Name	Arabic
Nativename	''''
Pronunciation
Imagecaption	in written Arabic (Naskh script)
Region	Primarily in the Arab states of the Middle East and North Africa;liturgical language of Islam.
Speakers	More than 280 million native speakers
Familycolor	Afro-Asiatic
Fam2	Semitic
Fam3	Central Semitic
Stand1	Modern Standard Arabic
Dia1	Western (Maghrebi)
Dia2	Central (incl. Egyptian)
Dia3	Northern (incl. Levantine, Iraqi)
Dia4	Southern (incl. Gulf, Hejazi, Yemeni)
Script	Arabic alphabet, Syriac alphabet (Garshuni)
Nation	Official language of 26 states, the third most after English and French
Agency	: Supreme Council of the Arabic language in Algeria : Academy of the Arabic Language in Cairo : Iraqi Academy of Sciences : Jordan Academy of Arabic : Academy of the Arabic Language in Jamahiriya : Academy of the Arabic Language in Rabat : Academy of the Arabic Language in Mogadishu : Academy of the Arabic Language in Khartoum : Arab Academy of Damascus (the oldest) : Beit Al-Hikma Foundation : Academy of the Arabic Language in Israel
Iso1	ar
Iso2	ara
Lc1	ara |ld1Arabic (generic)''(see varieties of Arabic for the individual codes)''
Ll1	none
Map	Arabic Language.PNG
Mapcaption	Distribution of Arabic as an official language in the Arab World. Majority Arabic speakers (blue) and minority Arabic speakers (green).
Notice	IPA}}

Arabic ( '''' or '''' ) is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book. This includes both the literary language (Modern Standard Arabic or ''Literary Arabic'', used in most written documents as well as in formal spoken occasions, such as lectures and radio broadcasts) and the spoken Arabic varieties, spoken in a wide arc of territory stretching across the Middle East and North Africa. Arabic is a Central Semitic language, closely related to Hebrew and the Neo-Aramaic languages, and also related to the South Semitic languages (e.g. Amharic in Ethiopia, Tigrinya in Ethiopia and Eritrea, and Mehri in Yemen and Oman) and the extinct East Semitic languages (e.g. Akkadian, first attested nearly 5,000 years ago). The written language is distinct from and more conservative than all of the spoken varieties, and the two exist in a state known as diglossia, used side-by-side for different societal functions.

Many of the spoken varieties are mutually unintelligible, and the varieties as a whole constitute a macrolanguage. This means that on purely linguistic grounds they would likely be considered to constitute more than one language, but are commonly grouped together as a single language for political and/or ethnic reasons. If considered multiple languages, it is unclear how many languages there would be, as the spoken varieties form a dialect chain with no clear boundaries. If Arabic is considered a single language, it counts more than 200 million first language speakers (according to some estimates, as high as 280 million), more than that of any other Semitic language. If considered separate languages, the most-spoken variety would likely be Egyptian Arabic, with more than 50,000,000 native speakers — still greater than any other Semitic language.

The modern written language (Modern Standard Arabic) is derived from the language of the Quran (known as Classical Arabic or Quranic Arabic). It is widely taught in schools, universities, and used to varying degrees in workplaces, government and the media. The two formal varieties are grouped together as ''Literary Arabic'', which is the official language of 26 states and the liturgical language of Islam. Modern Standard Arabic largely follows the grammatical standards of Quranic Arabic and uses much of the same vocabulary. However, it has discarded some grammatical constructions and vocabulary that no longer have any counterpoint in the spoken varieties, and adopted certain new constructions and vocabulary from the spoken varieties. Much of the new vocabulary is used to denote concepts that have arisen in the post-Quranic era, especially in modern times.

Arabic is the only surviving member of the Old North Arabian dialect group, attested in Pre-Islamic Arabic inscriptions dating back to the 4th century. Arabic is written with the Arabic alphabet, which is an abjad script, and is written from right-to-left.

Arabic has lent many words to other languages of the Islamic world, like Malay, Turkish, Urdu, Hausa, Hindi and Persian. During the Middle Ages, Literary Arabic was a major vehicle of culture in Europe, especially in science, mathematics and philosophy. As a result, many European languages have also borrowed many words from it. Arabic influence is seen in Mediterranean languages, particularly Spanish, Portuguese, and Sicilian, owing to both the proximity of European and Arab civilizations and 700 years of Arab rule in some parts of the Iberian peninsula (see Al-Andalus).

Arabic has also borrowed words from many languages, including Hebrew, Greek, Persian and Syriac in early centuries, Turkish in medieval times and contemporary European languages in modern times. However, the current tendency is to coin new words using the existing lexical resources of the language, or to repurpose old words, rather than directly borrowing foreign words.

Classical, Modern Standard, and spoken Arabic

''Arabic'' usually designates one of three main variants: Classical Arabic; Modern Standard Arabic; ''colloquial'' or ''dialectal'' Arabic.

Classical Arabic is the language found in the Qur'an and used from the period of Pre-Islamic Arabia to that of the Abbasid Caliphate. Theoretically, Classical Arabic is considered normative, according to the syntactic and grammatical norms laid down by classical grammarians (such as Sibawayh), and the vocabulary defined in classical dictionaries (such as the ). In practice, however, modern authors almost never write in pure Classical Arabic, instead using a literary language with its own grammatical norms and vocabulary, commonly known as Modern Standard Arabic. This is the variety used in most current, printed Arabic publications, spoken by some of the Arabic media across North Africa and the Middle East, and understood by most educated Arabic speakers. "Literary Arabic" and "Standard Arabic" ( '''') are less strictly defined terms that may refer to Modern Standard Arabic or Classical Arabic.

Some of the differences between Classical Arabic (CA) and Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) are as follows:

Certain grammatical constructions of CA that have no counterpoint in any modern dialect (e.g. the energetic mood) are almost never used in MSA.

No modern spoken variety of Arabic has case distinctions. As a result, MSA is generally composed without case distinctions in mind, and the proper cases added after the fact, when necessary. (Because most case endings are noted using final short vowels, which are normally left unwritten in the Arabic script, it is unnecessary to determine the proper case of most words.) The practical result of this is that MSA is written in a strongly determined word order, and alternative orders that were used in CA for emphasis are rare. In addition, because of the lack of case marking in the spoken varieties, most speakers are not able to consistently use the correct endings in extemporaneous speech. As a result, spoken MSA tends to drop or regularize the endings except when reading from a prepared text.

In CA, the verb normally precedes the subject (VSO order); when the subject is fronted (SVO order), it is usually accompanied by the focusing particle ''''. MSA, following the spoken varieties, tends towards SVO order, and rarely uses ''''.

The numeral system in CA is extremely complex (rivaling that of the Russian language) and heavily tied in with the case system. This system is never used in MSA, even in the most formal of circumstances; instead, a significantly simplified system is used, approximating the system of the conservative spoken varieties.

MSA uses much Classical vocabulary (e.g. '''' "to go") that is not present in the spoken varieties. However, when multiple Classical synonyms are available, MSA tends to prefer words with cognates in the spoken varieties over words without cognates. In addition, MSA has borrowed or coined a large number of terms for concepts that did not exist in Quranic times (and in fact continues to evolve). Some words have been borrowed from other languages, notice that transliteration mainly indicates spelling not real pronunciation (e.g. '''' "film" or '''' "democracy"). However, the current preference is to avoid direct borrowings, preferring to either use loan translations (e.g. '''' "branch", also used for the branch of a company or organization; '''' "wing", also used for the wing of an airplane, building, air force, etc.) or to coin new words using existing lexical resources (e.g. '''' "corporation", '''' "socialism", both ultimately based on the verb '''' "to share, partner with"; '''' "university", based on '''' "to gather, unite"; '''' "republic", based on '''' "multitude"). An earlier tendency was to re-purpose older words that had fallen into disuse (e.g. '''' "telephone" < "invisible caller (in Sufism)"; '''' "newspaper" < "palm-leaf stalk").

''Colloquial'' or ''dialectal'' Arabic refers to the many national or regional varieties which constitute the everyday spoken language. Colloquial Arabic has many different regional variants; these sometimes differ enough to be mutually unintelligible and some linguists consider them distinct languages. The varieties are typically unwritten. They are often used in informal spoken media, such as soap operas and talk shows, as well as occasionally in certain forms of written media, such as poetry and printed advertising. The only variety of modern Arabic to have acquired official language status is Maltese, spoken in (predominately Roman Catholic) Malta and written with the Latin script. It is descended from Classical Arabic through Siculo-Arabic and is not mutually intelligible with other varieties of Arabic. Most linguists list it as a separate language rather than as a dialect of Arabic. Historically, Algerian Arabic was taught in French Algeria under the name ''darija''.

Note that even during Muhammad's lifetime, there were dialects of spoken Arabic. Muhammad spoke in the dialect of Mecca, in the western Arabian peninsula, and it was in this dialect that the Quran was written down. However, the dialects of the eastern Arabian peninsula were considered the most prestigious at the time, and so the language of the Quran was ultimately converted to follow the eastern phonology. It is this phonology that underlies the modern pronunciation of Classical Arabic. The phonological differences between these two dialects account for some of the complexities of Arabic writing, most notably the writing of the glottal stop or ''hamza'' (which was preserved in the eastern dialects but lost in western speech) and the use of '''' (representing a sound preserved in the western dialects but merged with '''' in eastern speech).

Language and dialect

The sociolinguistic situation of Arabic in modern times provides a prime example of the linguistic phenomenon of diglossia, which is the normal use of two separate varieties of the same language, usually in different social situations. In the case of Arabic, educated Arabs of any nationality can be assumed to speak both their local dialect and their school-taught Standard Arabic. When educated Arabs of different dialects engage in conversation (for example, a Moroccan speaking with a Lebanese), many speakers code-switch back and forth between the dialectal and standard varieties of the language, sometimes even within the same sentence. Arabic speakers often improve their familiarity with other dialects via music or film.

The issue of whether Arabic is one language or many languages is politically charged, similar to the issue with Chinese, Hindi and Urdu, Serbian and Croatian, etc. The issue of diglossia between spoken and written language is a significant complicating factor: A single written form, significantly different from any of the spoken varieties learned natively, unites a number of sometimes divergent spoken forms. For political reasons, Arabs mostly assert that they all speak a single language, despite significant issues of mutual incomprehensibility among differing spoken versions.

From a linguistic standpoint, it is often said that the various spoken varieties of Arabic differ among each other collectively about as much as the Romance languages. This is an apt comparison in a number of ways. The period of divergence from a single spoken form is similar—perhaps 1500 years for Arabic, 2000 years for the Romance languages. Also, a linguistically innovative variety such as Moroccan Arabic is essentially incomprehensible to all non-Moroccans other than Algerians and Tunisians, much as French is incomprehensible to Spanish or Italian speakers. However, there is some mutual comprehensibility between conservative varieties of Arabic even across significant geographical distances. This suggests that the spoken varieties, at least, should linguistically be considered separate languages.

On the other hand, a significant difference between Arabic and the Romance languages is that the latter also correspond to a number of different standard written varieties, each of which separately informs the related spoken varieties, while all spoken Arabic varieties share a single written language. Indeed, a similar situation exists with the Romance languages in the case of Italian. As spoken varieties, Milanese, Neapolitan and Sicilian (among others) are different enough to be largely mutually incomprehensible, yet since they share a single written form (Standard Italian), they are often said by Italians to be dialects of the same language. As in many similar cases, the extent to which the Italian varieties are locally considered dialects or separate languages depends to a large extent on political factors, which can change over time. Linguists are divided over whether and to what extent to incorporate such considerations when judging issues of language and dialect.

Influence of Arabic on other languages

The influence of Arabic has been most important in Islamic countries. Arabic is an important source of vocabulary for languages such as Baluchi, Bengali, Berber, Catalan, English, French, German, Gujarati, Hindustani, Italian, Indonesian, Kurdish, Malay, Malayali, Maltese, Pashto, Persian, Portuguese, Punjabi, Rohingya, Saraiki, Sindhi, Somali, Spanish, Swahili, Tagalog, Tamil, Turkish and Urdu as well as other languages in countries where these languages are spoken. For example, the Arabic word for ''book'' ( '''') has been borrowed in all the languages listed, with the exception of French, Spanish, Italian, Catalan and Portuguese which use the Latin-derived words "livre", "libro", "llibre" and "livro", respectively, German and English which use the Germanic "Buch" and "Book", Tagalog which uses "aklat", Hebrew which uses "sefer", Gujarati which uses "chopdi", Marathi which uses "pustak" and Bengali which uses "boi".

In addition, English has many Arabic loan words, some directly but most through the medium of other Mediterranean languages. Examples of such words include admiral, adobe, alchemy, alcohol, algebra, algorithm, alkaline, almanac, amber, arsenal, assassin, banana, candy, carat, cipher, coffee, cotton, hazard, jar, jasmine, lemon, loofah, magazine, mattress, sherbet, sofa, sugar, sumac, tariff and many other words. Other languages such as Maltese and Kinubi derive from Arabic, rather than merely borrowing vocabulary or grammar rules.

The terms borrowed range from religious terminology (like Berber "prayer" < salat) ( ''''), academic terms (like Uyghur ''mentiq'' "logic"), economic items (like English ''sugar'') to placeholders (like Spanish ''fulano'' "so-and-so") and everyday conjunctions (like Hindustani ''lekin'' "but", or Spanish ''hasta'' "until"). Most Berber varieties (such as Kabyle), along with Swahili, borrow some numbers from Arabic. Most Islamic religious terms are direct borrowings from Arabic, such as ''salat'' 'prayer' and ''imam'' 'prayer leader.' In languages not directly in contact with the Arab world, Arabic loanwords are often transferred indirectly via other languages rather than being transferred directly from Arabic.

