Rifa a Rafi Al - Tahtawi

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Int. J. Middle East Stud. 32 (2000), 395-410. Printed in the United States of America

Mohammed Sawaie

RIFAcA RAFIF AL-TAHTAWI AND HIS CONTRIBUTION TO THE LEXICAL DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN LITERARY ARABIC

In the 19th century, Europe had a tangible impact on the Arab East. During this period, Arabic-speaking regions were brought into intimate contact with the West, both through military intrusion (e.g., the French in 1798-1801 and the British in Egypt in 1882), and institutional penetration (e.g., the founding of Western-style schools and higher-education institutions in the Levant in the 1800s by Christian missionaries such as the Syrian Protestant College in 1866, now the American Uni- versity of Beirut, and [the Jesuit] St. Joseph University, also in Beirut, in 1874). This overpowering European encroachment on the Arab East in the 19th century resulted in cultural and linguistic identity crises. Muhammad 'Ali, who ruled Egypt from 1805 until 1848, dispatched groups of students to Western countries such as Italy, Austria, and France to study at their universities and technical institutions. At home, he established schools with Western-language instruction, and sponsored translations of scientific works initially into Turkish, and later into Arabic, from Italian and French, thus making available new disciplines such as various branches of engineering, military science, and agriculture. In 1822, he established a printing press in the Bulaq section of Cairo.' From then on, Arabicized versions of European terms such as "theater" (tiyatru), "journal" (jurnal), "the post" (al-busta), and "politics" (al-bu- litiqd) signaled the arrival of Western institutions and technology in Arabic-speaking regions, and such terms were adopted by writers in their writings. The cultural, political, military, and technological challenges that resulted from the European contact with the Arab East, and the institutional changes that accompanied them, proved to be a crucial turning point in the development of the Arabic language, particularly its lexicon. However, interest in language matters was central to the Arab renaissance (Nah~da) of the 19th century. Arab writers; intellectuals; and translators such Rifaca Rafic al-Tahtawi (1801/2-73), (Ahmad) Faris al-Shidyaq (1801/04?-87), Nasif al- Yaziji (1800-71), and Butrus al-Bustani (1819-83), among others, debated Arabic linguistic issues in terms of their own literary and linguistic heritage. These and other authors discussed the "internal" needs of Arabic, not only issues of translating the culture of the Western societies. They wrote grammars and compiled other

Mohammed Sawaie is with the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures, Uni- versity of Virginia, Charlottesville, Va. 22903, USA; e-mail: [email protected].

? 2000 Cambridge University Press 0020-7438/00 $9.50

396 Mohammed Sawaie

literary textbooks to facilitate the teaching of Arabic and to overcome difficulties of learning the language associated with older, traditional ways of language teaching and to raise awareness of the literary tradition of Arabs. These intellectuals also engaged in the preparation of glossaries and dictionaries appropriate to the needs of their societies.2

In this article, I survey and discuss strategies devised by one Arab intellectual to deal with the linguistic dilemmas that faced his society as a result of the influx of Western terminology during the Arab renaissance of the 19th century. Specifically, I explore Rifaca Rafi' al-Tahtawi's search for appropriate Arabic terminology to denote Western technological and cultural materials and to express ideas with which he had become familiar through his residence in Paris between 1826 and 1831, and upon his return to Egypt. This and other dilemmas are most strikingly apparent in al-Tahtawi's detailed descriptive work Takhlis al-'ibriz fi talkhis bariz,3 which was first published by the Bulaq Printing Press in 1834. It is worth mentioning that al- Tahtawi's writing of Takhlis and his work on translation were contemporaneous; therefore, these linguistic issues preoccupied al-Tahtawi as he wrote this book. In this work, al-Tahtawi provided descriptions of daily Parisian life; aspects of French civilization, administrative, social, and political institutions; and various sciences that were previously unknown to him.4 Discussions of linguistic matters that are of a general nature or specific to the Arabic and French languages and comments about foreign-language teaching are found throughout Takhlis.5 Insofar as al-Tahtawi's difficulties in identifying the appropriate Arabic lexicon for Western sciences and cultural objects are relevant to this article, I shall attempt to answer the following questions: How did he resolve the difficulties he faced in translating European, especially French, terms? What models did he appeal to in his enterprise? What strategies did he employ in coining lexical items? How successful were these strategies? And to what extent were they adopted by his successors?

A cursory reading of Takhlis would reveal that al-Tahtawi felt acutely the difficulty of finding appropriate terminology in the Arabic lexicon to portray French institutions and sciences. We cite one brief quote from Takhlis to illustrate the point:6

"wa la acrifu isman 'arabiyyan yaliqu bi mana al-sbaktakil aw al-tiyatr"

(I don't know an Arabic noun appropriate to express spectacle or theatre)

This dilemma resulted in his frequent use of French terms to represent French institutions. These difficulties were further intensified through his contacts with the two leading French Arabists, Silvestre de Sacy and Armand-Pierre Caussin de Per- ceval, and their frequent discussions of language issues. Their works on various aspects of the Arabic language, and their ideas and varying degrees of mastery of Arabic, were constant reminders to al-Tahtawi of the relevant language matters.7 In particular, his translations pointed to: (1) the limitations of the Arabic language tradition with respect to Western-style tools such as dictionaries, and the urgent need for modem ones; and (2) the question of appropriate terminology and the coining of neologisms. The remainder of this article will discuss these and other matters as follows: I shall review briefly al-Tahtawi's training in translation during his residence in Paris; summarize his views on the inadequacy of existing dictionaries; and present his strategies of neologisms and methods of coinage.

Rifa'a Rafi' al-Tahtawi and Modern Literary Arabic 397

AL-TAHTAWI' S TRAINING IN TRANSLATION

Al-Tahtawi's interest in linguistic matters in his Takhlis was undoubtedly influenced by his pursuit of a career in translation.8 As a requirement for a diploma in this field, al-Tahtawi was tested several times in the French language and in translation from French into Arabic. He was first examined in 1827 and again in March 1828 in the French language,9 but his final examination took place in public in 1831 before his return to Egypt.10 This examination was arranged by the famous French Orientalist Edme-Franqais Jomard; a detailed description of it is provided in Takhlis.11 I present here a short account of this experience: On 19 October 1831, Jomard assembled the Examination Committee, which comprised several illustrious notables and French scholars.12 The purpose of this gathering was to assess al-Tahtawi's aptitude in the translation "craft" (sina'a) in various branches of "sciences" ('uliim) to which he had been exposed during his sojourn in France.

