr, Umar, and Abu Ubaida were the only members of the Muhajirun in the Saqifa meeting, possibly accompanied by a few relatives and clients. For Madelung, the near absence of the Muhajirun at the Saqifa also explains why there are no other reports about the event, arguing that the Ansar must have been reluctant to recount their defeat later. Once there, Umar says he "realized that they [the Ansar] intended to cut us off from our root [i.e.,

10676-622: The Awf clan and unofficially chief of the Khazraj tribe, lost status in Medina after the Battle of Uhud in 625. Sa'd ibn Ubadah then came to be regarded as the most important Khazraj chief. After the death of Sa'd ibn Mu'adh , the Aws chief, in May 627, Sa'd ibn Ubadah was recognised as the leader of all the Ansar . Saad's son Qays was among 300 men who were sent under Abu Ubayda ibn al-Jarrah against

10833-416: The Aws went to stand next to him. With the two tribes lined up, a Khazraj man unsheathed a sword, announcing, "I will cut off the head of the hypocrite in his hideout!" Usayd met him and said: "Drop it! A weapon is brought out only by the command of Allah's Messenger. If we knew that the Messenger had such a desire or command, then we would do this faster than you." Muhammad called for silence, stepped down from

10990-458: The Banu Khazraj was further weakened by internal rivalries, particularly between their chief Sa'd ibn Ubada and his cousin Bashr ibn Sa'd. The latter was among the first to break ranks and support Abu Bakr. Once an agreement over Abu Bakr was nearly reached, Jafri believes that the Khazraj found it unwise to lag behind and risk losing favor with the new ruler. Jafri suggests that the rivalries among

11147-408: The Conquest of Mecca, Muhammad placed Sa'd in command of one branch of the army. Sa'd led them off declaring: "Today is a day of war. Sanctuary is no more!" Umar heard him and told Muhammad that he was afraid that Sa'd would resort to violence. Muhammad therefore ordered Ali to run after Sa'd and take the flag from him and carry it in himself. An alternative tradition states that Sa'd had to give

11304-477: The Jews to their faces, and they, after reminding the messengers of past favours between their tribes, insulted him back, defaming Muhammad and the Muslims "with the ugliest of words". Sa'd ibn Ubadah became "violently angry". Sa'd ibn Mu'adh had to restrain his friend, "for the dispute between us is too serious for recrimination. It is the sword." They reported back to Muhammad with the enigmatic message: "Adal and al-Qara!" referring to an incident of treachery

11461-412: 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

11618-542: The Minor Pilgrimage of 629, Sa'd "was angry when he saw the rudeness of their words to the Prophet." He told Suhayl ibn Amr: "You lie! May you not have a mother! This is neither your land nor the land of your fathers. By God, we only depart from it obedient and satisfied." Muhammad smiled and told Sa'd, "Do not harm a people who visit us during our journey." Late in 629 Abu Sufyan came to Medina seeking to renew

11775-522: The Muslims in the mosque about it: "Why do certain men lie about my family?" An Aws leader, Usayd ibn Hudayr, replied: "If they are of Aws let us rid you of them; and if they are of the Khazraj give us your orders, for they ought to have their heads cut off." Sa'd ibn Ubadah stood up and retorted: "By Allah, you lie. They shall not be beheaded. You would not have said this if you had not known that they were of Khazraj. If they had been your own people, you would not have said it." Sa'd's words triggered

11932-448: The Muslims over whether to attack. He did not listen to either Abu Bakr or Umar . Then Sa'd ibn Ubadah stood up and said: "Allah's Messenger, you want us [the Ansar to speak]. If you ordered us to plunge our horses into the sea, we would do so. If you ordered us to goad our horses as far as Bark al-Ghimad, we would do so." Muhammad then called upon the men to march to Badr. Sa'd intended to fight at Badr . He provided twenty camels for

12089-690: 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

12246-496: The Quraysh that combining the prophethood and the caliphate in the Banu Hashim would have made them too powerful. A conversation to this effect between the Hashemite Ibn Abbas and Umar is cited by Momen and Madelung. The former author voices a similar view to Aslan, while the latter acknowledges the "jealousy of the Quraysh," but believes that the simple logic of dynastic succession would have nevertheless prevailed in