For example, most Arabic loanwords in Hindustani entered through Persian, and many older Arabic loanwords in Hausa were borrowed from Kanuri. Some words in English and other European languages are derived from Arabic, often through other European languages, especially Spanish and Italian. Among them are commonly used words like "sugar" (''sukkar''), "cotton" ('''') and "magazine" (''''). English words more recognizably of Arabic origin include "algebra", "alcohol", "alchemy", "alkali", "zenith" and "nadir". Some words in common use, such as "intention" and "information", were originally calques of Arabic philosophical terms.

Arabic words also made their way into several West African languages as Islam spread across the Sahara. Variants of Arabic words such as ''kitaab'' (book) have spread to the languages of African groups who had no direct contact with Arab traders.

Arabic was influenced by other languages as well. The most important sources of borrowings into (pre-Islamic) Arabic are from the related (Semitic) languages Aramaic, which used to be the principal, international language of communication throughout the ancient Near and Middle East, Ethiopic, and to a lesser degree Hebrew (mainly religious concepts). In addition, a substantial number of cultural, religious and political terms that have entered Arabic was borrowed from Iranian, notably Middle Persian or Parthian, and to a lesser extent, (Classical) Persian.

As Arabic occupied a position similar to Latin (in Europe) throughout the Islamic world many of the Arabic concepts in the field of science, philosophy, commerce etc., were often coined by non-native Arabic speakers, notably by Aramaic and Persian translators. This process of using Arabic roots, notably in Turkish and Persian, to translate foreign concepts continued right until the 18th and 19th century, when large swaths of Arab-inhabited lands were under Ottoman rule.

Arabic and Islam

Classical Arabic is the language of the Qur'an. Arabic is closely associated with the religion of Islam because the Quran is written in the language, but it is nevertheless also spoken by Arab Christians, Mizrahi Jews and Iraqi Mandaeans. Most of the world's Muslims do not speak Arabic as their native language but many can read the Quranic script and recite the Qur'an. Among Non-Arab Muslims, translations of the Qur'an are most often accompanied by the original text.

Some Muslims present a monogenesis of languages and claim that the Arabic language was the language revealed by God for the benefit of mankind and the original language as a prototype symbolic system of communication, based upon its system of triconsonantal roots, spoken by man from which all other languages were derived, having first been corrupted. Statements spread in later centuries regarding the Arabic language being the language of Paradise are not considered authentic according to the scholars of Hadith and are widely discredited.

History

The earliest surviving texts in Proto-Arabic, or Ancient North Arabian, are the Hasaean inscriptions of eastern Saudi Arabia, from the 8th century BC, written not in the modern Arabic alphabet, nor in its Nabataean ancestor, but in variants of the epigraphic South Arabian ''musnad''. These are followed by 6th-century BC Lihyanite texts from southeastern Saudi Arabia and the Thamudic texts found throughout Arabia and the Sinai, and not actually connected with Thamud. Later come the Safaitic inscriptions beginning in the 1st century BC, and the many Arabic personal names attested in Nabataean inscriptions (which are, however, written in Aramaic). From about the 2nd century BC, a few inscriptions from Qaryat al-Fāw (near Sulayyil) reveal a dialect which is no longer considered "Proto-Arabic", but Pre-Classical Arabic. By the fourth century AD, the Arab kingdoms of the Lakhmids in southern Iraq, the Ghassanids in southern Syria the Kindite Kingdom emerged in Central Arabia. Their courts were responsible for some notable examples of pre-Islamic Arabic poetry, and for some of the few surviving pre-Islamic Arabic inscriptions in the Arabic script.

Dialects and descendants

''Colloquial Arabic'' is a collective term for the spoken varieties of Arabic used throughout the Arab world, which differ radically from the literary language. The main dialectal division is between the varieties within and outside of the Arabian peninsula, followed by that between sedentary varieties and the much more conservative Bedouin varieties. All of the varieties outside of the Arabian peninsula (which include the large majority of speakers) have a large number of features in common with each other that are not found in Classical Arabic. This has led researchers to postulate the existence of a prestige koine dialect in the one or two centuries immediately following the Arab conquest, whose features eventually spread to all of the newly conquered areas. (These features are present to varying degrees inside the Arabian peninsula. Generally, the Arabian peninsula varieties have much more diversity than the non-peninsula varieties, but have been understudied.)

Within the non-peninsula varieties, the largest difference is between the non-Egyptian North African dialects (especially Moroccan Arabic) and the others. Moroccan Arabic in particular is nearly incomprehensible to Arabic speakers east of Algeria (although the converse is not true, in part due to the popularity of Egyptian films and other media).

One factor in the differentiation of the dialects is influence from the languages previously spoken in the areas, which have typically provided a significant number of new words, and have sometimes also influenced pronunciation or word order; however, a much more significant factor for most dialects is, as among Romance languages, retention (or change of meaning) of different classical forms. Thus Iraqi ''aku'', Levantine ''fīh'', and North African ''kayən'' all mean "there is", and all come from Classical Arabic forms (''yakūn'', ''fīhi'', ''kā'in'' respectively), but now sound very different.

Examples

{| class=wikitable ! Variety ! I love reading a lot ! When I went to the library ! I only found this old book ! I wanted to read a book about the history of women in France. |- ! Classical Arabic (liturgical or poetic only) | '''' | '''' | '''' | '''' |- ! Modern Standard Arabic | '''' | '''' | '''' | '''' |- ! Moroccan | | | | |- ! Tunisian | | | | |- ! Egyptian | | | | |- ! Lebanese | | | | |- ! Iraqi | | | | |- ! Saudi | | | | |- ! Kuwaiti | | | | |}

Koine

According to Charles Ferguson, the following are some of the characteristic features of the koine that underlies all of the modern dialects outside the Arabian peninsula. Although many other features are common to most or all of these varieties (see varieties of Arabic), Ferguson believes that these features in particular are unlikely to have evolved independently more than once or twice, and together suggest the existence of the koine:

Loss of the dual (grammatical number) except on nouns, with consistent plural agreement (cf. feminine singular agreement in plural inanimates).

Change of ''a'' to ''i'' in many affixes (e.g. non-past-tense prefixes ''ti- yi- ni-''; ''wi-'' "and"; ''il-'' "the"; feminine ''-it'' in the construct state).

Loss of third-weak verbs ending in ''w'' (which merge with verbs ending in ''y'').

Reformation of geminate verbs, e.g. ''ḥalaltu'' "I untied" → ''ḥalēt(u)''.

Conversion of separate words ''lī'' "to me", ''laka'' "to you", etc. into indirect-object clitic suffixes.

Certain changes in the cardinal number system, e.g. ''ḫamsat ʾayyām'' →''ḫams tiyyām'', where certain words have a special plural with prefixed ''t''. Also, unexpected emphatic ''ṭ'' in the numbers 13-19 (e.g. ''ḫamṣṭaʿšar'' "fifteen" < ''ḫamsat ʿašar'').

Loss of the feminine elative (comparative).

Adjective plurals of the form ''kibār'' "big" → ''kubār''.

Change of nisba suffix ''-iyy'' → ''i''.

Certain lexical items, e.g. ''ǧāb'' "bring" < ''ǧāʾ bi-'' "come with"; ''šāf'' "see"; ''ʾēš'' "what" (or similar); ''illi'' "(relative pronoun)".

Merger of and .

Dialect groups

The major dialect groups are:

Egyptian Arabic

Egyptian Arabic, spoken by around 80 million in Egypt. It is one of the most understood varieties of Arabic, due in large part to the widespread distribution of Egyptian films and television shows throughout the Arabic speaking world. Closely related varieties are also spoken in Sudan.

Maghrebi Arabic

Maghrebi Arabic includes Moroccan Arabic, Algerian Arabic, Saharan Arabic, Tunisian Arabic, and Libyan Arabic, and is spoken by around 75 million North Africans in Morocco, ''Western Sahara'', Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Niger, and western Egypt; it is often difficult for speakers of Middle Eastern Arabic varieties to understand. The Berber influence in these dialects varies in degree.

Mesopotamian Arabic

Iraqi Arabic, spoken by about 29 million people in Iraq, eastern Syria and western Iran (Khuzestan).

North Mesopotamian Arabic, spoken by around 7 million people in northern Iraq, northern Syria, northwestern Iran and southern Turkey.

Levantine Arabic

Levantine Arabic includes North Levantine Arabic, South Levantine Arabic, and Cypriot Arabic. It is spoken by almost 35 million people in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, the Palestinian territories, Israel, Cyprus, and Turkey.

Gulf Arabic

Gulf Arabic, spoken by around 4 million people predominantly in the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Bahrain. Also spoken in Iran's Bushehr and Hormozgan provinces.

Other

Other varieties include:

Yemeni Arabic, spoken in Yemen, southern Saudi Arabia, Djibouti, and Somalia.

Sudanese Arabic (19 million speakers), spoken in Sudan

Najdi Arabic (9.9 million speakers), spoken in Nejd, central Saudi Arabia

Hejazi Arabic (7 million speakers), spoken in Hejaz, western Saudi Arabia.

Hassaniya Arabic (2.8 million speakers), spoken in Mauritania, some parts of Mali and ''Western Sahara''

Bahrani Arabic (310,000 speakers), spoken by Bahrani Shia in Bahrain, where it exhibits some differences from Bahraini Arabic. It is also spoken to a lesser extent in Oman.

Judeo-Arabic dialects

Central Asian Arabic, spoken in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Afghanistan, is highly endangered

Maltese, spoken on the Mediterranean island of Malta, is the only one to have established itself as a fully separate language, with independent literary norms. In the course of its history the language has adopted numerous loanwords, phonetic and phonological features, and even some grammatical patterns, from Italian, Sicilian, and English. It is also the only Semitic tongue written in the Latin script.

Andalusi Arabic, spoken in Spain until 15th century, now extinct.

Siculo Arabic, spoken on Sicily, South Italy until 14th century, developed into Maltese language.

The Muslim Hui people in China had knowledge of archaic forms of Arabic. The Hui of Yunnan (Burmaese called them Panthays) were reported to be fluent in Arabic. During the Panthay Rebellion, Arabic replaced Chinese as official language of the rebel kingdom. In 1844 "The Chinese repository, Volume 13" was published, including an account of an Englishman who stayed in Ningbo in China. There he visited the local mosque, the Hui running the mosque was from Shandong, and he was a descendant of Muslims from the city of Medina. He spoke both Arabic and Chinese, and could read Arabic as well. In Tianjin, Hui could speak an old, archaic form of Arabic, when they met Arab Muslims in recent times, it was found out that Old Arabic and Modern Arabic were very different, so Modern Arabic is now being taught to Hui.

Sounds

It is important to distinguish between the pronunciation of the "formal" Literary Arabic (usually specifically Modern Standard Arabic) and the "colloquial" spoken varieties of Arabic. The two types of Arabic, but significantly different. The "colloquial" varieties are learned at home and constitute the native languages of Arabic speakers. The literary variety is learned at school; although many speakers have a native-like command of the language, it is technically not the native language of any speakers. Both varieties can be both written and spoken, although the colloquial varieties are rarely written down, and the formal variety is spoken mostly in formal circumstances, e.g. in radio broadcasts, formal lectures, parliamentary discussions, and to some extent between speakers of different colloquial varieties. Even when the literary language is spoken, however, it is normal only spoken in its pure form when reading a prepared text out loud. When speaking extemporaneously (i.e. making up the language on the spot, as in a normal discussion among people), speakers tend to deviate somewhat from the strict literary language in the direction of the colloquial varieties. In fact, there is a continuous range of "in-between" spoken varieties: from nearly pure Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), to a form that still uses MSA grammar and vocabulary but with significant colloquial influence, to a form of the colloquial language that imports a number of words and grammatical constructions in MSA, to a form that is close to pure colloquial but with the "rough edges" (the most noticeably "vulgar" or non-Classical aspects) smoothed out, to pure colloquial. The particular variant (or ''register'') used depends on the social class and education level of the speakers involved, and the level of formality of the speech situation. Often it will vary within a single encounter, e.g. moving from nearly pure MSA to a more mixed language in the process of a radio interview, as the interviewee becomes more comfortable with the interviewer. This type of variation is characteristic of the diglossia that exists throughout the Arabic-speaking world.

Literary Arabic

Although Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) is a unitary language, its pronunciation varies somewhat from country to country and from region to region within a country. The variation in individual "accents" of MSA speakers tend to mirror corresponding variations in the colloquial speech of the speakers in question, but with the distinguishing characteristics moderated somewhat. Note that it is important in descriptions of "Arabic" phonology to distinguish between pronunciation of a given colloquial (spoken) dialect and the pronunciation of MSA by these same speakers. Although they are related, they are not the same. For example, the phoneme that derives from Proto-Semitic /g/ has many different pronunciations in the modern spoken varieties, e.g. . Speakers whose native variety has either or will use the same pronunciation when speaking MSA, even speakers from Cairo, whose native Egyptian Arabic has , normally use when speaking MSA. of Persian Gulf is the only pronunciation which isn't pronounced in MSA, but instead .

