Northern Arab: Literature

Assalamu'alaikum wa rahmatullah

This topic is my favorite topic for our tradition but I am not good in language style like my father. My father cannot fluently speak in Arabic but he was undeniably very good in written Malay literature. There are boxes of his writings and poems out here in Malay. He even wrote few books such as his autobiography: Dari Kodiang ke Jalan Riong, Tokoh Ulama Nusantara which is a tribute for famous Muslim clerics within Malay speaking sphere, some Malay short stories such as the Bingkisan Sutera Biru and Mencari Pelangi published by the Malaysian Islamic Development Department before he is paralyzed by strokes. While for me, I am not good in writing, haha. Most of my writings are about spiritualism, psychology, yogic explanation based from Tantra-Yoga of India and about Islam I wrote everything that I heard by hand in Malay using Arabic script. Then, I spontaneously type them in here right away in English before I burn my notes in the metal can.

Arab Descent with Malay

I studied Arabic since I was a little child. We begin everything just like the Israelites children of the past were sent to teachers to learn reading and writing. I was educated through mosque system differently to my sisters who are my siblings where they were educated in secular system. I think the difference happened because my mother and some elders who split my lips with sweets during my tahnik ceremony had consecrated me for "religious" matter. Usually, Muslim parents would bring their newborn babies to spiritual leaders of their community while during the period of prophet Muhammad s.a.w was in Medina, Muslims brought their babies to prophet Muhammad s.a.w himself for the blessings. 

I get to know Arabic alphabets before the Roman alphabets and it was a big trouble for me when I was schooled in national system after I reached seven years old. I read things differently from my spellings other than I used different kind of language at home. For e.g the word chili being pronounced as cabai and everybody in the class laughed at me. I scribe things faster in Arabic script anyway but I cease to do that when I am around with people since Malay in Arabic script is deemed as alien after the 60's. The language style which using the Arabic script is different to the one which uses Roman alphabets since it is a kind of Classical Malay language. Arabic script was used by educated Malay speaking people in Classical period in South East Asia where they consists of native Malay noblemen like the royalties and Arab descents like us who worked closely with royalties. When the Educational Ministry converted the language into Roman script, it also means that we were in deprivation. 

The person in charge with the conversion of the Malay into Roman script was the Education Minister, Mr. Khir Johari who is also a citizen of Kedah state. He enforced the policy in 1966 and the younger generations who speak Malay found that Malay in Arabic script is alien to them. The government seems like trying to save the Arabic script as a medium for Malay written language but they do not put any hard effort on it. They show the "lack" of interest in it. As for me, I write in both Arabic and Malay using Arabic script as part of my identity, heritage and root.

Amṭhāl

Arabic is rich with amṭhāl or proverbs. It spreads fast due to its simplicity, it is compact and easy to be memorized by everyone. This is different to poems since not everyone could memorize it and the poets were known as the people of higher status and position in society. Those who receives the poem too are deemed with such a high esteem within the society.

Proverbs usually relating the people with the nature, activities and their surrounding. There are differences due to geographical location and region. For Northern Arabs, their proverbs would mostly be related to camel, horse, contests due in battles, hunting and arrow. For the Quraish Arabs, business and trade is the main theme of their proverbs since they engaged themselves more in the activity.

The Quran also consists various proverbs used to explain the teachings of morality in relation to the Oneness of the God the Highest.

Poetry

Northern Arabia during the "age of ignorance" values poetry and poets. It is known as the Sha'ir. They expressed their feeling and release their tensions in battles and wars through poetry. A poet is highly respected within a certain tribe. Sometimes, a certain dignified guest would be honored with poetry. Sometimes they express their courage in the beginning through poetry.

Expression of Feeling

Ancient Northern Arabian poetry could be seen as the modest ones. A poet would phrase his nostalgic memory in the form of a poem such as how he lived his life in a poor Bedouin tent with cattle around them. Later he has to migrate for uncertain luck abroad and does not know when he could return to his village. He would perhaps spontaneously phrasing the poem while he sits alone somewhere in the city expressing his melancholic feeling about his memory in the village or sometimes about his girlfriends in the village and how he missed them... Maybe about Fatma.. Maybe about Ablah and so on.