12403-576: 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

12560-462: The Sa'ida clan before Muhammad had even been buried. As Sa'd lay wrapped in blankets, they gave allegiance to him. Abu Bakr and Umar were informed that they were about to lose control of Medina. They came at once to investigate the meeting, just as the Ansar were asserting their rights as "God's Helpers and the squadron of Islam" who would not accept immigrants ruling over them. Abu Bakr stepped forward with his own speech, pointing out that

12717-440: The Sa'ida clan, and of Amra al-Thalitha bint Masud, who was from the Najjar clan of the Khazraj. He had two sisters, Mandwas and Layla. His first wife, Fukayha bint Ubayd ibn Dulaym, was his agnatic cousin. They had three children: Qays , Umama and Sadus. His second wife, Ghaziya bint Sa'd, was also from the Sa'ida clan. Their sons were Sa'id, Muhammad and Abdulrahman. Described as physically "very hairy,” Sa'd

12874-465: The Saqifa affair. In Waq'at Siffin and some other early Shia sources, Ali contrasts the corruption of the third caliph, Uthman , with the political leadership of Abu Bakr and Umar, even though he rejects their religious legitimacy. A related example is the account of the negotiations before the Battle of Siffin (657) by Ibn Muzahim ( d.  827-8 ), which quotes Ali as saying that Abu Bakr and Umar had governed justly, even though they had assumed

13031-461: The Saqifa indicates that a substantial number of the Ansar must have initially refused to follow Umar's lead, writes Madelung. Otherwise, he argues, there would have been no need to beat up their chief Sa'd ibn Ubada. Sa'd remained defiant until his murder by a " jinn " during the reign of Umar, possibly at the instigation of the second caliph. Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law was preparing Muhammad's body for burial, alongside other close relatives, and

13188-482: The Shia or Sunni partiality of a report alone does not imply its fabrication. The account of the Saqifa meeting by al-Tabari is mostly balanced and unbiased, notes Jafri, and the most detailed, writes Ayoub ( d.  2021 ). The main narrator of the Saqifa event is Ibn Abbas ( d.  68/687-8 ), Muhammad's cousin and an authority in Medina's scholarly circles. He witnessed the event himself and also received

13345-429: The Sunni al-Imama wa al-siyasa . Alternatively, al-Baladhuri states that Ali capitulated and pledged allegiance to Abu Bakr immediately after Umar's threat. In contrast, the canonical Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim relate that Ali pledged to Abu Bakr after Fatima died sometime later. Madelung believes that Abu Bakr later placed a boycott on Ali and also on the Banu Hashim to abandon their support for Ali. As

13502-515: The Sunni al-Baladhuri partly follows Ibn Sa'd's pious technique but also retains some of the controversial material about the Saqifa event in favor of Ali. On the other hand, the contentious content in the work of the Shia al-Ya'qubi is often dismissed by later Sunni authors as fabricated, while Jafri views his work as a valuable collection of documents which survived the tendentious efforts of the Sunni majority historians, who largely suppressed or dismissed divergent views. Madelung similarly believes that

13659-542: The Treaty of Hudaybiya. When Muhammad's closest advisors had all refused to help him, he approached Sa'd ibn Ubadah, saying: "You know that I was your protector in Mecca and you were mine in Medina. You are the lord of this land. Grant protection among the people and increase the term [of the treaty]." Saad replied: "O Abu Sufyan, my protection is in the protection of God's Messenger. I will not grant protection against him." At

13816-399: The absence of the Muhajirun instead indicates that the Ansar met to re-establish their control over Medina under the belief that the Muhajirun would mostly return to Mecca after Muhammad. Alternatively, Jafri suspects that the Ansar met preemptively because they were fearful of Meccan domination and possibly aware of their designs for leadership. Among three available traditions, Jafri chooses

13973-437: The appointment of Abu Bakr, but was turned down by Ali who said he was concerned about the unity of the nascent Islam. The joint support of the Ansar and Abd Shams would have carried Ali to the caliphate, conjectures Madelung. He adds that the straightforward logic of dynastic succession would have likely prevailed in a general shura in favor of Ali . Some others similarly consider it likely that Ali would have been elected in