Another example: Many colloquial varieties are known for a type of vowel harmony in which the presence of an "emphatic consonant" triggers backed allophones of nearby vowels (especially of the low vowels , which are backed to in these circumstances, and very often fronted to in all other circumstances). In many spoken varieties, the backed or "emphatic" vowel allophones spread a fair distance in both directions from the triggering consonant; in some varieties (most notably Egyptian Arabic), the "emphatic" allophones spread throughout the entire word, usually including prefixes and suffixes, even at a remove of several syllables from the triggering consonant. Speakers of colloquial varieties with this vowel harmony tend to introduce it into their MSA pronunciation as well, but usually with a lesser degree of spreading than in the colloquial varieties. (For example, speakers of colloquial varieties with extremely long-distance harmony may allow a moderate, but not extreme, amount of spreading of the harmonic allophones in their MSA speech, while speakers of colloquial varieties with moderate-distance harmony may only harmonize immediately adjacent vowels in MSA.)

Vowels

Modern Standard Arabic has six pure vowels, with short and corresponding long vowels . There are also two diphthongs: and .

As mentioned above, the pronunciation of the vowels differs from speaker to speaker, in way that tend to echo the pronunciation of the corresponding colloquial variety. Nonetheless, there are some common trends. Most noticeable is the differing pronunciation of and , which tend towards fronted , or in most situations, but a back in the neighborhood of emphatic consonants. (Some accents and dialects, such as those of Hijaz, have central in all situations.) The vowels and are often affected somewhat in emphatic neighborhoods as well, with generally more back and/or centralized allophones, but the differences are less great than for the low vowels. The pronunciation of short and tends towards and in many dialects.

The definition of both "emphatic" and "neighborhood" vary in ways that echo (to some extent) corresponding variations in the spoken dialects. Generally, the consonants triggering "emphatic" allophones are the pharyngealized consonants ; ; and , if not followed immediately by . Frequently, the fricatives also trigger emphatic allophones; occasionally also the pharyngeal consonants (the former more than the latter). Many dialects have multiple emphatic allophones of each vowel, depending on the particular nearby consonants. In most MSA accents, emphatic coloring of vowels is limited to vowels immediately adjacent to a triggering consonant, although in some it spreads a bit farther: e.g. '''' "time"; '''' "homeland"; '''' "downtown" (sometimes or similar).

In a non-emphatic environment, the vowel /a/ in the diphthong tends to be fronted even more than elsewhere, often pronounced or : hence '''' "sword" but '''' "summer"). However, in accents with no emphatic allophones of /a/ (e.g. in the Hijaz), the pronunciation occurs in all situations.

Consonants

+ Standardized Arabic consonant phonemes

! rowspan="2"

! colspan="2"

! rowspan="2"

! rowspan="2"

! rowspan="2"

! rowspan="2"

! rowspan="2"

! plain

emphatic">Dental consonant

! rowspan="2"

! rowspan="2"

! rowspan="2"

! rowspan="2"

! rowspan="2"

! rowspan="2"

! plain

emphatic

emphatic consonant>emphatic

! plain

! colspan=2

! rowspan=2

! voiceless

voice (phonetics)>voiced

3

! rowspan=2

! voiceless

4

voice (phonetics)>voiced

! colspan=2

2

! colspan=2

NOTE: The underlined variants in the above table indicate the pronunciations considered "standard" according to descriptions in linguistic sources; the same pronunciations are normally taught to foreigners learning Literary Arabic. (The sources disagree about whether the sounds indicated above as ~ and ~ are more standardly or , or are unclear.)

See Arabic alphabet for explanations on the IPA phonetic symbols found in this chart.

# This phoneme is represented by the Arabic letter '''' () and has many standard pronunciations. is characteristic of Iraq and most of the Arabian peninsula; occurs in the Levant and North Africa; and is used in Egypt and some regions in Yemen and Oman. Generally this corresponds with the pronunciation in the colloquial dialects. In some regions in Sudan and Yemen, as well as in some Sudanese and Yemeni dialects, it may be either or , representing the original pronunciation of Classical Arabic. Foreign words containing may be transcribed with , , , , , or , mainly depending on the regional spoken variety of Arabic. Note also that in northern Egypt, where the Arabic letter '''' () is normally pronounced , a separate phoneme occurs in a small number of European loanwords, e.g. "jacket". # is pronounced in , the name of God, q.e. Allah, when the word follows ''a'', ''ā'', ''u'' or ''ū'' (after ''i'' or ''ī'' it is unvelarized: ''bismi l–lāh'' ). Some speakers velarize other occurrences of /l/ in MSA, in imitation of their spoken dialects. # The emphatic consonant was actually pronounced , or possibly — either way, a highly unusual sound. The medieval Arabs actually termed their language '''' "the language of the Ḍād" (the name of the letter used for this sound), since they thought the sound was unique to their language. (In fact, it also exists in a few other minority Semitic languages, e.g. Mehri.) # In many varieties, () are actually epiglottal (despite what is reported in many earlier works). # and () are often post-velar, though velar and uvular pronunciations are also possible. # () can be pronounced as or even . In some places of Maghreb it can be also pronounced as .

Arabic has consonants traditionally termed "emphatic" (), which exhibit simultaneous pharyngealization as well as varying degrees of velarization , so they may be written with the "Velarized or pharyngealized" diacritic () as: . This simultaneous articulation is described as "Retracted Tongue Root" by phonologists. In some transcription systems, emphasis is shown by capitalizing the letter, for example, is written ‹D›; in others the letter is underlined or has a dot below it, for example, ‹›.

Vowels and consonants can be phonologically short or long. Long (geminate) consonants are normally written doubled in Latin transcription (i.e. bb, dd, etc.), reflecting the presence of the Arabic diacritic mark '''', which indicates doubled consonants. In actual pronunciation, doubled consonants are held twice as long as short consonants. This consonant lengthening is phonemically contrastive: '''' "he accepted" vs. '''' "he kissed."

Syllable structure

Arabic has two kinds of syllables: open syllables (CV) and (CVV)—and closed syllables (CVC), (CVVC), and (CVCC). The syllable types with three morae (units of time), i.e. CVC and CVV, are termed ''heavy syllables'', while those with four morae, i.e. CVVC and CVCC, are ''superheavy syllables''. Superheavy syllables in Classical Arabic occur in only two places: at the end of the sentence (due to pausal pronunciation), and in words such as '''' "hot", '''' "stuff, substance", '''' "they disputed with each other", where a long '''' occurs before two identical consonants (a former short vowel between the consonants has been lost). (In less formal pronunciations of Modern Standard Arabic, superheavy syllables are common at the end of words or before clitic suffixes such as '''' "us, our", due to the deletion of final short vowels.)

In surface pronunciation, every vowel must be preceded by a consonant (which may include the glottal stop ). There are no cases of hiatus within a word (where two vowels occur next to each other, without an intervening consonant). Some words do underlyingly begin with a vowel, such as the definite article ''al-'' or words such as '''' "he bought", '''' "meeting". When actually pronounced, one of three things happens: If the word occurs after another word ending in a consonant, there is a smooth transition from final consonant to initial vowel, e.g. '''' "meeting" . If the word occurs after another word ending in a vowel, the initial vowel of the word is elided, e.g. '''' "house of the director" . If the word occurs at the beginning of an utterance, a glottal stop is added onto the beginning, e.g. '''' "The house is ..." .

Stress

Word stress is not phonemically contrastive in Standard Arabic. It bears a strong relationship to vowel length. The basic rules for Modern Standard Arabic are:

A final vowel, long or short, may not be stressed.

Only one of the last three syllables may be stressed.

Given this restriction, the last heavy syllable (containing a long vowel or ending in a consonant) is stressed.

If there is no such syllable, the first possible syllable (i.e. third from end) is stressed.

As a special exception, in Form VII and VIII verb forms stress may not be on the first syllable, despite the above rules: Hence '''' "he subscribed" (whether or not the final short vowel is pronounced), '''' "he subscribes" (whether or not the final short vowel is pronounced), '''' "he should subscribe (juss.)". Likewise Form VIII '''' "he bought", '''' "he buys".

Examples:'''' "book", '''' "writer", '''' "desk", '''' "desks", '''' "library" (but '''' "library" in short pronunciation), '''' (Modern Standard Arabic) "they wrote" = '''' (dialect), '''' (Modern Standard Arabic) "they wrote it" = '''' (dialect), '''' (Modern Standard Arabic) "they (dual, fem) wrote", '''' (Modern Standard Arabic) "I wrote" = '''' (short form or dialect). Doubled consonants count as two consonants: '''' "magazine", '''' "place".

These rules may result in differently-stressed syllables when final case endings are pronounced, vs. the normal situation where they are not pronounced, as in the above example of '''' "library" in full pronunciation, but '''' "library" in short pronunciation.

The restriction on final long vowels does not apply to the spoken dialects, where original final long vowels have been shortened and secondary final long vowels have arisen from loss of original final ''-hu/hi''.

Some dialects have different stress rules. In the Cairo (Egyptian Arabic) dialect a heavy syllable may not carry stress more than two syllables from the end of a word, hence '''' "school", '''' "Cairo". This also affects the way that Modern Standard Arabic is pronounced in Egypt. In the Arabic of Sana, stress is often retracted: '''' "two houses", '''' "their table", '''' "desks", '''' "sometimes", '''' "their school". (In this dialect, only syllables with long vowels or diphthongs are considered heavy; in a two-syllable word, the final syllable can be stressed only if the preceding syllable is light; and in longer words, the final syllable cannot be stressed.)

Levels of pronunciation

The final short vowels (e.g. the case endings ''-a -i -u'' and mood endings ''-u -a'') are often not pronounced, despite forming part of the formal paradigm of nouns and verbs. The following levels of pronunciation exist:

Full pronunciation

In full pronunciation, all endings are pronounced as written. This normally is used only in grammatical descriptions of the language.

Full pronunciation with pausa

This is the most formal level actually used in speech. All endings are pronounced as written, except at the end of an utterance, where the following changes occur:

Final short vowels are not pronounced. (But possibly an exception is made for feminine plural ''-na'', and shortened vowels in the jussive/imperative of defective verbs, e.g. ''irmi!'' "throw!".)

The entire indefinite noun endings ''-in -un'' (with nunation) are left off. The ending ''-an'' is left off of nouns preceded by a ''tāʾ marbūṭah'' ة (i.e. the ''-t'' in the ending ''-at-'' that typically marks feminine nouns), but pronounced as ''-ā'' in other nouns (hence its writing in this fashion in the Arabic script).

The ''tāʾ marbūṭah'' itself (typically of feminine nouns) is pronounced as ''h''. (At least, this is the case in extremely formal pronunciation, e.g. some Quranic recitations. In practice, this ''h'' is usually omitted.)

Formal short pronunciation

This is a formal level of pronunciation sometimes seen. It is somewhat like pronouncing all words as if they were in pausal position (with influence from the colloquial varieties). The following changes occur:

Most final short vowels are not pronounced. However, the following short vowels ''are'' pronounced:

*feminine plural ''-na''

*shortened vowels in the jussive/imperative of defective verbs, e.g. ''irmi!'' "throw!"

*second-person singular feminine past-tense ''-ti'', and likewise ''ʾanti'' "you (fem. sg.)"

*sometimes, first-person singular past-tense ''-tu''

*sometimes, second-person masculine past-tense ''-ta'', and likewise ''ʾanta'' "you (masc. sg.)"

*final ''-a'' in certain short words, e.g. ''laysa'' "is not", ''sawfa'' "(future-tense marker)"

The nunation endings ''-an -in -un'' are not pronounced. However, they ''are'' pronounced in adverbial accusative formations, e.g. '''' تقريباً "almost, approximately", '''' عادةً "usually". The ''tāʾ marbūṭah'' ending ة is unpronounced, ''except'' in construct state nouns, where it sounds as ''t'' (and in adverbial accusative constructions, e.g. '''' عادةً "usually", where the entire ''-tan'' is pronounced). The masculine singular nisba ending '''' is actually pronounced '''', and is unstressed (but plural and feminine singular forms, i.e. when followed by a suffix, still sound as ''''). ''Full endings'' (including case endings) occur when a clitic object or possessive suffix is added (e.g. '''' "us/our").

Informal short pronunciation

This is the pronunciation used by speakers of Modern Standard Arabic in extemporaneous speech, i.e. when producing new sentences rather than simply reading a prepared text. It is similar to formal short pronunciation except that the rules for dropping final vowels apply ''even'' when a clitic suffix is added. Basically, short-vowel case and mood endings are never pronounced, and certain other changes occur that echo the corresponding colloquial pronunciations. Specifically:

All the rules for formal short pronunciation apply, except as follows.

The past tense singular endings written formally as ''-tu -ta -ti'' are pronounced ''-t -t -ti''. But masculine '''' is pronounced in full. Unlike in formal short pronunciation, the rules for dropping or modifying final endings are also applied when a clitic object or possessive suffix is added (e.g. '''' "us/our"). If this produces a sequence of three consonants, then one of the following happens, depending on the speaker's native colloquial variety:

*A short vowel (e.g. ''-i-'' or ''-ǝ-'') is consistently added, either between the second and third or the first and second consonants.

*Or, a short vowel is added only if an otherwise unpronounceable sequence occurs, typically due to a violation of the sonority hierarchy (e.g. ''-rtn-'' is pronounced as a three-consonant cluster, but ''-trn-'' needs to be broken up).

*Or, a short vowel is never added, but consonants like ''r l m n'' occurring between two other consonants will be pronounced as a syllabic consonant (as in the English words "butter bottle bottom button").

