Why study Arabic?

To know what these little diacritical marks do to words:
To know what these Scandinavian women are singing about:
To draw animals with Arabic characters:
To know what words in addition to these English has borrowed from Arabic: admiral, adobe, alcohol, atlas, average, coffee, cotton, gazelle, jar, mattress, rice, sofa, sugar, tariff, zero.

Why study Arabic?

Learning Arabic can benefit anyone majoring or minoring in International Relations, Political Science, Comparative Literature, Islamic Studies, Religion, History, Anthropology, Social Studies, African Studies, Women’s Studies, Linguistics, and many other fields. Knowledge of Arabic is in great demand and has helped recent college graduates get high-paying job opportunities. Also, numerous short and long-term scholarships in Arabic Studies are available through Federal agencies.

Arabic is a Semitic language used by more than a billion Arabs and Muslims around the world. Originally spoken in Arabia, the language spread with the rise of Islam (AD 610) into such regions as North Africa, the Indian subcontinent, China, Asia Minor, and the Iberian Peninsula. It is now the fourth most widely spoken native language in the world after Chinese, Spanish and English (other estimates place it second after Chinese). Since the Middle Ages, Arabic has left an indelible mark on numerous other languages, related and unrelated — including English. Hundreds of Arabic literary works have been translated into world languages, and the Qur’an is among other things one of the world’s great masterpieces of verbal art.

Arabic and Islam

Arabic is the language of the Qur’an, Islam’s holy book, and is the religious language of Muslims, who belong to many diverse nationalities and ethnic groups. Not all Muslims speak Arabic, but learning Arabic for any Muslim facilitates performance of religious rites such as daily prayers and the reading of the Qur’an.

The Arabic alphabet is the second most widely used alphabet in the world, because it has been adopted by numerous languages such as Persian, Kurdish, Urdu, Malay, Ottoman Turkish and other Turkic languages. It consists of 28 letters and is written from right to left. The writing system also has another 14 extra-alphabetical symbols that designate aspects of pronunciation, grammar, and spelling. A very large number of Arabic words are formed by fusing letters of the alphabet. The shape of most letters slightly changes according to their position in a word. Arabic characters are often the subject of dazzling calligraphy arts, which have a very deep history and continue to flourish today in numerous Arab and Muslim countries.

At BU

Arabic at BU uses computer interactive software to increase the element of fun in learning a language sometimes considered “difficult.” Students are introduced to both Standard Arabic, which is understood by all speakers of the language regardless of region, and to a variety of colloquial variants common in different Arab countries. Language courses are complemented by offerings in Arabic literature and culture. Through the CAS Minor in Muslim Cultures, students can design a track emphasizing Arabic language study.