At this public examination, two "notebooks" made up the requirement. The first consisted of twelve translations from French into Arabic, including excerpts and whole books spanning varied topics that included geography, military science, history, mythology, law, mineralogy, and geology. Al-Tahtawi informs us that he had translated these excerpts and books a year earlier,13 probably in 1829 or 1830. What follows is a list of these texts:

1. An excerpt of the biography of Alexander the Great (extracted from an unidentified book that al-Tahtawi entitled Tarikh al-qudama' ["History of the Ancients"]);

2. Kitab usid al-macadin ("Elements of Minerals");14 3. "Almanac of the Hijri year 1244," compiled by Jomard for use in Egypt and "Greater

Syria" ([Bilad] al-sham) that included scientific and economic [informational] "excerpts" (shadhardt);

4. Kitab da'irat al-'ulumfi akhlaq al-umam wa 'awa'idihim (Encyclopedia in the Manners and Customs of Peoples);

5. Muqaddam Jughrafya tabi'iyya (Introduction to Natural Geography);15 6. an excerpt from Malte-Brun's book on geography;16 7. Three essays from the book 'Ilm al-handasa (Geometry) by Legendre;17 8. an excerpt in cosmology; 9. an excerpt on education for high-ranking military officers;

10. Fundamentals of natural rights as advocated by the French;18 11. an excerpt in mythology (i.e., "Myths and Superstitions (sic) of the Greeks"); and, finally, 12. an excerpt in health sciences and their administration.

The second requirement for this examination was a review of al-Tahtawi's Rihla- that is, Takhlis. I should note that al-Tahtawi mentioned in the Introduction (khutba) to this book that some relatives and close friends, especially Shaykh Hasan al- cAttar.l9 urged him to write down his impressions during his trip to, and stay in, Paris, especially about those things that were unusual to Egyptians. The interest in al-Tahtawi's impressions about those unusual matters was motivated, according to him, by the desire to show his fellow countrymen the "secrets" of the country that was perceived to be the "bride [crown jewel] of all countries." Such a description would also guide those who might travel from Egypt, presumably to France. He was aware that no book had ever been written in Arabic on the history of Paris and on its conditions and those of its population.20 Of special interest to him was the

398 Mohammed Sawaie

description of Western sciences, industries, and crafts, whose standards, according to him, had reached a high level of perfection, and should be a model to follow.2" Al- Tahtawi provided in Takhlis summaries and translations of certain scientific subjects, such as the classification of sciences and arts by the French; their classification of languages and the French grammar; the art of writing, rhetoric, and logic; the ten categories attributed to Aristotle; arithmetic; geography; astronomy; and history.22

Al-Tahtawi did not provide information regarding the date that he began writing Takhlis. Perhaps he started recording his impressions after departing from Cairo on his way to Alexandria, from which he and forty-one other members of the scientific mission23 sailed to Marseilles in 1826. It is also possible that al-Tahtawi's description of the places he saw during their sea voyage-such as the islands of Crete, Sic- ily, and Corsica, and the cities of Naples and Messina, to name only a few-and the people therein was a recollection by the writer at a later time, when he established residence in Paris. Or it was an ongoing recording of impressions as he and his fellow students crossed the Mediterranean on their way to France. Al-Tahtawi continued recording impressions about Paris, its society, and the French institutions as described in Takhlis throughout his five-year stay there. His book must have been completed, in draft form, by the end of 1830 or in the first month of 1831. We gather that al-Tahtawi had given a draft copy for comments to the two renowned French Orientalists that he had come to know in Paris-namely, Baron Silvestre de Sacy (1758-1838), and Armand-Pierre Caussin de Perceval (1795-1871).24 Judging from the translation of the two letters that these two scholars sent to al-Tahtawi, we learn that their views were rather favorable regarding his description of Paris and of the French institutions.25 However, in a letter dated February 1831, de Sacy implied that al-Tahtawi tended to overgeneralize his impressions about Paris and other major cities to all of France. De Sacy also had some comments about al-Tahtawi's Arabic. He believed that although the style was for the most part clear, unadorned, and simple in phraseology, it did not always adhere to the rules of Arabic grammar. This can perhaps be attributed to the fact that the book was still in draft form. Such infe- licities, de Sacy believed, would be corrected when al-Tahtawi made final revisions.

Like de Sacy, de Perceval wrote a positive review of al-Tahtawi's work. His views were included in an attachment to a letter written to al-Tahtawi on 24 February 1831. In this review, de Perceval complimented the author's efforts to awaken "the Islamic community (-ies)" (ahl al-islam) and to motivate it (them) to acquire useful knowledge, to foster their love of learning Western civilization, and to advance their standards of living.26

In addition to these two components of the translation test, the Examination Com- mittee presented al-Tahtawi with several works in Arabic printed by the Bulaq Print- ing Press for extemporaneous translation into French. Some of this material included excerpts, some long and some short, from al-Waqa'i' al-misriyya, the official Egyp- tian newspaper (gazette) that was established by Muhammad 'Ali in 1828 and also printed by the Bulaq Printing Press. The Examination Committee discussed with al-Tahtawi his translation of the Introduction of a book designed for high-ranking military officers. Some committee members held the original French in their hands, while al-Tahtawi was holding the Arabic translation in his. The purpose was to com- pare the phraseology of the Arabic translation with that of the French original.


Although al-Tahtawi performed well, he felt that the need for the proper Arabic terminology (istilah) made it necessary for him to replace one terminological item for another without distortion of the intended meaning. As an example, al-Tahtawi mentioned the subject of "the origin of military science," which is compared to "a rich mine ready to excavate." Realizing that this metaphor would not translate well into Arabic, al-Tahtawi compared military science to "a large sea from which pearls are [to be] fished out." This liberal rendition of French texts elicited criticism of al-Tahtawi's translation from some members of the Examination Committee. For example, one objection related to al-Tahtawi's occasional lack of correspondence between the translated original text and its translation. At other times, and despite his faithfulness to the meaning of the original text, al-Tahtawi translated a French sentence using many Arabic sentences, and one word using a sentence. This led al-Tahtawi to the re- alization that, to translate scientific books, he must abandon literal adherence to the original. He also realized that, as a translator, it was incumbent on him to coin terminology that would convey the intended meaning. These two quotes from Takhlis illustrate some of the translation difficulties that al-Tahtawi experienced firsthand:27

wa lakin rubbama ahwaja-hu istilahu al-lughati al-'arabiyyati an yadaca majazan badala majazin akhar min ghayri khalalin fi al-macna al-murad

(But perhaps the Arabic phraseology requires of him [the translator] that he substitute one phrase for another without effecting a defect in the intended meaning)

and,

Idha arada an yutarjima kutuba 'uluimin fa la budda la-hu an yatruka al-taqtica wa 'alay- hi an yakhtarica 'inda al-hajati ta'biran munasiban li al-maqsid

(if he [the translator] intends to translate scientific books, he will be obliged to avoid translating word by word; when necessary, he ought to coin terminology appropriate to the intended meaning)

The translation of such material, according to al-Tahtawi, required mastery of the language being translated (the source), of the language to which it is being translated (the target language), and the subject matter.28 It is worth mentioning that al-Tahtawi's choice of disciplines, when upon his return to Egypt he was made a translator, mirrored the 1831 examination, which offered a choice of translation of textual material in geography, history, law, and geometry.29

