Teaching Arabic for Specific Purposes in The Iranian-Islamic Legacy: Analysis of The Content of Adab al-Katib, “Al-alfaz alKitabi-e”, “Feq-h al-Loqat wa Asrar al-Arabi-e”

After the establishment of the great Islamic governments in the 14th century, due to Arabs’ acquaintance with the Sasanian empire and their desire to use the Sasanian’s experience in the field of administrative structure, these Islamic governments began hiring Iranian officials who were proficient in Arabic as state scribes and epistlers. In addition, the need for educating state scholars became evident. Accordingly, Iranian scholars such as Ibn Qutaybah Dinawari (213-276 AH), Abd al-Rahman Hamedani (?-327 AH), and Tha'ālibī Neyshabouri (350-429 AH) embarked on writing books Adab al-katib, Al-alfaz al-kitabi-e, and Feq-h al-loqat wa Asrar alArabi-e to train and educate scribes/clerks. This could be considered as teaching Arabic in a practical way and for specific purposes, and considering the era, it could be regarded an advanced method of teaching. The present study has made an attempt to identify the chosen linguistic subjects using a descriptive-historical and content analysis (quantitative and qualitative) design and has measured their quantitative ratio in three teaching packages based on their statistical data. Each of the three packages contained: terminology, orthography, correcting pronunciation errors, familiarity with the morphology of the verbs and names based on semantics and with some practical subjects of syntax and rhetoric. Based on the statistical analysis, each package included 81% terminology in the essential and practical instructions on Arabic. Respectively, the rest of teaching materials in each package was consisted of 13% grammar and 6% rhetoric. However, the grammar subjects were prevalent in the first package. The second and third packages contained 100% and 85% vocabulary subjects, respectively.