Arabic Sources Research Articles

La conquista cristiana de al-Andalus, los ulemas y el destino de la población musulmana en las fuentes árabes (siglos XI–XIII)

ABSTRACT Population movements were a regular feature in Iberia across the medieval period, especially due to the conflicts for land control between the northern Christian states and Islamic powers in the south. Movements of Muslim populations caused by the Christian expansion rose sharply from the eleventh century and peaked over the following two centuries. Drawing on the Arabic sources, this article explores how, when, and where the Muslims had to leave their homelands following the arrival of Christian conquerors. While documentary information is scarce and lacking in detail, these sources are key to understanding the real demographic impact caused by the expansion of Christian kingdoms into Islamic territory in Iberia across the eleventh through thirteenth centuries.

Retelling the Narratives of the East in the West: The Unique Morisco Account of the Polemic of Wāṣil of Damascus

This article discusses the polemics of Wāṣil of Damascus at the Byzantine court in a hitherto unstudied Aljamiado manuscript copied by Moriscos, or Muslims converted to Christianity in Early Modern Iberia. This debate, which unfolded in the first centuries of the expansion of Islam, has so far been studied on the basis of a single Arabic manuscript. The present contribution adds to the discussion the Aljamiado materials and a number of relevant Arabic sources. It reassesses the character of Wāṣil, his involvement in Byzantine politics and iconoclastic controversies, and his identification with the early theologian Wāṣil b. ʿAṭāʾ (d. 2nd/8th c.). The historical data in Ibn ʿAsākir’s Taʾrīḫ (6th/12th c.) and the role of Wāṣil as the true hero of the story also justify the need for a detailed and extensive analysis of the Muslim readings of the text. The unique Morisco account will be discussed alongside the new evidence, paying attention to the uses of this narrative and its adaptation in the passage from East to West. The practices of retelling tie with the examination of how the original triumphalist story and the key issues of the early Eastern Muslim-Christian debates acquired meaning in the face of the expansion of Iberian Christian society that ended with the expulsion of the Jews and, ultimately, the Moriscos. Taken together, the evidence attests to the preservation of this polemics over the centuries in Muslim circles and its dissemination sometimes in contexts far removed from the original, such as the Muslim West.

Paying Tribute: Returning to the Story of the “Qur‘ān of ‘Uthmān

Objectives: The Qur’an occupies a central position in a religious and philosophical system that has had a significant and emblematic impact on human history, influencing Arabic studies worldwide. Such is particularly true for Russian Arabic studies, where the '‘Uthmanic Qur’an', with copies in Saint Petersburg and Uzbekistan, has played a crucial role. This study aims to honour our teachers and the Arab community of Qashqadarya, who continue to preserve their language and culture. Methodology: Synthetic, Comparative. Findings: The history of these manuscripts spans over twelve centuries, providing rich material linked to the fate of human lineages, nations, cities, peoples, and Islamic civilisation since its emergence in the Arabian Peninsula in the 7th century until the triumph of Islam. This Islam endured against the communist regime in the Islamic republics of the Soviet Union. The Russian School of Arabic Studies survived the 1917 Revolution due to its concentration on research areas that were of particular importance at the time. These included the study of Arabic sources on the history of the USSR territories and the living Arabic dialects used in the Central Asian republics. Such led to the publication of significant works on the language, ethnography, and history of the Arabs of Qashqadarya, whose ancestors brought the '‘Uthmanic Qur’an' from the Arabian Peninsula via the Silk Road to their land in Uzbekistan. Originality: Today, advanced research techniques must be used to study and analyse the '‘Uthmanic Qur’an' manuscript and reconstruct the origin, culture, and dialects of the Arab population in Qashqadarya, Uzbekistan. These include DNA analysis and modern linguistic methods based on big data and artificial intelligence technology.