DICTIONARIES (FRENCH-ARABIC)

In Takhlis, al-Tahtawi stated that the French language had reached an apogee to the extent that every science and branch of knowledge ('ilm) had its own alphabetically arranged dictionary encompassing the vocabulary of that science. According to al- Tahtawi, this applied even to the "lowly" sciences-for example, culinary science, which, to his surprise, had its own schools.30 Despite his sarcastic comments about the attention paid to French-language dictionaries for cooking, al-Tahtawi's admira- tion for such advancement-for the attention paid by France to codification (tahqiq) of all matters, no matter how low they were-and for the development of lexicography are clearly manifested in Takhlis.31

400 Mohammed Sawaie

The difficulties that al-Tahtawi encountered in translation from French into Ara- bic, as a student of translation and as a practitioner upon his return to Egypt, under- scored the need for a French-Arabic dictionary. He expressed the frustration of not having such a dictionary in his Introduction to al-Macadin al-nafica, published by the Bulaq Printing Press in 1833. Nevertheless, there is evidence, according to al- Shayyal, that an Arabic-French dictionary was already in existence.32 It was the work of an Egyptian Copt named Ellious Bocthor, who left Egypt with the French army at the end of the Napoleonic expedition to Egypt (1798-1801). Al-Shayyal mentioned Bocthor as the first compiler of an Arabic-French dictionary. This pioneering work was published posthumously in Paris in 1828-29, about two to three years after al-Tahtawi had arrived there.33 Whether he knew about this dictionary or found it useful is not known. What is known, however, is that, according to al- Shayyal,34 Ibrahim Pasha, Muhammad 'Ali's son, assigned to al-Tahtawi the task of "translating" (tarjamat)-that is, compiling a French-Arabic dictionary-perhaps because al-Tahtawi had aired his frustration at the lack of such a dictionary to Ibra- him Pasha in Alexandria upon his return from Paris. Al-Shayyal maintained that Ibrahim Pasha in turn delegated the task of compiling such a dictionary to al- Tahtawi. In response to the latter's insistence that the "translator' for such a project be housed in a research library and aided by a French assistant, Ibrahim Pasha provided al-Tahtawi with an aide. Al-Tahtawi claimed that it would take ten assistants if the work were to be done in a satisfactory and comprehensive manner.36 The project encountered insurmountable difficulties, and the endeavor never bore fruit.

Perhaps because of his failure to compile a French-Arabic dictionary, al-Tahtawi resorted to including glossaries at the end or at the beginning of books he translated. For example, when his Qala'id al-mafakhirfi gharib 'awa'id al-awa'il wa al-awa- khir went to press in 1834, he compiled a core scientific Arabic glossary in which he provided annotations for neologisms that he had adopted in the translation of this work.37 Later, when al-Tahtawi was appointed the head of the Translation School (madrasat al-alsun) founded by Muhammad 'Ali in 1835, he and his students continued to follow the practice of compiling glossaries of new terms. Al-Tahtawi rec- ognized a precedent for this approach in the history of the Arabic language, and urged his colleagues and students to supplement every translation they undertook with a dictionary of neologisms. Over time, al-Tahtawi maintained, Arabic would through these efforts have a scientific dictionary "containing all foreign neologisms that have no counterparts or synonyms in the language of the Arabs or Turks." Al- Tahtawi also maintained that, over time, these foreign words would become Arabi- cized (dakhil), following the path of other Arabicized terms from Persian and Greek that had come into Arabic in the classical period (the 9th to the 11th centuries). He continued this tradition in most translated works that he published, as did his disciples at madrasat al-alsun.38

The establishment of schools by Muhammad 'Ali to teach medicine, engineering, agriculture, and translation contributed to the development of Arabic in general, and to the development of glossary- and dictionary-making in particular. During this era, foreign dictionaries were "translated" from Italian, French, Persian, and Turkish into Arabic; the compilation of indigenous Arabic dictionaries was also considered. As examples of dictionary-making, al-Shayyal mentioned an Italian-Arabic dictionary compiled in 1821 by RuphaDil (Raphael) Zakhur Rahibah.39 Al-Tahtawi's efforts to


enrich Arabic by translating foreign books, and his frustration resulting from the limitations he encountered, led him to compile lists of words that he had coined. Thus, he did not compile an entire dictionary. His compilations of neologisms re- main hidden as lists appended to books and are therefore inaccessible to the general reader. Undoubtedly, the historical value of these glossaries lies in their importance for the study of the development of the Arabic lexicon in particular, and lexicography in general.40

NEOLOGISMS

Al-Tahtawi was one of a number of writers at the time who wrote travel accounts of Western cities and countries. Such writers include, for example, (Ahmad) Faris al- Shidyaq, who wrote travel accounts of Malta in al-Wasita fi ma'rifat ahwal malta, and accounts of his visits to Europe in Kashf al-mukhabba'fi ahwal urubba. In their efforts to provide full accounts of their observations, these writers had to confront the question of neologisms and word formation to coin terminology that was appropriate for more complete representation of these Western cities or countries and their institutions.

As mentioned earlier, during his residence in France al-Tahtawi was involved in translating twelve excerpts and books spanning many topics, including geography, history, law, philosophy, and military and physical sciences, as partial fulfillment of the requirements for a diploma in translation.41 His sharp eye and propensity for detailed description of administrative, social, academic, and political institutions in France must have created difficulties for him in establishing the appropriate Arabic terminology to express Western concepts and cultural items appropriately. For example, in describing places of amusement al-Tahtawi discussed the the'atre, spectacle, and opera by using Arabicized terms of these French words, as in tiyatru, sbakt~akil, and ubird, respectively.42 In Arabicizing such terms, al-Tahtawi appropriated the French terms, thus subjecting them to the phonological and morphological systems of Arabic. He strove not only for fidelity to the French pronunciation; he also went on to describe the institutions they represented by detailing the types of opera, such as "comic opera" and theater, as in "Italian theatre" (al-tiyatr al-tilya- niyya), and so on.

In attempting to describe and name these institutions by the use of Arabicized terminology, al-Tahtawi often fell into difficult predicaments. He admitted to the difficulty of "translating scientific books" especially, as such an endeavor required knowledge of the "idioms" (languages) of the original sciences, or the language to be translated from; the target language, or the language to be translated into; and the "art" (fann), or the field of the subject matter.43 Insofar as spectacle and theatre were concerned, he found that Arabic lacked nouns that could appropriately describe these institutions.44 Nevertheless, he ventured into coining Arabic equivalents of the French terms. For example, he suggested that spectacle be rendered as manzar (view), muntazah (recreation ground), or something similar. In fact, these Arabic words, according to al-Tahtawi, conveyed the original meaning of the'altre. He suggested other terms, as well, such as al-la'ib (play) or mahall al-la'ib (play place). For the sake of accuracy, al-Tahtawi invoked the Turkish word qumedi (from the Ital- ian, originally Greek), which was, according to al-Tahtawi, insufficient to convey

402 Mohammed Sawaie

this notion. In order for this Turkish word to capture the meaning of theatre, it became necessary to expand its semantic range. To him, the use of khayali (imaginary) to express theatre or spectacle was also permissible, provided that its semantic range, too, was expanded.

