This article proposes a pragmatic workflow for accelerating access to and analysis of large Arabic manuscript collections. Faced with the immense volume of historical texts and the inherent challenges of traditional approaches to hand-written text recognition (HTR), the proposed method combines off-the-shelf, cloud-based Optical Character Recognition (OCR) with large language models (LLMs). Despite the imperfect output often produced by Arabic HTR, this research demonstrates that LLMs can effectively derive meaningful summaries and key insights, enabling rapid triage for scholars. The workflow significantly enhances research efficiency by allowing for the swift identification of valuable documents, thereby freeing human expertise for in-depth analysis. While this approach holds particular importance for endangered archives, such as those in the Sudan, the paper points to its broader potential: manuscript scholars mastering AI tools not to replace but to support and enhance human understanding. Keywords: Arabic manuscripts • Handwritten text recognition (HTR) • Artificial intelligence • Digital humanities • Endangered archives, Sudan
The study aims to investigate the instructors’ views on the teaching of Arabic to non-native speakers in the Tunisian context. Data were collected in Tunis through semi-structured interviews with instructors who were teaching both fuṣḥā and Tunisian Arabic to students from diverse backgrounds. A qualitative analysis of the interviews provides an insight into how linguistic variation is conceptualised by the instructors, and its implications for language pedagogy. Particular attention is paid to the interviewees’ attitudes towards the varieties taught and to the roles attributed to each in the learning process. The research also highlights the instructors’ reflections on the perceived learners’ confusion and on the mixing of varieties in students’ productions and their opinions on the timing of instruction in fuṣḥā and Colloquial Arabic for non-native learners. Keywords: Teaching Arabic • Tunisia • Instructors’ perspectives • fuṣḥā • Colloquial Arabic • Arabic Linguistic Variation
My paper is intended as a report from practice, in which I would like to share my experience of sensitising students at the Faculty of Translation Studies, Linguistics, and Cultural Studies (FTSK) at the University of Mainz (Germany) to Arabic language variation. After completing the language acquisition modules, in which only Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) is taught, students are introduced to a regional variety (Egyptian or Levantine) in the translation modules. This introduction builds on the students' knowledge of MSA and draws on the distinction between interlingual, intralingual, and intersemiotic translation that has been known since Roman Jakobson. According to Jakobson, translation can be understood not only as the reproduction of linguistic signs in another language (interlingual translation), but also as the reproduction of linguistic signs by means of other signs of the same language (intralingual translation), as well as the reproduction of non-linguistic signs by linguistic signs (intersemiotic translation). In the translation exercises, students receive a short video in Egyptian Arabic or Levantine Arabic along with a vocabulary list in MSA. Based on the non-linguistic signs (setting, gender, number and age of the persons, gestures, facial expressions, etc.) and with the help of the vocabulary list, the content of the video is decoded in self-study and the result is documented through an intralingual translation into MSA. During the lesson, the translation serves as a basis for discussing the similarities and differences between the regional (Egyptian or Levantine) and the standard variety (MSA). Keywords: Arabic as a foreign language • Arabic varieties • translation • functional translation theory • Arabic dialects • Modern Standard Arabic
This article explores the literary resurgence of marginalized narratives in post-2003 Iraqi fiction, focusing on representations of the Jewish minority. It examines The Hammam of the Jew (Ḥammām al-Yahūdī, 2017) by Alaa Mashdhub (ʿAlāʾ Mashdhūb), a novel that centres on Yaʻqub Shukrallah Daniel, a Jewish protagonist who settles in Karbala and builds a life amidst its Shiite Muslim majority. The narrative traces Yaʻqub’s integration into the city’s socio-economic and cultural fabric, highlighting both coexistence and the invisible barriers imposed by religious norms. Through detailed historical, spatial, and symbolic portrayals, the novel reconstructs the city’s multi-religious past and reflects broader societal transformations. Yaʻqub’s failed business venture—a public bathhouse rejected due to religious prejudice—serves as a metaphor for the fragile position of minorities. The novel ultimately chronicles the decline and displacement of Iraqi Jewry, situating individual experience within national ruptures. This study situates Mashdhūb’s work within a broader trend of reclaiming suppressed histories in contemporary Iraqi literature. Keywords: Iraqi literature • ʿAlāʾ Mashdhūb • Iraqi Jews • Identity and memory • The Hammam of the Jew • Minority narratives