“Temple” at the Baba-ata fortifi ed settlement, a monument of fallacies

The article deals with the results of the archaeological works, conducted at the Baba-Ata fortified settlement in 1950s. During the study of the settlement citadel, three building horizons, connected by a well with a total length of 15 m, were identified. The lower horizon of the citadel with a central domed room, where there was a well with an underground passage, turned out to be unique in its own way. Having no similar analogues, the construction on the lower horizon gave rise to a lot of different interpretations among specialists, who considered this building as a homestead, castle, temple, sanctuary, khanqah, etc. The architectural archaeological analysis of the entire complex of sources (articles, excavation journals of expedition participants, drawings and photographs of objects under study, etc.), some of which have not been published anywhere, made it possible to give a completely different interpretation and dating of the site. The Baba-Ata fortified settlement is identified with the city of Baruket in Arabic sources, it was built by the Samanids at the beginning of the 10th century as a border point in the northeast of the empire against the Guzes Initially, the lower horizon construction consisted of two floors. The lower – semibasement, which caused a lot of controversy, was a shelter with the possibility of evacuation through the underground passage during the hostilities and has no analogues, being a kind of only building in medieval architecture of Central Asia.

The evaluation of urinary signs and symptoms in medieval medicine

Medieval medicine established the basis of western sanitary knowledge. In an early period, the medical model was monastic and based mainly on botany. In High Middle Age (1000–1300 AD) classical Greek, Roman and Arabic sources were rescued by manuscript copiers, compilers and translators, especially in the Medical School of Salerno and in Toledo. The Arab and Hebrew knowledge was fundamental for this information recovery, that promoted the creation of the first medical universities in Europe (Montpelier, Bologna, Paris, Oxford, Salamanca) that spread the medical knowledge in Late Middle Ages. A non-systematic review is undertaken to analyze how urinary signs and symptoms were evaluated in medieval medicine, with emphasis in uroscopy and in the description in medical treatises of urinary symptoms; including incontinence, dysuria and retention, and their remedies in the form of oils, syrups and electuaries to restore the humoral balance

AlFloos: a balanced dataset for the sixth issue of the Saudi Arabian currency banknote*

AbstractArtificial Intelligence, especially machine learning, is considered by many researchers the new electricity and an important building block of the fourth industrial revolution. Saudi Arabia is amongst the first nations worldwide to realize this importance and apply it in its school systems at various levels. This interest motivates researchers to create Arabic datasets for research and educational purposes, particularly with the popularity of English sources and the absence of Arabic sources. This study attempts to lessen this gap by creating for the first time ever a dataset for the sixth issue of the Saudi Arabian currency and analyzing it using the famous machine learning tools: Orange Data Mining, Google Teachable Machine, and Liner.ai, which require no coding. The importance of the study to the community is as follows: 1—It provides the first work ever to establish a balanced dataset for the sixth issue of the Saudi Arabian currency banknote, which contains images for the banknote denominations and the tabular data generated using deep learning. 2—It is the first scientific work that uses shallow machine learning and deep learning models to create good-performing models for classifying the sixth issue of the Saudi Arabian currency without coding. This work paves the way for researchers and those interested from various fields and backgrounds to develop machine learning applications to classify the sixth issue of the Saudi Arabian currency, especially in mobile phones or in microcontrollers, to inspire multiple IoT and Tiny machine learning applications like currency recognition and classification for special needs people, automatic counting and sorting of banknotes in banks and stores, and fake currency detection.

Examining the Cultural Connotations in Human and Machine Translations: A Corpus Study of Naguib Mahfouz's Zuqāq al-Midaqq

The translation of culture-specific terms constitutes a major challenge for professional translators as it necessitates a thorough understanding of both the linguistic and cultural elements. With rapid technological advancement over the past few years, machine translation has enhanced translation quality. This study investigates the transability of cultural connotations in the Arabic-English translation of Naguib Mahfouz’s Zuqāq al-Midaqq. A descriptive qualitative research design was adopted to achieve the intended goals of the study. The data comprised human and machine translations from Google Translate and ChatGPT. Through qualitative content analysis, the translations were compared for accuracy in transferring the cultural connotations prevalent in the Arabic source text. The findings revealed that the human translation showed greater naturalness and accuracy in rendering cultural connotations. Machine translation has struggled with rhetorical devices, idioms, and cultural nuances. The results also indicated that the AI-enhanced machine represented by ChatGPT captured the cultural elements more effectively than Google Translate. The study concluded that human expertise remains essential for the high-quality translation of literary works to maintain cultural significance. The findings can inform translator training and guide improvements to AI-enhanced translation for literary texts.