METHODS OF COINAGE

One way al-Tahtawi coined lexical items was through Arabicization of French terms. This method amounted to the appropriation of French terminology and adapting it to the Arabic phonological and morphological systems. As al-Tahtawi stated in Ta- khlis, in dealing with words "for which Arabic equivalents were difficult to find I preserved their pronunciation and represented [them in Arabic script] to the extent that it could be done. Sometimes, I added some fine explanations."45 This method will be discussed at some length in the following section. The second method involved the "resuscitation" of Arabic terms from the classical or colloquial language whose ranges of meaning al-Tahtawi expanded to represent the newly encountered ideas and objects.

ARAB ICIZATION

Al-Tahtawi resorted to Arabicizing many French words that he incorporated into his descriptions of cultural objects or ideas and that he was unable to accommodate within Arabic terminology of that time. As mentioned earlier, he often provided suit- able descriptions of the French pronunciation of these terms, which were:

1. Single terms that included items such as al-karantina (quarantine from Italian quarantina); or akademiyya, or aqadama or akadama (Fr. acade'mie); jurnal (newspaper); ubird (opera); baniirama (panorama); and al-biyanu or al-biyan (piano). Once al-Tahtawi used these terms in his description of French "institutions," or in naming cultural objects, he subjected them to the rules of Arabic phonology and morphology. For example, he adopted the Italian quarantina (quarantine) as al-karantind-that is, by adding the definite article al- (the). From this new Arabicized term, he coined the quadrilateral verb "to quarantine" (kartana! yukartinu) and the verbal noun (masdar), the act of quarantining (al-kartanah), respectively. Similarly, al-Tahtawi subjected "newspaper" ( jurnal), "boulevard" (bulvar) or (bul- war), and "college" (kulij) to the rules of pluralization of regular feminine nouns-that is, adding the suffix -at to their singular forms. Thus, these words were rendered as jurnallt (newspapers), bulvarat or bulwarat (boulevards), and kulijat (colleges), respectively.

2. Compounds, usually one Arabic item and the other French. Examples include "juries" (juriyyat al-jindydt; Fr. jurie + Ar. jinayat); "editors" (ahl aljurndl; Ar. ahl + Fr. journal); "editors, journalists" (arbab al-jurni); "medical academy" (akadimat al-hikma; Fr. academie + Ar. al-hikma); "public dance place" (al-bal al-camm; Fr. bal + Ar. 'amm); "private dance party" (al-bil al-khass; Fr. bal + Ar. khass); "carnival days" (ayydm al-karnawal; Ar. ayydm + Fr. carnival), and so on. As an aside, it is of interest to note that while al- Tahtawi uses the regular Arabic feminine plural marker -at, as in jurnalat, he appropriates the same word in its French plural form jurnu, as in arbab al-jurniu.

3. Institutional or administrative expressions already in use in Arabic, which al-Tahtawi used to describe new institutions that he had become familiar with in France. Examples include "hospital" (mnristan), originally from Persian, and "office" (diwdn), respectively.


Thus, maristan was used in "geriatrics hospital" (maristan al-shaykh/ikha), "hospital for the blind" (maristan al-Cumydn), "hospital for the mentally disturbed" (maristan al-ma- janin), and so on. Diwan was used in "legislative assembly" or "Parliament" (diwan rusul al-Camaldt) in current Arabic discourse, "the king's secretariate office" (diwan sirr al-ma- lik), "philanthropy office" (di-wan al-iksan), and so on.46

REJUVENATION OF CLASSICAL WORDS

When possible, al-Tahtawi strove to locate classical Arabic words that denoted, or at least approximated, the intended meaning of the new institutions and cultural objects. At times, he attempted to expand the semantic range of the classical Arabic term to capture a new situation. At other times, he tried to narrow the meaning of the term, or to pinpoint a meaning for which he thought the word was appropriate. For example, in describing theatre, spectacle and opera, he suggested that spectacle could be rendered as manzar, muntazah, or something along those lines. Terms such as al-la'ib (play) or mahall al-la'ib (play place) would also satisfy the intended notion. Al-Tahtawi suggested the word khayali to express theatre or spectacle, provided that its semantic range be expanded to approximate the meaning of spectacle. He also proposed the adoption of the loaned Turkish word qumedi, which was, in fact, insufficient to convey this notion, according to al-Tahtawi. In order for this Turk- ish word to capture the meaning of theatre, it was in his view necessary to expand its semantic field.47 The efforts he made in this regard comprised three categories:

1. Single words, such as "the mission, missionary" (al-irsdliyya), "districts" (ayaldt), "oral" (jahriyya), "ruler" (al-mutawalli), "bath tub" (al-mikamm).

2. Compound terms, such as "capital" (kursi al-mamlaka), "hydraulics" (fann al-miyah), "electricity" (jiadhibiyyat al-muhakka), "ballot box" (incd' al-qurca), "hospital" (bayt al- sihha), "veterinary" (tibb al-baha'im), and "telescope," "magnifying glasses" (al-naz- zarat al-mucazzima).

3. Classical terms, which were resuscitated to express similar-not identical-ideas, as in the use of al-muhtasib, for example, which, in Islamic administration denoted an official whose responsibility partially included supervision of food supplies and markets, mainte- nance of mosques, and enforcement of prayer times. Al-Tahtawi used al-muhtasib with a similar meaning-namely, to denote the official whose responsibility was "to ensure that bakers keep supplies of bread sufficient for the need of the city." Also, al-Tahtawi resuscitated another term that was used in the classical Arabic of the medieval period-namely, farsakh (Persian parasang), "a measure of distance." He added the modifier faransawi (French), as in farsakh faransawl-, to designate a specified distance between one city and another. Other examples of classical Arabic items that al-Tahtawi reintroduced include "jurisprudence" (al-shari'a), "electoral region, district" (camala), "mechanics" ('ilm al-hiyal), "astronomy" ('ilm al-hay'a), and "treasury" (bayt al-mal).

It is worth noting that al-Tahtawi often vacillated between words denoting the same meaning. The reason for this, perhaps, can be attributed to the fact that the institutions he was attempting to describe had not been established in the language sufficiently to merit the use of only one term. Examples include administrative words such as kursi, 'asima, qd'ida, takht, qasaba, all in the sense of "capital" ('asima) in modern Arabic discourse.48 Al-Tahtawi also used expressions denoting what might be labeled "social" customs. Examples include muddat al-ta'til, muddat al-faragh, and al-batala, all meaning "vacation, time off from work."

