Abstract
This paper compares two areas of Egypt and Khorāsān in post-Islamic era regarding the loss and maintenance of their mother tongues. While in Egypt, Coptic was gradually removed from both formal and colloquial usages, in Khorāsān, Persian (Farsi or Parsi Dari), though was out of official and governmental services for more than two centuries, was able to finally maintain its status. The most important reason found behind this difference can be attributed to the independence seeking movements in Khorāsān (e.g. Sho’ūbieh), leading to the establishment of the first post-Islamic independent Iranian governments who supported the revival of Iranian culture and the maintenance of Persian language. Secondly, the migration of Arab tribes and the Arabization of the conquered societies were more successful in Egypt compared to Eastern Iran, which changed the demographic composition of Egypt. Moreover, the role of Persian-speaking epic poets, the social class of dihgāns in Iranian society and the fact that Coptic was not as old a language as Persian are other important reasons. It is argued that language maintenance can happen better in cases where top–down governmental and institutional support exists.
References
al-Birūni, Abu Rayhan Muhammad ibn Ahmad. 4-5th AH, 10-11th AD, 10-11th AD. Āsār al-Bāqiah an Qorūn al-Khāliah (The remaining signs of past centuries). Edited by Parviz Azkai, 1380SH/2001AD. Tehran: Miras Maktoob Publications [in Persian].Search in Google Scholar
Ali, Jawad. 1951. Tārikh al-Arab Qabl al-Islam (the history of Arabs before Islam). Baghdad: Altafiz [in Arabic].Search in Google Scholar
al-Narshakhi (Narshaki), Abubakr Mohammad ibn Jafar. 4th AH/ 10th AD. Tārikh Bukhārā. Translated into Persian by AbuNasr Ahmad ibn Mohammad ibn Nasr Al-Qabavi. Printed in 1387 SH by Tous Publications [in Persian].Search in Google Scholar
Dauenhauer, Nora Marks & Richard Dauenhauer. 1998. Technical, emotional, and ideological issues in reversing language shift: Examples from Southeast Alaska. In Lenore A. Grenoble & Lindsay J. Whaley (eds.), Endangered languages: Language loss and community response, 57–98. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9781139166959.004Search in Google Scholar
Davaran, Fereshteh. 2010. Continuity in Iranian Identity: Resilience of a cultural heritage. London: Routledge.10.4324/9780203886304Search in Google Scholar
Frye, Richard Nelson. 2000. The golden age of Persia, 3rd edn. New Haven: Phoenix Press.Search in Google Scholar
Frye, Richard Nelson. 1975. The Cambridge history of Iran, Abdolhossein Zarrinkoob, et al. Section on The Arab Conquest of Iran and its aftermath, vol. 4. London: CUP.Search in Google Scholar
Haugen, Einar. 1974. The ecology of language. In Anwar Dil (ed.), The ecology of languages: Essays by Einar Haugen, 325–339. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Hoyland, Robert. 2004. Language and identity: The twin histories of Arabic and Aramaic. Scripta Classica Israelica XXIII. 183–199.Search in Google Scholar
Ibn Rasta Isfahani. 290 AH/903 AD. Al-Alaq al-Nafsiyya, translated by Hussein Qara Chanlu, 90–112. Tehran: Amirkabir Publications, 1986.Search in Google Scholar
Istakhri, Abu Ishaq Ibrahim. 4th AH/8th AD. Masalak wa Mamalak, Edited by Iraj Afshar, 201–225. Tehran: Book Translation and Publishing Company, 1368SH/1989 [in Persian].Search in Google Scholar
Le Strange, Guy. 1988. The lands of the eastern caliphate: Mesopotamia, Persia and central Asia from the Muslim conquest to the time of Timur. Cambridge: CUP.Search in Google Scholar
Ma’amon, Gihan Mamdoh. 2009. Tūlūnid dynasty and Ikhshidid dynasty. Cairo: Nahdet Misr for Printing, Publishing & Distribution [in Arabic].Search in Google Scholar
Mühlhäusler, Peter. 1992. Preserving languages or language ecologies? A top-down approach to language survival. Oceanic Linguistics 31(2). 163–180. https://doi.org/10.2307/3623012.Search in Google Scholar
Nekvapil, Jiri & Tamah Sherman. 2015. An introduction: Language management theory in language policy and planning. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 232. 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1515/ijsl-2014-0039.Search in Google Scholar
O’Leary, De Lacy Evans. 2018/Copyright year 1923. Islam at the cross roads. London: Routledge.Search in Google Scholar
Omar, Ahmad Mokhtar. 1970. Tarikh al-Loqhat al-Arabi fel-Mesr (The history of Arabic language in Egypt). Cairo: The Egyptian General Office of Authorship & Publication [in Arabic].Search in Google Scholar
Papaconstantinou, Arietta. 2012. Why did Coptic fail where Aramaic succeeded? Linguistic developments in Egypt and the Near East after the Arab conquest. In Alex Mullen & Patrick James (eds.), Multilingualism in the Graeco-Roman worlds, 58–76. Cambridge: CUP.10.1017/CBO9781139012775.004Search in Google Scholar
