31215 - Arab Philology 1

Learning outcomes

Students know the fundamental aspects of the Arabic language’s structure, being able to compare them with the linguistic phenomena occurring in the same area (Semitic). They are aware of the Arabic language’s evolution within its cultural and geographical framework diachronically.

Course contents

The course is an introduction to the history of the Arabic language. Focusing on its genesis and evolution as they are witnessed in multiple writing practices, the course invites students to recognize the broadest connections between the Arab-Muslim world's intellectual history and the Arabic linguistic and literary tradition in particular.


The course encourages students to engage in critical discussion of the interplay between modernity and tradition, introducing them to the academic debate on classical Arabic language, the genesis of the Arabic linguistic thought, and its main sources. The course will also equip students with the critical tools to proceed to a due contextualization of texts while also exploring a plethora of approaches employed by past and modern scholars to formulate and transmit knowledge. Specific attention will be paid to studying the various grammar schools and the main theories developed by Arabic grammarians from the II / VIII to the VII / XIII century and their relevance in modern thought and literary studies.


Throughout the course, students will study a series of texts in Arabic (medieval Arabic grammarians / modern texts) that will be distributed and commented on in class by the teacher. These insights will enable them to develop a critical approach to the Arabic sources and the history of the Arabic linguistic tradition.


The required languages are Italian, Arabic, and at least one choice between English and French.

Readings/Bibliography

Baalbaki, R., The Arabic Lexicographical Tradition from the 2nd/8th to the 12th/18th Century, Brill, Leiden, 2014.

Fassi Fehri, A. Linguistique Arabe: Forme et Interpretation. Tesi di Dottorato. Faculté des lettres et des sciences humaines, Rabat, 1982.

Fleisch, H., Traité de philologie arabe, Beirut 1961-79 (2 voll.).

Ghersetti, A., “Quelques notes sur la définition canonique de balāgha”. In Orientalia, no. 87, Leuven University Press, 1998, pp. 57-72.

Gutas, D., Greek Thought, Arabic Culture: The Graeco-Arabic Translation Movement in Baghdad and Early ʻAbbāsid Society (2nd-4th/8th-10th Centuries), Routledge, London and NY, 1998.

Owens, J., The Foundations of Grammar: An Introduction to Medieval Arabic Grammatical Theory, Amsterdam/Philadephia, 1988.

Van Gelder, J.G. “Brevity, the long and the short of it in classical Arabic literary theory.” Proceedings 9th UEAI Conference. Leiden: Brill, 1981, pp. 78-88.

Sawaie, M. “Rifa a Rafi al-Tahtawi and His Contribution to the Lexical Development of Modern Literary Arabic”, in International Journal of Middle East Studies, vol. 32, no. 3 (agosto 2000), pp. 395-410.

Versteegh, K., Arabic Grammar and Qurʼānic Exegesis in Early Islam, Brill, Leiden, 1993.

Young, M. J. L., Latham, J. D., Serjeant, R. B., Religion, Learning and Science in the ʿAbbasid Period, Cambridge (The Cambridge History of Arabic Literature), 1990.

Additional References

Hamori, A., On the Art of Medieval Arabic Literature, Princeton, 1974

Bordieu, P.; Randal Johnson (a cura di). The field of the cultural production, Columbia University Press, NY, 1993.

Burke, Kenneth. 1973. Language as a Symbolic Action. University of California Press, CA, 1973.

Excerpts (in Arabic)

al-Jāḥiẓ, Abū ‛Uthmān; Fawzī ‛Aṭawī (a cura di), al-Bayān wa-l-tabyīn, Beirut: Dār Sa‛ab, 1978

al-Jurjānī, ‛Abd al-Qāhir, F. al-Dāya (a cura di) Dalā’il al-i‛jāz, F. al-Dāya Ed., Damasco, 1947.

Ibn Khaldūn, Walī ad-Dīn, ‛Abd Allāh Muḥammad Darwīsh (a cura di), al-Muqaddima, Damasco, Dār Ya‛rub, 2004

Rifāʽ al-Ṭahṭāwī, al-Tuhfa al-maktabiyya li-taqrīb al-lugha al-ʽarabiyya, (pubbl. 1868).

Adūnīs, al-Thābit wa-l-mutaḥawwil, Dār al-Sāqī, Beirut, 1994.

Throughout the course, additional readings will be provided

Teaching methods

Lessons will be held on the Microsoft Teams platform.

Assessment methods

The course has three graded components: a) attendance and class participation; b) group presentations: students are responsible for leading in-course seminars focused on course topics; c) an end-course research paper on a topic of relevance to the course (6000 - 7000 words, abstract, references, and footnotes included). The deadline for submitting the end-course paper will be provided during the lessons. Papers will be further discussed during the exam (individual - online). On this occasion, students must demonstrate in-depth knowledge of the topics explored during the course and expose them critically.

To take the exam as a non-attending student (also from previous years), please contact the instructor to agree on different methods from those indicated above.

Teaching tools

Texts, audio-video sources, additional materials provided by the teacher.

Office hours

See the website of Chiara Fontana