Arabic language - religious terminology

obligatory courses

Classroom

The course should acquaint the students with Islamic terminology in different fields of social and cultural life of the Muslim world. The official language of this world is Arabic, hence mainly Arabic usage and terminology will be presented and analysed. Marginally other languages will be considered in so fas as they use and transmit Arabic terminology.

1. General remarks

a. Islamic culture--and therefore the language--as pertaining to almost all spheres of social and cultural life.

b. From formal grammar (Chomskyan) to mental grammar represented by cognitive linguistics.Theoretical foundations: role of cognitivistics/cognitive linguistics. George Lakoff’s and Mark Jonhson’s Metaphors we live by (1979).

2. Some specific concepts in Arabic as reflected in metaphors such as the metaphor of road, the role of body parts, our position in space, understanding religion as security and judgment.

3. Qur’anic Arabic: lexical and phraseological units.

- Self-description as metaphor (tens of terms)

- Metaphoric meaning of the parts of the scripture

- Quranic phrases

- Large parts of the Quran and their use in everyday life, politics, art.

4. Hadith. i.e. tradition/Sunna of the Prophet.

Classification of the Hadith.

Shi‘ite tradition of the imams ḫabars (aḫbār).

5. Law

Terminology in general (šarī ‘a, fiqh (tafaqquh fī ad-dīn), qānūn.

Religious observances as defined by the law. Terminology.

Religious crimes against God and punishments (ḥudūd).

Criminal law: qiṣāṣ (retaliation) and diyya (blood-money; earlier ‘aql), ta‘zīr punishment at the discretion of the judge.

Lawyers of Islam: functions and terminology.

6. Theology; groups called by metaphorical names: ḫawāriǧ (ḫāriǧ), murǧi’a, qadariyya, mu‘tazila, later by namesakes (eponyms): māturīdiyya (Al-Māturīdī).

7. The language of the Shi‘a.

Divisions

- Zaydis

- Isma’ilis

- Imamite Shi ‘a - Iṯnā‘ašariyya

Specific Shi‘ite terminology.

8. Politics

Metaphorical origins of political terminology (e.g.justice ‘adl and injustice ẓulm, siyāsa politics, dawla etc.

Titles of high functionaries.

9. Terms pertaining to the life of Muhammad.

10. Fate of Arabic terms in languages of islam (Persian, Turkish, Urdu, Malay, Suahili).

a. Loanwords, borrowings: mullā (mawlā), but aḫund

b. Calques (loan translations: Lehnübersetzungen): tawaḍḍu’ - ābdast (Persian) hence Polish abdeś.

11. Arabic terminology in Western languages.

- Arabic as transmitter: aubergine

- Arabic as source: algebra, alcohol, sinus etc.

- End result: Spanish, French, English, Slavic etc.

Literature

The Quran in Arabic and English (online).

Selected Hadith: Arabic and English (online).

Elsaid Badawi, Muhammad Abdel Haleem, Arabic-English Dictionary of Qur’anic Usage, Leiden, Boston 2008.

Jonathan Brown, Hadith. Muhammad’s Legacy in the Medieval and Modern World, London 2018 (2nd ed.).

Bernard Lewis, The Political Language of Islam, The University of Chicago Press 1988.

Etymological dictionaries:

Walther von Wartburg, Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch (FEW) is the best source for Oriental etymologies (volume 19), not only French, but of most Western languages. The dictionary is available online (http://stella.atilf.fr/FEW/).

Federico Corriente, Dictionary of Arabic and Allied Loanwords, Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, Galician and Kindred Dialects, Brill, Leiden and Boston 2008.

Friedrich Kluge, Elmar Seebold, Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, W. Gruyter, Berlin-New York 1989 (22nd ed.)

Max Vasmer, Russisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, vol. I-III, There is also a Russian translation.

The graduate:

- has a firm grasp of the impact of religion on society, in particular in the field of law, religious conflicts, interreligious dialogue, religious rites and practices, art and religious symbols

- analyze the Arabic terminology related to Islam

- formulate his/her own opinions and conclusions in English in spoken and written form at least on the B2+ level

- establish contacts and cooperate with representatives of different cultures

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