14130-474: The barren land" in the scorching heat of Medina until they reached Sa'd's house. On another occasion, Sa'd was sitting at home when Muhammad knocked at the door, calling, "Peace be with you!" Sa'd kept silent. Muhammad called a second and a third time, then decided that Sa'd must be out. As he was leaving, Sa'd ran up to call him back, explaining: "I did hear you, but I wanted to have a lot of your peace for me and my family." Muhammad said, on receiving from him

14287-430: The best form of charity was "making water flow," and Sa'd donated water for public drinking to the mosque. Sa'd once asked Muhammad: "Tell me, if a man finds his wife with another man, should he kill him?" Muhammad replied, "No." Sa'd asked if he should wait until he had four witnesses, and Muhammad said, "Yes." "By no means!" exclaimed Sa'd. "I swear, I would hurry to strike him with my sword before then, and not with

14444-509: The best women on camel-back, kind to their children and generous with their possessions to their husbands." At the Siege of Ta'if, ten slaves surrendered to the Muslims in exchange for their freedom. One of them, Yasar ibn Malik, was allocated to Sa'd so that he could read the Quran to him and teach him about Islam. When Muhammad divided the plunder from the Hawazin, he gave rich gifts to

14601-529: The burial. The conventional wisdom is that the Ansar met there to decide on a new leader for the Muslim community among themselves, with the intentional exclusion of the Muhajirun. This is also what Umar stated in his speech. The leading candidate was possibly Sa'd ibn Ubada , a companion of Muhammad and a chief of the Banu Khazraj , the majority tribe of the Ansar, who was sick on that day. For Madelung,

14758-545: The caliphate just as his right, but also as his duty. Indeed, in speeches and letters attributed to Ali, it is repeatedly emphasized that the leadership of the Muslim community is the prerogative of the family of Muhammad ( Ahl al-Bayt ). Mavani, Madelung, and Shah-Kazemi add that Ali further considered himself as the designated successor of Muhammad through a divine decree at the Ghadir Khumm . Ayoub disagrees, but concedes that Ali and some others indeed considered him as

14915-426: The caliphate wrongfully. Mavani and Maria M. Dakake suggest that Ali viewed the succession of Abu Bakr as a digression which turned into a full-blown deviation with the rebellion of Mu'awiya during his own caliphate. This is also the Shia view, as represented by the Shia jurist Ruhollah Khomeini ( d.  1989 ). A question can be raised as to what enabled a handful of the Muhajirun to force their will upon

15072-444: The companions who supported Ali's cause. Abu Bakr is said to have tasked Umar with securing Ali's pledge of allegiance. As noted by al-Tabari, the latter then led an armed mob to Ali's residence and threatened to set the house on fire if Ali and his supporters would not pledge their allegiance to Abu Bakr. The scene soon grew violent, but the mob retreated without Ali's pledge after his wife Fatima pleaded with them, as reported in

15229-574: 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

15386-455: The death (and miscarriage) of the young Fatima are attributed to an attack on her house to subdue Ali at the order of Abu Bakr. Sunnis categorically reject these allegations. After Fatima's death and in the absence of popular support, Ali is said to have relinquished his claims to the caliphate for the sake of the unity of a nascent Islam, which was facing internal and external threats, according to Mavani. In contrast with Muhammad's lifetime, Ali

15543-588: The debts of "the most distant relatives" in addition to helping poor people and feeding the community during famines. A Bedouin testified, "You possess the highest and most noble character. You are not censured even by those who have no knowledge of your position." Sa'd used to stand on his fortress, calling, "Whoever likes fat or meat should come to Sa'd ibn Ubadah." He was also known for his hot temper and for his tribal pride. He used to pray: "O God, give me praise and glory. I can't have glory without action, and I can't act without money. O God, I need more than

15700-579: The deep-rooted enmity between the minority Banu Aws and the majority Banu Khazraj made it preferable for the former to instead submit to the Qurayshite rule. Momen has a similar opinion, and Ayoub regards the rivalry between the Banu Khazraj and the Banu Aws as the decisive factor in the appointment of Abu Bakr, who reportedly reminded the Ansar about this rivalry in the Saqifa account of the Sunni al-Jahiz ( d.  869 ), thus rekindling their pre-Islamic conflict, according to Ayoub. The position of

