The Qur’an An Abiding Wonder
The Qur’an —The Prophet’s Miracle
~ 79 ~
scholars of the language found themselves in
disgrace. The Ottoman emperors launched an anti-
Arabic campaign, fittingly called “Tatreek ‘ul-
’Arab” (Turkisation of Arabs) by the well-known
reformer Jamaluddin Afghani (1838-97). But no
effort was strong enough to inflict any permanent
scar on the face of Arabic. Fierce attacks were
launched on Arabic language and literature by the
Tartars in Bukhara and Baghdad, by the Crusaders
in Palestine and Syria, then by other Europeans in
Andalusia. According to the history of other
languages, these assaults on Arab culture should
have been sufficient to eradicate the Arabic
language completely. One would have expected
Arabic to have followed the path of other languages
and merged with other Semitic tongues. Indeed, it
would be true to say that if Arabic had not come up
against Turkish ignorance and Persian prejudice, it
would still be spoken throughout the entire Muslim
world today. Its very survival in the Arab world
was due solely to the miraculous effect of the
Qur’an whose greatness compelled people to
remain attached to Arabic. It inspired some Arab
scholars – Ibn Manzoor (630-711 AH) and Ibn
Khaldun (732-808 AH) being two that spring to
