Magnum opus: Sheikh Sultan launches first 17 volumes of historical project

Gulf Today, Staff Reporter

A historical cultural feat for the Arab world has been attained, as His Highness Dr Sheikh Sultan Bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Member of the Supreme Council and Ruler of Sharjah, released the first 17 volumes of the Historical Corpus of the Arabic Language – the first-of-its kind project to chronicle 17 centuries of development in the Arabic language, in the presence of Sheikh Sultan Bin Ahmed Al Qasimi, Deputy Ruler of Sharjah.

The volumes were unveiled by the Sharjah Ruler during the opening ceremony of the milestone 40th edition of the Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF) held on Tuesday evening in Expo Centre Sharjah, in the presence of a host of Arab Ministers of culture; presidents of Arabic language academies in the region; and several Arabic language scholars and researchers.

 The volumes were revealed in the presence of a host of dignitaries at the Sharjah book fair.

His Highness also unveiled the official website of The Historical Corpus of the Arabic Language.

In a keynote address, the Sharjah Ruler noted: “Arabic is one of the longest living languages. We are here to celebrate Arabic language experts who gathered to work for years to document the roots and meanings of the Arabic language alphabet. We have started to work hard and bridge the gaps that were existing in the documentation of the language. Finally, the sun has risen on this beautiful Corpus, which is the fruit of the efforts of a number of Arabic language institutions across the region.

“The role this detailed corpus will play in informing and educating students, researchers, and linguists and even the everyday language enthusiasts will be immense. I am not exaggerating when I say that there has been no other project that has attracted my attention or the attention of the Arab linguist community in our region to the extent that this project has. I am following up on the development of the efforts of everyone involved in this project, and I assure you that in the coming years we will be publishing several more volumes. I thank each and everyone involved in making this project a success,” His Highness added.

The Sharjah Ruler spoke about the online platform and smartphone applications that have been designed to make the Historical Corpus available digitally, and facilitate easy access to these resources from anywhere in the world. 

 His Highness also signed the first edition of the Historical Corpus of the Arabic Language at the SIBF 2021 opening ceremony.

The first volumes of the corpus are dedicated to the first five Arabic letters: the hamza (ء), ba (ب), ta (ت) tha (ث) and jeem (ج) and outline their evolution throughout the pre-Islamic period, the Islamic era from 1 AH to 132 AH, the Abbasid Caliphate from 133 AH to 656 AH, and the modern-day era from 1214 AH to date.

Historical Corpus of the Arabic Language website

The website will offer scholars, linguists, researchers and language enthusiasts access to the 17 volumes of the corpus from anywhere in the world. The website also features a section that hosts a bibliography of books which were consulted to write the first volumes of the Historical Corpus, and lists the names of the editors, linguists and experts from the 10 Arabic language academies across the Arab world, who collaborated on the project.

The digital platform that was created to access the online Historical Corpus of the Arabic Language is easy to use and it can rapidly filter the search results in historical contexts. Moreover, it has an optical recognition software (OCR) that converts written texts into spoken words.

 Sheikh Sultan signs the first edition of the Historical Corpus of the Arabic Language.

Champions of the Arabic language across the region bring the historic project to fruition 

The corpus has seen the collaboration of hundreds of senior researchers and linguists, editors and experts from 10 Arabic language academies across the Arab world, under the supervision of the Union of Arab Scientific Language Academies in Cairo, Egypt, and with the Arabic Language Academy in Sharjah managing the project’s executive committee. The corpus relies on a database of sources collected and digitised over the last four years, comprising 20,000 Arabic books, manuscripts, sources, and historical documents, including old inscriptions and archaeological finds, dating back to the third century before Islam.

The Historical Corpus of the Arabic Language is dedicated to providing key information about the history of the Arabic lexicon, the original root of each word and all other words that derive from the root with their vocal and phonetic changes. It traces the history of a given word and identifies the first user and evolution of that word from Pre-Islamic Arabia all the way to the modern time. In this respect, it is different from any other dictionary because it cites vibrant quotes from the Holy Quran and Hadith as well as from poems, speeches, letters and other sources.

It also reveals the development of Arabic idioms and expressions through the centuries, and documents the entry of new words into Arabic language, lists words that are no longer used, and explains the reasons why. Besides, the corpus reviews the development of arts and sciences that directly relate to linguistics including grammar, morphology, philology, phonetics, rhetoric, rhyme, and so on. It also offers comparative lexical reviews on Arabic and the influence it had on other Semitic languages such as Hebrew, Akkadian, Syriac, Abyssinian, and Amharic. An expert committee outlined the similarities and differences between Arabic words and the equivalent words in those languages, citing examples and documenting the bibliography and reference books that were used in the project.

Several senior officials witnessed the launch, including Sheikh Nahyan Bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Tolerance and Coexistence; Bodour Al Qasimi, President of the International Publishers Association (IPA); Sheikha Hoor Al Qasimi, President of the Sharjah Art Foundation (SAF); Sheikh Khalid Bin Issam Al Qasimi, Chairman of the Department of Civil Aviation in Sharjah; Sheikh Salem Bin Abdulrahman Al Qasimi, Chairman of the Sharjah Ruler's Office; Sheikha Nawar Bint Ahmed Al Qasimi, Director, SAF; and Abdul Rahman Bin Mohammad Al Owais, UAE Minister of Health and Prevention.

The launch of the corpus’s 17 volumes was also witnessed by Dr. Salah Fadl, President of the Arab Language Academy in Cairo; Dr. Mamoun Wajeeh, Scientific Manager of the Historical Corpus of the Arabic Language; Dr. Abdulhamid Madkour, Secretary General of the Union of Arab Scientific Language Academies, and Secretary-General of the Arabic Language Academy in Cairo.

Other guests included Dr Al Khalil Al Nahawi, President of the Al Lisan Al Arabi Majlis in Mauritania, Dr. Abdul Fattah Al Hajmari, Director of the Translation Coordination Bureau in Ribat; Dr Mohammed Shandoul, Head of the Lexical Editing Committees in Tunisia; Dr. Muhammad Al Saudi, Secretary General of the Arabic Language Academy in Jordan; Dr. Mahmoud Al Sayed, Vice-President of the Arabic Language Academy in Syria; Dr. Abdullah Al Washmi, Secretary General of the King Salman International Complex for the Arabic Language; and a number of Arab linguists and experts who worked on the project.