15857-587: 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

16014-728: 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

16171-408: The expedition and he gave Muhammad a sword named al-Abd. He went around the city urging other men to participate. But he suffered a scorpion-sting or snake-bite shortly before the army departed, and so he had to remain in Medina. He was among the "people of age and decision" who urged Muhammad to go out to meet the Quraysh at Mount Uhud so that the Quraysh would not think them cowardly. After

16328-607: 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

16485-561: The first-hand account of his father Abbas, who was politically active then. Madelung accepts the authenticity of Ibn Abbas' narration, noting that it reflects his characteristic view point. The bulk of Ibn Abbas' narration concerns a Friday sermon by Umar in 23/644. Though this is omitted from most Sunni reports, Madelung and Jafri are confident that the second caliph delivered the speech to discourage those who might have planned to back Ali's nomination as caliph after Umar. During Muhammad's lifetime, Muslims in Medina were divided into two groups:

16642-530: The flag to his son Qays. After the conquest, the leading Muslims sat in council, and some Quraysh women passed them. Sa'd remarked, "I'd heard that the Quraysh women were lovely and beautiful, but they don't look it to us!" Abdulrahman ibn Awf was so angry at this that he came close to attacking Sa'd, who had to run out of the meeting. But when he complained to Muhammad, Muhammad was also angry with him. "You saw those women when they were hurt because of their fathers, sons, brothers and husbands. The Quraysh women are

16799-435: The flat side!" Muhammad told the assembly: "Listen to what your chief says. Are you surprised at Sa'd's jealousy for his honour? I am more jealous for my honour than he is, and God is more jealous than I am. Because of his jealousy God has prohibited abomination, both open and secret. No person is more jealous than God; and no person is fonder of accepting an excuse than God, on account of which he has sent messengers; and no one

16956-510: 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

17113-483: The gift, for the lost camel had been found, but Sa'd told him: "What you take from our wealth is more precious to us than what you do not take." Sa'd's mother died while he was away at Dumat al-Jandal in 626. When the army returned to Medina, Muhammad prayed over her grave. Sa'd asked about a vow that Amra had been unable to keep before she died, and Muhammad said, "Fulfil it for her." So Sa'd gave away his garden al-Mikhraf as charity on her behalf. Muhammad said that

17270-413: The good things of this life by which I win over a people that they may become Muslims while I entrust you to your Islam? Are you not satisfied that men should take away flocks and herds while you take back with you God's Messenger? If all men took one path and the Ansar took another, I should take the way of the Ansar . God have mercy on the Ansar , their sons and their sons' sons." The Ansar wept until

17427-455: The hereditary succession to Muhammad. Families of the past prophets are given a prominent role in the Quran. After the past prophets, their kin are selected by God as the spiritual and material heirs to the prophets in the Quran. Muhammad's family ( Ahl al-Bayt ) similarly enjoys an eminent position in the Quran. As such, insofar as the Quran reflects the views of Muhammad, Madelung argues that he could have not seen his succession differently from

17584-597: 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

17741-613: 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

17898-530: The larger clans within the Muhajirun made it easier for them to accept the rule of Abu Bakr, who belonged to the small clan of Banu Taym . Madelung and Caetani both hold that a decisive factor for Abu Bakr was the timely arrival of the Banu Aslam tribe in Medina with great numbers that filled the streets of Medina. The Banu Aslam tribe were known for their hostility towards the Ansar and readily supported Abu Bakr's bid for power. Umar would often point out, "It

18055-604: 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)

18212-420: 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

18369-883: 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

18526-513: The merchants of Jubayr ibn Mut'im and Harith ibn Harb while they were in the territory of Medina. Sa'd ibn Ubadah converted to Islam at an early date, in the year before Muhammad's arrival in Medina, and consequently he broke all the idols of the Sa'ida clan. Sa'd was among the 75 converts from Medina who took the Second Pledge at Aqaba in July 622. Muhammad selected him as one of