Poetry in War

Poetry held an important position within the ancient Arabia society with the poet or sha'ir filling the role of historian, soothsayer and propagandist. Words in praise of the tribe known as the qit'ah and the lampoons or hija' to denigrate other tribes seems to be the most popular forms of early Arabic poetry. It could also be used by a Northern Arab poets for propaganda as to raise the spirit of his tribe to take revenge or remembering how vulnerable was their enemies that they managed to defeat them in previous wars and battles. There were mock battles in poetry known as zajal and it represents psychological wars between the poets of different tribes besides the real wars. In other occasions, they would recite poems lamenting their deceased friends or brothers who were killed in the battle.

Source of Studies

Among prominent Arab during the age before the advent of prophet Muhammad s.a.w was Imru' al-Qays bin Hujr of the Kindah tribe. He was the last king of the kingdom of Kindah. Although most of the poetry from the era was not preserved, the remains is well regarded as the finest of Arabic poetry to date and we had to learn these poems in our Higher Arabic classes. Due to the eloquence and artistic value, the poems in the age before prophet Muhammad s.a.w constitutes a major source for Classical Arabic in both grammar and vocabulary besides as a reliable historical record of the political and cultural life of the time in ancient Arabia.

Recitation Styles

Alongside the poems there is also a rawi or a reciter. The job as a reciter was to learn poems by heart and to recite them with explanations and probably often with decorative details on it from the recitation style to other details. This tradition allowed the transmission of poetic works and the practice was later adopted by those who memorize the Quran.

In certain periods, there are unbroken chains of illustrious poets. Each one trains a reciter as a bard to promote his verse, and then to take over from them and continue the poetic tradition. For e.g Tofayl trained 'Awas bin Hajar. Bin Hajar trained Zohayr. Zohayr trained his son, Ka'ab. And Ka'ab trained al-Hutay'ah, al-Hutay'ah trained Jamil Buthaynah and Buthaynah trained Kuthayyir 'Azza.

The art of tarannum adopted in the Quranic recitation within some parts of Muslim world is based from this tradition. I am not good and not so much interested in this art but I am not against this. I just found that it is fussy for me and young people do not like too elaborate art but simply the modest and practical ones. This kind of art is almost comparable to Indian styles of recitation for the Vedas and rāga (melodic recitation) of poems in Southern Indian style or Sanskrit meters. This art works closely with the tajwīd or philology. 

Wandering Poets

These people are almost comparable to the Śarmanas of the ancient India. They are called as the Su'luk in Arabic. Their literary works consisted attacks on the rigidity of tribal life and they praise solitude.

Maybe I could categorize myself within this group of people because when I turned to Buddhism as I confronted people around me, it is because the great teacher, Siddartha Gautama, was also a Śramana. Among the prominent wandering poets of ancient Arabia were Ta'bbata Sharran, al-Shanfara and 'Orwa bin al-Ward.

Some of these poets attack on the values of the clan and of the tribe with ironic words, teasing the listeners only in order finally to endorse all that the members of the audience held most dear about their communal values and way of life. While such poets were identified closely with their own tribes, others, such as al-A'sha, were known for their wanderings in search of work from whoever needed poetry. 

Best Poems

The very best of these early poems were collected in the 8th century as the Mo'allaqat meaning "the hung poems" since they were hung on or inside the Cubicle Shrine and the Mufaddaliat or the examination or anthology of the Mofaddal.

The Mo'allaqat also aimed to be the definitive source of the era's output with only a single example of the work of each of the so-called "seven renowned ones", although different versions differ in which "renowned ones" they chose. The Mofaddaliyat on the other hand contains rather a random collection.