*When a doubled consonant occurs before another consonant (or finally), it is often shortened to a single consonant rather than a vowel added. (But note that Moroccan Arabic never shortens doubled consonants or inserts short vowels to break up clusters, instead tolerating arbitrary-length series of arbitrary consonants, and hence Moroccan Arabic speakers are likely to follow the same rules in their pronunciation of Modern Standard Arabic.)

The clitic suffixes themselves tend also to be changed, in a way that avoids many possible occurrences of three-consonant clusters. In particular, ''-ka -ki -hu'' generally sound as ''-ak -ik -uh''.

Final long vowels are often shortened, merging with any short vowels that remain.

Depending on the level of formality, the speaker's education level, etc., various grammatical changes may occur in ways that echo the colloquial variants:

Any remaining case endings (e.g. masculine plural nominative ''-ūn'' vs. oblique ''-īn'') will be leveled, with the oblique form used everywhere. (However, in words like '''' "father" and '''' "brother" with special long-vowel case endings in the construct state, the nominative is used everywhere, hence '''' "father of", '''' "brother of".)

*Feminine plural endings in verbs and clitic suffixes will often drop out, with the masculine plural endings used instead. If the speaker's native variety has feminine plural endings, they may be preserved, but will often be modified in the direction of the forms used in the speaker's native variety, e.g. ''-an'' instead of ''-na''.

*Dual endings will often drop out except on nouns, and then used only for emphasis (similar to their use in the colloquial varieties); elsewhere, the plural endings are used (or feminine singular, if appropriate).

Colloquial varieties

: ''The section below only refers to pronunciation''

Vowels

As mentioned above, many spoken dialects have a process of ''emphasis spreading'', where the "emphasis" (pharyngealization) of emphatic consonants spreads forward and back through adjacent syllables, pharyngealizing all nearby consonants and triggering the back allophone in all nearby low vowels. The extent of emphasis spreading varies. For example, in Moroccan Arabic, it spreads as far as the first full vowel (i.e. sound derived from a long vowel or diphthong) on either side; in many Levantine dialects, it spreads indefinitely, but is blocked by any or ; while in Egyptian Arabic, it usually spreads throughout the entire word, including prefixes and suffixes. In Moroccan Arabic, also have emphatic allophones .

Unstressed short vowels, especially , are deleted in many contexts. Many sporadic examples of short vowel change have occurred (especially /a/→/i/, and interchange /i/↔/u/). Most Levantine dialects merge short /i u/ into /ǝ/ in most contexts (all except directly before a single final consonant). In Moroccan Arabic, on the other hand, short /u/ triggers labialization of nearby consonants (especially velar consonants and uvular consonants), and then short /a i u/ all merge into /ǝ/, which is deleted in many contexts. (The labialization plus /ǝ/ is sometimes interpreted as an underlying phoneme .) This essentially causes the wholesale loss of the short-long vowel distinction, with the original long vowels remaining as half-long , phonemically , which are used to represent ''both'' short and long vowels in borrowings from Literary Arabic.

Most spoken dialects have monophthongized original to (in all circumstances, including adjacent to emphatic consonants). In Moroccan Arabic, these have subsequently merged into original .

Consonants

In some dialects, there may be more or fewer phonemes than those listed in the chart above. For example, non-Arabic is used in the Maghrebi dialects as well in the written language mostly for foreign names. Semitic became extremely early on in Arabic before it was written down; a few modern Arabic dialects, such as Iraqi (influenced by Persian and Turkish) distinguish between and . The Iraqi Arabic uses also sounds , and uses Persian adding letters, e.g.: '''' – ''a plum''; '' – ''a truffle'' and so on.

Early in the expansion of Arabic, the separate emphatic phonemes and coalesced into a single phoneme . Many dialects (such as Egyptian, Levantine, and much of the Maghreb) subsequently lost fricatives, converting into . Most dialects borrow "learned" words from the Standard language using the same pronunciation as for inherited words, but some dialects without interdental fricatives (particularly in Egypt and the Levant) render original in borrowed words as .

Another key distinguishing mark of Arabic dialects is how they render the original velar and uvular stops , (Proto-Semitic ), and : retains its original pronunciation in widely scattered regions such as Yemen, Morocco, and urban areas of the Maghreb. It is pronounced as a glottal stop in several prestige dialects, such as those spoken in Cairo, Beirut and Damascus. But it is rendered as a voiced velar stop in Gulf Arabic, Iraqi Arabic, Upper Egypt, much of the Maghreb, and less urban parts of the Levant (e.g. Jordan). Some traditionally Christian villages in rural areas of the Levant render the sound as , as do Shia Bahrainis. In some Gulf dialects, it is palatalized to or . It is pronounced as a voiced uvular constrictive in Sudanese Arabic. Many dialects with a modified pronunciation for maintain the pronunciation in certain words (often with religious or educational overtones) borrowed from the Classical language. is pronounced as an affricate in Iraq and much of the Arabian Peninsula, but is pronounced in most of North Egypt and parts of Yemen and Oman, in Morocco, Tunisia and the Levant, and , in most words in much of Gulf Arabic. usually retains its original pronunciation, but is palatalized to in many words in Israel & the Palestinian Territories, Iraq and much of the Arabian Peninsula. Often a distinction is made between the suffixes (you, masc.) and (you, fem.), which become and , respectively. In Sana'a, Omani, and Bahrani is pronounced .

Pharyngealization of the emphatic consonants tends to weaken in many of the spoken varieties, and to spread from emphatic consonants to nearby sounds. In addition, the "emphatic" allophone automatically triggers pharyngealization of adjacent sounds in many dialects. As a result, it may difficult or impossible to determine whether a given coronal consonant is phonemically emphatic or not, especially in dialects with long-distance emphasis spreading. (A notable exception is the sounds vs. in Moroccan Arabic, because the former is pronounced as an affricate but the latter is not.)

Grammar

Literary Arabic

As in other Semitic languages, Arabic has a complex and unusual morphology (i.e. method of constructing words from a basic root). Arabic has a nonconcatenative "root-and-pattern" morphology: A root consists of a set of bare consonants (usually three), which are fitted into a discontinuous pattern in order to form words. For example, the word for "I wrote" is constructed by combining the root "write" with the pattern "I X'd" to form '''' "I wrote". Other verbs meaning "I X'd" will typically have the same pattern but with different consonants, e.g. '''' "I read", '''' "I ate", '''' "I went", although other patterns are possible (e.g. '''' "I drank", '''' "I said", '''' "I spoke", where the subpattern used to signal the past tense may change but the suffix '''' is always used).

From a single root , numerous words can be formed by applying different patterns: '''' "I wrote" '''' "I had (something) written" '''' "I corresponded (with someone)" '''' "I dictated" '''' "I subscribed" '''' "we corresponded with each other" '''' "I write" '''' "I have (something) written" '''' "I correspond (with someone)" '''' "I dictate" '''' "I subscribe" '''' "We correspond each other" '''' "it was written" '''' "it was dictated" '''' "written" '''' "dictated" '''' "book" '''' "books" '''' "writer" '''' "writers" '''' "desk, office" '''' "library"

etc.

Nouns and adjectives

Nouns in Literary Arabic have three grammatical cases (nominative, accusative, and genitive [also used when the noun is governed by a preposition]); three numbers (singular, dual and plural); two genders (masculine and feminine); and three "states" (indefinite, definite, and construct). The cases of singular nouns (other than those that end in long ā) are indicated by suffixed short vowels (/-u/ for nominative, /-a/ for accusative, /-i/ for genitive).

The feminine singular is often marked by /-at/, which is reduced to /-ah/ or /-a/ before a pause. Plural is indicated either through endings (the sound plural) or internal modification (the broken plural). Definite nouns include all proper nouns, all nouns in "construct state" and all nouns which are prefixed by the definite article /al-/. Indefinite singular nouns (other than those that end in long ā) add a final /-n/ to the case-marking vowels, giving /-un/, /-an/ or /-in/ (which is also referred to as nunation or tanwīn).

Adjectives in Literary Arabic are marked for case, number, gender and state, as for nouns. However, the plural of all non-human nouns is always combined with a singular feminine adjective, which takes the /-ah/ or /-at/ suffix.

Pronouns in Literary Arabic are marked for person, number and gender. There are two varieties, independent pronouns and enclitics. Enclitic pronouns are attached to the end of a verb, noun or preposition and indicate verbal and prepositional objects or possession of nouns. The first-person singular pronoun has a different enclitic form used for verbs (/-ni/) and for nouns or prepositions (/-ī/ after consonants, /-ya/ after vowels).

Nouns, verbs, pronouns and adjectives agree with each other in all respects. However, non-human plural nouns are grammatically considered to be feminine singular. Furthermore, a verb in a verb-initial sentence is marked as singular regardless of its semantic number when the subject of the verb is explicitly mentioned as a noun. Numerals between three and ten show "chiasmic" agreement, in that grammatically masculine numerals have feminine marking and vice versa.

Verbs

Verbs in Literary Arabic are marked for person (first, second, or third), gender, and number. They are conjugated in two major paradigms (past and non-past); two voices (active and passive); and five moods (indicative, imperative, subjunctive, jussive and energetic). There are also two participles (active and passive) and a verbal noun, but no infinitive.

The past and non-past paradigms are sometimes also termed perfective and imperfective, respectively, indicating the fact that they actually represent a combination of tense and aspect. The moods other than the indicative occur only in the non-past, and the future tense is signaled by prefixing '''' or '''' onto the non-past. The past and non-past differ in the form of the stem (e.g. past '''' vs. non-past ''''), and also use completely different sets of affixes for indicating person, number and gender: In the past, the person, number and gender are fused into a single suffixal morpheme, while in the non-past, a combination of prefixes (primarily encoding person) and suffixes (primarily encoding gender and number) are used. The passive voice uses the same person/number/gender affixes but changes the vowels of the stem.

The following shows a paradigm of a regular Arabic verb, '''' "to write". Note that in Modern Standard Arabic, many final short vowels are dropped (indicated in parentheses below), and the energetic mood (in either long or short form, which have the same meaning) is almost never used.

+ Paradigm of a regular Form I Arabic verb, '''' "to write"
			Past	PresentIndicative	FutureIndicative	Subjunctive	! align="center"	! align="center"	! align="center"	! align="center"
Active	Singular
	1st
	2nd	masculine
		feminine
	3rd	masculine
		feminine
	Dual
	2nd	masculine & feminine
	3rd	masculine
		feminine
	Plural
	1st
	2nd	masculine
		feminine
	3rd	masculine
		feminine
Passive	Singular
	1st
	2nd	masculine
		feminine
	etc.
Nominal	Active Participle				Passive Participle			Verbal Noun

Derivation

Unlike in most languages, Arabic has virtually no means of deriving words by adding prefixes or suffixes to words. Instead, they are formed according to a limited (but fairly large) number of templates applied to roots.

For verbs, a given root can construct up to fifteen different verbs, each with one or more characteristic meanings and each with its own templates for the past and non-past stems, active and passive participles, and verbal noun. These are referred to by Western scholars as "Form I", "Form II", and so on through "Form XV" (although Forms XI to XV are rare). These forms encode concepts such as the causative, intensive and reflexive. These forms can be viewed as analogous to verb conjugations in languages such as Spanish in terms of the additional complexity of verb formation that they induce. (Note, however, that their usage in constructing vocabulary is somewhat different, since the same root can be conjugated in multiple forms, with different shades of meaning.)

Examples of the different verbs formed from the root '''' "write" (using '''' "red" for Form IX, which is limited to colors and physical defects): {|class="wikitable" ! Form !! Past !! Meaning !! Non-past !! Meaning |- | I || '''' || "he wrote" || '''' || "he writes" |- | II || '''' || "he made (someone) write" || '''' || "he makes (someone) write" |- | III || '''' || "he corresponded with, wrote to (someone)" || '''' || "he corresponds with, writes to (someone)" |- | IV || '''' || "he dictated" || '''' || "he dictates" |- | V || '''' || ''nonexistent'' || '''' || ''nonexistent'' |- | VI || '''' || "he corresponded (with someone, esp. mutually)" || '''' || "he corresponds (with someone, esp. mutually)" |- | VII || '''' || "he subscribed" || '''' || "he subscribes" |- | VIII || '''' || "he copied" || '''' || "he copies" |- | IX || '''' || "he turned red" || '''' || "he turns red" |- | X || '''' || "he asked (someone) to write" || '''' || "he asks (someone) to write" |- |}

Form II is sometimes used to create transitive denominative verbs (verbs built from nouns); Form V is the equivalent used for intransitive denominatives.

The associated participles and verbal nouns of a verb are the primary means of forming new lexical nouns in Arabic. This is similar to the process by which, for example, the English gerund "meeting" (similar to a verbal noun) has turned into a noun referring to a particular type of social, often work-related event where people gather together to have a "discussion" (another lexicalized verbal noun). Another fairly common means of forming nouns is through one of a limited number of patterns that can be applied directly to roots, such as the "nouns of location" in ''ma-'' (e.g. '''' "desk, office" < ''k-t-b'' "write", '''' "kitchen" < ''ṭ-b-x'' "cook").

The only three genuine suffixes are as follows: The feminine suffix ''-ah''; variously derives terms from women from related terms for men, or more generally terms along the same lines as the corresponding masculine, e.g. '''' "library" (also a writing-related place, but different than '''', as above).

