Introduction
In the 19th century, with the increase of exploration in the Arabian Peninsula, scientists discovered some archaeological inscriptions. These inscriptions were a group of letters written on stones and graves in the Arabian Peninsula and the Levant. those inscriptions date back to the 2nd and 4th centuries B.C., which is approximately ten complete centuries before Islam. Some inscriptions even date back to the 10th century B.C.
You might wonder, what are these inscriptions? Are they written in hieroglyphics or perhaps remnants of ancient memories? Well, ancient Egyptians didn't live in the Arabian Peninsula, so that guess doesn't make sense. Let's delve into these inscriptions together.
The Safaitic Inscription
For example, there's an inscription called 'Safaitic' found in the north of the Peninsula. It's read from left to right. When the German Orientalist Enno Littmann translated it, he found that it was directed to 'Bard Ibn Aslah Ibn Abgar', who is either the one who carved the inscription or the person to whom the inscription was written. Littmann also read on the inscription: "Allah, He wandered this place and killed an animal seeking your peace!"
Each word seems correct, but it needs to be restructured. In fact, the translation appears to be Arabic. A man called Bard Ibn Aslah killed an animal in this place. What's confusing is that the text doesn't seem to be Arabic as we know it. It neither has the Arabic letters nor calligraphy.
Questioning the Origins of Arabic
This wasn't the only inscription of that form. There are many inscriptions about Arabs like Bard's, dating back before Islam. However, as shown, they were written with different symbols. This leads us to an important question: Are there any other languages Arabs used before the Arabic we know now?
Considering the age of these inscriptions, we're discussing an era that preceded Islam, the Qur'an, and even the Mu'allaqat poems, which were written in a complex language but with the same calligraphy and letters as Arabic.
Early Linguistic Views
For a long time, linguists agreed that the oldest texts we have written in Arabic were the Mu'allaqat. After that came the Holy Qur'an. Until the 19th century, foreign researchers considered these two sources as the linguistic horizon—the extent to which we could explore the earliest written forms of Arabic. They believed the Arabian Peninsula was a desert, its people illiterate and isolated from the world. Their history was oral, making it hard to leave any written records.
Did no linguist try to find out if there were languages used by Arabs before the Mu'allaqat and the Qur'an? Honestly, no one felt the need to think about that. Most ancient linguists considered the Qur'an and Mu'allaqat to be written in the oldest Arabic form. Why search for other forms when we already have them? Especially since they were linguists, not archaeologists. They didn't expect to find inscriptions that might lead us to ask such a question.
As long as the Arabic text existed with its letters, calligraphies, and words, they focused more on pronunciation. Specifically, they pondered who was the first to speak the Arabic we read in the Mu'allaqat and the Qur'an. Without written documentation or sources, ancient linguists tried to answer this question using guesses from religious sources.
Theories on the First Arabic Speaker
For example, Ibn Kathir said in his book From the Beginning to the End that Adam, peace be upon him, was the first person in history to speak standard Arabic. He also mentioned narratives suggesting that the first person to speak standard Arabic was Noah, peace be upon him. Others proposed Hud, peace be upon him, or his father—Selah son of Arpachshad son of Shem son of Noah. Ibn Kathir concluded his evident confusion by saying, "Only God knows."
Similarly, Al-Qurtubi, in his book Tafsir Al-Qurtubi, stated that Gabriel, peace be upon him, was the first to speak Arabic and that he taught it to the children of Adam, including the prophet Noah. Another explanation involved a hadith stating, "The first one to speak Arabic was Ishmael at the age of ten," with another narrative saying at fourteen. Additionally, the name 'Ya'rub' appeared in Al-Qurtubi's book as the first person to speak Arabic, with some narratives suggesting the word Arab is derived from his name.
From these examples, you'll find that linguists were trying to reach conclusions that were more guesses than facts—information without reliable sources and with debates about its authenticity. They borrowed ideas from attempts to explain sacred texts, whether the Qur'an, Sunnah, or established narratives.
This didn't prevent more scientific attempts. Ibn Jinni, who lived in Baghdad in the 4th century of the Hijri calendar, made the first known attempt to search for what modern linguists call the early stages of the Arabic language. In his book Al-Khasais, he introduced three hypotheses for the formation of Arabic.