404 Mohammed Sawaie

USE OF COLLOQUIAL TERMS AND COMMON EXPRESSIONS

If words were already in circulation for which no direct match could be found in classical Arabic, al-Tahtawi preferred to use the colloquial terms rather than attempt a neologism based on a classical form.49 Examine, for example, "surgeon" (jardyhi), "oculist, ophthalmologist" (mukahhildti), "coffee house" (al-qahwa), "female sing- ers" (al-Cawalim), "sightseeing" (al-furja) or (al-tafarruj).50

In addition to these colloquial words common in Takhlis, we also find phrases bor- rowed from Egyptian colloquial dialects. These phrases include "they pay for their own expenses" (ya'kultin 'ald kisihim), "cooling down the temperature," "climatiza- tion" (tatriyat al-zaman), and "eradication" (qatc al-'Irq).

It should be mentioned here that many of these colloquial words are either of Ottoman Turkish origin, such "rooms" as in al-uwad or al-uwadat, or a mixture of Arabic stems and Turkish suffixes. Examples include mostly Arabic words plus the Turkish suffix Ji (maker, owner, relevant to). We may take as examples words such as "coffee maker" and "cafe owner" (qahwaji), "military people, soldiers" (al-harbajiyya), and "guard" (nubatji) or (nubatshi).51

Al-Tahtawi adopted official words and expressions, especially administrative items (officialese) that were current at that time. These terms were either Ottoman Turkish words, often Turko-Persian, prevalent in use in the Ottoman Egyptian administration and society, such as "chief of the doorkeepers and the central door of the palace" (al-katkhudd), "directive, declaration" (faraman [firman]), "finger" (bar- maq), and so on, or a mixture of Arabic and Turko-Persian elements, such as "treasurer" (al-khazindar), "rules, regulations" (qdntn-nama).52

Al-Tahtawi's approach was often to adopt the native name of the French item in order to render it meaningfully and clearly to his Arabic-speaking audience. He used other sources and means to aid him in the task of coining new words. Thus, in addition to single words derived from the classical lexicon, he resorted to colloquial Arabic already in current use, compound words, and Turko-Persian loan words. When all else failed, he imported the French word in toto, with some adaptation to the Arabic phonological and morphological systems, an approach that might be judged by purists to be eclectic. This principle of Arabicization of French items seems to have been used even if there was an acceptable Arabic equivalent. A vivid example of this is his adoption of "acadimie," a word that could easily have been accommo- dated with a native nomen loci, such as madrasa or malmac, or with an abstract noun denoting the intended sense. Instead, al-Tahtawi appropriated the French term academie, rendering it as akadama, or its variants, in its foreign form and meaning. It should be observed here that al-Tahtawi might not have used madrasa or malmac for academie because he thought the French academy went beyond, or was altogether different from, the Islamic madrasa or malmac. He subjected this term, and other terms as well, to Arabic rules of phonology and morphology, much in the same way that many Greek, Syriac, and Persian terms had been introduced during the Age of Translation (9th-Ilth centuries), as in, for example, mtsiqd (music), kiyan (from kiytnti, physis), and jawhar (essence), respectively.

Al-Tahtawi tried to make French ideas and institutions understood and familiar to his audience. One detects in such detailed description and use of terminology a desire on al-Tahtawi's part to establish some of these institutions in Egypt. In Takhlis,

Rifaca Rafic al-Tahtawi and Modern Literary Arabic 405

he maintained that some French institutions such as the sciences, crafts, schools, and universities had reached a high level of perfection and should be a model for emu- lation by Egyptians. His efforts should also be viewed in the context of calls for reform advocated by many of the reformers of the Arab renaissance, such as Hasan al-cAttar, Butrus al-Bustani, and (Ahmad) Faris al-Shidyaq, among many others. His translations of technical works, compilations of glossaries, and detailed descriptions of Paris were an attempt to bring to the awareness of his compatriots the advanced state of France vis-a-vis Egypt. They were also an important vehicle for enriching the lexicon of Arabic.

The difficulties that Arab intellectuals faced in the 19th century regarding a suit- able Arabic lexicon to express newly arrived Western ideas and cultural objects, the advent of specialized lexicon, and the subsequent enrichment of the language com- pare in significance to the two other important turning points in the history of Ara- bic. The first was the period of the rise of Islam in the 7th century and, subsequently, the codification of the Qur'an and its exegeses. The second was the flowering of Islamic sciences in the Age of Translation during the Abbasid era. During the latter period, many foreign words were introduced from Greek, Syriac, and Persian through the translation of sciences. These words were subjected to rules of Arabic phonology and morphology and became a part of Arabic scientific lexicon. Al-Tahtawi's efforts and those of his students from madrasat al-alsun continued the task of coining neologisms in the 19th century, thereby enriching the Arabic lexicon.

CONCLUSION

Al-Tahtawi attempted in his writings and translations to resolve the difficulties of locating appropriate Arabic lexical items to express the new sciences and cultural items introduced from the West into Egypt in the 19th century. To achieve this goal, he used several strategies: he imported European words, mainly from French, subjecting them to the Arabic phonological and morphological systems; infused classical and colloquial usages with new meanings; and coined neologisms. He appealed to the model-of-translation program during the Abbasid era. It should be observed, however, that not all of his strategies were equally successful, especially in the long term. The use of colloquialisms was criticized, and often rejected, by purist Arab writers of his time. Although there was some successful importation of loan words, this strategy on the whole also had limited long-term success. It was the coining of new words, and the resuscitation of classical ones that were given new connotations, that were to prove the more successful neologistic strategies for al-Tahtawi's success.

In a world shrinking as a result of the advances in the technology of communi- cation, Arabic-speaking regions are still in constant contact with the West and therefore in constant need of terms to designate ideas and objects that originate in the West. Al-Tahtawi's efforts are still relevant to the question of appropriate terminology in Arabic for Western technological objects. He was important not only for his contribution to the study of Arabic lexicon historically and the study of lexicography in general, but also for his pioneering role in enriching the Arabic language lexically. Arabicization is still debated in Arabic language academies, intellectual circles, universities, and government agencies. Al-Tahtawi's efforts may well shed light on fu- ture development of the Arabic lexicon by providing illuminating examples of how

406 Mohammed Sawaie

neologisms can express imported objects. Moreover, his efforts contribute to our un- derstanding of how languages develop through interaction with other languages.

NOTES

Author's note: I am grateful to Mark J. Elson, Juan R. I. Cole, and the anonymous IJMES reviewers for their valuable comments on an earlier draft of this article.