The nisba suffix ''-iyy-''. This suffix is extremely productive, and forms adjectives meaning "related to X". It corresponds to English adjectives in ''-ic, -al, -an, -y, -ist'', etc.

The feminine nisba suffix ''-iyyah''. This is formed by adding the feminine suffix ''-ah'' onto nisba adjectives to form abstract nouns. For example, from the basic root '''' "share" can be derived the Form VIII verb '''' "to cooperate, participate", and in turn its verbal noun '''' "cooperation, participation" can be formed. This in turn can be made into a nisba adjective '''' "socialist", from which an abstract noun '''' "socialism" can be derived. Other recent formations are '''' "republic" (lit. "public-ness" < '''' "multitude, general public"), and the Qaddafi-specific variation '''' "people's republic" (lit. "masses-ness" < '''' "the masses", pl. of '''', as above).

Colloquial varieties

The spoken dialects have lost the case distinctions and make only limited use of the dual (it occurs only on nouns and its use is no longer required in all circumstances). They have lost the mood distinctions other than imperative, but many have since gained new moods through the use of prefixes (most often /bi-/ for indicative vs. unmarked subjunctive). They have also mostly lost the indefinite "nunation" and the internal passive.

The following is an example of a regular verb paradigm in Egyptian Arabic.

+Example of a regular Form I verb in Egyptian Arabic, ''kátab/yíktib'' "write"	Tense/Mood		! Past	! Present Subjunctive	! Present Indicative	! Future	! Imperative
Singular
1st		''katáb-t''	''á-ktib''	''bá-ktib''	''ḥá-ktib''
2nd	!masculine	''katáb-t''	''tí-ktib''	''bi-tí-ktib''	''ḥa-tí-ktib''	''í-ktib''
	!feminine	''katáb-ti''	''ti-ktíb-i''	''bi-ti-ktíb-i''	''ḥa-ti-ktíb-i''	''i-ktíb-i''
3rd	!masculine	''kátab''	''yí-ktib''	''bi-yí-ktib''	''ḥa-yí-ktib''
	!feminine	''kátab-it''	''tí-ktib''	''bi-tí-ktib''	''ḥa-tí-ktib''
Plural
1st		''katáb-na''	''ní-ktib''	''bi-ní-ktib''	''ḥá-ní-ktib''
2nd		''katáb-tu''	''ti-ktíb-u''	''bi-ti-ktíb-u''	''ḥa-ti-ktíb-u''	''i-ktíb-u''
3rd		''kátab-u''	''yi-ktíb-u''	''bi-yi-ktíb-u''	''ḥa-yi-ktíb-u''

See varieties of Arabic for more information on grammar differences in the spoken varieties.

Writing system

The Arabic alphabet derives from the Aramaic through Nabatean, to which it bears a loose resemblance like that of Coptic or Cyrillic script to Greek script. Traditionally, there were several differences between the Western (North African) and Middle Eastern version of the alphabet—in particular, the ''fa'' had a dot underneath and ''qaf'' a single dot above in the Maghreb, and the order of the letters was slightly different (at least when they were used as numerals).

However, the old Maghrebi variant has been abandoned except for calligraphic purposes in the Maghreb itself, and remains in use mainly in the Quranic schools (zaouias) of West Africa. Arabic, like all other Semitic languages (except for the Latin-written Maltese, and the languages with the Ge'ez script), is written from right to left. There are several styles of script, notably Naskh which is used in print and by computers, and Ruq'ah which is commonly used in handwriting.

Calligraphy

After Khalil ibn Ahmad al Farahidi finally fixed the Arabic script around 786, many styles were developed, both for the writing down of the Qur'an and other books, and for inscriptions on monuments as decoration.

Arabic calligraphy has not fallen out of use as calligraphy has in the Western world, and is still considered by Arabs as a major art form; calligraphers are held in great esteem. Being cursive by nature, unlike the Latin script, Arabic script is used to write down a verse of the Qur'an, a Hadith, or simply a proverb, in a spectacular composition. The composition is often abstract, but sometimes the writing is shaped into an actual form such as that of an animal. One of the current masters of the genre is Hassan Massoudy.

Romanization

! ISO 233-2

+ Examples of different transliteration/transcription schemes	Letter	! Name	International Phonetic Alphabet>IPA	United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names>UNGEGN	Library of Congress>ALA-LC	! DIN 31635	SAS
BATR	! ArabTeX	Arabic chat alphabet>chat
!					,		'	e	'	2
						aa	aa / A	a	a/e/é
!		,	y		y; e	y; ii	y	y; i/ee; ei/ai
!					ç		c	_t	s/th
!		~~				j	j	^g	j/g/dj
!					H	.h	7
!		~				j	x	K	_h	kh/7'/5
!					đ	z'	_d	z/dh/th
!					x	^s	sh/ch
!					S	.s	s/9
!					D	.d	d/9'
!					T	.t	t/6
!		~			đ̣	Z	.z	z/dh/6'
!					ř	E	`	3
!		~			g	ğ	g	.g	gh/3'

There are a number of different standards for the romanization of Arabic, i.e. methods of accurately and efficiently representing Arabic with the Latin script. There are various conflicting motivations involved, which leads to multiple systems. Some are interested in transliteration, i.e. representing the ''spelling'' of Arabic, while others focus on transcription, i.e. representing the ''pronunciation'' of Arabic. (They differ in that, for example, the same letter is used to represent both a consonant, as in "you" or "yet", and a vowel, as in "me" or "eat".) Some systems, e.g. for scholarly use, are intended to accurately and unambiguously represent the phonemes of Arabic, generally making the phonetics more explicit than the original word in the Arabic script. These systems are heavily reliant on diacritical marks such as "š" for the sound equivalently written ''sh'' in English. Other systems (e.g. the Bahá'í orthography) are intended to help readers who are neither Arabic speakers nor linguists to intuitively pronounce Arabic names and phrases. These less "scientific" tend to avoid diacritics and use digraphs (like ''sh'' and ''kh''). These are usually more simple to read, but sacrifice the definiteness of the scientific systems, and may lead to ambiguities, e.g. whether to interpret ''sh'' as a single sound, as in ''gash'', or a combination of two sounds, as in ''gashouse''.

During the last few decades and especially since the 1990s, Western-invented text communication technologies have become prevalent in the Arab world, such as personal computers, the World Wide Web, email, Bulletin board systems, IRC, instant messaging and mobile phone text messaging. Most of these technologies originally had the ability to communicate using the Latin script only, and some of them still do not have the Arabic script as an optional feature. As a result, Arabic speaking users communicated in these technologies by transliterating the Arabic text using the Latin script, sometimes known as IM Arabic.

To handle those Arabic letters that cannot be accurately represented using the Latin script, numerals and other characters were appropriated. For example, the numeral "3" may be used to represent the Arabic letter "ع". There is no universal name for this type of transliteration, but some have named it Arabic Chat Alphabet. Other systems of transliteration exist, such as using dots or capitalization to represent the "emphatic" counterparts of certain consonants. For instance, using capitalization, the letter "د", may be represented by d. Its emphatic counterpart, "ض", may be written as D.

Numerals

In most of present-day North Africa, the Western Arabic numerals (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9) are used. However in Egypt and Arabic-speaking countries to the east of it, the Eastern Arabic numerals ( – – – – – – – – – ) are in use. When representing a number in Arabic, the lowest-valued position is placed on the right, so the order of positions is the same as in left-to-right scripts. Sequences of digits such as telephone numbers are read from left to right, but numbers are spoken in the traditional Arabic fashion, with units and tens reversed from the modern English usage. For example, 24 is said "four and twenty" just like in the German language (''vierundzwanzig'') and Classical Hebrew, and 1975 is said "one thousand (and) nine hundred (and) five and seventy."

Language-standards regulators

Academy of the Arabic Language is the name of a number of language-regulation bodies formed in Arab League. The most active are in Damascus and Cairo. They review language development, monitor new words and approve inclusion of new words into their published standard dictionaries. They also publish old and historical Arabic manuscripts.

Studying Arabic

Because the Quran is written in Arabic and all Islamic terms are in Arabic, millions of Muslims (both Arab and non-Arab) study the language. Arabic has been taught worldwide in many elementary and secondary schools, especially Muslim schools. Universities around the world have classes that teach Arabic as part of their foreign languages, Middle Eastern studies, and religious studies courses. Arabic language schools exist to assist students in learning Arabic outside of the academic world. Many Arabic language schools are located in the Arab world and other Muslim countries. Software and books with tapes are also important part of Arabic learning, as many of Arabic learners may live in places where there are no academic or Arabic language school classes available. Radio series of Arabic language classes are also provided from some radio stations. A number of websites on the Internet provide online classes for all levels as a means of distance education.

Examples

or

English	! Arabic	Arabic diacritics>Arabic (vowelled)	Romanization of Arabic>Romanization (DIN 31635)	! IPA
English	or	|	(varies)	(varies)
Yes	|
No	|
Hello	|
Peace(Usually Islamic)	|		}} (varies)	}} (varies)
How are you	|	}}	}}
Welcome	|
Goodbye	|
Please	|
Thanks	|
Excuse me	|
I'm sorry	|
What's your name?	|
How much?	|
I don't understand.	|
I don't speak Arabic.	|
I don't know.	|
I'm hungry.	|
Orange	|
Black	|
One	|
Two	|
Three	|
Four	|
Five	|
Six	|
Seven	|
Eight	|
Nine	|
Ten	|
Eleven	|

See also

Modern Standard Arabic

Arabic diglossia

Varieties of Arabic

Arabic–English Lexicon

Arabic influence on the Spanish language

Arabic literature

Arabist

Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic

Glossary of Islam

List of arabophones

List of French words of Arabic origin

List of Portuguese words of Arabic origin

List of replaced loanwords in Turkish

Arabic grammar

(إﻋﺮﺍﺏ)

Macrolanguage

Notes

}} is the Literary Arabic name of the language(s) and is pronounced in Egypt: ; Libya: ; east central Arabia: ; Levant: ; Hijaz: ; Tunisia: ; Morocco: . Other variations in other geographic regions are also possible. }} is the Literary Arabic name as well as the colloquial and is pronounced in Egypt and Libya: ; east central Arabia: ; Lebanon: ; rest of Levant, ; Hijaz: ; Tunisia and Morocco: . Other variations in other geographic regions are also possible. In general, in pronunciation of Literary Arabic the last vowel is long .

References

External links

Documents

* Arabic phrasebook at Wikitravel

* Arabic grammar online

* A Review of Arabic Language Books and Methods

* Learn Arabic Language تعلم اللغة العربية 'biggest Arabic Learning resource"

* Arabic natural language processing publications

* Arabic: a Category III language Languages which are very difficult for native English speakers

* Arabic Vocabulary with pictures

*Dr. Habash's Introduction to Arabic Natural Language Processing

*Dr. Shaalan's talk about Rule-based approach in Arabic NLP: Tools, Systems and Resources

* ethnologue.com Encyclopedic reference work cataloging all the world’s 6,909 known living languages including Arabic

Tools

*Lane's Arabic–English Lexicon – An 8-volume, 3000-page dictionary in PDF format.

* Google Ta3reeb – Google Transliteration

* Transliteration Arabic language pronunciation applet

* Realtime Arabic transliteration

* Arabic Keyboard that you can use when your keyboard does not support Arabic. – It can feed the terms to google.