- Inspiration: This means that language was an inspiration from above to humans, which wasn't a new assumption. It was also mentioned by Ibn Kathir and Al-Qurtubi, supported by the Qur'anic verse "And He taught Adam the names of all things." which implies that Adam was the first one to speak Arabic
- Social Convention (Al-Mu'ada'a): According to this hypothesis, when Arabs first saw an animal that would later be named "dog," they agreed upon that name. They saw a four-legged creature barking, for which they didn't have a specific name. Over time, someone called it "dog," and the name lasted forever. This is simply the social definition of language—a group of people agreeing to assign specific words to objects or beings.
- Imitation and Simulation: He proposed that the origin of Arabic was deduced from the sounds of its environment—nature's sounds like wind, thunder, and water ripples, and animal sounds such as a crow's caw.
While these hypotheses can be accepted on a cognitive level, they aren't specific to Arabic and could apply to any language. Nonetheless, Ibn Jinni's contribution was significant as he thought scientifically and provided a guideline for subsequent linguists to consider societal and logical explanations for the formation of languages.
The Puzzle of Ancient Inscriptions
In the end, the conflict wasn't about letters or the form of Arabic but about who was the first to speak Arabic. However, when we return to the inscriptions mentioned earlier, you'll find that those inscriptions puzzled any linguist who saw them.
We were convinced that the oldest date for the appearance of Arabic writing, in a form close to what we're using nowadays, is the 4th century A.D. How can history surprise us with writings and inscriptions that are eight centuries older than the date we knew, and tell us they were written by Arabs? Although it seems like another language—it neither had Arabic letters nor our calligraphy.
Reassessing Linguistic Approaches
Scientists tried to answer the inscriptions' questions and solve this puzzle, but unfortunately, they used the wrong method. Initially, linguists treated the inscriptions as different alphabets or non-Arabic languages. The first thing these foreign linguists discovered was the Himyaritic alphabet, which was spoken in South Arabia, Yemen. It was written with the Musnad calligraphy and mentioned in Al-Iklil by the geographer Al-Hamadani in the 9th century A.D. In this book, he provided an Arabic sentence and its Musnad calligraphy translation used in the Himyaritic alphabet.
Researchers were surprised after tracking the inscriptions. They found dozens of inscriptions with different alphabets in Yemen, Syria, and even Egypt. Each had its own system, appearing as entirely different languages. People ten centuries before Islam were writing about their lives using numerous inscriptions other than Arabic—languages that don't resemble Arabic in letters or symbols. Most of these alphabets became obsolete, which is why we were surprised to find them in archaeological sites.
The Diverse Scripts of Arabia
Let me surprise you further by telling you that some of these alphabets existed during the Islamic age alongside the Arabic language, such as a text found by Dr. Saied Al-Saied dating back to the 10th century A.D. It says in Arabic, "God forgave Tawq Ibn Al-Hytham, Amen." Beside this Arabic sentence, there was a translation of the same sentence but in the Himyaritic alphabet.
Keep in mind that we're talking about the 10th century A.D., which comes a few centuries after the Islamic age. This is evidence that the Himyaritic script, which existed before Islam, continued to exist after Islam for a while before disappearing.
The Arabian Peninsula, which we imagined before Islam as a desert with people only speaking Arabic, suddenly had a diverse collection of languages and dialects. If you look at Yemen in the south, whose civilization dates back to the 2nd millennium B.C., you'll find Hadramautic and Sabaic alphabets. If you analyze and compare their inscriptions to our Arabic, you'll feel like you're comparing our current Arabic to Hebrew or Aramaic.
After exploring Yemen, head north to the center of the Arabian Peninsula. You'll find the same situation—non-Arabic inscriptions such as the Thamudic calligraphy. Note that Thamudic here isn't related to Thamud mentioned in the Qur'an but is a tribe's name south of Mecca.
The Linguists' Dilemma
Linguists faced a problem now. It seemed that Arabs weren't speaking Arabic throughout their history. There was another alphabet or language called Himyaritic. When we looked at the Arabian Peninsula, we discovered Hadramautic, Sabaic, and Thamudic languages. Is this a mix of names or what? Linguists were confused and didn't know what to do.