The Translation of (Jadal)Argumentation (Dialectic) Discourse in the Holy Qur’an into English: An Investigation of the Logical Construction of Dialectic in the Source Text

The present research seeks to investigate the equivalence of translating argumentative topics, which include the dialectic (controversial) style in the Holy Qur’an. It designs to know how the discourse of the Qur’anic controversy is manifested, based on a set of logical arguments and points of view. The research also aims to find out the extent to which the English translations succeeded in conveying the same dialectical logical structure connotation, taking into account the challenges faced by the translators: Hilali, Khan, and Abdel Haleem in translating the meanings of the Holy Qur’an, especially the dialectic style. Therefore, the translator must strive to convey the dialectical discourse with its stylistic features in terms of clarity, accuracy, and objectivity. The study adopts an eclectic method. It is a combination of a semantic approach, text discussion, analysis, and extracting a suggested translation, with applying the back-translation technique. All of this is in light of an applied approach to examples of the Holy Ayat (verses) for the controversial style. The study concluded that translating of the dialectical style and its links represent a real challenge for translators. So, they must resort to consult exegesis (tafsir), rhetoric books and other Arabic sources, in addition to the translation theories to overcome these challenges. The study recommends that the translator of the meanings of the Holy Qur’an must be familiar with the sciences of the Holy Qur’an and the Arabic language, such as interpretation, rhetoric, etc. The translator also need to seek help from language dictionaries to choose the specific meaning of the dialectical style. Moreover, the translator, before embarking on the translation, must consult scholars and experts when submitting a suggested translation. This suggested translation must be emanating from authentic Islamic visions. This due to verify the intended Qur’anic meaning for argumentative (Al-Hajjaj) dialectical and others rhetorical styles.

Stolen Horses and Scented Garments: Vegetal and Mineral Yellow in Arabic Technical Literature

Mediaeval Arabic technical literature shows a keen interest in yellow dyes, paints, varnishes, inks, and even perfumes. Recipes reveal that yellow was viewed as just one step away from gold, with preparations for these two colours often sharing ingredients and techniques. In the unfolding of procedures and applications to different materials, from skin to textiles, Arabic sources also offer a glimpse into daily life and shared tastes, presenting luxury objects along with their imitations. This paper traces the role played by yellow and gold in inks, cosmetic dyes, and coloured, scented fabrics, exploring the textual dimension of these recipes, their technical features, and their social role between the court and the street. It also presents translations of several important recipes for yellow and gold dyes, which illustrate their diversity of applications, while also addressing such material problems as durability and substitution.

Discovering Appearance of the Franks in Arab Sources (8th–9th Centuries)

At the time of Crusades, the term “franks” (ifranj) was common Arabic word for the crusaders. Since that, almost any study of the Crusades from the “Islamic perspective” tends to discover francs in Arab sources. However, medieval Muslim authors mentioned the Franks since the early 9th century, long before the Crusades, but nobody asks when and how Arabic authors actually learn about the Franks. There is still a half-century-old hypothesis by B. Lewis, attributing the word “franc” (faranj) to the Greek “fráŋkos”. The aim of our article is to discover the original source from which the Arabs first learn about the Franks, so we study the 9th-century Arab texts reporting on the first known contact between Arabs and Franks during the Muslim conquest of Spain. It seems that the Arabic faranj could hardly originate from the Greek fráŋkos, as the combination of letters <γκ> sounds as <nk> during this period (which corresponds to another Arabic form firank appearing in a number of texts in 11th–12th centuries and not widely used). That is why the Arabic franc could actually originate from Syriac as a transcription of the Syriac prangāiā. Based on message of the 9th-century historian Ibn Kutaiba we suppose that Arabs learned this term from the Syrian sailors who ensured the crossing of Muslim army through the Strait of Gibraltar in the spring of 711.