18683-421: The most qualified person to lead the Muslim community after Muhammad by virtue of his merits and his kinship with Muhammad. These authors argue that Ali eventually relinquished his claims to the caliphate for the sake of the unity of a nascent Islam in crisis when it became clear that Muslims did not broadly support his cause. Had the Muslim community favored Ali, Madelung suggests, he would have no longer considered

18840-469: The most qualified to lead. To support his claims, Madelung cites a Sunni statement attributed to Ali when he pledged allegiance to Abu Bakr after a long delay. He also notes that Ali publicly referred to the Ghadir Khumm after his ascension to the caliphate in 656. Mavani similarly cites some Sunni and Shia reports, including the proceedings of the electoral council in 644 when Ali refused to be bound by

18997-460: The names of Jubayr ibn Mutim and Al-Harith ibn Harb. They came from the Kaaba and told the captors to release him; so Sa'd went home. When Muhammad arrived in Medina, Sa'd was among those who invited him to stay in their homes at their expense. But Muhammad said that his camel was under God 's orders and she should decide where he would stay. Sa'd was thought a pious man. Every day he sent

19154-782: 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

19311-593: The new converts but nothing to the Ansar of Medina. They were upset about this and even asked whether Muhammad would now abandon them in favour of the newly-converted Quraysh. Sa'd ibn Ubadah took a formal complaint to Muhammad, stating: "I stand with my people." Muhammad told Sa'd to gather them all together and then he addressed them: "O men of Ansar , what is this I hear of you? Do you think ill of me in your hearts? Did I not come to you when you were erring and God guided you; poor and God made you rich; enemies and God softened your hearts? Are you disturbed in mind because of

19468-400: The one that appears in nearly all of his sources, according to which the news of the Saqifa meeting reached Abu Bakr, Umar, and Abu Ubaida when they were most likely in the house of Abu Ubaida, possibly to discuss the leadership crisis. Arnold and Jafri are confident that Abu Bakr and Umar had earlier planned or formed an alliance in anticipation of Muhammad's death, while Madelung attributes

19625-424: 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

19782-453: The others!" Muhammad set out for Mecca in March 628, during the pilgrimage season, when it was customary for all Arabs to travel unarmed. He said he did not want to take weapons. Umar disagreed, and Sa'd supported Umar. "If we carry weapons," he said, "then if we see something suspicious among the people, we will be prepared for them." Muhammad nevertheless ruled against it. At Hudaybiya,

19939-549: 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

20096-478: The past prophets or considered Abu Bakr as his natural successor. Jafri develops a similar line of argument. This is also the Shia view. Veccia Vaglieri is uncertain whether Ali actually hoped to succeed Muhammad because he made no effort in Sunni sources to seize the rule, despite being advised to do so by Abbas and Abu Sufyan. Alternatively, Ayoub describes the mild opposition of Ali in Sunni sources as apologetic. He and some others maintain that Ali viewed himself as

20253-435: The people!" When Qays returned and told him the story of how Abu Ubayda had halted his spending, Sa'd immediately gave his son four date-orchards so that in future he would have money that was legally his own. Then he paid off the debts. Sa'd was one of those who laid the corpse of Abdullah ibn Ubayy at his burial. Abdullah ibn Ubayy encouraged rumours that Muhammad's wife Aisha had committed adultery. Muhammad addressed

20410-510: The planning only to Abu Bakr. In Ibn Ishaq's report, someone then informs Abu Bakr and Umar about the Saqifa meeting, "If you want to have command of the people, then take it before their [the Ansar's] action becomes serious." The two then rushed to the Saqifa, accompanied by Abu Ubaida, perhaps to prevent any unexpected development. Some encouraged the three men not to do so but they pressed on anyway, reports Umar. Umar narrates that "the Muhajirun" joined Abu Bakr, and then Umar suggested they go to

20567-625: The precedence of the first two caliphs. Another report by al-Tabari indicates that Ali again publicly excluded the practices of Abu Bakr and Umar from the Sunna (of Muhammad) when his supporters pledged their allegiance to him in Kufa . Madelung holds that Ali's views about succession mostly match the Shia beliefs today, and Lalani and Daftary have similar opinions, whereas Veccia Vaglieri considers Shia beliefs to be fabricated because Ali "showed no inclination to legitimism." By contrast, some others detail

