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The « Migrations » Workshop ESF: OMLL Porquerolles – France 5 au 7 septembre 2007 L’expansion de l’arabe hors de son territoire d’origine Djamel Kouloughli 1 The expansion of Arabic 1. A preliminary view 2. The language situation before islam 1. The expansion of Arabic : The Maghreban case 1. Factors and mechanisms of arabicization 2 1. Introduction Afro-asiatic and semitic yesterday and today Arabic speaking world today 3 Afro-asiatic in the 5th century BC following D.Cohen 1988 4 Afro-asiatic today following D.Cohen 1988 5 The Arabic speaking world today 6 The language situation before islam The language situation around Arabia The language situation in Arabia 7 The language situation around Arabia following Holes 1995-2004 8 The language situation in Arabia following Blachère 1952 9 The expansion of Arabic The Maghreban case 10 Maghreb 1/12 Before the islamic conquests only a narrow coastal zone in eastern Maghreb (the former Africa romana province) was under byzantine authority. The Byzantine tried hard to contain the constant pressure of the nomadic Berbers from the south. The sedentary populations in the north were donatists (a christian schism repressed by the official church) and were submitted to heavy taxes by Byzantium. In the romanized towns : a variety of proto-romance language was in use. Around Carthage, there were possible remains of the vandal language and perhaps even phoenician. All the rest of the country spoke berber. 11 Maghreb 2/12 The Byzantine were rapidly defeated in 647 and they abandoned North Africa. On the contrary berber resistance to Arab invaders was long and fierce. It ended only towards 700. The Berbers converted (often nominally) to islam in part out of interest : it gave them the possibility to take part in the subsequent conquest of Spain. 12 Maghreb 3/12 In a first phase of arabicization, which will take more than 3 centuries, only the towns and their surroundings, together with a small number of rural areas of sedentary colonization were arabicized. The Arabic dialects resulting from this « first arabicization» are of the « sedentary » type. All the maghreban hinterland remained berber speaking. 13 Maghreb 4/12 The second phase of arabicization began in the middle of the 11th century (1052) when beduin Arab tribes untill then "exiled" in Upper Egypt started a westbound emigration (in rather epic circumstances). These tribes of beduin Arabs deeply modified the delicate ecologic balance between sedentaries and nomads, and, through alliances and intermarriages, restarted, but this time within the maghreban hinterland, the process of arabicization. Arabicization will henceforth progressively stretch to vast berber speaking zones which had hitherto evaded it. 14 Maghreb 5/12 The migration of Arab beduins involved three great tribal groups: the Hilâls, the Sulayms and the Maʕqîls. The Hilâls arrived first (in 1052) in eastern Maghreb but were slowly « pushed » westwards by the Sulayms. So They progressively occupied central Sahara and all the algerian steppe. The total arabicization of this vast region will take 3 or 4 centuries. Mountainous zones (Kabylia, Aures) became the refuge of sedentary speakers of berber. 15 Maghreb 6/12 We may still recognize today those « refugees » by the fact that neither their housing techniques nor their farming methods are adapted to a Mountain environment. These refuge zones, overpopulated, will henceforth become reservoirs of migratory populations, first towards the towns of central Maghreb (eg Algiers, as early as the 18th century) and then towards Europe (France, 20th century). 16 Maghreb 7/12 The Sulayms settled in Lybia and in Tunisia. These regions will be almost totally arabicized, berber only surviving in a very small number of refuges (mountainous zones, islands). A fraction of the Sulayms headed southwards. They were the source of the arabicization of northern Tchad. 17 Maghreb 8/12 The Maʕqîls arrived last (in the 12th century) and tried to « skirt » by the west the first two groups. They clashed (in 1152 near Sétif in eastern Algeria) with the Almohad sovereign ʕAbd-Al-Mûman who did not intend to drive them back but on the contrary to oblige them to settle in Morocco to reinforce his military potential ! The Maʕqîls settled consequently in the moroccan meseta and the atlantic plains which thus got progressively arabicized. 18 Maghreb 9/12 A fraction of the Maʕqîls, The Hassâns, allied themselves with a tribe of great berber nomads, the Lamtûna, who thus got arabicized. The two groups, henceforth « parents », fought during nearly 30 years against the Sanhâdja berbers and finally imposed themselves in the territories of southern Morocco. At this stage the arabicization of western Sahara and Mauritania could begin (16th ~ 17th century). 