ПОЛІТИКА АДМІНІСТРАЦІЇ ПРЕЗИДЕНТА США ДЖ. БАЙДЕНА ЩОДО ВІЙНИ В ГАЗІ: ВИКЛИКИ, ПРІОРИТЕТИ, ЗАВДАННЯ

The aim of the article is a comprehensive analysis of the foreign policy course of U.S. President J. Biden’s administration regarding the war in Gaza. The article examines the formation of principled positions by the American president and his team regarding the war in Gaza in the context of preventing the spread of hostilities to the entire region of the Middle East, the post-war fate of Gaza and the need to implement a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, prospects for resuming the process of normalization of relations between Israel and Arab countries. Research methods include a set of general and special research methods, including systematic and comparative analysis, methods of critical analysis of sources. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the fact that its author was one of the first in Ukrainian historiography to make a systematic analysis of the foreign policy course of US President J. Biden’s administration regarding the war in Gaza. The study was conducted in the context of war challenges and risks and in view of the next presidential election in the United States in November 2024. Special attention is paid to introducing the latest American, Israeli and Arab sources into scientific circulation. The author concludes that there is a close relationship between the war in Gaza and the Russian aggression against Ukraine, which allowed Biden to combine these two problems into one package of actions. The author of the article also distinguishes two stages in the implementation of the policy of the US President J. Biden’s administration regarding the war in Gaza. The first stage (October – December 2023) is marked by the formation of the main principles and directions of this policy, realizing that the main condition for resolving the long-term Palestinian-Israeli conflict is the creation of an independent Palestinian state. Its second stage (January 2024 – until now) is characterized by working out the ways of radical transformation of Gaza in the post-war period, with the financial help of the Arab monarchies.

Подразделение мамлюков джулбан в военно-политической системе Черкесского султаната (1382–1517)

In the Circassian Sultanate, the high-rank amirs of the mamluk army formed the basis of the political elite, with the army serving as the pillar and guarantor of the ruler’s authority. The core of this army consisted of the julban, a corps of military slaves, purchased, raised, and trained by the sultan. As the sultan’s personal faction and guards, the julban had some privileges, and sultans compromised with their increasing demands and rebellious conduct. Using their almost complete impunity, the julban terrorized the residents of Cairo and officials of the mamluk administration, attacked the amirs, and even rebelled against their master. By the middle of the 15th century, the julban evolved into a disruptive force, negatively affecting both the authority of the sultan and the state of the mamluk army. The study deals with the revolt of 1468, illuminating the dynamics of the julban’s position in the Mamluk political system. Through a careful analysis of Mamluk chronicles, the authors demonstrate that the non-dynastic succession system resisted attempts to establish dynasties in which the julban was an active player, as well as thwarted the julban’s attempts to put their leader on the throne. Based on Arabic sources of the 15th – early 16th centuries, the paper traces the gradual changes in the julban’s status. The decline in discipline within the julban ranks contributed to the Mamluks’ defeat during their confrontation with the Ottomans.

<em>In the Intimacy of the Dār al-Nisā’: The Residential Spaces of the Nasrid Sultanas at the Alhambra of Granada (Thirteenth-Fifteenth Centuries)</em>

Like many other dynasties in the History of Islam in the Middle Ages, the Banū Naṣr (1232-1492) created their own palaces as both their seat of power and royal residence at the Alhambra in Granada, the city chosen as the capital of their kingdom in 1238. During its long building process, which lasted from the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries, the Alhambra became the dwelling of the different members of the Nasrid family, including not only the men but also the many women who made up the harem of this dynasty. This article aims to identify the residential spaces in the Alhambra where the daily life of the women of the Nasrid dynasty took place. To start with, we will reflect on the feminine nature of the Alhambra and the concept of the harem in this final phase of Andalusi history, also analysing the composition of the household of the Nasrid sultanas. We will then try to locate the specific areas of the Alhambra where the Dār al-nisā’ (or “house of women”) may have been located, gathering the sparse textual anecdotes reflecting the presence of women in different parts of this royal palace and resorting to personal interpretations due this scarcity of textual sources. For this, we will revisit the available Arabic sources and material culture from a gender perspective. With this study, we aim to turn the Alhambra into an academic field of debate and reflection on how the segregation of spaces according to gender category was organized in the context of both Islamic society and architecture.

Historical geography of the region of the lower and middle reaches of the Syrdarya in Arabic sources of the 9th-13th centuries.

Historical geography of the region of the lower and middle reaches of the Syrdarya in Arabic sources of the 9th-13th centuries.

