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50 "

Arabic Language Among Jews Arabic Literature of the Jews the Arabs to-day

still

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

use the phrase, " as loyal as

Al-Samau'al," to express unswerving fidelity (Preytag, "Proverbia Arabum," ii. 828). The son of AlSamau'al, Shoreikh, also occupied an honorable place

among

ante-Islamic poets.

In adopting the Arabic language, the Jews introduced into it a number of Hebrew words and expressions which, in certain portions of Arabia,

—

where Jews were numerous and influential as in the Yemen district, for example have entered into the native vocabulary. It is owing to this that the Himyaritic inscriptions abound in Hebraisms and words which are altogether unintelligible to Arabs

—

of other localities. With the conquests that began immediately after the death of Mohammed, the Arabic language crossed the frontiers of Arabia and spread rapidly among the Jews of other countries. In Egypt, Syria, Palestine, and Persia, which were conquered by the second calif, Omar, the Jews soon learned to use the language of the conquerors

Adopted

and adopted

as their mother- tongue. by Eastern As early as the beginning of the eighth Jews. century, scarcely fifty years after the conquest, a Babylonian Jew, Jawaih de Basso ra, translated a medical work from Syriac into Arabic it is thus evident that at that period it



Jews were already familiar with the As Babylonia then exercised a religious hegemony over the whole Jewish world, it became necessary for the Jews of other countries the Babylonian

Arabic language.

—at

—

Jewish scholars to understand the language of Babylonia. Consequently, when Africa and Spain were conquered under Walid I., the Jews found no difficulty whatever in sustaining intercourse with the Arabs. The adoption of the Arabic language by the Jews least for

official

residing in Moslem countries had a salutary effect also upon the Hebrew tongue. The Arabs attached great importance to the correct use of their language and thus the Jews, who always cherished a deep love for the Hebrew tongue, were led to turn their attention to the deplorable state into which

their

own language had

fallen.

They

set

about

as it were, and created a grammar for it, modeled after that of the Arabic. Hebrew poetry, which in the seventh century resembled nothing so much as a lyre with broken strings it was without rime or meter began, under the influence of the study of Arabic poetry, to assume elegant rhythmic forms, and soon surpassed the latter in sonorousness

polishing

it,

—

—

and polish. But upon the written or literary Arabic language the Jews likewise exerted a special influence which was not so wholesome. Jewish writers, treating of subjects pertaining to religion and Judaism, were forced in some degree to conform to the culture of the people for whom they wrote, the great mass of whom, though speaking Arabic as' Chartheir mother tongue, were not able to acteristics read it, and were unfamiliar with its of Jewish- niceties of style and complicated grammar. Jewish authors were thereArabic. fore compelled to transliterate the Arabic into Hebrew characters and to simplif y the grammar. The system of transliteration was as

follows:

50

for each Arabic letter the corresponding

Hebrew was

given.

The

sented

by

b¥i 5h

1

,

in

£

& c* Hebrew, were

letters

which have no equivalents

-s

±_ &, repre-

with dots above or below

The vowel-points were rendered either the letters. by the same signs as used in the Arabic or by the In regard to grammar, the Jews vowel-letters iltf. avoided whatever could embarrass a reader who was not well versed in Arabic literature. Thus, for example, the broken-plural forms, so numerous in literary Arabic, were reduced to a minimum, only such being retained as were familiar to all. The purely orthographic signs, like the alif in the third person of the plural, were generally omitted. Contrary to grammatical usage, the second or third radical letter of a weak verb was generally retained in the conditional and imperative moods, to indicate to the reader the three radical letters of which the verb was composed. The rules of syntax were very much relaxed and the style of what may be conveniently termed "JudsBO- Arabic" often presents the same characteristics of disorder and confusion that are met with in the Hebrew vernacular literature of the Middle Ages. With the overthrow of the dynasty of the Almohades at the close of the thirteenth century, the Arabic language ceased to be spoken by the western Jews; but for many centuries it continued to be cultivated by Jewish scholars of all countries for the sake of the many beautiful literary relics which Jewish authors have left in that language. It is still spoken by the Jews of Algeria, Morocco, Tunis,

Egypt, Tripoli, Yemen, and Syria. Bibliography



Steinsctmeider, in Jew.

Quart. Rev.

xiii.

303-311.

g.

I.

Br.

ARABIC LITERATURE OF THE JEWS: From

the time that the Arabs commenced to develop a culture of their own, Jews lived among them and spoke their language. Gradually they also employed the latter in the pursuit of their studies, so that Jewish literature in Arabic extends over all the branches in which Jews took an interest. Indeed, the material is so vast that it is impossible to give a comprehensive survey of it in small compass and it is owing to this circumstance that there is no work on the subject, although one by Steinschneider has been in preparation for many years (see " Z. D. M. G.

liii.

1

418)..

Early Literature



The

earliest literary pro-

ductions are not of a specifically Jewish character, but are similar to those of the Arabs. They consist of poems composed in celebration of public or private events, and date from the second half of the fifth century of the present era. The first was composed by a poetess of Medina named Sarah, who bewailed the slaughter of a number of her people by an Arab chief. The same event is alluded to in some other verses by an unknown First Poem poet. About the middle of the sixth Is by a century there flourished in North Woman. Arabia Al-Samau'al (Samuel) b. Adiya, whose name is often mentioned and whose verses are to be found in the most notable compilations of ancient Arabic poetry. At the