The Emergence of Modern Arabic
You might wonder when our current Arabic appeared. The current Arabic is a complex language. If we search for the oldest inscriptions written in an Arabic similar to ours, we'll find an inscription on Imru' Al-Qais' tomb. Imru' Al-Qais described himself in the tomb inscription as King of all Arabs. This inscription is preserved in the Louvre Museum and dates back to the year 328 A.D., the 4th century A.D.
If the linguists' analysis was correct, this means that the complex Arabic, which needs thousands of years to develop like any other language, appeared magically in history during the 4th century A.D. Then it erased all the alphabets and languages that had confused us, as if those languages didn't exist before. If it weren't for the inscriptions we discovered, we wouldn't have known about their existence.
This is impossible; languages don't appear and disappear out of nowhere. New languages don't just get installed suddenly. This means that the method the linguists used was somehow wrong—the starting point itself was wrong.
A New Perspective
According to the Arab-American researcher Ahmed Al-Jallad at Ohio University, this matter can be solved with a simple example. Imagine people from the year 3000 A.D., which means 1,000 years from now, only found journals from our remnants. They might assume that all of us in 2024 were talking and chatting using the same language used in the journals. Of course not. Just because they found journals doesn't necessarily mean that this was the language used among people.
Similarly, if a linguist found a paper written in Franco-Arabic saying "Ana ismi A7med," (which is the style of communication between some Arabs in social media chats and in this example it simply means "My name is Ahmed") he might dismiss it as not Arabic because neither the letters nor the grammar are the same as in journals. However, if he went back in time, it would be easy to ask anyone to read the Franco-Arabic sentence, and he'd hear the Arabic he knows—it's just written in an alphabet or text he doesn't understand.
Al-Jallad said, "What is written doesn't tell the whole story of what is spoken." What if those inscriptions that puzzled us were just different calligraphies and ways used by people who spoke Arabic normally? It's just a matter of different calligraphies, such as Arial or Times New Roman fonts.
Understanding Linguistic Features
That's exactly what obstructed foreign researchers for years and prevented them from understanding those inscriptions. It also hindered them from understanding the past of Arabic before Islam and made them consider those alphabets and inscriptions not just early stages or different calligraphies of Arabic but entirely different languages.
Criticism arises because they were foreign researchers. Arabic is their second language, not their mother tongue—a language they learned academically and adhered strictly to its current grammar. When orientalists analyzed those old inscriptions, they applied the current Arabic grammar to them. They didn't consider that it's a language that took years to develop, spoken and written in various ways.
We shouldn't make the same mistakes as the foreign researchers and exclude inscriptions that didn't have the definitive 'Alif and Laam' or apply grammar rules that would appear thousands of years later—that's illogical. Although Arabic developed in its spelling and pronunciation, not everything can be considered Arabic due to its linguistic features.
These features are similar to a fingerprint—the special characteristics that distinguish the Arabic language from other Semitic languages, regardless of the calligraphy used.
Evidence from Inscriptions
For instance, look at an inscription found by northeastern researchers of Jordan. It's by Jard Ail Ibn Saad: - literal translation to English - "He needed his brother, and not returning did he, so he snapped" Even if this text wasn't written in our Arabic symbols, if you look closer, you'll find an important linguistic feature. The negative form of the verb "not returning did he" (He didn't return) doesn't exist in any other Semitic language except Arabic.
According to Dr. Ahmed Al-Jallad, when we began to search for inscriptions with this standard—those that have the Arabic distinguished linguistic features—we found them in inscriptions such as Thamudic, Hismaic, and Safaitic, which were found in the north of Hijaz and southeast of the Arabian Peninsula.
This means that Arabs or their ancestors were living in this area but were just writing in different calligraphies. Historical evidence supports this. If we look at those areas containing these calligraphies, we'll find that they had the same date and setting as the oldest known Arab remnants.
Regarding heritage, Ya'rub was one of the earliest Arabs. However, according to many historians, the oldest mention of Arabs was 'Gindibu', an Arab king who participated in the Battle of Qarqar within the alliance of eastern kings formed to counter the Assyrian expansion in the 9th century B.C.
