Isʹhāmāt al-ʻUmānīyīn fī Khidmat al-Lughah al-ʻArabīyah bayna al-Māḍī wa-al-Ḥāḍir - Lawātī, ʻAlī Ḥasan; al-Muʼtamar al-Duwalī: al-Dawr al-ʻUmānī fī Khidmat al-Lughah al-ʻArabīyah (2015) (Kuwālā Lumbūr) (Kuwālā Lumbūr : Markaz Dhākirat ʻUmān, 2015)
This paper sheds light on the challenges facing many of the world's languages and on international attention to that phenomenon, such as UNESCO's designation of days to celebrate languages that have made a clear contribution to world culture, Arabic among them. It then examines the prominent roles the Omani experience holds in the service of this language across several themes: the Omani particularity; the speech of the people of Oman as it appears in Qurʾanic texts and readings; and their renown for eloquence before and after Islam. It surveys Omani efforts to preserve the language and build its edifice through composition and record in Arabic across the sciences, and in the Arabic sciences in particular, in verse and prose, authorship and critical editing, across the eras of Islamic history — alongside the spread of Arab culture in step with the call to Islam wherever Omani scholars, merchants and missionaries set foot in Africa, Asia and Europe. A further theme treats the contribution of Oman's rulers, the Yaʿāribah and the Būsaʿīdīs, their care for the linguistic heritage and the standing they gave to writers and poets, together with contemporary projects launched by Sultan Qaboos such as the Sultan Qaboos Encyclopaedia of Arab Names.
Permanent citation identifier: MHF-ARABICLANG-002.
Text in Arabic; title also romanized (ALA-LC); abstract and keywords in English.
Keywords: Arabic language; Oman; Linguistic heritage; Language policy; Sultan Qaboos; Cultural history