The Northern Arabs would conduct the poetry contest in an annual market known as the Okaḍh and if a new poet arise within a particular tribe thus his whole tribe would also be proud of him and being the pride of his friends although his friends are not talented in poetry. It was customary for them to stay in a group outside of their tents at night especially when the full moon is there and they would recite the "seven renowned ones" over and over.

Characteristics of Ignorance Ages Poems

Several characteristics that distinguish the poetry of the ignorance ages from the poetry of the later times are...

• More attentions was given to the eloquence and the wording of the verse than than to the poem as whole. This resulted in poems characterized by strong vocabulary and short ideas but with loosely connected verses.
• It is the romantic or nostalgic prelude with which the poems of ignorance ages would often begin. In these preludes, a thematic unit known as "naṣīb", the poet would remember his beloved and her deserted home and its ruins. This concept in Arabic poetry is referred to as "al-waqafa 'ala al-atlal" or standing by the ruins since the poet would often begin his poem by saying that he stood at the ruins of his beloved. It is a kind of ubi sunt as explained in Latin term.

The latter period of Arabic poems consists of different ideas and also themes ranging from religious, love and so on. We could listen the poems in the form of al-ġinā', anāshid, and from various regions such as from Southern Spain, South East Asia, Central Asia, South Asia and North Africa.

Khiţāb

This means oration and it was an art prominent in Arabia after the poetry. I hate this art the most and I used to sneak out from the contests at our schools while we were forced by the teachers to attend and to watch fellow schoolmates delivering their oration.

I sneaked out because I think that their speeches are not original, boring and they have some kind of weird gestures, ahaha. Does not matter in whatever language that people deliver their oration... I still hate it the same as I hate to listen to preachers regardless movements or religions wasting my time to listen to their "meaningless" persuasion. Oh yeah, I hate choral speaking too. I never join any contests at the school and I never mingle closely with other students. I just cannot be dissolved into the "local" mainstream society and they I think is different from people around.

Well, in the beginning... Poets and poetry were deemed as precious and it could still be seen while prophet Muhammad s.a.w was a young man. While listening to the Revelation recited by prophet Muhammad s.a.w, some of the people said, "It sounds like poetry, but it is not poetry!"

Later, people began to feel sick of poetry because some of the poets began to make profits out of making poems for others. So, the attention to the poets turned little by little to the orators. The orators who delivered their speeches like a fiery fire would receive great attention and applauds from the audience. Orators appear and work in the same manner with the previous poets. They are used by political parties to attack each other, to defend their parties (tribes) from enemies who abuse their parties and in revenge.

The difference between the orators and poets is that orators do not have to pick up complicated or hard words but enough with common words. Many of the orators would bring up the pride of their tribes while delivering their oration in the battle field. They would stand on a place which is higher than the audience and delivering their speeches with hand gestures, face expressions, sometimes holding a stick. The orators who were praised in the society were not those who dubiously deliver the talk but the one who is spontaneous and loud in expressing his ideas.

Nowadays, we have the preachers who took the place of our ancient orators. There is also orator in the mosque which is known as the khaţib who recites the messages related to the "Path" and issues surrounding the society such as religious and morality, social, political and economic issues. 

Sealed with prayers for mercy, peace, and, love, amin!

Northern Arabia: Language

Assalamu'alaikum wa rahmatullah

Now, Northern Arabs were those who actually lived a Bedouin life. They were backward than the Southern Arabs as Southern Arabs had great kingdoms and city-states down there. However in term of language, Northern Arabs had also absorbed many loanwords from foreign powers surrounding them. They gradually absorbed the words into their vocabulary and the narration of historians themselves could not decipher when the Northern Arabs had absorbed those loanwords into their language. 

The development of Arabic language could be seen in three stages...

First Stage

The period where it was still pure and was not so much infiltrated with foreign words while the region of the spoken language is not so much vast like today. The period was the period of Amalek and other ancient Arab tribes.