(a) Original arrangement of the maṣādir in the phrasebook • pp. 154-159 (b) Sorted alphabetically by Arabic maṣādir • pp. 159-162 (c) Sorted alphabetically by Turkish infinitives • pp. 162-165 (d) Alphabetical index of maṣdar / infinitive meanings in English • pp. 166-169 Cf. also searchable version in Bibliotheca Polyglotta (... Arabic texts > Safīnat al-maṣādir > Go to the first sentence; then use "Search" engine on right top of the site)
Appendix II reproduces the phrasebook’s 1:1 list of Arabic/Turkish vocabulary items, sorted alphabetically for each of the languages involved in this edition. (a) Arabic → Turkish, English • pp. 170-181 (b) Turkish → Arabic, English • pp. 182-194 (c) Sorted alphabetically by Turkish infinitives • pp. 195-214 References • pp. 214-215 Cf. also searchable version in Bibliotheca Polyglotta (... Arabic texts > Safīnat al-maṣādir > Go to the first sentence; then use "Search" engine on right top of the site)
Although al-Jildakī is one of the most important Arabic alchemists in history, he is still a shadowy, mysterious figure as are most of the Arabic alchemists. Fortunately, modern scholarly research has shown increasing interest in uncovering the mysteries surrounding the life of this celebrated alchemist. In this contribution, we aim to shed light on certain aspects of the enigmatic aura surrounding al-Jildakī, particularly regarding the geographical scope of his scientific activity, his places of residence, discussing whether he is Egyptian by origin or not. The second part of this paper will concern his opus magnum and maybe his latest work al-Miṣbāḥ fī asrār ʿilm al-miftāḥ (“The lamp, on the secrets of the science of the key”), in which al-Jildakī has collected all of his knowledge in alchemy, his important concepts, principles and views. Al-Miṣbāḥ is considered a summary of his previous books. The discussion will clarify al-Miṣbāḥ's authenticity, correct title, and whether al-Jildakī wrote the book in two parts as he mentions in the preface, which consequently may give a hint about al-Jildakī’s deathdate. Key words: alchemy • al-Jildakī • manuscript studies • history of science • al-Miṣbāḥ fī asrār ʿilm al-miftāḥ • 8th/14th century
Can the poetic and musical genres muwashshaḥāt and azjāl enrich Islamic theology, particularly through their compatibility with traditional naẓm (didactic poetry), while addressing the epistemological and ethical challenges confronting Islamic discourse today? This paper examines the significance of these Andalusian forms, focusing on Jādaka al-ghayth by Lisān al-Dīn Ibn al-Khaṭīb (1313–1374), and raises critical questions about the role of traditional theological texts, especially naẓm, in meeting the evolving needs of contemporary Islamic thought. The study underscores four key contributions that muwashshaḥāt and azjāl can bring to Islamic theology: their interdisciplinary nature, their reflection of multireligious contexts, their innovative linguistic features that blend Arabic with Romance, Hebrew, and Amazigh (Berber), and their rich aesthetic value, particularly through Andalusian music. By integrating these genres into Islamic studies, the research advocates for a more flexible and inclusive curriculum, challenging the dominant approach. It suggests that muwashshaḥāt and azjāl—in a way akin to naẓm—offer a transformative perspective on Islamic epistemology by providing a more poetic and accessible approach to theological concepts. This allows for a deeper engagement with God-talk (discussions on the divine) by framing theological ideas in ways that resonate emotionally and intellectually, thus encouraging a re-examination of how theology is taught, understood, and communicated in modern times. Key terms: muwashshaḥ • zajal • al-Andalus • naẓm • Ibn al-Khaṭīb • Islamic theology