* Find Arabic Text on the internet

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ace:Bahsa Arab kbd:Хьэрыпыбзэ af:Arabies als:Arabische Sprache am:ዓረብኛ ang:Arabisc sprǣc ar:لغة عربية an:Idioma arabe arc:ܠܫܢܐ ܥܪܒܝܐ frp:Arabo ast:Árabe az:Ərəb dili bn:আরবি ভাষা zh-min-nan:A-la-pek-gí map-bms:Basa Arab be:Арабская мова be-x-old:Арабская мова bjn:Bahasa Arap bcl:Arabe bo:ཨ་རབ་སྐད། bs:Arapski jezik br:Arabeg unvan bg:Арабски език ca:Àrab cv:Арап чĕлхи ceb:Inarabigo cs:Arabština ny:Chiarabu co:Lingua àraba cy:Arabeg da:Arabisk (sprog) de:Arabische Sprache dv:ޢަރަބި nv:Ásáí Bizaad dsb:Arabska rěc et:Araabia keel el:Αραβική γλώσσα eml:Areb es:Idioma árabe eo:Araba lingvo ext:Luenga árabi eu:Arabiera fa:زبان عربی hif:Arbii bhasa fo:Arábiskt mál fr:Arabe fy:Arabysk ga:An Araibis gv:Arabish gag:Arab dili gl:Lingua árabe gan:阿拉伯語 hak:Â-lâ-pak-ngî xal:Арабмудин келн ko:아랍어 haw:‘Ōlelo ‘Alapia hy:Արաբերեն hi:अरबी भाषा hsb:Arabšćina hr:Arapski jezik io:Arabiana linguo ilo:Pagsasao nga Arabe id:Bahasa Arab ia:Lingua arabe iu:ᐊᕋᕕ/aravi os:Араббаг æвзаг is:Arabíska it:Lingua araba he:ערבית jv:Basa Arab kn:ಅರಬ್ಬೀ ಭಾಷೆ ka:არაბული ენა kk:Араб тілі kw:Arabek rw:Icyarabu ky:Араб тили sw:Kiarabu kv:Араб кыв kg:Kilabu ku:Zimanê erebî lad:Lingua arábiga koi:Араб кыв lbe:Аьраб маз krc:Араб тил lo:ພາສາອາຣັບ la:Lingua Arabica lv:Arābu valoda lt:Arabų kalba lij:Lengua àraba li:Arabisch ln:Liarabi lmo:Arab hu:Arab nyelv mk:Арапски јазик mg:Fiteny arabo ml:അറബി ഭാഷ mt:Lingwa Għarbija mr:अरबी भाषा arz:لغه عربى mzn:عربی ms:Bahasa Arab mdf:Арабонь кяль mn:Араб хэл nah:Arabiatlahtōlli nl:Arabisch ne:अरबी भाषा new:अरबी भाषा ja:アラビア語 ce:Jarboyn mott pih:Erabek no:Arabisk nn:Arabisk nrm:Arabe oc:Arabi pa:ਅਰਬੀ ਭਾਸ਼ਾ pnb:عربی ps:عربي ژبه pms:Lenga aràbica nds:Araabsche Spraak pl:Język arabski pt:Língua árabe kaa:Arab tili crh:Arap tili ro:Limba arabă qu:Arabya simi rue:Арабскый язык ru:Арабский язык sah:Араб тыла se:Arábagiella sa:अरबी sco:Arabic sq:Gjuha arabe scn:Lingua àrabba simple:Arabic language sk:Arabčina cu:Аравьскъ ѩꙁꙑкъ sl:Arabščina so:Carabi sr:Арапски језик sh:Arapski jezik su:Basa Arab fi:Arabian kieli sv:Arabiska tl:Wikang Arabe ta:அரபு மொழி kab:Taɛrabt tt:Ğäräp tele te:అరబ్బీ భాష th:ภาษาอาหรับ tg:Забони арабӣ tr:Arapça tk:Arap dili uk:Арабська мова ur:عربی زبان ug:ئەرەب تىلى vi:Tiếng Ả Rập fiu-vro:Araabia kiil wa:Arabe zh-classical:阿拉伯語 war:Inarabo wuu:阿拉伯语 yi:אראביש yo:Ède Lárúbáwá zh-yue:阿剌伯話 diq:Erebki bat-smg:Arabu kalba zh:阿拉伯语

Byron Kathleen Mitchell (née Reid), better known as Byron Katie, born December 6, 1942, is an American speaker and author who teaches a method of self-inquiry known as "The Work of Byron Katie" or simply as "The Work."

Biography

Byron Kathleen Reid (or "Katie" as she is often called) became severely depressed in her early thirties. She was a businesswoman and mother who lived in a small town in the high desert of southern California. According to Katie, for nearly a decade she spiraled down into paranoia, rage, self-loathing, and constant thoughts of suicide; for the last two years she was often unable to leave her bedroom. Then, one morning in February 1986, while in a halfway house for women with eating disorders, she experienced a life-changing realization. She called it “waking up to reality.” In that moment of enlightenment, she says,

"I discovered that when I believed my thoughts, I suffered, but that when I didn’t believe them, I didn’t suffer, and that this is true for every human being. Freedom is as simple as that. I found that suffering is optional. I found a joy within me that has never disappeared, not for a single moment."

According to journalist Allison Adato, soon afterward people started seeking Katie out and asking how they could find the freedom that they saw in her. People from her town, and eventually from elsewhere, came to meet her, and some to even live with her.

Katie is not aligned with any particular religion or tradition. She is married to the writer and translator Stephen Mitchell, who co-wrote her first book, ''Loving What Is'' and her third book, ''A Thousand Names for Joy.''

Katie calls her method of self-inquiry "The Work." She describes it as an embodiment, in words, of the wordless questioning that had woken up in her on that February morning. Adato further writes that as reports spread about the transformations people felt they were experiencing through The Work, Katie was invited to present it publicly elsewhere in California, then throughout the United States, and eventually in Europe and across the world. She has taught her method to people at free public events, in prisons, hospitals, churches, corporations, shelters for survivors of domestic violence, universities and schools, at weekend intensives, and at her nine-day "School for The Work."

Bibliography

''Loving What Is: Four Questions That Can Change Your Life'', with Stephen Mitchell, Harmony Books, 2002, ISBN 0-609-60874-6 (HC)

''I Need Your Love - Is That True? How to Stop Seeking Love, Appreciation, and Approval and Start Finding Them Instead'', with Michael Katz, Harmony Books, 2005, ISBN 1-4000-5107-X (HC)

''A Thousand Names for Joy: Living in Harmony with the Way Things Are'', with Stephen Mitchell, Harmony Books, 2007. ISBN 978-0-307-33923-2 (HC)

''Question Your Thinking, Change the World: Quotations from Byron Katie'', edited by Stephen Mitchell, Hay House, 2007. ISBN 978-1-4019-1730-2 (PB)

''Who Would You Be Without Your Story?: Dialogues with Byron Katie'', edited by Carol Williams, Hay House (October 15, 2008), ISBN 978-1-4019-2179-8 (PB)

References

Literature

Jeon, Arthur (2004) ''City Dharma: Keeping Your Cool in the Chaos'' ISBN 1-40004-908-3

External links

The Official Website for The Work of Byron Katie

The Official Blog for The Work of Byron Katie

Videos for The Work of Byron Katie

The School for The Work: An Account by Richard Lawrence Cohen

Excerpts from ''Loving What Is''

Excerpts from ''A Thousand Names for Joy''

Byron Katie with Oprah

Time Magazine 12/04/2000 : Innovators - Byron Katie. Four Questions to Inner Peace "TIME predicts the most innovative people of the 21st Century."

The Noumenon Journal, Summer 2000/2001: An Interview with Byron Katie

Category:1942 births Category:Living people Category:American spiritual teachers Category:American spiritual writers Category:American self-help writers

de:Byron Katie es:Byron Katie fr:Byron Katie no:Byron Katie ru:Байрон Кейти fi:Byron Katie

Group	Mizrahi Jews (יהדות המזרח''Yahadut HaMizrach'')
Poptime	4,500,000 - 5,000,000 (estimate)
Regions	3,500,000 - 4,000,000 (including those of mixed ancestry) Middle East
Region1
Pop1	25,000
Region2
Pop2	<400
Region3
Pop3	<400
Region4
Pop4	<100
Region5
Pop5	<100
Region6
Pop6	<50
Region7
Pop7	<50 Central Asia & Caucasus
Region8
Pop8	15,000
Region9
Pop9	12,000
Region10
Pop10	1,000
Region11
Pop11	500
Region12
Pop12	100 Americas & Europe
Region13
Pop13	400,000
Region14
Pop14	250,000
Region15
Pop15	7,000
Region16
Pop16	7,000
Region17
Pop17	2,000
Langs	Hebrew, Arabic, Persian, Marathi, Manipuri, Judeo-Malayalam, Dzhidi, Judæo-Arabic, Georgian, Bukhori, Judeo-Berber, Juhuri and Judæo-Aramaic
Rels	Judaism
Related	Ashkenazi Jews, Sephardi Jews, other Jewish ethnic divisions and Arabs. }}

Mizrahi Jews or Mizrahim, (), also referred to as Edot HaMizrach (Communities of the East; Mizrahi Hebrew: '''') are Jews descended from the Jewish communities of the Middle East, North Africa and the Caucasus. The term ''Mizrahi'' is used in Israel in the language of politics, media and some social scientists for Jews from the Arab world and adjacent, primarily Muslim-majority countries. This includes Jews from Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, Iran, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Kurdish areas, the eastern Caucasus, India, and Ethiopia. Sometimes, Sephardi Jews such as Jews from Morocco, Algeria, or Turkey are erroneously grouped into the Mizrahi category for some historical reasons.

Despite their heterogeneous origins, Mizrahi Jews generally practice rites identical or similar to traditional Sephardic Judaism, although with some differences among the minhagim of the particular communities. This has resulted in a conflation of terms, particularly in Israel, and in religious usage, where "Sephardi" is used in a broad sense to include Mizrahi Jews as well as Sephardim proper. Indeed, from the point of view of the official Israeli rabbinate, the Mizrahi rabbis in Israel are under the jurisdiction of the Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel who, in most cases, is a Mizrahi Jew. Today they make up more than half of Israel's Jewish population, but before the mass immigration of 1,000,000 mostly Ashkenazi immigrants from the former Soviet Union in the 1990s they made up over 70% of Israel's Jewish population.

History and usage

"Mizrahi" is literally translated as "Eastern", מזרח (Mizraḥ), Hebrew for "east." In the past the word "Mizrahim," corresponding to the Arabic word ''Mashriqiyyun'' (Easterners), referred to the natives of Syria, Iraq and other Asian countries, as distinct from those of North Africa (''Maghrabiyyun''). For this reason some speakers object to the use of "Mizrahi" to include Moroccan Jews.

The term Mizrahim or ''Edot Hamizraḥ'', Oriental communities, grew in Israel under the circumstances of the meeting of waves of immigrants from the Ashkenazi, Sephardic and Oriental Jewish communities. In modern Israeli usage, it refers to all Jews from North African and West Asian countries, many of them Arabic-speaking Muslim-majority countries. The term came to be widely used more by so-called Mizrahi activists in the early 1990s. Since then in Israel it has become an accepted semi-official and media designation.

Many "Mizrahi" ("Oriental" Jews) today reject this (or any) umbrella and simplistic description and prefer to identify themselves by their particular country of origin, or that of their immediate ancestors, e.g. "Iranian/Persian Jew", "Iraqi Jew", "Tunisian Jew", etc., or prefer to use the old term "Sefardic" in its broader meaning.

Other designations

Many Jews identify all non-Ashkenazi Jews as Sephardim, in modern Hebrew "Sfaradim". This broader definition of "Sephardim" as including all or most Mizrahi Jews is also common in Jewish religious circles. The Ethiopian Jewish religious leaders in Israel have also joined the Mizrahi-Sefardic rite collectivities.

The reason for this classification is that most Mizrahi communities use much the same religious rituals as Sephardim proper. The prevalence of the Sephardic rite among Mizrahim is partly a result of Sephardim joining some of their communities following the 1492 expulsion from Sepharad (Spain and Portugal). Over the last few centuries, the previously distinctive rites of the Mizrahi communities were influenced, superimposed upon or altogether replaced by the rite of the Sephardim, perceived as more prestigious. Even before this assimilation, the original rite of many Jewish Oriental communities was already closer to the Sephardi rite than to the Ashkenazi one. For this reason, "Sephardim" has come to mean not only "Spanish Jews" but "Jews of the Spanish rite", just as "Ashkenazim" is used for "Jews of the German rite", whose ancestors spoke the Judeo-German, Yiddish language, whether or not they originated from Germany.

Many of the Sephardic Jews exiled from Spain resettled in greater or lesser numbers in many Arabic-speaking countries, such as Syria and Morocco. In Syria, most eventually intermarried with and assimilated into the larger established community of Arabic-speaking Jews. In North African countries, by contrast, where the Sephardim came to outnumber the pre-existing Mizrahi Jew communities it was some of the latter who assimilated into the more prosperous and prestigious Sephardic communities. In Morocco a distinction remained with the purely Sephardic ''Gerush Castilia'' of the Spanish-speaking northern strip who kept their Judeo-Spanish language known as Haketia. Either way, this assimilation, combined with the use of the Sephardic rite, led to the popular designation and conflation of most non-Ashkenazic Jewish communities from the Middle East and North Africa as "Sephardic", whether or not they were descended from Spanish Jews, which is what the terms "Sephardic Jews" and "Sepharadim" properly implied when used in the ethnic as opposed to the religious sense.

In many Arab countries, older Arabic-speaking Jewish communities distinguished between themselves and the newer arrivals speaking Judeo-Romance languages, that is, Sephardim expelled from Spain in 1492 and Portugal in 1497. The established Arabic-speaking Jews called themselves Musta'arabim (Arabic for Arabizers), while the newer Sephardi arrivals called them ''Moriscos'' (Ladino for Moorish).

The term "Arab Jews" is controversial, used for self-identification by some members of the communities concerned but strongly opposed by others due to its political, social and ideological implications (see Arab Jews).

Language

thumb|left|Kurdish Jews in Rawanduz, northern Iraq, 1905. Most of the so-called Oriental Jewish or Mizrahi communities spoke Arabic, although Arabic is now mainly used as a second language, especially by the older generation. Most of the many notable philosophical, religious and literary works of the Jews in the Orient were written in Arabic using a modified Hebrew alphabet.

Among other languages associated with Mizrahim are Judeo-Persian (Dzhidi), Georgian, Bukhori, Kurdish, Judeo-Berber, Punic language, Juhuri, Marathi, Judeo-Malayalam and called by some Judeo-Aramaic dialects. Most Persian Jews speak standard Persian.

Neo-Aramaic is a Semitic language closely related to Hebrew. It is identified as a "Jewish language", since it is the language of major Jewish texts such as the Talmud and Zohar, and many ritual recitations such as the Kaddish. Traditionally, Aramaic has been a language of Talmudic debate in yeshivoth, as many rabbinic texts are written in a mixture of Hebrew and Aramaic. As spoken by the Jews of Kurdistan, Jewish Neo-Aramaic dialects are descended from Jewish Babylonian Aramaic, as could be seen from its hundreds of reflexes in Jewish Neo-Aramaic.