'The Bulaq Printing Press, also referred to as Matba'at sahib al-sa'dda, was established in 1819 or 1820 but did not become operative until 1822. Amin Sami Pasha, Taqwim al-nil (Cairo: Dar al-kutub al-misriyya, 1928), 2:578, mentions 1821 as the year of establishment. For further discussion, see Ibrahim 'Abdu, Tarikh al-waqa'ic al-misriyya (Cairo: Bulaq Printing Press, 1942), 7; Jamdl al-Din al-Shayyal, Tarikh al-tarjama wa al-haraka al-thaqafiyya fi 'asr Muhammad 'Ali (Cairo: Dar al-fikr al-crabi, 1951), 195-97.

2Examples of instructional materials include al-Tahtawi's al-Tuhfa al-maktabiyya li taqrib al-lugha al-'arabiyya (1868); al-Shidyaq's Ghunyat al-talib wa munyat al-raghibfi al-sarf wa al-nahw wa hurtf al- ma'ani) (1871); and Nasif al-Yaziji's Fasl al-khitabfi usul lughat al-aCrab (1854). Examples of dictionaries include Butrus al-Bustani's Muhit al-muhit (1869-70) and al-Shidyaq's al-Jasus Cala al-qamus (1881).

3Takhlis is less commonly known by the title al-Diwan al-nafis bi-iwan baris, and is sometimes referred to as Rihlat al-shaykh rifa'a al-tahtawi, which some Arab authors shortened to Rihla. Since its first publication in 1834, several editions of this book have been issued. Due to its popularity, it was translated by Rustum Efendi Basim into Ottoman Turkish and published by the Bulaq Printing Press in 1839.

All references to page numbers in Takhlis in this article are based on the text of this work con- tained in al-A'mal al-kamila li-lifaca Rafi' al-Tahtawi (Beirut: al-Mu'assasa al-'arabiyya li-al-dirasat wa al-nashr, 1973), vol. 22.

Al-Tahtawi divided Takhlis into six chapters, each of which he called "essay" (maqdla). Each maqdla is further subdivided into smaller sections called "section" (fasl). In addition, there is a Preface (khutba), an Introduction (muqaddima), and a Conclusion (khdtima). The muqaddima is further divided into "parts" (bdb). In citing Takhlis, we shall use al-Tahtawi's terminology-that is, maqala, fasl and muqaddima, etc.-and his numbering of these parts.

4Examples include, but are not limited to, various French institutions such as academic establishments, the theater, the French government system, law, libraries, museums, and issues and events such as the role of women in French society and the French Revolution of 1830.

5Al-Tahtawi arrived in France in 1826 unacquainted with French. He describes the task of learning the language in some detail in Takhlis. These experiences must have been daunting to the writer who, as far as we can determine, had never been schooled in any Western language prior to leaving Egypt. The traditional instructional methods used in the "village Qur'anic schools" (kuttab) and, in subsequent years, at al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo, where the study of Arabic continued using centuries-old methods, were the only methods of teaching known to him.

Al-Shayyal, Tdrikh al-tarjama, 120 mentions that al-Tahtawi arrived at al-Azhar in 1817 and that he spent five years there. Ahmad Ahmad Badawi, Rifa'a Rafi' al-Tahtawi, 2nd ed. (Cairo: Lajnat al-bayan al-'arabi, 1959), 15, however, mentions that al-Tahtawi arrived in Cairo in 1817, when the schoolyear at al-Azhar was halfway through. Al-Tahtawi officially became a student in the following year, 1818. Badawi, RifaCa, 15, mentions that al-Tahtawi spent about eight years at al-Azhar, during the last two of which he may have taught there. Further, Salih Majdi, Hulyat al-zaman bi manaqib khadim al-watan: sirat Rifaa Rafi' al-Tahtawi, ed. Jamal al-Din al-Shayyal (Cairo: Mustafa al-Babi al-Halabi & Sons, 1958), 29, stated that some of al-Tahtawi's relatives claimed that his residence in al-Azhar did not exceed eight years.

6Takhlis, third maqdla, fjal seven, 12 1. 7Al-Tahtawi's comment on the lack of mastery of spoken Arabic by Silvestre de Sacy: see Takhlis,

third maqdla, fasl two (Fi al-kalam 'ala ahl bariz), 83-91; and n. 10. 8AI-Tahtawi was originally appointed an "religious counselor/prayer leader" (imdm) of the student

mission sent to France in 1826, but was also allowed to pursue studies to be a translator. For further information, see Takhlis, khutba, 10.

9For his success on the 1827 examination, al-Tahtawi was awarded a seven-volume set of Voyage du jeune Anarcharsis en Grece by Abbe Jean-Jacques Barthelemy (1716-95). We should note that the


reference is to Anarcharsis, the legendary Scythian prince who traveled extensively in Greece in the 6th century a.C., and who was popularized by Barthelemy in the aforementioned title, published in 1788 (see Simon Hornblower and Antony Spawforth, ed., Oxford Classical Dictionary, 3rd ed. ([Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996], 79).

For his success on the 1828 examination, al-Tahtawi was awarded two books, al-Anis al-mufid li al- talib al-mustafid and Jami' al-shudhur min manzum wa manthur, which were compiled, critically anno- tated, and translated into French by Silvestre de Sacy (1758-1838), who was an Arabist and Persianist, university professor and administrator, compiler, editor, and translator. He authored several works, including al-Tuhfa al-saniyyafi 'ilm al-carabiyya (1810); al-Anis al-mufid li al-talib al-mustafid, Jami' al- shudhur min manzum wa manthur (1826); and al-Mukhtar min kutub a'immat al-tafsir wa al-'arabiyya fi kashf al-ghita' 'an ghawamid al-istilahat al-nahwiyya wa al-lughawiyya (1829). For further information on these examinations and their format, see Takhlis, fourth maqdla, fasl six, 195-96.

According to al-Tahtawi, de Sacy's spoken Arabic was limited, his pronunciation was accented, and his written style was poor and influenced by his mastery of European languages. For further information on de Sacy, see Takhlis, third maqila, fasl two, 83; and Anouar Louca, L'Or de Paris (Paris: Sindbad, 1988), 323-24, n. 119.

10Takhlis, fourth maqdla, fasl six, 196-97. "1Ibid., 196-98. Edme-Frangais Jomard (1777-1862) was an engineer, geographer, and archeologist. He went to Egypt

with the Napoleonic expedition and was a member of the Commission of Science and Arts at the Insti- tute of Egypt (1799-1801). He directed the preparation and edition of the encyclopedic Description de l'Egypte. Jomard encouraged Muhammad 'Ali to send missions of students to France to learn Western sciences needed by Muhammad 'Ali's administration, and he supervised al-Tahtawi's studies during his stay in Paris. In al-Tahtawi's eyes, he was the quintessential modern savant. For further information on Jomard, see Jean-Marie Carre, Voyageurs et Ecrivains franfais en Egypte (Cairo: Institut franqais d'Archeologie Orientale, 1932), 1:148; and Louca, L'Or de Paris, 318, n. 39. For al-Tahtawi's views on Jomard, see Takhlis, khatima, 262-64.