Interlinear translations have been known in Indonesia’s Islamic communities since at least the late 16th century with extant evidence in the form of manuscripts pointing to their ongoing popularity in the following centuries. Such translations encompass important works composed in Arabic and rendered in the languages of the archipelago, and they touch upon key fields of knowledge, among them Islamic law, theology and grammar. But has this textual abundance been matched by the range of scholarly writings produced about this phenomenon? This paper asks if and how interlinear texts from Indonesia were studied by scholars in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It does not attempt to offer an exhaustive survey but rather raises questions about how interlinear translations were perceived and points to possible trends that have helped shape the scholarly context for the Textual Microcosms project, currently exploring interlinear translation across the Indonesian-Malay world. Keywords: Indonesia, Java, Interlinear translation, colonial scholarship, pesantren
This article discusses interlinear translations in Middle Turkic/Medieval Eastern Turkish (also known as Qarakhanid and Khwarazmian Turkish). The article surveys the extant interlinear Qur’anic translations that have come down to us, and argues these are closely connected with a slightly earlier Persian tradition, exemplified by the Samanid-era translation of al-Ṭabarī’s Tafsīr. The article discusses the evidence for the context of production and circulation of these texts, and concludes by adducing some evidence for later non-Qur’anic interlinear translations in Khwarazmian and Chaghatay. It argues that these interlinear manuscripts represent an elite form of cultural production. Keywords: Qarakhanid, Khwarazmian, Middle Turkic, Qur’an, translation
A long-standing narrative about the Black Death (1346–1350) asserts that the disease originated in China in the preceding decade. Recent work in phylogenetics and palaeogenetics has refined this claim, showing that the branch of Yersinia pestis (the plague pathogen) that gave rise to the Black Death had its likeliest origins in Central Asia. Nonetheless, geneticists still posit that the pathogen was displaced only in the late 1330s, moving overland from Lake Issyk Kul to the Black Sea in less than a decade, resulting in the massive pandemic that afflicted Western Eurasia and North Africa during the late 1340s. This ‘Quick Transit Theory’ is built primarily upon a literal reading of Risālat al-nabaʾ ʿan al-wabāʾ by the Mamluk writer Ibn al-Wardī, which literary scholars have long classified as a maqāma, a literary tale in rhymed prose that often features an itinerant trickster. We shall show that Ibn al-Wardī’s Risāla was one of at least three maqāmas composed in 749/1348–9 in the Mamluk realm. Far from being the sole eyewitness account, the Risāla shares its tropes and content with these other maqāmas, especially that of his contemporary Damascene writer al-Ṣafadī. The maqāma of al-Ṣafadī has hitherto been overlooked by literary scholars, an edition of which we provide here based on three manuscripts. All these maqāmas depict plague as a roving trickster, but Ibn al-Wardi’s visitor is unique in having a range that extends into China and India. Given their literary nature, these maqāmas should not be read as providing historical testimonies about the precise movement of the disease. Nonetheless, by placing them in their original literary contexts, we can learn much about how contemporary scholars coped with such catastrophic events and made the ‘Islamic archive’ speak directly to their situation. Keywords: Yersinia pestis, pandemic narratives, plague, Ibn al-Wardī, al-Ṣafadī, al-Maqrīzī, adab
This special issue arises from the international workshop “Interlinear Translation Across the Muslim World: A Comparative Perspective,” held at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in November 2024 within the framework of the ERC-funded project Textual Microcosms: A New Approach in Translation Studies. The project examines interlinear translation in the Indonesian–Malay world between the sixteenth and twentieth centuries, viewing such texts as key sites of interlingual and intercultural encounter. Expanding this focus, the workshop explored interlinear translation across the Muslim world—as both a local practice and a shared transregional phenomenon—by examining the Arabic source text as a comparative “baseline” and a “shifting terrain” that invites scrutiny due to errors, mistranslations, doctrinal agendas, and ideas about untranslatability. The introduction surveys scholarship on interlinear translation from Persia, Turkey, and Islamic Spain to Africa, China, South Asia, and Southeast Asia, tracing its role not only in Qur’an translation but also in law, theology, Sufism, grammar, and poetry. It highlights interlinear translation as a dynamic textual practice with pedagogical, visual, and sociolinguistic significance.
