The Arabic Language

Further reading
A classic work on the early history of the Arabs is Altheim and Stiehl (1964–9); 
the most comprehensive handbook is Retsö (2003); on the role of the nomads in 
Ancient Near Eastern history, see Höfner (1959); see also Klengel (1972) with a 
section on the occurrence of the Arabs in cuneiform inscriptions (1972: 88–103). 
The standard work on the relations between the Arabs and Byzantium before 
Islam is Shahid (1984). The history of the Bedouinisation of the peninsula is dealt 
with in various articles by Dostal (e.g., 1959); a fascinating study of the early 
development of camel domestication and the history of settlement in the penin
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sula is Bulliet (1990). On the origin of the name ‘Arabs’, see Dossin (1959) and 
Retsö (2006); on ancient Bedouin society, see Henninger (1959).
A survey of the various groups of inscriptions mentioned here is given by W. 
Müller (1982), with further literature; the most recent survey is Macdonald (2008), 
who uses the term (Epigraphic) Old Arabic for the earlier forms of Arabic and 
North Arabian. On Ancient North Arabian, see Macdonald (2004) and Hayajneh 
(2011); a database of all inscriptions of Ancient North Arabia (ODIANA) is being 
set up by Macdonald. A general survey of the languages in pre-Islamic Arabia is 
in Beeston (1981) and Robin (1992); a linguistic map of pre-Islamic Arabia is in 
Macdonald (2000). For the individual groups of inscriptions, the following sources 
may be consulted: Ṯamūdic: van den Branden (1950); Liḥyānitic: publication of 
most of the inscriptions by Jaussen and Savignac (1909, 1914), new inscriptions in 
Stiehl (1971–3); Ṣafāʾitic: Littmann (1943), and the sketch in W. Müller (1982), from 
which the examples in this chapter were taken; an online database of Ṣafāʾitic 
inscriptions has been set up by Macdonald at: http://krcfm.orient.ox.ac.uk/fmi/
iwp/cgi?-db=AALC_BDRS&-loadframes; Ḥasāʾitic: Jamme (1967).
There is an extensive literature on the Nabataean and Palmyran inscriptions. A 
grammatical description of Nabataean Aramaic was given by Cantineau (1930–2); 
a more recent sketch was published by Healey (2007), and a selection of inscrip
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tions by Healey (2009). On Palmyran, see Cantineau (1935); on bilingualism in 
Palmyra, see Kaizer (2002: 27–33). On the relevance of Nabataean orthography 
for the history of Arabic, see Diem (1973a). The relationship between the Arabic 
spoken by the Nabataeans and the Arabic of the Ḥijāzī merchants is dealt with 
by Knauf (2010); his terminology differs from that used here: instead of Ancient 
North Arabian he uses Ancient North Arabic, which he regards as the predecessor 
of the Arabic spoken by the Nabataeans, which he calls Old Arabic; the Arabic of 
the ʿĒn ʿAvdat and the an-Namāra inscription is labelled by him as Early Standard 
Arabic. 
The pre-Islamic inscriptions are dealt with in Grohmann’s (1971: 15–17) 
handbook of palaeography, as well as in several monographs and articles, for 
example, Bellamy (1988); for a survey, see Diem (1976); for the development of 
the script in these inscriptions and further bibliography, see Gruendler (1993: 
12–14). A corpus of these inscriptions is being published by Sharon (1997–); thus 

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The Earliest Stages of Arabic 
41
far, five volumes have appeared, containing among other inscriptions the famous 
one of ʿĒn ʿAvdat (I, 190–4). 
The reading and translation of the an-Namāra inscription by Bellamy (1985) 
was followed here; for more recent contributions to the debate, see Retsö (2003: 
467–73), Kropp (2006) and Zwettler (2006). For the inscription of ʿĒn ʿAvdat, see 
Negev (1986), Bellamy (1990), Noja (1989, 1993), Ambros (1994) and Testen (1996).
The later development of the Arabic script is treated by Abbott (1939), Grohmann 
(1967, 1971) and Endreß (1982). For the theory of Syriac origin, see Starcky (1966) 
and discussion of this theory in Sourdel-Thomine (1966). Gruendler (1993) has 
detailed charts of the individual letters in both epigraphic and cursive Nabataean 
and Arabic, and a number of tracings of the most important inscriptions from the 
pre-Islamic and the early Islamic period. The transitional Nabataean inscriptions 
are discussed by Nehmé (2010); on the connection between the two scripts see 
also Macdonald (2009).

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