By the early 1950s, virtually the entire Jewish community of Kurdistan—a rugged, mostly mountainous region comprising parts of Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Iran, and the Caucasus, where Jews had lived since antiquity—relocated to Israel. The vast majority of Kurdish Jews, who were primarily concentrated in northern Iraq, left Kurdistan in the mass aliyah (emigration to Israel) of 1950-51. This ended thousands of years of Jewish history in what had been Assyria and Babylonia.

In 2007, an important book was published, authored by Mordechai Zaken, describing the unique relationship between Jews in urban and rural Kurdistan and the tribal society under whose patronage the Jews lived for hundreds of years. Tribal chieftains, or aghas, granted patronage to the Jews who needed protection in the wild tribal region of Kurdistan; the Jews gave their chieftains dues, gifts and services. The text provides numerous tales and examples about the skills, maneuvers and innovations used by Kurdistani Jews in their daily life to confront their abuse and extortion by greedy chieftains and tribesmen. The text also tells the stories of Kurdish chieftains who saved and protected the Jews unconditionally.

Post-1948 dispersal

After the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and subsequent establishment of the state of Israel, most Mizrahi Jews (900 000) were either expelled by their Arab rulers or chose to leave and immigrated to Israel. Roughly half of Israeli Jews are of Mizrahi origin.

Anti-Jewish actions by Arab governments in the 1950s and 1960s, including the expulsion of 25,000 Mizrahi Jews from Egypt after the 1956 Suez Crisis, led to the overwhelming majority of Mizrahim leaving Arab countries. They became refugees. Most went to Israel. Many Moroccan and Algerian Jews went to France. Thousands of Lebanese, Syrian and Egyptian Jews immigrated to the United States and to Brazil.

Today, as many as 40,000 Mizrahim still remain in communities scattered throughout the non-Arab Muslim world, primarily in Iran, but also Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, and Turkey. There are few remaining in the Arab world. About 5,000 remain in Morocco and fewer than 2,000 in Tunisia. Other countries with remnants of ancient Jewish communities with official recognition, such as Lebanon, have 1,000 or fewer Jews. A trickle of emigration continues, mainly to Israel and the United States.

Absorption into Israeli society

Refuge in Israel was not without its tragedies: "in a generation or two, millennia of rooted Oriental civilization, unified even in its diversity,” had been wiped out, writes Mizrahi scholar Ella Shohat. The trauma of rupture from their countries of origin was further complicated by the difficulty of the transition upon arrival in Israel; Mizrahi immigrants and refugees were placed in rudimentary and hastily erected tent cities (Ma'abarot) often in development towns on the peripheries of Israel. Settlement in Moshavim (cooperative farming villages) was only partially successful, because Mizrahim had historically filled a niche as craftsmen and merchants and most did not traditionally engage in farmwork. As the majority left their property behind in their home countries as they journeyed to Israel, many suffered a severe decrease in their socio-economic status aggravated by their cultural and political differences with the dominant Ashkenazi community. Furthermore, a policy of austerity was enforced at that time due to economic hardships.

Mizrahi immigrants arrived with many mother tongues. Many, especially those from North Africa and the fertile crescent, spoke Arabic dialects; those from Iran and Central Asia (Uzbekistan and Tajikistan) spoke Persian; Baghdadi Jews from India arrived with English; the Bene Israel from Maharashtra, India arrived with Marathi, Mizrahim from elsewhere brought Georgian, Gruzinic, Tajik, Juhuri and various other languages with them. Hebrew had historically been a language only of prayer for most Jews not living in Israel, including the Mizrahim. Thus, with their arrival in Israel, the Mizrahim retained culture, customs and language distinct from their Ashkenazi counterparts.

Disparities and integration

The cultural differences between Mizrahi and Ashkenazi Jews impacted the degree and rate of assimilation into Israeli society, and sometimes the divide between Eastern European and Middle Eastern Jews was quite sharp. Segregation, especially in the area of housing, limited integration possibilities over the years. Intermarriage between Ashkenazim and Mizrahim is increasingly common in Israel and by the late 1990s 28% of all Israeli children had multi-ethnic parents (up from 14% in the 1950s). It has been claimed that intermarriage does not tend to decrease ethnic differences in socio-economic status, however that does not apply to the children of inter-ethnic marriages.

Although social integration is constantly improving, disparities persist. A study conducted by the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics (ICBS), Mizrahi Jews are less likely to pursue academic studies than Ashkenazi Jews. Israeli-born Ashkenazim are up to twice more likely to study in a university than Israeli-born Mizrahim. Furthermore, the percentage of Mizrahim who seek a university education remains low compared to second-generation immigrant groups of Ashkenazi origin, such as Russians. According to a survey by the Adva Center, the average income of Ashkenazim was 36 percent higher than that of Mizrahim in 2004.

Notable Mizrahim

Business people

Nissim Gaon, Swiss businessman born in Sudan

Charles Saatchi, advertising executive and art collector (born in Iraq)

Maurice Saatchi, Baron Saatchi, advertising executive and former chairman of the British Conservative Party

Michael Kadoorie, businessman from Hong-Kong several generations but of Iraqi descent

Isaac Mizrahi, fashion designer (Egyptian Jew from Brooklyn)

Shlomo Moussaieff, Jewellery Designer/ Judaic Collector and Expert (Bukharian)

Lev Leviev, Israeli businessman of Bukharian descent

David and Simon Reuben, British businessmen born in India, from a family of Baghdadi Jews

Edmond Safra, banker from Lebanon

Shlomo Eliyahu, Israeli businessman

Entertainers

Paula Abdul, American singer and choreographer (Syrian Jewish descent)

Joe Amar, Israeli singer

Etti Ankri, Israeli pop singer

Zohar Argov, Israeli popular singer, called "the King" of the "Mizrahi" music (Yemenite)

Gali Atari, Israeli singer and actress, won the Eurovision Song Contest (from a Yemenite family)

Ehud Banai, Israeli singer and composer

Evyatar Banai, Israeli singer and composer

Yuval Banai, Israeli rock singer and composer

Yossi Banai, Israeli singer and actor (from a Persian Jewish family settled in Jerusalem)

Meir Banai, Israeli singer

Shlomo Bar, Israeli singer and composer

Sonia Benezra, French Canadian radio and TV personality

Lili Boniche, French-Algerian singer

Patrick Bruel, French pop singer

Yizhar Cohen, Israeli singer, won the Eurovision Song Contest (Yemenite family)

Emmanuelle Chriqui, Canadian actress

Shoshana Damari, Israeli singer (Yemen born)

Dana International, (Cohen) Israeli pop singer, won the Eurovision Song Contest (Yemenite family)

David D'or, Israeli pop and concert singer, countertenor (from a Jewish Libyan family)

Gad Elmaleh, Moroccan comedian, film director, and humorist

Yehoram Gaon, Israeli singer and actor.

Eyal Golan, Israel charm pop singer

Zion Golan, Israeli singer (Yemenite descent)

Hélène Grimaud, French-born concert pianist/author of Berber-Jewish father & Corsican-Jewish mother

Sarit Hadad, Israeli singer, from a Jewish family from Tunisia and Azerbaijan(Mountain Jew)

Ofra Haza, Israeli pop and oriental singer (Yemenite family)

Moshe Ivgy, Israeli cinema and theatre actor

Malika Kalantarova, Famous Tajik-Bukharian dancer (People's Artist of USSR)

Chris Kattan, U.S actor (son a Jewish-Iraqi origin father)

Chemda Khalili, singer and co-host of Keith and the Girl

Fatima Kuinova, Soviet-Bukharian singer (Merited Artist of USSR)

Mélanie Laurent, French actress and director

Yehezkel Lazarov, Israeli actor

Claude Lelouch, French cinema director

Enrico Macias, French singer and composer

Miri Messika, Israeli pop singer

Haim Moshe, Israeli-born "Mizrahi" and pop singer (Yemenite)

Shoista Mullojonova, Bukharian legendary Shashmakom Folk Singer (People's Artist of Tajikistan)

Farhat Ezekiel Nadira (Nadira), Bollywood actress of the 1940s and 50s (Baghdadi Jew from India)

Yaël Naïm, French-Israeli singer

Achinoam Nini ("Noa"), Israeli born, Yemenite pop singer

Kobi Oz, pop singer,composer and writer

Avi Peretz, Israeli Oriental and pop singer

Moshe Peretz, Israeli singer of "Oriental" and pop music

Rita, Iranian born, Israeli pop singer

Berry Sakharof, Israeli singer and composer

Jerry Seinfeld, American comedian and actor (Syrian Jewish descent)

Boaz Sharabi, Israeli singer (born, Yemenite, Tunisian & Moroccan ancestry)

Harel Skaat, Singer and "Kokhav Nolad" ("Israeli Idol") contestant (Yemenite descent)

Bahar Soomekh, Persian Jewish-American actress

Subliminal, Israeli rapper of Persian/Tunisian descent

Shimi Tavori, Israeli singer

Ninette Tayeb, Israel singer, won "A Star is Born" (Kokhav Nolad) Contest (Moroccan/Tunisian descent)

Avi Toledano, Israeli pop singer and composer, with Sefardic Moroccan roots

Elliott Yamin, American singer (Jewish Iraqi father)

Idan Yaniv, Israeli singer of Bukharian descent (Israeli Artist of 2007)

Yaffa Yarkoni, Israeli singer (from a Caucasian Jewish family)

Ariel Zilber, Israeli singer and composer (son of a Yemenite Jewish-origin mother)

Murray Perahia, famous pianist and conductor, born in Brooklyn.

Boaz Mauda, Israeli singer (Jewish Yemenite descent)

Shiri Maimon, Israeli singer (Jewish Moroccan descent)

Medicine and therapy

Baruj Benacerraf - American scientist born in Venezuela, from a Moroccan Jewish family, winner of the 1980 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

Yisrael Mordecai Safeek, American physician executive: Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Examiner.

Shalomim Y HaLahawi, Licensed Naturopathic Physician, Diplomat of the American Association of Integrative Medicine, Medical researcher, Author and Ordained Rabbi. Born of Southwestern Arabian(Oman) and Northeast African Jewish family

Politicians and military

Yekutiel Adam, Israeli general (from a Caucasian Jewish family)

Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, Israeli general, current Israeli minister of Infrastructure, former minister of Defense and Israel Labor Party chairman, (Iraqi Jew), commonly called by his Arabic name "Fuad"

Aryeh Deri, former leader of Shas Party and minister of Internal Affairs, (Moroccan Jew)

Yisrael Yeshayahu Sharabi, Minister of Post and Speaker of Knesset 1970s and 80s, ethnicity/country of origin: Yemen

Les Gara, Democratic member of the Alaska State Legislature, former deputy state attorney general (Iraqi parents)

Dalia Itzik, former Knesset speaker

Avigdor Kahalani, former minister of Internal Security and decorated IDF tank commander

Moshe Katsav, former President of the State of Israel and minister of Transportation, ethnicity/country of origin: Iran

David Levy, former minister of Foreign Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister (Moroccan Jew), minister of housing and transports

Shaul Mofaz, former Israeli Minister of Defense and chief of the IDF General Staff, Iranian Jew

Yitzhak Mordechai, retired IDF general, former minister of Defense and minister of Transportation, ethnicity/country of origin: Iraq

Dorrit Moussaieff, First Lady of Iceland (Bukharian Jew)

Abie Nathan, Israeli peace activist

Yitzhak Navon, fifth president of Israel and former minister of Education, from a Sephardic Jewish family

Shlomo Hillel, was speaker of the Knesset, minister

Amir Peretz, current Knesset member and former Israeli Minister of Defense, Labor Party chairman, and chairman of the Histadrut, ethnicity/country of origin: Morocco

Silvan Shalom, former Israeli minister of Foreign Affairs, minister of Treasury and Deputy Prime Minister, Tunisian Jew

Meir Sheetrit, current Israeli minister of Internal Affairs and former Deputy Prime Minister, minister of Treasury and of Education

Moshe Levi, Israeli general, chief of the Idf General Staff

Shlomo Ben Ami, Israeli historian, diplomat and diplomat, was minister of police

Gabi Ashkenazi, Israeli general, chief of the IDF General Staff

Dan Halutz, Israeli general, chief of the IDF General Staff

Moshe Shahal, minister and lawyer

Moshe Nissim, was Israeli finance and justice minister

Eli Cohen, Israeli spy in Syria

J. F. R. Jacob, Indian general, distinguished himself in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971

Shimon Sheetrit, Israeli lawman and politician, was justice minister, professor of law

Ran Cohen, politician from the left liberal party Meretz, former MK

Nissim Dahan, rabbi and politician from Shass party, was minister of health

Shalom Simhon, Israeli politician, from Labor party, minister of agriculture

Itzhak Peretz, Israeli rabbi and politician, among the founders of Shas founders, was a government minister

Benny Mazouz from a family from Djerba, Tunisia

Religious figures

Baba Sali, venerated rabbi born in Morocco

Ovadia Yosef, former Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel and spiritual leader of Shas

Mordechai Eliyahu, former Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel

Amnon Yitzhak, Orthodox rabbi of Yemenite origin

Shlomo Moussaieff (rabbi), Co-founder of Bukharian Jewish Quarter in Jerusalem

Sports and game players

Yossi Benayoun, Israeli football player at Chelsea FC

Doron Jamchi, Israeli basketball player

Oded Kattash, Israeli basketball player

Robert Mizrachi, poker player, Iraqi Jew

Michael Mizrachi, poker player, Iraqi Jew

Eli Ohana, Israeli football player

Haim Revivo, Israeli football player

Shahar Zubari, Israeli Olympic medalist in Windsurfing.

