العربية / Arabic Bible History (2)

**List: Arabic Ministry

Holy Bible ( الكتاب المقدس )
Arabic...
"THE ARABIC VERSIONS

   When the Bible is to be rendered into some tongue that already
possesses a "sacred" book of its own, it is inevitable that the
translators reckon with the comparison, which their readers will
be bound to make, between the Bible and that other sacred book.
This is notably true of Arabic, the native language of Moham-
m_d.   This founder of Isl_m was also the author of the Kor_n, the
Mosl_ms' holy scripture.   Unlike other religious leaders, Mo-
hamm_d did not claim to work miracles, but pointed to the
Kor_n itself as the authenticating sign of his apostleship and
challenged his critics to produce its like or explain it otherwise
than as the direct revelation of [All_h].
   This claim, continually repeated by his followers, has made
Mohamm_d's book the standard of pure Arabic from end to end
of the vast Arabic-speaking world, wherein the great majority of
inhabitants are Mosl_ms.   The Bible-translator, therefore, must

labor not only under the handicap of giving to his fellow-readers
of Arabic a translation, to be compared with an original, but also
of competing, as it were, in lists of his adversary's choosing--of
observing his literary style, his excellencies, yes, even actual
weaknesses that have been transformed into models by the adu-
lation of centuries of uncritical believers.
   As if this were not enough of a [issue] for the translator, he
must also reckon with the sweeping changes through which the
language has passed since that 7th century A.D. which gave birth
to the Kor_n.   Arabic is a living language, both as written and as
spoken today.   As written, it varies little from country to country,
in the current style, say, of the magazine article for well educated
readers, even though this style is far from that of the Kor_n.   But
as spoken, Arabic runs the gamut from "high" to "low," ac-
cording to speaker, hearer, and occasion, and at the same time

branches off into numerous dialectical forms, varying with the
country or race and becoming more and more pronounced the
"lower" the grade of the speaker and hearers.
   The many attempts to solve these [issues] are listed else-
where, but such data give little idea of the variety of the solutions
represented.   On one side stands the colloquial version intended
for some one country, such as the "Egyptian Colloquial" por-
tions that have been appearing at Cairo, book by book, for the
past thirty years.   Here the my. translators (of the Egypt
General Mission) have abandoned all pretense of classicism.
They have sought to make the Word not only understandable by
the untaught of Cairo's streets, but actually so familiar in its
words and cadences as to appeal to them as a thing not alien but
their very own.   Needless to say, by so doing the translators dis-
regard the educated Mosl_m's sneers at a holy book soiled with
the mud of the streets, and also rouse the vigorous protests of
nearly all Arabic-speaking Christians, who feel that their sacred

Gospel has been in some way degraded.   It is a situation recurring
with every language in which the question of "high" and "low"
styles for the Bible emerges, but it is peculiarly marked and per-
sistent wherever Bible versus Kor_n is a living issue.
   An instance of the opposite extreme is the Calcutta Version of
1816, made by the Amir Nathanael Sabat, one of Henry Mar-
tyn's converts from Isl_m, and published by the British & Foreign
Bible Society for the use of those to whom the earlier versions
issued at Rome and London gave offence.   However, the same
qualities that made this acceptable to Mosl_m readers gave
offence to Christian readers.
   Before the nineteenth century was half over, it had become
clear to all who wished to see the best possible Arabic text of
Scripture prepared and circulated, that a fresh translation must
be made, from the Hebrew and Greek originals, and by a group
including both native scholars and thoroughly trained Western
linguists and theologians.   Such a group was formed in Syria

under the lead of the American Board of Commissioners for For-
eign Missions.   Dr. Eli Smith, and, after his death, Dr. Cornelius
Van Dyck, presided over the long task.   Throughout there was
constant reference of proposed renderings to the leading Arabists
of Europe.   And certain widely respected scholars whose mother-
tongue was Arabic reviewed every verse to conform it to the
genius of the language.   The close kinship within the Semitic
family of languages between Arabic and the Hebrew original of
the Old Testament made this task easier and more successful, so
that competent critics have repeatedly declared this version to be
among the most faithful and yet idiomatic renderings of the
Scriptures into any tongue of mankind.
   One other phase of the production of this "Beirut" or "Van
Dyck" version which deserves special mention is the creation of
special types for printing it.   Printing was by no means so far ad-
vanced in the East as it had long been in the West, when this
Arabic Bible was to be issued.   The Kor_n was almost always re-

produced in manuscript, and many of the masterpieces of Arabic
literature continued to be written rather than printed.   Callig-
raphy remained, and remains even today (see No. 27-D), a recog-
nized branch of art in the Levant.   In order to avoid the need-
less offence given to Arabic readers by the crude forms of most
printed books, owing to the inferiority of existing types to the
graceful written letters, Dr. Smith began, and the masterprinter,
Mr. Homan Hallock, and others carried to completion, after
discouragements that would have daunted any less determined
spirits, the casting of new fonts, in matrices made from drawings
that were submitted by the masters of Arabic calligraphy.   Thus
the "Beirut" type, as it is known, at once took its place as the
model of printed Arabic.   All the innumerable pages of the Arabic
Scriptures which have been pouring from the American Press in
Beirut since 1865 have been graced by this standard type, most
nearly reproducing the charm of written Arabic, and a fitting
dress for the beauty of the Word."--1000 Tongues, 1939   [Info only]

[Chr. Helps Ministry (USA)] [Chr. Home Bible Course]