Arabic, its script and a festival

This lesson asks you to use what you read in the target language to find out about the communities where it is spoken and aspects of their cultures. The museum offers three things to read about: the language, the story told of how its script was devised, and one festival, Eid al-Fitr. The texts you read, and the communities beyond these, your class brings. ¹

Read how the records present the language, the report on its script and a festival. Note which statements are descriptions and which are a report from one narrator, and what you would need to confirm the second kind.

The Encyclopaedia of Islam notes that it is hard to separate the Arabic script from the other scripts of the Islamic world that borrowed its alphabet, and just as hard to draw the map of its use, because language, religion and script did not always spread together ². Arabic writing disappeared from Spain and Sicily after the reconquests, apart from ornamental inscriptions ². In some places the script outlived the spoken language as an administrative or literary medium; in South-East Asia and Black Africa it travelled further than the language; in modern times Latin and sometimes Cyrillic letters replaced it for Turkish, Malay, Malagasy and several African languages ². In the Malay world, the article says, Arabic script was until about 1500 used almost only for Arabic, and around the start of the sixteenth century it became common for Malay and other Indonesian languages ³.

The Kuwaiti encyclopaedia of jurisprudence says that al-Shafi'i holds knowing the Arabic language obligatory on every responsible Muslim as far as his effort allows, and more so for the mujtahid ⁴, and that the jurists require Arabic for the recitation of the Qur'an, the dhikr in prayer, the takbir, the call to prayer and the Friday sermon ⁵. The Encyclopaedia of Islam, speaking of the script and not of worship, says the Arabic script spread together with the faith and with the civilisation in which it came to full fruition ⁶, and that language, religion and script did not always spread together ².

The record on Eid al-Fitr follows two books of different kinds. The Kuwaiti encyclopaedia of jurisprudence says takbir on the two Eids is prescribed on the way to the prayer in homes, markets and roads until the prayer begins ⁷. The Encyclopaedia of Islam describes the customs of the days, and notes that they are more usual at Eid al-Fitr than at Eid al-Adha ⁸.

The jurists' encyclopaedia ties Arabic to worship ⁵, and the Encyclopaedia of Islam says that in South-East Asia and Black Africa the script travelled further than the language ². Defend your answer against the strongest objection: does the script's journey weaken or support the jurists' emphasis on Arabic?

• Arabic in jurisprudence: the meaning of the word, and what the jurists require of Arabic.
• Islamic calligraphy: the script beyond the Arab lands, India and South-East Asia, as the Encyclopaedia of Islam gives them.
• Eid al-Fitr: the takbir as the jurists prescribe it, and the customs of the days in the Encyclopaedia of Islam.
• The Devising and Spread of Arabic Script: al-Baladhuri's report of how the script travelled.

Read the records on the Arabic language and on the devising of the script. Write down the places and people through which the report says the script travelled, then draw them as a map. Then read the record on Eid al-Fitr and note the two festivals it names and when each falls.