Second Stage

Second Jurhumite period where the native Southern Arabs moved northward and mingled with Ishmael a.s and his family. Their language became influenced by these these Arabized non-Arabs and they also influenced them. The language evolved and later becoming other languages spoken by the Arabs of various tribes such as Mudharites, Rabi'as, Kinanas, Nizarites and the Qaysites.

Third Stage

The period where Quraish Arabs becoming the servants of the Cubicle Shrine and the Holy Mecca. Arabian tribes from the whole Arabia performing pilgrimage to the holy sites there every year. They would stay there for almost 50 days and becoming the guests of the Quraish who hosted them. Three days of the pilgrims would be spent in Dhu al-Majāz, seven days in the Majinnah, 30 days in the Okadh, and 10 days for pilgrimage sacraments as according to their religions and customs.

Quraish Arabs used to travel to other regions due to business needs and trade. They went to Yemen, Iraq, Ethiopia, Hawrān, Persia and ancient Indian subcontinent. They met different and various kind of languages and foreign things to their region. They brought those things back to their state and introduce them to their people. The people use the things and calling them in their own names used in original states. The most popular loanwords within Northern Arab language were from Persian. These foreign languages and their business caravan had also helped them to enrich their language and their position as the servants in the Holy Mecca makes their language spread faster than any other Arab languages.

Besides, everyone should also take to their note that a development in a language also depends to the development of the knowledge and intellectual power of a certain nation who speak their own language. We could also see this in English because I am trying to write in English, haha. There were many literature works produced within English from the period of Old English which is a fusion of Angles, Jutes and Saxon languages. They have literature works in Old English such as Beowulf with those words which sound more like German to my ears, Middle English with its King James' Bible translations and Modern English which is now of different variations due to the spread of British influence in the world through their colonies such as Indian English, American English, Malayan English, British English, Jamaican English, Australian English, Scottish English, Irish English and so on. English also absorbed many foreign words into the its vocabulary such as from Arabic, from Indian languages and from the previous Roman and Norman empires. The English that I use in my posts is not even British English but more to Malaysian English which is closer to the Standard English. The same thing that happened to Quraish Arabic.

Because of this, many Bedouin Arabs could also express their feelings through Quraish Arabic. They sometimes enrich the language with their own dialects and so, we could see about 10-100 words could be used to refer only to one thing. We sometimes could articulate a verb with different ways in our grammatical and philology studies. Arabic has a special form of plural for nouns which is the Jama' Taksir where the arrangement is not so much organized like other two plural forms for feminine and masculine in our articulation. As such, an Eastern Languages linguist known as Noldke has proclaimed that Arabic is a rich and vast language. 

Ahmad Amin from Fuad I University of Cairo however contested the statement of Noldke although he too admits that Arabic is a rich language. Arabic for him is still confined within metal stones, metal hills and desert surrounding the Arabs since ancient times. It is still original in the sense that the Arabs were largely associated to their camels and the day dream steaming in their veins due to the empty desert around them. The Northern Arabs were poor without any term to describe snow at the peak of mountains, sea and fishes, ocean and ships nor could they describe anything related to luxurious life in palaces of noble men. They only come across to these matters when North Arabian kingdoms came into contact with other nations and their languages.

The difference between Arabic and other languages that could not be compared is that it has special form of grammatical order which is divided into the grammar and the articulation where both of them are closely linked in term of word construction and forming sentences since Arabic just like other Semitic languages also depends on the three alphabets for basic root of the word. And this is some glances about our language, the Arabic language which is now used as communication tool in modern Arabic speaking world. It was the language of Northern Arabs : ) 

Sealed with prayers for mercy, peace and love, amin!

Classical Malay

Assalaamu'alaikum wa rahmatullah

Just recording about Malay language especially when we were disconnected with our ancestral land in Yemen because of family problems and unexpected events in life. I actually speak and understand few languages due our hybrid nature. While historically in South East Asia, our people are well-versed with Classical Malay and Arabic. When people talk about Classical Malay, automatically people would come to the language used in the Malacca Sultanate of 14th century.