Qur’an’s Characteristics: Review of Literature

This paper examines and surveys literature about the characteristics of the Holy Qur’an. This review summarizes both modern and previous researches and studies which aimed to specify and determine why and how the Qur’an is different and difficult to translate. The used sources deal with the issue from different perspectives what have all something to do with translation. The characteristics that the paper discusses lead, automatically, to what we call Qur’an untranslatability and inimitability. The paper does not take anything for granted and examines the sources to check all the characteristics and to analyze the given examples and evidence. The used literature is originally written in English and Arabic. The Arabic sources are translated to make the paper understandable and systemic.

Patriarcat, califat et réseaux : le moment Ḥarrān au cœur de l’Empire (126/744-140/758)

Abstract This paper offers a cross-analysis of Syriac and Arabic sources related to the Jazīra, the northern province of the caliphate, during the second/eighth century. Specifically, it delves into what the author refers to as the “Ḥarrān moment”. It pertains to the period when this regional town was turned to the last capital of the Umayyads, and immediately to the centre of the provincial government of the future caliph al-Manṣūr, prior to his ascent to power in 754-755 CE. The study views the Abbasid revolution as part of a single decade of civil war (fitna) (744-755) and emphasises the continuity between two dynasties, challenging the traditional historiographical divide of the “Abbasid revolution.” The “Ḥarrān moment” marked a significant shift in central political (and ecclesiastical) power from Umayyad Damascus to Abbasid Baghdad. Syriac sources underscore the centrality of the Jazīra and its capital, as well as the similarities in the political and military history before and after 132/750. Moreover, local ecclesiastical chronicles highlight how Ḥarrān became the centre of the Church at that time, partly by chance and partly due to geopolitical and geo-ecclesiological co-construction. It is argued that this results from a period when prelates and patriarchs became more courtiers, and both Marwān II and al-Manṣūr initiated a policy of affiliation of the Syrian Orthodox Church to the Caliphate, particularly through the issuance of diplomas (sigillions). This article demonstrates that the physical encounter of these two central powers, civil and ecclesiastical, in this strategic location during this critical time of interconnected political-military and ecclesiological turmoil and changes of the 740s-750s, is the key to understanding this process. The study specifically examines the similarities between monastic and tribal provincial and infra-provincial networks, which arise from the same political constraints, to explore the formation and crystallisation of parallel regional ecclesiastical and political blocks during the mid-eighth century CE.

ARABIC DIALECTS IN THE BOOK (AL-KAFI FI SHARH AL-HADI) BY ABDULWAHHAB BIN IBRAHIM AL-ZANJANI (655 AH) SELECTED EXAMPLES

This research deals with the study of Arabic dialects in the book (Al-Kafi Sharh Al-Hadi) by the author Abdul-Wahhab bin Ibrahim Al-Zanjani, who died (655 AH), and his position on them, and the book (Al-Kafi fi Sharh Al-Hadi), a great book that remained locked in manuscripts until it was edited by Prof. Dr. Mahmoud Youssef went on to complete the first part of it and obtained a doctorate with it. Then his son Anas completed the second part and obtained a master’s degree with it. The author of the book has many famous books, and perhaps the most famous of them before this book saw the light were the book (Al-Tasrif AlUzzi) and the book (Al-Hadi), which the author explained. Himself in his book (Al-Kafi fi Sharh Al-Hadi). The research was titled (Arabic dialects in the book (Al-Kafi fi Sharh Al-Hadi) by AbdulWahhab bin Ibrahim Al-Zanjani (655 AH) Selected Examples) to address four main issues related to dialects; The first issue was in which I studied the abnormal dialects in the letters of wrestling that are combined with the word (Anette), and the second issue in which I studied Arabic dialects in built-up adverbs and made the adverb (yesterday) a model for it, and the third issue dealt with Arabic dialects in the passive voice or what some grammarians call the passive voice. The impact of the Arabic dialects on the formulation of the verb that is built for the passive or passive object, especially the irregular verb and the differences in the movements it has when it is built. The fourth issue dealt with the study of the work of (what) and the Arabic dialects contained in it and the differences in its work, especially between the Hijazis and the Tamimis. In my research, I followed the analytical descriptive approach. I presented Zanjani’s text, which mentions the origin of dialects in the issue intended for the lesson. Then I proceeded to investigate the linguistic opinions that were said on this issue, following a sequence based on tracing the sayings of grammarians and linguists from the oldest to the newest, and trying to collect what He collected a number of opinions and balanced them among themselves, then balanced these statements with the opinion of Al-Zanjani mentioned at the beginning of the issue. The study of these issues was supported by various linguistic evidence from sources approved by linguists, such as the Holy Qur’an, and Arabic poetry, to document the occurrence of these dialects in the Arabic heritage, and then to come up with an opinion and a conclusion for each issue. In this study, I relied on the Arab sources that the research had found, which were organized into proven sources, and I made it after the conclusion that summarized the results of the research. I ask God for sincerity in word and deed and to guide us to the right path. He is in charge of that and capable of it