20724-493: The proceedings of the electoral council in 644 when Ali refused to be bound by the precedence of the first two caliphs. In contrast, Shias tend to view Ali's pledge of allegiance to Abu Bakr as a (coerced) act of political expediency or taqiya , thus rejecting that Ali ever pledged. The charge that Ali pledged to Abu Bakr under duress appears also in al-Imama wa al-siyasa , sometimes attributed to Ibn Qutaybah ( d.  889 ) but possibly written by another Sunni author in

20881-417: The prophet. Umar in his sermon explained that they had pressed the Ansar for an immediate oath of allegiance at the Saqifa because, he claimed, they might have had otherwise elected one of their own to succeed Muhammad. Referring to this claim, Madelung suggests that Umar was partly fearful that the Ansar would put forward the case of Ali among themselves. This is also a proposal entertained by McHugo. Madelung

21038-460: The public opposition of Ali to the appointment of Abu Bakr at the Saqifa. Even though Ali most likely did not give up his claims to the caliphate, it seems that he accepted the first three caliphs as administrators and rulers. Indeed, Madelung highlights some Sunni hadiths, according to which Ali praised Abu Bakr and Umar, while some others note the Sunni tendency to minimize and neutralize the conflicts among companions after Muhammad, particularly about

21195-421: The pulpit and managed to calm them down. The accused man, Safwan ibn Mu'attal , attacked one of the slanderers, Hassan ibn Thabit . Hassan's friends captured Safwan, tied him up and kept him in prison. Sa'd made peace between them. He persuaded Hassan's friends to release Safwan and to drop their blood-claim against him; then he gave Safwan new clothes. He then compensated Hassan for the sword-cut by giving him

21352-410: 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

21509-446: The related traditions to be confused and contradictory. In the same vein, Lecomte writes that Muhammad respected Abu Bakr but considers the prayer story inconclusive because it does not formally relate to the political leadership of the community. Shaban goes further and assigns no significance to the prayer story, saying that Muhammad had frequently delegated this task to others in the past. A common argument by Sunni and Western scholars

21666-573: The reports by al-Baladhuri as highly unlikely. Madelung suspects that Umar considered the Saqifa affair a falta because it excluded from decision making the majority of the Muhajirun and particularly Muhammad's kin, whose participation was vital for a legitimate outcome. Possibly because of its questionable legal authority, Umar also warned Muslims in his speech against ever following the example of Saqifa. Similar concerns are raised by Abbas and Momen. Walker adds that Muhammad's relatives were disgruntled by Abu Bakr's hasty appointment which denied them

21823-462: The rest of Arabia would never recognise a ruler who was not from the Quraysh, and therefore the Ansar must elect either Umar or Abu Ubayda ibn al-Jarrah as their new leader. Habab ibn Mundhir argued that there must be two rulers, one for the Quraysh and another for Medina. Abu Bakr told him: "We are the rulers and you are the helpers. We share this business like two halves of a broad bean." The argument became heated and people began to shout, until

21980-458: 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

22137-458: 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

22294-563: 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

22451-454: The tears ran down their beards as they said: "We are satisfied with God’s Messenger as our lot and portion." Muhammad died in June 632. The question immediately arose as to who should become the new leader of the Muslims. Sa'd ibn Ubadah, as the most important Khazraj chief, was the obvious choice for the Ansar . He was ill, but they gathered around him in a public hall belonging to

22608-501: 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

22765-520: The twelve leaders who would "take charge of their people's affairs." When Quraysh realised that war had been declared on them, they pursued the pledge-takers, who were already on the road home to Medina. They captured Sa'd, tied his hands to his neck and brought him back to Mecca, dragging him by the hair and beating him. Suhayl ibn Amr slapped his face. Finally Abu'l-Bakhtari ibn Hisham took pity on him and asked: "You poor devil, doesn't any Quraysh owe you protection?" Sa'd then remembered to call out

22922-451: 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

23079-432: Was a falta [i.e., a precipitate and ill-considered deal], but God averted the evil of it." Alternatively, the Sunni al-Baladhuri quotes Umar in his Ansab as saying, "By God, the oath of allegiance for Abu Bakr was no falta ," adding that Muhammad had already designated Abu Bakr as his successor. In another narration by al-Baladhuri, Umar calls it a lie that the Saqifa affair was a falta . Madelung rejects both of