However, we have our own version of Classical Malay language in Northern Malayan Peninsula. It is largely influenced by the Patanese and Acheen version of Classical Malay while there are also Classical Malay spoken in our capital in Alor Setar since 18th century.  Our sultanate was also invaded at once by the 16th century Acheen Sultanate of Northern Sumatera. Some people said that there was no Acheen influence in Kedah but there is "some" influence such as in cuisine where we also have their Kueh Karas and few Acheen words were absorbed in Kedah Malay for e.g jelan lidah (Acheen: jelen lidah) which means stick out the tongue. Other than that, we also received the kitabs from their Sultanate around 11th century just after the sultanate of Kedah accept Islam as the court religion.

The Classical Malay language was used to be a medium for all of the people in our sultanates to convey ideas and also as a medium of da'awa. Our people had also used Arabic script to transcript the previously Pallava written Malay maybe because they were lazy to learn the complex Pallava script or because they were non-Hindus. In Southern Thailand, the Classical Malay is known as Jawi language and is spoken in few provinces of Southern Thailand such as Yala, Patani, Narathiwat, Songkhla and Satun. While in Malaysia, it is spoken with its variants in Kelantan and Baling or Sik in Kedah. My Malay actually sounds more like these people because I mingled with the Hulu people of Kedah and sometimes people might mistaken me to a Kelantanese, hehehe... 

Malay language exists in Northern Malayan Peninsula up to Krabi province in Thailand since the era of Srivijayan Buddhist Malay empire. Regarding Kedah Malay and their variants, I could say that I am quite expert in it and we also created our secret language where no one from other area or region would understand us. The grammar is more or less is according to old language. Sometimes, people who never read religious books in Classical Malay would be dumbfounded and thinking that we are of different era... I just learned to speak in Modern Standard Malay at school and it also makes me a lot in pain when I pronounce everything differently to what is written on the board...

Some words which were derived from the hybrid Classical Malay that we still use are like:

Kutub khanah (Persian): Library

Kitab (Arabic): Book

Pondok (Arabic): Madrasa, Motel

Melele (Malay): Temple

Sakar (Arabic): Sugar

Kanzulmal (Arabic): Treasury

Petitih (Malay): History

Perhamba, diperhamba (Malay): polite version of first pronoun

Boran (Sanskrit, Thai): Ancient, Old

Achard (Hindi): Pickled vegetable 

Faranggi (Persian): White man, caucasian

Kaus kaki: Shoes

Haram zadah (Persian): Bastard

Lau ayam (Thai+Malay): Chicken coop

Nyedra (Sanskrit): Sleep soundly... The real word is Chandra which means moon...

Taqwim (Arabic): Calender 

Dastar (Persian): Turban 

Narang (Persian): Orange

Cheruk (Khmer, Malay): Hidden land

Belalai (Malay): Nose  

Lebai (Persian): Non-Arabic speaking man who had performed pilgrimage usually indicated by their white skull-cap

Lemari (Portuguese): Closet 

Bantal kaki (Malay): Malay royalties' friend

Tali api (Malay): Wire

Pera-Pera (Malay): Plastic tupperware

Kerchong (Malay): Basket

Ngenjuk (Malay): Take and give something to someone 

Nowadays, we mixed the language a lot with English or even speaking fully in English because it makes us a lot easier to communicate with people including with Malays of other states. Other than that, we always use the particles such as "lah" or "pun" even when speaking in Chinese and we also spontaneously would use the beginning of sentences such as "makanya", haha... I checked these with some Hui Chinese students from China at my university last time and astonishingly some of the words especially of Arabic and Persian origin are similar to theirs while they were from rural region of Western China : O I think that these hybridization looks like Jewish hybrid languages in Europe too such as Ladino or Yiddish where we absorb the words that we listened and we also use our own words when we do not know native words, lol...

Sealed with prayers for mercy, peace and love, amin!