The Arabic Language

Chapter 5
The Development of Classical Arabic
5.1 Introduction
At the beginning of the Islamic period, only two sources of literary Arabic were 
available, the 
Qurʾān
and the pre-Islamic poems. It is not surprising, then, that 
these two sources were to play a crucial role in the standardisation and develop
-
ment of the Arabic language. It is not surprising, either, that the first scholarly 
activities in Islam concentrated on the text of the 
Qurʾān
, which had to be trans
-
mitted and explained, both on the level of the text and on that of the contents. 
At the same time, when the direct ties with the desert were broken, the living 
practice of poetry was very soon replaced by scholarly interest in the pre-Islamic 
poems. The transmission of both ‘texts’ had taken place orally and informally, but 
in the rapidly expanding empire such a form of transmission could no longer be 
trusted.
The language itself, too, underwent a process of standardisation. While in 
pre-Islamic times the Bedouin regarded themselves as members of one speech 
community, they had no single linguistic norm, and even in the language of poetry, 
which was supposed to be supra-tribal, a great deal of variation was accepted. 
After the conquests, when Arabic became the language of an empire, there was an 
urgent need to standardise the language for three reasons. First, the divergence 
between the language of the Bedouin and the various colloquial varieties that 
emerged became a real threat to communication in the empire. Second, the policy 
of the central government, first in Damascus and later in Baghdad, was aimed at 
controlling its subjects not only in economic and religious but also in linguistic 
matters. Obviously, if Arabic was to be used as the language of the central admin
-
istration, it had to be standardised. Third, the changed situation called forth a 
rapid expansion of the lexicon, which had to be regulated in order to achieve 
some measure of uniformity.
This chapter deals with three topics connected with the process of standardisa
-
tion. The most important prerequisite for the written codification of the language 
was the invention of an orthography, or rather the adaptation of existing scribal 
practices to the new situation. Then a standardised norm for the language was 
elaborated, and the lexicon was inventoried and expanded. Subsequently, when 

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The Development of Classical Arabic 
61
these requirements had been met, a stylistic standard was developed. The existing 
Bedouin model was instrumental in the development of a stylistic standard for 
poetry, but the emergence of an Arabic prose style marked the real beginning of 
Classical Arabic as we know it. In the final section of this chapter, we shall deal 
with the official status of the Arabic language.