Arabic belongs to the South West Semitic languages, but is sometimes also described as an offshoot of the group of Central Semitic languages. ‘Arabs’ as inhabitants of the Arabian peninsula are already mentioned in Assyrian sources, but we...

. Less than a century after the death of Muhammad in 632, most of Spain had come under Muslim jurisdiction, while inroads had been made into the areas of Narbonne and Carcasonne and even into south-central France, until Charles Martel turned the tide...

Arabic, al-ʿArabiyya, or lisan al-ʿArab, is the language spoken by 200 million people in twenty-one countries from the Arabian Gulf to the Atlantic. As the liturgical language of Muslims, it is the medium for a billion people all over the...

. The nature and depth of the Arabic impact on medieval European civilization are a source of controversy. The rapid conquests of Muslim armies in the 8th and 9th centuries altered the political configurations of southern Europe and the Mediterranean...

Syria: Arab Academy of Damascus (the oldest) Iraq: Iraqi Science Academy Sudan: Academy of the Arabic Language in Khartum Morocco: Academy of the Arabic Language in Rabat (the most active) Jordan: Jordan Academy of Arabic Libya: Academy of the Arabic...

The Arabic Language. By KEES VERSTEEGH. New York: COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS; Edinburgh: EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY PRESS, 1997. Pp. vii + 277. According to the author, the aim of this book is to present a sketch of the history of Arabic (p. vii). This...

Aly Sadek, an Egyptian anesthetist working in Saudi Arabia, must be one of the world's most dedicated opera lovers. Not only does he listen to Mozart's music every day, but he has taught himself Italian, translated the librettos of "Cosi fan tutte," "Don Giovanni"...

The news director of a U.S.-funded Arab language satellite television network that was accused of airing anti-Israeli propaganda has resigned.Larry Register, vice president of news for the Middle East Broadcasting Networks and editorial leader of Al-Hurra Television, claimed in a resignation letter Friday that he...

Once her son is off to school, Laura Mansfield settles in at her dining room table with her laptop and begins trolling Arabic-language message boards and chat rooms popular with jihadists.Fluent in Arabic, the self-employed terror analyst often hacks into the sites, translates the material,...