In the year 673 B.C., we found that the Assyrians spoke extensively about their expansion to Dumat Al-Jandal in the north of the Arabian Peninsula, calling it "the strongest country among Arab countries." This indicates that Arabs were living in areas containing inscriptions with Arabic features.
Therefore, those inscriptions were Arabic and written by Arabs, but their calligraphy was different, and their language was a bit earlier in history. These people were Arabs by all means.
The Nabataean Link
In the 19th century, two important inscriptions were discovered that changed the way we think about the Arabic form before Islam. The first one is the 'Fihro' inscription, found by the German orientalist Enno Littmann in Umm El-Jimal village, one of the centers of the ancient Nabataean Kingdom in Jordan. This inscription consisted of two parts: one written in a strange language and the other its translation. We used the language we knew as a reference to translate the other one, much like how the Rosetta Stone helped unlock the secrets of other languages.
This inscription, alongside another called 'Namara' dating back to the year 328 A.D., had writing similar to our Arabic writings—not the old difficult inscriptions. This is the Nabataean writing, which was the missing link. It's the mediator between the old difficult inscriptions and our current Arabic.
Evolution of Arabic Script
All the Arabs mentioned were moving around normally in these old centuries. However, Nabataeans had a stable civilization and kingdom, which extended from the south to Hegra in the north of the Arabian Peninsula. They were speaking Arabic. The difference was that they were sending their administrative reports to the kingdom in Aramaic, similar to an Egyptian working in a company where all dealings are in English.
Therefore, when we reached the 2nd century A.D., you could find a person who speaks Arabic and writes Aramaic with Nabataean calligraphy. Romans destroyed the Nabataean civilization, but as usual, the pen is mightier than the sword. Their Nabataean calligraphy survived, and Arabs continued using it in the north of the Arabian Peninsula. Over time, the calligraphy remained, but they left the Aramaic language behind, and the current Arabic letters began to appear in words and shapes.
By the 5th and 6th centuries A.D., an Arabic calligraphy had fully developed. Maybe Arabs united on the Nabataean calligraphy due to its neutral introduction of the language—an everyday language used in trade dealings, not a religious language associated with specific gods. All those alphabets disappeared gradually. That doesn't mean the Arabic used with them also disappeared.
Conclusion
In short, we had one language written with many calligraphies throughout history. Certain historical circumstances led to only one calligraphy representing this language—the late Nabataean calligraphy. When Islam and the Qur'an were revealed, all Arabs were united on the form of the language and terms we use till today.
The matter of reaching the oldest form of Arabic is still challenging because most researchers, even after discovering these inscriptions, assert that they don't know everything about the early stages of Arabic. This stage is subject to conclusions and explanations. The Arabian Peninsula was a collection of alphabets and calligraphies before Islam until we agreed on the calligraphy we're using now.
As many of the ideas depend on recent discoveries of inscriptions and antiquities, much remains connected to upcoming discoveries and open to new hypotheses that may unlock new paths. The important thing is to expand our thinking about the great language that developed through thousands of years and not be narrow-minded like some orientalists who thought that Arabs before Islam were illiterate, isolated people who couldn't leave any written heritage for their upcoming generations.
The historical evidence and inscriptions we talked about earlier show a high level of civilization among people who recorded the smallest details about their lives—from pleading with their gods to their camping trips among ruins.
Perhaps the point of how the oldest form of the Arabic language looked isn't urgent for us as native Arabic speakers. The Holy Qur'an, with its strong language and eloquence, serves as a fundamental text for current Arabic, preserving it. A text that has set a specific form for the Arabic language—a protected form that has continued for fourteen centuries.
This isn't related to being Muslim or not. The Qur'an preserved the language form till today for anyone who speaks, reads, and writes Arabic. However, before the Qur'an, the language was diverse in both written and spoken forms—a language used by a vast geographical area with different tribes and groups. Arabic was a language that had thousands of dialects, writing styles, and groups of people who used it to express the smallest details about their lives.
While this makes research harder, it also makes us appreciate such a rich history, which we couldn't imagine would be so prosperous. A history from which we received only simple inscriptions, but it turned out that they weren't that simple.
