EVOLUTION OF ARABIC LANGUAGE IN THE SUBCONTINENT: A BRIEF HISTORICAL ANALYSIS

Abstract

Trade relations between Arabs and the Subcontinent have existed before recorded history. Arab sailors first docked at Indian ports to acquire trade of spices in pre-Islamic era as early as 50 CE. In 711 the Arab Muslim Umayyad commander Muhammad Bin Qasim invaded and conquered te western Indian provinces of Sindh. After which the Arab Muslims settled there, and with through this colonization of Sindh came India's first substantial and sustained contact with both the religion of Islam and the Arabic Language. The Muslim settlement in the propagation of Islam should not be underestimated. Every settlement had at least a mosque and generally a welltrained scholar attached to it as "Imam". The conquest of Sindh opened the way for new cultural contacts between the Muslims and Hindus. As the Arab Travelers have mentioned in their writings, the people of Multan both Muslims and non-Muslims dressed alike. Arabic and Sindhi were the languages they commonly used. Arabic and Sindhi were also spoken in other important towns of sindh such as Debol, Bhroch, Arror, Mansoora. One of the most common uses of Arabic in Subcontinent included Quranic recitation, and also was an integral part of the mandatory prayers (Namaz) for which they had to memorize Suras. Thus the religious needs of Indian and Sindhi Muslims gave rise over the centuries to a large number of religious schools for memorizing the Quran, called "Madrasa", for Muslim students. A new era in the history of Sindh began in 841 CE when Umer-ibn-Abdul Aziz al-Habbari, a local Arab resident of Sindh, was appointed as Ruler of Sindh, under whom the region became semi-independent from the Abbasid Caliphate. The general picture which emerges from this account is that the Arab conquest of Sindh converted this region into a center of Islamic culture which produced poets, theologists, Sufis, Reformers; opening the way for new cultural contacts between the Muslims and Hindus. In 771, a group of Sindhi scholars visited Baghdad along with some books which were translated into Arabic for the Khalifa. And The Quran, which was also translated into Hindi language for a Raja. In the era of Arab Salateen Arabic language was very dominant, so much so that all official correspondence was done in Arabic. Much of the Arabic vocabulary also was incorporated in Sindhi and other Indian Languages under the Umayyad dynasty. In this article it is discussed how Arabic language came in the subcontinent and the way it developed and grew in the region