Richter, Tonio Sebastian. 2009. Greek, Coptic and the ‘language of the Hijra’: The rise and decline of the Coptic language in late antique and medieval Egypt. In Hannah M. Cotton, Robert G. Hoyland, Jonathan J. Price & David J. Wasserstein (eds.), From Hellenism to Islam: Cultural and linguistic change in the Roman Near East, 401–446. Cambridge: CUP.10.1017/CBO9780511641992.019Search in Google Scholar
Rubenson, Samuel. 1996. The transition from Coptic to Arabic. Égypte Monde arabe 27–28. 77–92. https://doi.org/10.4000/ema.1920.Search in Google Scholar
Sallabank, Julia. 2013. Language planning and policy: Bottom-up and top-down. In Julia Sallabank (ed.), Attitudes to Endangered languages: Identities and policies, 140–187. Cambridge: CUP.10.1017/CBO9781139344166.007Search in Google Scholar
Shojai Mehr, Hasan. 1396 SH/2017. An introduction to the Islamic history from the beginning up to the arousal of Turks. Tehran: Negarestan Andisheh [in Persian].Search in Google Scholar
Sistani, Malek Shah Hessein ibn Malek. 11th AH/16th AD. Ehyā’ al-Molūk. Edited by Manoochehr Setoodeh (1344 SH/1965AD). Tehran: Book Translation and Publishing Company [in Persian].Search in Google Scholar
Spolsky, Bernard. 2004. Language policy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Tabari, Mohammad ibn Jarir Tabari. 3rd AH/7th AD Tārikh Tabari. Translated by Abolqasem Payandeh, (1398SH/2020). Tehran: Asatir [in Persian].Search in Google Scholar
Tajer, Jacques. 1922. Aqbat va al-Moslemoon menz Fatl Al-Arabi ela Am 1922 (Copts and Muslims from Arabic Conquest to 1922). Cairo: The Egyptian General Office of Authorship & Publication [in Arabic].Search in Google Scholar
Tārikh Sistān. 5th–8th AH/9th–12th AD. Unknown authors. Edited by Mohammad Taghi Bahar (1314 SH). Reprinted (1381 SH) by Moin Publications [in Persian].Search in Google Scholar
Tritton, Arthur Stanley. 1949. Ahl al-Zamah fi Al-Eslam. Cairo: The Egyptian General Office of Authorship & Publication [in Arabic].Search in Google Scholar
Tor, Debora G. 2009. The Islamization of Central Asia in the Sāmānid era and the reshaping of the Muslim world. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 72. 279–299. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0041977X09000524.Search in Google Scholar
Williamson, Robert C. 1991. Minority languages and bilingualism: Case studies in maintenance and shift. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.Search in Google Scholar
Wink, Andre. 1996. Al-Hind: The making of the Indo-Islamic world. Leiden: E.J. Brill.Search in Google Scholar
Ya’qūbi, Ahmad Ibn Abi Ya’qūb. 3rd AH/9th AD. al-Buldān, translated by Mohammad Ibrahim Ayati. Tehran: Book Translation and Publishing Company, 1346SH/1964 [in Persian].Search in Google Scholar
Zaborowsky, Jason R. 2008. From Coptic to Arabic in Medieval Egypt. Medieval Encounters 14. 15–40. https://doi.org/10.1163/138078507X254631.Search in Google Scholar
Zarrinkoob, Abdolhossein. 1992. History of Iran after Islam. Tehran: Amirkabir [in Persian].Search in Google Scholar
© 2023 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- From (in)securitisation to conviviality: the reconciliatory potential of participatory ethnography
- “I know how to improve. You know what I mean?”. Neoliberalism and the development of multilingual identities through study abroad
- “That’s all it takes to be trans”: counter-strategies to hetero- and transnormative discourse on YouTube
- Sweden’s multilingual language policy through the lens of Turkish-heritage family language practices and beliefs
- Discursive valuing practices at the periphery: Javanese use on Indonesian youth radio in multilingual Solo
- A comparative analysis of two cases of language death and maintenance in post-Islam Egypt and Great Khorāsān: reasons and motives
- Muslim personal names in Urdu: structure, meaning, and change
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- From (in)securitisation to conviviality: the reconciliatory potential of participatory ethnography
- “I know how to improve. You know what I mean?”. Neoliberalism and the development of multilingual identities through study abroad
- “That’s all it takes to be trans”: counter-strategies to hetero- and transnormative discourse on YouTube
- Sweden’s multilingual language policy through the lens of Turkish-heritage family language practices and beliefs
- Discursive valuing practices at the periphery: Javanese use on Indonesian youth radio in multilingual Solo
- A comparative analysis of two cases of language death and maintenance in post-Islam Egypt and Great Khorāsān: reasons and motives
- Muslim personal names in Urdu: structure, meaning, and change