IFAO

The geographer Muqaddasî is reputed to have provided in his Aḥsan al-taqâsîm fî ma‘rifat al-aqâlîm a considerable amount of information on the linguistic situation of the Muslim world during the 4th/10th century. A meticulous analysis of the data concerning the Arabic language leads us to a double conclusion :

1. Muqaddasî distinguishes between two levels of Arabic, which can be assimilated to two main varieties : on the one hand, Arabic as a vehicular language, to which he gives the same name of ‘arabiyya ; and on the other hand, Arabic as a vernacular language, which he calls lisân al-qawm (“ language of the people ”) which he considers as being made up of lughât mukhtalifa (“ different ways of speech ”). As a vehicle of the learned culture, the ‘arabiyya is better mastered by those whose native language is not Arabic and for whom Arabic does not constitute a vernacular language. A remarkable example is represented by the educated men of letters of Nishapur, capital of the Iranian state of the Samanids. On the contrary Muqaddasî deplores the mistakes (especially as far as declension endings are concerned) of the Great Qadi of Baghdad in his majlis.

2. The information given by Muqaddasî is more of an epilinguistic than of a linguistic nature. As a matter of fact, he mentions but two features, a phonological and a morphological one, of the same Arabic speech (that of Aden). However, it is extremely important to recognise, in his representations, the direct echo of the different theses concerning the Arabic language at that time, namely the “ theological ” and the “ philosophical ” one.