23236-574: Was already buried by this time, with the exclusion of Abu Bakr from the funeral rites. With the help of the Banu Aslam and Banu Aws tribes, Umar is then said to have dominated the streets to secure the pledges of allegiance from the Medinans, according to Madelung. In chronological order, Abu Bakr obtained the backing of Uthman and of the Banu Umayyad , of Sa'd and Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf , of

23393-460: Was between us in the Jahiliya . By God, there is no need to remember it. Surely you know who was victorious in it. Indeed, God extinguished all of that with Islam." Usayd stood up and said, "You saw our stand at the Battle of Bu'ath !" At this Sa'd was so angry that he called out: "O Sons of Khazraj!" and all the Khazraj came to stand on his side. Sa'd ibn Mu'adh called out, "O Sons of Aws!" and

23550-450: Was displeased with this offer because he considered Abu Bakr to be more entitled to rulership than himself. Madelung regards this as a manoeuvre by Abu Bakr to present himself as an acceptable alternative to Umar and Abu Ubaida for the Ansar, adding that Abu Ubaida lacked prominence while Umar had apparently just discredited himself before the meeting by publicly denying Muhammad's death. Ibn Ishaq's account continues that Habab ibn Mundhir ,

23707-425: Was hereditary in the traditional Arab society and something that ran in families in a broad sense of the word. Lewis ( d.  2018 ) says that the Arab tradition was to choose the sheikh from a single family. However, Ali was Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law which, he claims, carries little weight. Ibn Ishaq and Ibn Hisham narrate that Umar in his speech famously said, "The oath of allegiance for Abu Bakr

23864-467: Was likely unaware of the ongoing Saqifa meeting. Following Umar's pledge to Abu Bakr, the Saqifa account of the Kufan al-Nakha'i ( d.  96/714-15 ) adds, "But the Ansar, or some of them, said: 'We will not swear allegiance to anyone but Ali.'" Caetani dismisses this report because of its Shia coloring, while Madelung accepts it, noting that al-Nakha'i is not known for Shia sympathies and his account

24021-411: Was only when I saw the Banu Aslam that I became certain of [our] victory." It is not known today whether this happened by chance or the Banu Aslam were tipped off about the Ansar's ambitions. Muhammad's clan, the Banu Hashim, and particularly his notable uncle Abbas supported the succession of Ali. Aslan suggests that the exclusion of Ali from the Saqifa affair was deliberate and reflected the fear among

24178-411: Was reckoned one of the "perfect" Arabs because he was good at archery and swimming and could write in Arabic. His generosity was widely acknowledged. The Khazraj said of him: "He is our master and the son of our master. They used to provide food during the droughts, to transport the weary, to welcome guests, to give during disasters and to protect the community." His son Qays said that he underwrote

24335-549: Was red-faced with anger, and his adoptive grandson Usama . Muhammad explained to Sa'd that Abdullah ibn Ubayy had rejected Islam and forbidden him to discuss it in Abdullah's house. Sa'd advised Muhammad: "Don't be hard on him; for God sent you to us as we were making a diadem to crown him, and he thinks that you have robbed him of a kingdom." On a different condolence-visit, Muhammad was accompanied by Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf , Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas and Abdullah ibn Masud . Sa'd

24492-510: Was the chief of the Sa'ida clan of the Khazraj tribe in Medina in the early seventh century. He was later recognised as the chief of the whole Khazraj tribe, and then of all the Ansar . He was a prominent companion of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and he made an abortive attempt to nominate himself as caliph of Islam after Muhammad's death. He was the son of Ubadah ibn Dulaym, chief of

24649-473: Was unconscious when his visitors arrived, and Muhammad asked if he had died. Although he had not, Muhammad wept, and his friends wept with him. Muhammad told them that silent tears were permitted but that Allah might punish them for loud wailing. Later Muhammad heard that Sa'd was better, so he asked the assembly who would like to go to visit. More than ten Muslims stood up with him, "and we had neither shoes with us, nor socks, nor caps, nor shirts." They walked "on

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