The Qur’an An Abiding Wonder
The Qur’an —The Prophet’s Miracle
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these upheavals. The language always returned to
its Qur’anic base, like a ship which, after
weathering temporary storms on the high seas,
returns to the safety of its harbour.
During the reign of the caliph Mutawakkil (207-247
AH), large numbers of Ajamis–especially Iranians
and Turks–entered Arab territory. In 656 the
Mongolian warrior Hulaku Khan sacked Baghdad.
Later the Islamic empire received a further setback
when, in 898, Andalusia fell to the Christians. The
Fatimid dynasty, which had held sway in Egypt
and Syria, did not last long either: in 923 they were
replaced by the Ottoman Turks in large stretches of
Arab territory. Now the centre of Islamic
government moved from Cairo to Constantinople;
the official language became Turkish instead of
Arabic, which continued to assimilate a number of
foreign words and phrases.
The Arab world spent five hundred and fifty years
under the banner of Ajami (non-Arab) kings.
Persian, Turkish and Mughal rulers even made
attempts to erase all traces of the Arabic language.
Arabic libraries were burnt, schools destroyed;