12For a list of the names of those attending this examination, see Louca, L'Or de Paris, 330, n. 208. 13Takhlis, fourth maqala 4, fasl six, 195-97. There is no indication as to whether al-Tahtawi chose

these items or they were chosen for him by his teachers or Jomard, his academic adviser. It is interesting to note, however, that subjects such as geography and map-making, engineering, military and health sciences, and metallurgy were of interest to Muhammad 'Ali's administration in that they were essential for the building of a strong army and state.

14Elhments de mineralogie populaire by Cyprien-Prosper Brard: see Louca, L'Or de Paris, 230, 329, n. 202.

15According to Louca (p. 230), this is an introduction to The Dictionnaire de geographie universelle relative a la geographie physique, reviewed by M. de Humboldt.

16Ibid. Louca states that this is from the first volume of Geographie by Conrad Malte-Brun (1775- 1826); see also the letter by Reinaud (1795-1867) to al-Tahtawi (Takhlis, fourth maqala, fasl four, 187), in which there is a reference to al-Tahtawi's translation of the first volume of Malte-Brun's Geographie.

It should also be mentioned that al-Tahtawi translated and published the first and third volumes of Malte- Brun's Geographie universelle under the title al-Jughrafya al-'umumiyya (Bulaq Printing Press, n.d.).

17Andrien-Marie Legendre, Elements de geometrie, third book, Paris. Many editions of this book appeared in the 19th century. See Louca, L'Or de Paris, 329, n. 200. Al-Tahtawi translated this book under the title MabadiP al-handasa (Bulaq Printing Press, 1842).

18Louca, LOr de Paris, 230, 329, n. 205, mentions that this book, Elements du droit naturel et devoires de l'homme et du citoyen tels qu'ils lui sont prescrits par la loi naturelle (Paris, 1820) is by Jean- Jacques Burlamaqui (1694-1748) and edited by Janet et Cotelle.

19Shaykh Hasan al-cAttar (1766-1835) was the rector of al-Azhar from 1830 to 1835, a traveler in Syria and Turkey, a poet, and a learned man who wrote treatises on Arabic grammar, sciences, medicine, the art of writing, and logic, among many other subjects. He recommended that al-Tahtawi be the "religious counselor/prayer leader" (imam) to the mission of Egyptian students sent to France in 1826 by Muhammad 'Ali.

During the Napoleonic expedition to Egypt, al-cAttar had contacts with the group of French scholars that accompanied Napoleon, who might have introduced him to the advancement of science in France and, consequently, encouraged him to advocate learning these sciences. Perhaps because of his call for reform,

408 Mohammed Sawaie

al-'Attar is considered an important figure in Nahda: see 'Ali Mubarak, al-Khitat al-tawfiqiyya (Cairo: Al- Hay'a al-misriyya al-'amma li al-kitab (1986) 4:82-85; Jurji Zaydan, Tarikh al-adab al-'arabiyya (Beirut: Dar maktabat al-hayat, 1978), 4:596; G. Delanou, Moralistes et politiques musulmans dans l'Egypte du XIXE sijcle (1798-1882) (Cairo: Institut frangais d'Archeologie Orientale du Caire, 1982), 34-35; and Peter Gran, Islamic Roots of Capitalism, Egypt, 1760-1840 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1979), 74-110.

20Takhlis, khutba, 10-11. 21Ibid., 11. 22Ibid., sixth maqdla,fayl one-seven, 225-49. 23Scholars disagree about the number of participants in the 1826 student mission to France. 'Umar

Tusun, al-Bi'that al-'ilmiyya fi `ahd Muhammad 'Ali (Alexandria: n.p., 1934), 12, mentions that there were forty-two students, who were joined by an unspecified number of others at a later, unspecified time. 'Abd al-Rahman al-Rafi'i, 'Asr Muhammad 'Ali (Cairo: Maktabat al-nahda al-misriyya, 3rd ed. [1951], 478), however, states that there were forty participants, who were followed by four others at a later, unspecified time. According to al-Rafi'i, the total number of students was forty-four.

24Takhlis, fourth maqdla,fasl four, 183-86. Armand-Pierre Caussin de Perceval (1795-1871), son of a classical Arabic professor at College de France, traveled in Syria as a translator in the Foreign Service before he assumed, in 1821, the chair of colloquial Arabic (arabe vulgaire) at the Ecole des langues ori- entales vivantes, after the death of Ellious Bocthor (see n. 33). In 1828-29, he published Dictionnaire franfais-arabe, which Ellious Bocthor had left in manuscript form, adding to it elements from Syrian dialects. See Louca, L'Or de Paris, 328, n. 190. On Silvestre de Sacy, see n. 9 in this article.

25Takhlis, fourth maqala, fasl four, 183-86. 26Ibid., 183-84. 27Both quotes are from ibid., fasl six, 197. 28Ibid., muqaddima, bab two, 22. 291n geography, al-Tahtawi translated al-Ta'ribat al-shafiya li-murid al-jughrafya, which was pub-

lished in 1834 and 1838 as a textbook, and Malte-Brun's Geographie, of which he published volumes one and three under the title al-Jughrafiya al-'umumiyya (n.d.). See Majdi Salih, Hulyat al-zaman, 29, n. 1; and al-Shayyal, Tarikh al-tarjama, 134-35. As for law, al-Tahtawi translated, with his student Abdulla al-Sayyid, al-Qanun al-madani al-ifranji, which was published in two volumes at the Bulaq Printing Press in 1876 (see Majdi Salih, Hulyat al-zaman, 63, n. 4), and Qanun al-tijara, translated by al-Tahtawi alone and published in 1868 (see Majdi Salih, Hulyat al-zaman, 64, n. 5, item 9). In history, he translated Fenelon's (d. 1715) Les Aventures de Telemaque under the title Mawaqi' al-aflak fi akhbar talimak (Beirut: Syrian Press, n.d.): see Majdi Salih, Hulyat al-zaman, 38, n. 3, 63, n. 1). There are some reports that al-Tahtawi translated a book in medicine, but Majdi Salih was not able to verify this (Hulyat al- zaman, 35, n. 1, 64). Finally, in sciences, al-Tahtawi translated Mabadi' al-handasa, published in two editions by the Bulaq Printing Press in 1833 and 1843 and by the Engineering School Press in 1853 (see Majdi Salih, Hulyat al-zaman, 64, n. 1).

30Takhlis, third maqdla, fasl two, 88. 3'Ibid., third maqala,fasl two, 88-89. It is unclear which evaluative measures prompted al-Tahtawi to label

culinary schools "lowly." We can only speculate that for someone like him, training at al-Azhar in traditional core subjects such as the Arabic language and Islamic sciences shaped his views as to what constituted exalted or lowly sciences. Also, perhaps because cooking in al-Tahtawi's Egypt was done mostly at home and presumably by women, he did not believe that it merited its own schools and specialized glossaries.