Worldmaking in the Hijaz: Muslims between South Asian and Soviet Visions of Managing Difference, 1919–1926

AbstractBetween the end of World War I and the Mecca World Muslim Congress of 1926, Soviet officials and Indian Muslim thinkers imagined the possibilities of a post-imperial world through the Hijaz. The All-India Khilafat Committee (AIKC; established 1919), an organization led by prominent Indian Muslim thinkers, and the Soviet Union promoted competing projects to protect the Hijaz, home to some of Islam’s holiest shrines, against European imperialism. Yet, far from limiting themselves to the question of who should rule the Hijaz, the AIKC and the Soviet state engaged in broader debates about religious and social difference, sovereignty, and minority rights. Whereas the AIKC imagined the Hijaz as an international Muslim republic and a place of refuge for Muslims worldwide, Soviet officials contended that the political future of Muslims should only be settled within the framework of ethno-territorial nation-states. Ironically, the programs of both the AIKC and the Soviet state denied the right of self-determination to Hijazis themselves, leaving the region’s inhabitants to choose between two forms of external oversight: a Soviet-supported Saudi ethno-territorialism or limited domestic autonomy under the management and inspection of an international Muslim Council. With very few exceptions, past scholarship on the Hijaz in this period has analyzed the region’s political fortunes through Saudi statecraft or European colonial influence. However, Soviet and Indian Muslim experimental engagement with the Hijaz ultimately proved just as crucial to the consolidation of Saudi governance over the region. The article arrives at these novel insights by bringing rare Soviet archival documents together with the Urdu proceedings of the AIKC’s delegation to the Hijaz, as well as Arabic sources from the period in question.

Agriculture in al-Yamāma during the Abbasid Period*

Abstract Agriculture is a sine qua non for human societies as it provides the food that people need to live. This article will examine the state of agriculture in the region of al-Yamāma in central Arabia during the Abbasid period. It begins with a consideration of the factors affecting agriculture, including some that are uniquely important in the central Arabian context. Attention then turns to a discussion of land holdings and land grants, methods of irrigation, the different types of agriculture, and the crops cultivated. Dates are seen to be the most important agricultural commodity, followed closely by grains. Much less information is available regarding fruits and vegetables. The article relies solely on primary Arabic sources.

The Disciplinary Status of Islamic Psychology Abroad in the Late 20<sup>th</sup> - Early 21<sup>th</sup> Centuries

In the 1970s due to the dissatisfaction of Muslim psychologists with Western psychological theories and practices, which, in their opinion, did not take into account the influence of religion on human behavior, such a field of knowledge as Islamic Psychology began to develop. This line is quite new and is at the stage of active development, so there is still uncertainty about its disciplinary status. The purpose of this article is to clarify the current state and content of the scientific and intra-Muslim discussion regarding the disciplinary status of Islamic Psychology abroad. The works of Arab psychologists ‘Uthman Najati, who first used the term “Islamic Psychology” in 1948, and Malik Badri, who is considered the “father of modern Islamic Psychology”, are studied. Based on the work with English and Arabic sources, the various opinions of scientists on the definition of the disciplinary status of Islamic Psychology at the present time are also considered. As a result of the study, two main periods of the modern development of Islamic Psychology are identified, trends among scientists in determining its disciplinary status are identified, and features of intra-Muslim discussion are considered.