Arabic

A Language of Ancient Roots

Arabic is one of the world's oldest and most influential languages, with a recorded history spanning over 1,500 years. It belongs to the Semitic language family, making it a distant relative of Hebrew and Aramaic. Classical Arabic emerged in the Arabian Peninsula and was immortalised through the Quran in the 7th century CE, which remains the most significant Arabic text ever written and the primary reason the language has been preserved with remarkable consistency across centuries.

Spread Through Faith and Trade

The rapid expansion of Islam from the 7th century onwards carried Arabic across vast regions — from Spain and Morocco in the west to Persia and Central Asia in the east. Arabic became the language of scholarship, science, medicine, mathematics, and philosophy during the Islamic Golden Age (8th–13th century). Scholars writing in Arabic made groundbreaking contributions that later formed the foundation of European Renaissance knowledge. Words like algebra, algorithm, chemistry, and cotton all have Arabic origins, a testament to this period of extraordinary intellectual achievement.

Modern Arabic Today

Arabic today exists in two main forms. Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), known as Al-Fusha, is the formal written and broadcast language used across all Arab countries — in newspapers, official documents, literature, and news media. Alongside it, each country or region has developed its own spoken dialect, such as Egyptian, Levantine, Gulf, and Moroccan Arabic. While dialects differ considerably from one another, MSA serves as the shared written bridge that unites the Arab world's 22 countries and over 420 million speakers.

A Script Unlike Any Other

Arabic is written in its own beautiful script, read from right to left. The Arabic alphabet contains 28 letters, all of which are consonants — vowels are generally indicated by small marks above or below letters, though in everyday writing these are usually omitted. Each letter has up to four different forms depending on its position within a word (initial, medial, final, or isolated), which gives Arabic calligraphy its flowing, connected appearance. Arabic calligraphy is considered one of the highest art forms in Islamic culture and can be found adorning mosques, manuscripts, and architecture across the world.