Writers and academics

Michel Abitbol, noted historian and professor at Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Erez Bitton, Israeli Hebrew poet

Claude Cohen-Tannoudji, French physicist, Nobel Prize winner (from an Algerian Jewish family)

Jacques Derrida, French philosopher (of Algerian Jewish descent)

Sami Michael, Israeli Hebrew writer (born in Iraq)

Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, psychotherapist

Samir Naqqash, Israeli Jewish writer in Arab language (born in Iraq)

Yehouda Shenhav, Israeli sociologist (born in an Iraqi Jewish family, Shahrabani)

Saba Soomekh, professor/writer

A.B. Yehoshua, Israeli Hebrew writer, professor (from a Sefardic family originating from Morocco)

Avi Shlaim, Oxford University scholar; author specialising on the Israel-Palestine conflict and Zionism. Shlaim is originally from Iraq.

Ella Shohat, Israeli-American sociologist and author

Albert Memmi, French-Tunisian writer

Eli Amir, Israeli Hebrew writer

Smadar Lavie, Israeli anthropologist

Hélène Cixous, French writer

Jacques Attali, French thinker and author

Shimon Adaf, Israeli Hebrew poet and writer

Ronit Matalon, Israeli Hebrew writer, from a Sephardic Egyptian family

Orly Castel Bloom, Israeli Hebrew writer (from an Egyptian Jewish family)

Baruj Benacerraf, American-Venezuelan medical scientist, Nobel Prize, from a sephardic family with Moroccan roots

Haim Sabato, Israeli rabbi and Hebrew writer

Rachel Shabi, British/Israeli journalist and author of "Not the Enemy, Israel's Jews from Arab lands" about Mizrahi Jews in Israel

Sasson Somekh, Israeli Arabologist

Nissim Ezekiel, Indian poet and art critic

Andre Chouraqui, French-Israeli thinker and writer

See also

List of notable Mizrahi Jews and Sephardi Jews in Israel

References

Bibliography

External links

Organizations

World Organization of Jews from Arab Countries

Sephardic Pizmonim Project Music of Mizrahi Jews.

JIMENA Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa

Multiculturalism Project - Middle Eastern and North African Jews

Hakeshet Hademocratit Hamizrachit - An organization of Mizrahi Jews in Israel

Harif: Association of Jews from the Middle East and North Africa (British-based)

Articles

Mizrahi Wanderings - Nancy Hawker on Samir Naqqash, one of Israel’s foremost Arab-language Mizrahi novelists

The Middle East's Forgotten Refugees A chronicle of Mizrahi refugees by Semha Alwaya

The Forgotten Refugees

Moshe Levy The story of an Iraqi Jew in the Israeli Navy and his survival on the war-ship Eilat

My Life in Iraq Yeheskel Kojaman describes his life as a Mizrahi Jew in Iraq in the 50s and 60s

Audio interview with Ammiel Alcalay discussing Mizrahi literature

Excerpt from ''The Jews of Arab Lands in Modern Times'' by Norman Stillman

Etan Bloom, ''The Reproduction of the Model ‘Oriental’ in the Israeli Social Space; the 50s and the speedy immigration.'' Tel-Aviv Univ. M.A in the Unit for Culture Research, 2003. (Hebrew, with summary in English.)

Saul Silas Fathi Full Circle: Escape From Baghdad and the Return by Saul Silas Fathi, A prominent Iraqi Jewish family's escape from persecution.

Tablet Magazine">Road From Damascus, Tablet Magazine

Communities

Bukharian Jews Bukharian Jewish community (English and Russian)

PersianRabbi.com Persian Jewish community

Kurdish Jewry (Hebrew)

The Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center Disseminating the 3000 year old heritage of Babylonian Jewry (English and Hebrew)

Iraqi Jews Iraqi American Jewish Community in New York. Perpetuating the history, heritage, culture and traditions of Babylonian Jewry.

Tradition of the Iraqi Jews (mostly Hebrew, with links to recordings)

Sha'ar Binyamin Damascus Jewry (Hebrew and Spanish)

Jews of Lebanon

Historical Society of Jews from Egypt

Harissa.com Tunisian Jewish site (French)

Zlabia.com Algerian Jewish site (French)

Dafina.net Moroccan Jewish site (French)

The Nash Didan Community Persian Azerbaijany, Aramaic speaking community (Hebrew, some English and Aramaic)

Category:Jewish ethnic groups Category:Ethnic groups in Israel Category:Semitic peoples

ar:يهود مزراحيون bg:Мизрахи ca:Mizrahim de:Mizrachim es:Mizrají eo:Mizraĥoj fr:Juifs mizrahim it:Mizrahi he:מזרחים lad:Mizrahi ms:Yahudi Mizrah nl:Mizrachi-Joden ja:ミズラヒム no:Mizrahisk jødedom nn:Mizrahisk jødedom oc:Mizrakhí pl:Mizrachijczycy pt:Judeus mizrahim ru:Мизрахим fi:Mizrahijuutalaiset tr:Mizrahi yi:עדות המזרח zh:米兹拉希犹太人

honorific-prefix	The Honourable
name	Irwin Cotler
honorific-suffix	PC, OC, MP
riding	Mount Royal
parliament	Canadian
term start	November 15, 1999
predecessor	Sheila Finestone
birth date	May 08, 1940
birth place	Montreal, Quebec
party	Liberal
spouse	Ariela Cotler
residence	Montreal
profession	Lawyer, law professor
religion	Judaism
footnotes	}}

Irwin Cotler, PC, OC, MP (born May 8, 1940) was Canada's Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada from 2003 until the Liberal government of Paul Martin lost power following the 2006 federal election. He was first elected to the Canadian House of Commons for the constituency of Mount Royal in a by-election in November 1999, winning over 91% of votes cast. He was sworn into Cabinet on December 12, 2003.

Early life

The son of a lawyer, he was born in Montreal, Quebec, studied at McGill University there (receiving a BA in 1961 and a law degree three years later) and then continued his education at Yale University. For a short period, he worked with federal Minister of Justice John Turner.

Cotler was a professor of law at McGill University and the director of its Human Rights Program from 1973 until his election as a Member of Parliament in 1999 for the Liberal Party of Canada. He has also been a visiting professor at Harvard Law School, a Woodrow Wilson Fellow at Yale Law School and is the recipient of ten honorary doctorates. He was appointed in 1992 as an Officer of the Order of Canada. He is a past president of the Canadian Jewish Congress.

Human rights activity

Cotler has served on the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and its sub-Committee on Human Rights and International Development, as well as on the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights. In 2000, he was appointed special advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs on the International Criminal Court.

He is considered an expert on international law and human rights law. As an international human rights lawyer, Cotler served as counsel to former prisoners of conscience Nelson Mandela in South Africa, Jacobo Timmerman in Latin America, Muchtar Pakpahan in Asia, as well as other well known political prisoners and dissidents. Cotler represented Natan Sharansky, who was imprisoned in the Soviet gulag for Jewish activism. After his release, Sharansky went on to become Israeli Deputy Prime Minister.

Saad Eddin Ibrahim, an Egyptian democracy activist imprisoned by the Egyptian government, was represented by Cotler and acquitted in 2003. He acted as counsel to Maher Arar during part of Arar's imprisonment and supported demands for a public inquiry. He has also defended both Palestinians and Israelis against their own governments, and participated in a minor role in the Camp David peace agreement between Israel and Egypt.

In 1986 he was chief counsel to the Canadian Jewish Congress at the Deschênes Commission of Inquiry on War Criminals.

Cotler is on the Board of Advancing Human Rights (NGO).

National Security and the Law

One of the central challenges for Cotler during his time as Justice Minister was to address concerns about terrorism while guarding against arbitrary and unnecessary limits on rights. Part of his work in this regard, has included a review of Bill C-36, Canada's relatively recent Anti-Terrorism Act. The Anti-Terrorism Act has been criticized by some human rights groups and defense lawyers, as an unreasonable trade-off between security and freedom. Cotler believed that the legislation did, in fact, strike a balance between rights and national security concerns, but understood that further consultation was necessary in reviewing the legislation. On February 21, 2005, Cotler spoke of the important work that Bill C-36 involved, and invited experts and other groups to continue dialogue to improve the legislation in the review process.

Cotler presided over other legislative changes concerning national security. This included proposed changes to privacy legislation known as “Lawful Access” to give police and intelligence officers the tools to conduct surveillance of electronic communications for law enforcement and national security purposes.

Due to his position as Justice Minister, Cotler has received many appeals from various groups asking that so-called "secret" trials and detentions in Canada be abolished. But these "appeals" and protests are often based on false or inaccurate information. For example, the security certificates are subject to judicial review and constitutional scrutiny by the Federal Court of Canada and the proceeding is not "secret". Rather, only evidence deemed to relate to national security is protected from disclosure. Additionally, the Canadian federal court of appeal ruled, in December 2004, that security certificates were fully consistent with the ''Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms''. This decision was appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada. The Supreme Court heard the (related) appeals in June 2006, has reserved its decision.

Politics

Though he intended his foray into politics to be a brief departure from his academic career, this changed when Prime Minister Paul Martin called upon him to enter Cabinet as Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada.

He recommended the appointment of numerous women and aboriginal judges, including of two women to the Supreme Court of Canada in August 2004: Louise Charron and Rosalie Abella, making the Supreme Court the most gender-equity high court in the world.

Cotler attempted to introduce several bills to decriminalize marijuana.

On February 22, 2006, the Liberal Party appointed Cotler Critic for Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness in the opposition shadow cabinet for the 39th Canadian Parliament. On 18 January 2007, Cotler was appointed Critic for Human Rights by newly elected leader Stéphane Dion.

In January, 2009, Irwin Cotler was named Special Counsel on Human Rights and International Justice for the Liberal party, under Michael Ignatieff, and subsequently Critic for Human Rights.

In May 2011 under interim Liberal leader Bob Rae, Irwin Cotler was named Justice and Human Rights Critic.

Views on anti-racism, genocide and anti-Semitism

As Minister of Justice, Cotler tabled Canada's first-ever National Justice Initiative Against Racism, in parallel with the government's National Action Plan Against Racism.

Cotler has also fought against genocide and impunity. His attempts to bring Nazi war criminals to justice have won praise as has been his founding of all-party Parliamentary groups to bring attention and action to end the genocide in Darfur. Cotler has worked with a group of international jurists to indict Iranian President Ahmadinejad for incitement to genocide under the UN Charter and the Genocide Convention. Cotler released a petition in 2008 entitled “The Danger of a Genocidal and Nuclear Iran: A Responsibility to Prevent Petition.”

Cotler separated six categories of anti-Semitism and found thirteen indices of discrimination against Jews that characterizes the "new anti-Jewishness".

Irwin Cotler is a member of MEMRI's Board of Advisors (http://www.memri.org/content/en/about.htm)

Irwin Cotler is an Honorary Member of The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation.

Cotler was re-elected to Parliament in 2008 to represent the Mount Royal riding in Quebec with 55% of the vote, and re-elected again in May 2011.

Family

Cotler's wife, Ariela, is a native of Jerusalem and worked as a legislative assistant to the Likud members of the Israeli Knesset from 1967 to 1979.

References

External links

Official site

''Voices on Antisemitism'' Interview with Irwin Cotler from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Irwin Cotler McGill University Biography

"Irwin Cotler: A Canadian Anti-Apartheid Activist" - Interview form 1997

"Is the war on Iraq illegal?" - Article by Cotler in "The Globe and Mail" 21 March 2003

Minister of Justice Irwin Cotler comments about same sex marriage

Human Rights and the New Anti-Jewishness in "FrontPageMagazine.com" 16 February 2004

How'd They Vote?: Irwin Cotler's voting history and quotes

Parliament Webpage

Category:1940 births Category:Academics in Quebec Category:Anglophone Quebec people Category:Attorneys General of Canada Category:Canadian Jewish Congress Category:Canadian human rights activists Category:Canadian legal scholars Category:Harvard Law School people Category:Jewish Canadian politicians Category:Lawyers in Quebec Category:Liberal Party of Canada MPs Category:Living people Category:McGill University alumni Category:McGill University faculty Category:Members of the Canadian House of Commons from Quebec Category:Officers of the Order of Canada Category:People from Côte Saint-Luc, Quebec Category:People from Montreal Category:Yale University alumni Category:Yale University faculty

de:Irwin Cotler fr:Irwin Cotler he:ארוין קוטלר

''The Jews of Islam'' (1984) is a book written by Middle-East historian and scholar Bernard Lewis.

The book provides a comprehensive overview of the history and the state of the Jews living in the Islamic world, (as contrasted to the Jews of Christendom.) The first chapter, Islam and Other Religions, however, is broader in scope, and explains how Islamic society view the Other.

Contents

Chapter I. Islam and Other religions

Chapter II. The Judaeo-Islamic Tradition

Chapter III. The Late Medieval and Early Modern Periods

Chapter IV. The End of the Tradition

A quote from the author

The author claims that: "For Christians and Muslims alike, tolerance is a new virtue, intolerance a new crime. For the greater part of the history of both communities, tolerance was not valued nor was intolerance condemned. Until comparatively modern times, Christian Europe neither prized nor practiced tolerance itself, and was not greatly offended by its absence in others. The charge that was always brought against Islam was not that its doctrines were imposed by force - something seen as normal and natural - but that its doctrines were false."

Reviews

See also

Dhimmi

Jizya

References

Category:Books by Bernard Lewis Category:Judeo-Islamic topics