2. Arabic and Islam
The influence of Arabic on
World Languages
The influence of Arabic on
English
3. Classical Arabic is the language of the Qur'an.
Arabic is closely associated with the religion
of Islam because the Qur'an is written in the
language,
4. Arabic has had a great influence on other
languages, especially in vocabulary.
5. Like other European
languages, English contains many words
derived from Arabic, often through other
European languages,
especially Spanish and Italian. Among them is
every-day vocabulary like "sugar" (sukkar),
"cotton" (quṭn) or "magazine" (maḫāzin). More
recognizable are words like "algebra" (al-jabr),
"alcohol" (al-kuhūl), "alchemy"
6. In addition, English has many Arabic
loanwords, some directly but most through the
medium of other Mediterranean languages.
Examples of such words include admiral,
adobe, alchemy, alcohol,