Across the intellectual sky of the late Abbasid world, the stars no longer served merely as tools of calculation but as mirrors of legitimacy, theology and desire. This article traces the transformation of astrology in Arabic culture—from a science of cosmic governance to a language of poetic imagination—revealing how celestial symbolism became a means of negotiating divine order and human authority. In the later Abbasid centuries, as imperial power waned, astrology became a privileged idiom through which poets reflected on fragility, irony and loss. Through a tripartite analysis, the study examines the political role of astrology in shaping Abbasid ideals of sovereignty, its theological contestation within debates on fate and free will, and its poetic afterlife as a field of aesthetic invention. In the verses of al-Buḥturī (d. 284/897), Ibn al-Muʿtazz (d. 296/908), Abū Bakr al-Arrajānī (d. 544/1149) and al-ʿAntarī (d. 570/1175), the Moon in Scorpio and the scorpion on the cheek cease to portend doom and instead shine as emblems of beauty, wit and peril. By tracing the evolution of astrology from science to art, this paper examines how the late Abbasid imagination transformed the heavens into a stage of persuasion—where rhetoric, faith and legitimacy converged beneath the indifferent stars. Keywords: Astrology, Abbasid poetry, political legitimacy, theology and determinism, poetic imagination, celestial symbolism, Arabic literary culture
Includes ► Introduction (Ch. Fontana / I. Peta) ► Environmental Ghosts and Omens in Ancient Iran: Between Care for Life and Apocalyptic Terrors (A. Piras) ► Drought, Famine and Prosperity: The Slaying of the Dragon and the Legitimation of Iranian Kingship in Persian Epics (Fifth/Eleventh to Eighth/Fourteenth Centuries) (N. Norozi) ► Discussions of Drought in Premodern Ḥadīth Collections: Islamic Ethics and Attitudes to the Causes of and Responses to Natural Disasters (A. Belhaj) ► Divine Trials and Political Authority: Droughts and Plagues in al-Ṭabarī’s Tārīkh (I. Peta) ► The Mythological Control of The River Nile: A Study on the Islamic Sources (M. Demichelis) ► Climate as Catalyst: The Role of a Cold Snap in the Mosul Revolt of 259/873–4 (M. Borroni) ► Sobriety (zuhd) and Hunger (jūʿ): Ethical Responses to Natural Disasters in al-Ghazālī’s (d. 505/1111) Theology of Creation (E. Pisani) ► Scorpions on the Cheek, Stars in the Gaze: Astrology, Power, and Poetic Imagination in the Late Abbasid World (Ch. Fontana) ► Mamluk Maqāmas on the Black Death (M. Omar / N. Fancy) ► How to (Try to) Tame a Disaster? Annotating Approaches to the Integration of Politics and Power Strategies into the Creation of a Disasters Database in Classical Arabic Sources (I. Cicola) ► Natural Disasters and Political Catastrophes: Entangled Feelings and Landscapes in al-Andalus and Beyond (J. Albarrán) ► Notes on Contributors
The subject of drought, or qaḥṭ, is extensively discussed in ḥadīth compilations, however very little research has been undertaken on their treatment of the subject. This paper thus proposes to investigate the treatment of drought in the ḥadīth literature in a systematic way. Our methodology consists in analysing the explanations offered by medieval Islamic ethics for drought, their discussions of the responses of political and religious authorities, the Prophet’s guidance on the subject, and the actions or behaviours they advocate to overcome the dangers and hardships drought presents. Drawing on sources from major Sunni ḥadīth compilations, this article aims to offer a comprehensive description and discussion of the treatment of drought in Islamic ethics discourse as found in these texts. It is argued here that this discourse links drought to political, social, and religious corruption, especially denial of religious truth, greed, and injustice. Keywords: drought in Islamic ethics, ḥadīths on drought, crisis, critique, qaḥṭ
In Persian epic poetry, the killing of the dragon by a king or the king’s champion is usually implicitly, but sometimes explicitly, linked to the legitimisation of kingship, since the malevolent beast obstructs the flow of vital water resources such as rivers, causing drought and famine. In fact, one of the most important aspects of the political art of Persian rulers, whether legendary or historical, in both the pre-Islamic and Islamic periods has always been to ensure a prosperous reign, and in this sense Persian authors systematically associate good governance with prosperity and the flourishing of the fields, and thus ultimately with the abundance of water. The figure of the dragon, an imaginary animal, is one that holds symbolic value, and hence the field of investigation in this article is primarily mythological and symbolic rather than historical per se. To this end, the mythological-religious background of the demonic figure of the dragon (azhdahā) in pre-Islamic Persia will be examined first, and then its role in the medieval Persian epics of the fifth/eleventh to eighth/fourteenth centuries. Keywords: dragon, azhdahā, famine, kingship, Persian epics, Shāh-nāma, Sām-nāma, Gul u Nawrūz, Bahman-nāma
The present article discusses oral interlinear translations from East Africa, using Arabic mawlid readings as a case study. Can we understand the use of Swahili interwoven into recitations of Arabic mawlid texts as a form of oral interlinear translation? Several different mawlid readings are performed in Lamu and Tana River, where my fieldwork was conducted. A common feature among all performances is dividing the reading event into parts based on the Arabic mawlid text and recitations of qaṣīda verses that do not appear in the Arabic mawlid narrative. This article will compare different ways Swahili is used in mawlid recitations and discuss whether these may be interpreted as oral interlinear translations. Furthermore, the article analyses the fluid interchange between Swahili and Arabic during these readings, emphasizing the variation between Arabic-to-Swahili translation and independent Swahili verses. The first part of the article will provide a background on the region, interlinear translations, and mawlid from the Swahili coast, and the second part will describe case study examples of Swahili qaṣīda verses and segments of Swahili translations of mawlid texts, which are used during the readings. Keywords: Interlinear translations, Mawlid, Performance, Swahili, East Africa, Islam