19 Maghreb 10/12 « The hilâlian invasions » 20 Maghreb 11/12 By the 16th century, the berber language domain is finally drastically reduced, in the Maghreb, to discontinuous patches (mountainous zones, far south of the Sahara, heterodox oases). Everywhere else Arabic, under its « sedentary » form (1st arabicization) or, much more largely , "beduin" (2nd arabicization) has become the language of the natives in the Maghreb. 21 Maghreb 12/12 Distribution of linguistic varieties 22 Conditions and mechanisms of arabicization factors specific to the « first circle » : Yemen, Syria et Iraq General factors of arabicization 23 The « first circle »: Yemen, Syria and Iraq 3 specific factors facilitated the arabicization of Yemen, Syria and Iraq : 1. Ancient (preislamic) settlements of speakers of Arabic in these territories, some of them permanent. 2. Numerous and long term contacts with speakers of Arabic in these territories. 3. Linguistic and cultural proximity between speakers of Arabic and speakers of Aramaic or Southarabian. 24 General factors of arabicization 1. Islamization It is the first factor one thinks of, but it certainly is THE LEAST important, as witnessed by the existence of both non muslim speakers of Arabic (Arab Christians and Jews) and that of muslims not speaking Arabic. This factor has nevertheless been somehow a "catalyst of arabicization" by furthering the process of integration into the arab-muslim society particularly through the mechanism of walâ‘’ (presented below). 25 General factors of arabicization 2. Urbanization As administrative, religious and political centres, towns were places where Arabic was bound to be used. As polyglot places and centres of exchange, towns furthered the diffusion of Arabic as a "lingua franca". By contrast, mountainous places and small localities remote from communication routes will long resist to arabicization. 26 General factors of arabicization However urbanization is an essential factor only in the case of « first type » arabicization, that which starts from urban centres occupied or founded by Arab armies. « Second type » arabicization which the Maghreb went through, rested on the contrary on a development of beduinization to the detriment of sedentarization. 27 General factors of arabicization 3. Migrations (Almost) everywhere, a necessary condition to a deep and lasting arabicization seems to have been a renewed supply of Arabic speaking people either directly from Arabia or from regions already profoundly arabicized. Yet historians seem to admit that everywhere the proportion of the population originating from Arabia remained modest compared to that of the natives. So number does not seem to have been the decisive factor which boosted arabicization. 28 General factors of arabicization 4. Assimilation This factor refers to the workings of traditional Arab society which tends to impose to all an integration in its segmentary structure particularly through mixed marriages and through the institution of walâ’. Mixed marriages whose offspring are normally Arabic speaking are one of the essential devices of this assimilation which is both cultural and linguistic. 29 Walâ’ () الوالء Walâ’ is a kind of adoption by a sayyid (master) of his former freed slave after the latter’s conversion to islam. By the relationship of walâ’, the sayyid becomes wâlî (protector) and the former slave becomes his mawlâ (protected). The mawlâ may henceforth refer, for his social identity, to the genealogy of his wâlî, and may marry within the adopting tribal group. The offspring of such marriages grow within the (Arabic speaking) tribe who protects them as one of its own members. 30 Walâ’ () الوالء Besides this individual walâ’, practiced at family level there existed a kind of « collective walâ’ » by which a tribe adopted « wholesale » another tribe. This collective walâ’ explains the « absorption » of great berber nomad tribes by « protecting » arab tribes and the pure and simple « disappearence » of the « protected » tribes as distinct entities. 31 Merci de votre attention شك ًرا على حسن انتباهكم 32 ِCrédits cartographiques L’afro-asiatique au 5e siècle AEC Cohen, D., (1988), « Langues chamitosémitiques », Les langues dans le monde ancien et moderne, (dir. J.Perrot), Paris, Editions du CNRS. L’afro-asiatique aujourd’hui Cohen, D., (1988), « Langues chamitosémitiques », Les langues dans le monde ancien et moderne, (dir. J.Perrot), Paris, Editions du CNRS. L’arabophonie aujourd’hui Originally made by Fox Mccloud from english wikipedia (Modifié par l’auteur) Le Monde avant l’Islam أطلس التأريخ االسالمي Situation linguistique avant l'islam Holes, C. (1995-2004), Modern Arabic : Stuctures, Functions, and Varieties, Georgetown, Georgetown University Press. Les tribus de l’Arabie ancienne Blachère, R. (1952), Histoire de la littérature arabe des origines à la fin du XVe siècle de J.C., Paris, Adrien-Maisonneuve. Les invasions hilâliennes D.E. Kouloughli (2007) Maghreb, répartition des variétés linguistiques Adapté de Kouloughli (1972) 33