The Arrival of Arabic Language in India and its Reflection in the Indian Subcontinen

The life condition of Indian settlers was distinct in the middle ages because the inhabitants of the Indian Subcontinent belonged to two separate castes. One social class benefited from full welfare every kind of scientific, cultural, economic advantages; while the other caste suffered greatly from lack of social facilities (Yari, 1389: 14). It was in such an unjust social condition that Islam entered this country, bringing the message of equality of all social classes and so paved the way to increase its influence and that of Arabic language. Some historians believe that traders in India made the Hindu’s familiarity with Islam and Arabic language possible. “Sahar Al Abdi is a prominent trader who travelled to the subcontinent in 23 H.A” (Iben Asir, v2, 1407: 444). By the passage of time, Islam had its deep effect on Hindu’s heart and thoughts before its capture by her conquerors. Thus, Islam enchanted the Hindus. “The rise of Islam and the conquest of Sindh by Muslims and their residence there paved the way for further contact and transaction with Indian settlers and consequently these settlers got connected to Islamic centers of science, culture, trade, and politics in the contemporary world in Baghdad and Damascus. Hence, Sindh became the point of connection of Islamic world with India” (Nehru, 1362: 285). Out of such scientific transactions and cultural relations an Islamic-Hindu culture emerged. The reflection of this hybrid culture in historical writings, paintings, coins, and classic movements has survived. Besides, these transactions increased Hindu’s enthusiasm to learn Arabic language; consequently, Arabic language developed in the subcontinent and there followed the founding of religious schools, writing books, and Islamic coining. The present research intends to express the historical background of the arrival of Arabic language in the subcontinent and Hindu’s familiarity with Islam and to study the quality of the influence of this language and its reflection in India and its various functions.

This study is based on a descriptive-inductive method in which, firstly, the precious sources are investigated to find out how Arabic language arrived in India, then, it will be discussed how this language was taught to the settlers of India and how it was reflected in Indian literature.  

The emergence of Arabic language was interlinked with the emergence of Islam as a universal religion. “The early familiarity of the settlers of India with the Arabs dates back to when Arab sailors for the first time entered Indian ports in pre-Islamic period. This was the first commercial contact of Arabs with the Hindus” (Ahmad, 1964: 57). After the arrival of Islam and the conversion of Hindus, reciting Quran was a praiseworthy practice for the new Muslims of the subcontinent and an essential part of their faith. Though they had no grasp of reciting Quran, their reciting was regarded as a religious practice connecting the reciter to God and made them God’s slave. Kaur observes, “the reciting of Quran was practiced in India generally in houses, mosques, and in various times of day or month individually or collectively, throughout the year. Thereby reciting Quran and performing religious tasks caused the Hindus to learn more easily reading and writing Arabic” (Kaur, 1990: 68). Joining Islam, Indian Muslims needed increasingly the learning of Arabic language.as a result, special schools were established to teach Arabic language in India. It is possible to comment concerning these schools that they “focused mainly on teaching moral precepts and principles, praying, reciting Quran, memorizing verses, explaining special rules of how to pray and worship. Consequently, Indian Muslims enjoyed a basic knowledge of Arabic language. Such religious lessons were presented in mosques or independent religious schools. At first teaching Arabic language was confined to religious instruction” (Ishaq, 1955: 25).   There existed in the subcontinent different schools for memorizing the Quran, instruction of religious tasks, Arabic grammar. Desai believes “the curriculum of these schools focused on grammar, literary texts, and religious texts in order to read and comprehend Arabic texts, especially The Quran. Speaking was ignored in these schools but some writing skills (insha) were taken into account” (Desai, 1978: 18). The teaching method became more advanced by the passage of time so that “these schools to teach Arabic more efficiently, in addition to religious instruction, they instructed grammar, syntax, and semantics” (Qutbuddin, 2007: 17). We should note “in the tenth century the first formal schools sere established in India and Sindh in cities such as Mansoore and Multan” (Ibid: 8) and in later decades “various schools were established in northern parts of India. These schools became independent of mosques and developed more by the last Moghul emperor Bahadorshah in 1857” (Rahman, 2000: 411). The curriculum of these schools “included classical Arabic texts such as Jalali’s Tafsir, Alfi Ibn Malek and Moalaghat .... In later years, some changes happened in this curriculum and it was in 15th century that the study of text was added to teaching language and in the 18th century religious and grammar texts were added to the curriculum. So, for the first time were included in teaching materials logical and philosophical texts and some secular courses such as mathematics and English language were presented (Qutbuddin, 2007: 8). It seems that Arabic language only had a religious identity, at first, in the subcontinent. Indian Muslims and later dynasties and other Islamic governments in Delhi employed this language. After the independence of India the separation of Pakistan and Bangladesh, Arabic language was used increasingly but its Islamic identity was preserved. The results of such instructions were reflected in various forms like Arabic words in Hindi language, Arabic-Islamic names, paintings, monuments, coins, and writing books in Arabic.

The arrival of Islam in India dates back to 7th century and consequently many Arabic words found their way in Hindi. These words, at first, were interlinked with religion and moral values. But in later centuries due to close contact of Arabs and Hindus more technical jargons were added to Hindu. The combination of Arabic and Hindi language was made possible in two ways: one, Arabs directly did it. Second, through Persian language. As a result of such transactions, some Indian writers managed to write books in Arabic. Arabic language, firstly, was used for religious purposes, but it was later used for other commercial, political, and cultural aims.