This article investigates the translation tradition of surau communities in the Minangkabau world, with a focus on interlinear translation. With its prominent role in the Islamization of the region, the surau held an important historical function as a vital centre for the production, teaching, learning, and preservation of Islamic manuscripts—mostly composed in Arabic, while those written in Malay are filled with rich Arabic concepts, vocabulary, and technical expressions. As such, translation emerges as an integral aspect of engagement with the manuscripts, supporting both comprehension and instruction. Focusing on the manuscript collection of Surau Simaung in Sijunjung, West Sumatra, the study explores two central questions: first, the role and positioning of Arabic and Malay within the translation practices of surau manuscripts; and second, the origins of grammatical literalism, a feature often associated with interlinear translation in the surau tradition. This study shows that translation practices in the surau were diverse, encompassing holistic, running-sequential, and interlinear paradigms. Among these, occasional interlinear translation predominates, revealing a distinctive form of grammatical literalism rooted in the Arabic linguistic structure, reflective of post-classical scholarly practices. Rather than producing idiomatic Malay renderings, surau scholars pursued rigorous grammatical engagement with Arabic texts, transforming translation into a tool of learning and inquiry. Translation was not primarily about finding lexical equivalents in Malay but was fundamentally an exercise in textual analysis. It served as a vernacular expression of the post-classical Islamic intellectual project—translation in form, textual analysis in substance. Keywords: Surau, Minangkabau, translation, literalism, textual analysis
This article discusses the development, characteristics, and significance of interlinear translations in Mindanao, in the southern Philippines. This is a topic that has received little attention thus far. Focusing on the Lanao region, the article analyzes interlinear translations from Arabic to Malay and Maranao, the region’s vernacular language, that are found in four books of hadiths. The analysis revealed that interlinear translation did not simply replace Arabic words with their equivalents in the target language. Rather, it was an intellectual endeavor in which scholars exercised their ingenuity. The study also sheds light on the region’s linguistic practices and demonstrates the influence of the Maranao language on the development of a local variation of Malay. The most significant contribution of the Maranao Muslims to interlinear translation was creating interlinear translations in their own language. This marked a departure from their previous reliance on Malay as an auxiliary language for studying Arabic and Islam. Reformist Maranao Muslim scholars emphasized correctly understanding the meaning of Qur’anic verses and hadiths, so they created interlinear translations in their own language to replace Malay. Interlinear translation in the vernacular played a significant role in developing Islamic literature in the region. By creating these translations, Muslim scholars developed the ability to carefully read and interpret Arabic texts and convey their meanings accurately and clearly in Maranao. These translations nurtured authorship and readership, paving the way for the later flourishing of vernacular Islamic literary culture. Keywords: Maranao, interlinear translation, Arabic, Malay, The Philippines, Mindanao, hadith literature
This article explores the historical trajectory of the Javanese word utawi within the tradition of interlinear translation of Arabic Islamic texts from the 16th to the 19th century. While in contemporary usage—particularly within pesantren communities where this translation practice has largely survived—utawi serves as a marker of the mubtadaʾ (subject) in nominal sentences, earlier evidence reveals a more layered history. Based on close philological analysis of manuscripts, the study demonstrates that in the 16th and 17th centuries utawi was primarily employed to render the wāw al-istiʾnāf, an Arabic particle that signals the beginning of a new sentence or clause. Only gradually, especially during the 18th century, did utawi become stabilized as a marker of the mubtadaʾ, a pattern that continued into the 19th century and even today. This diachronic shift highlights not only the changing role of a single lexical item but also broader pedagogical and linguistic transformations in the Javanese Islamic tradition. By tracing these developments, the article contributes to a more precise understanding of the internal mechanics of interlinear translation and proposes that patterns of utawi usage can serve as valuable indicators for the dating of otherwise anonymous manuscripts. Ultimately, this study situates utawi as both a linguistic key and a historical witness to the intellectual practices that shaped Islamic learning in Java. Keywords: utawi, Arabic-Javanese interlinear translation, pesantren, Islamic manuscript culture, mubtadaʾ, wāw al-istiʾnāf.