32AI-Shayyal, Tarikh al-tarjama, 186. 33See Armand-Pierre Caussin de Perceval's introduction to Ellious Bocthor, Dictionnaire francais-arabe,

4th ed. (Paris: E Didot Pere & Fils, 1869). Jacques Tajir, Harakat al-tarjama bi misr khilal al-qarn al- tasi' 'ashar (Cairo: Dar al-ma'arif, 1945), 10, n. 2, mentioned the Copt Elias (sic) Boktor's dictionary of the dialects of Egypt, al-Sham (Greater Syria), Morocco, and Tunisia. According to him, this dictionary was published in Paris in 1864 and in Egypt in 1872: Tajir, Harakat al-tarjama, 13, added more details about Boctor's biography and his dictionary.

While some of Tajir's information may be correct, it is necessary to mention that he must have been discussing the third edition of this dictionary, which was published in 1864 in Paris. The first edition of the dictionary appeared in Paris in 1828-29 in two volumes: see Paul Catin, ed., Catalogue general des livres imprimes de la Bibliotheque Nationale (Paris, 1924), 14:742. The Cairo edition, which was revised and added to by Ibed Gallab, appeared in 1871, not 1872, as Tajir claims: see The National Union Cata- logue: Pre-1956 Imprints (Chicago and London: Mausell, 1969), 62:606.


34Al-Shayyal, Tarikh al-tarjama, 188. 35Ibid. 36Badawi, Rifa'a, 296, quotes al-Tahtawi's statement to this effect and mentions that it can be found in

al-Ma'adin al-nafica (p. 3, in the margin). 37For further information, see al-Shayyal, Tarikh al-tarjama, 188. Badawi, Rifa'a, 296, mentions that

al-Tahtawi compiled modest lists of coinages and Arabicized words and placed them at either the beginning or the end of books that he translated, including, al-Ta'ribat al-shafiya; Qala'id al-mafakhir; Mabadi' al-handasa; and al-Ma'adin al-nafi'a. I was able to check Qala'id al-mafakhir and al-Ta'ribat al-shafiya only. In Qala'id, the alphabetically arranged Arabicized words occupy 105 pages, whereas the actual text of the book takes up 112. In other words, the glossary component was approximately equivalent in size to the text of the book.

In al-Ta'ribat al-shafiya, printed by the Bulaq Printing Press in 1838, al-Tahtawi included a special section, which is part six of volume 2. In this section (pp. 62-95), we find "a list of the idiomatic expressions, used in geography of all types, and arranged alphabetically."

38For further information, see Al-Shayyal, Tarikh al-tarjama, 190-91. Badawi, Rifa'a, 298, provides a list of books translated by al-Tahtawi's students.

Despite the apparent role that al-Tahtawi played in encouraging his students to enrich the Arabic lexicon with their neologisms, his impact on these disciples is an important area of research that has not been studied and is beyond the scope of this article. It would be of interest, for example, to assess the degree to which later translators and writers drew on al-Tahtawi's strategies and his discussion of them.

39Al-Shayyal, Tarikh al-tarjama, 187, discusses this matter in some detail and mentions that a Persian- Turkish dictionary by Khayrat Efendi, Muhammad 'Ali's secretary, was printed by the Bulaq Printing Press in 1826. In 1835, a Turkish translation of al-Firuzabadi's Arabic dictionary al-Qamus al-muhit with the Arabic text was published. For further discussion of dictionary-making during this period, see al- Shayyal, Tarikh al-tarjama, 187-94.

40In addition to interest in dictionaries, language matters were part of al-Tahtawi's interest and work- for example, the rewriting of al-Tuhfa al-maktabiyya li-taqrib al-lugha al-'crabiyya, an Arabic grammar for teaching purposes that was published in 1868. In this work, he presents the Arabic grammar in sim- plified and innovative ways. Perhaps al-Tahtawi was influenced by de Sacy's instructional grammar book al-Tuhfa al-saniyya fi 'ilm al-'arabiyya, in which de Sacy recorded the Arabic grammar, according to al-Tahtawi, in an unprecedented way (see Takhlis, third maqala, fasl two, 87). He also wrote Jumal al- ajrumiyya, published in 1863.

41See nn. 13-18. 42Takhlis, third maqdla, fasl seven, 119-22. 43Ibid., muqaddima, bab two, 22. 44Ibid., third maqala, fasl seven, 121. 45Ibid., 70, according to Badawi, Rifa'a, 267. I have not been able to verify this text. 46See the various Arabic words used for this "legislative" office mentioned by al-Shayyal, Tarikh

al-tarjama, 214, until the time of writing his book in 1951. New terms to name this same institution have been in use since then, such as "the people's council" (majlis al-sha'b), "the nation council" (majlis al-umma), barlaman (from parliament), and so on.

47See Takhlis, third maqala, fasl seven, 121. 48As in "capital of France" (kursi bilad al-faransis), and in "capital of Ali [-ite] State" (relative to

Muhammad 'Ali's dynasty) (takht al-dawlah al-'aliyya); or as in (lit.) "capital of the country of the English" (takht bilad al-inkliz).

Timothy Mitchell, Colonising Egypt (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991), 88-89, discusses "a transformation in vocabulary and in thinking that actually occurred in nineteenth century Egypt" and provides examples such as "education" (tarbiya) and the changes in its various meanings since it was introduced by al-Tahtawi in his description of Ecole Polytechnique in Paris, and "politics" (siyasa) (ibid., 102-4). Mitchell (pp. 119-20) also discusses al-Tahtawi's introduction of neologisms and phrases that have become common, such as "social organization" (al-intizam al-'umrani) and "organized association" (al-jam'iyya al-muntazima).

49As has been stated, de Sacy commented on the style of Takhlis, describing it as simple, clear, and un- burdened by embellishments. De Sacy added that al-Tahtawi's writing in Takhlis is not always in accordance with the rules of the Arabic language, perhaps because of the use of colloquialisms. For this observation, see Takhlis, fourth maqala, fasl four, 184, 186.

410 Mohammed Sawaie

We must add here that al-Tahtawi expressed his pleasure about the positive remarks made about his book by de Perceval and de Sacy. However, he defended his "simple" writing style, as suggested by the two previous Arabists, claiming that by the use of simple phraseology he did not wish to employ a gran- diloquent style. According to him, he was inclined to accept a principle that French scholars often followed in their writing: a simple phrase performs the function of an eloquent one (ibid., 186).

50It is interesting to note that al-Tahtawi's use of the colloquial Egyptian word mukahhilfit instead of kahhdl, the word that had been in use in the Arabic medical tradition-as in the title Jubra'il Kahhal al-Ma'mun (see Ibn Abi Usaybi'a, 'Uyun al-anba'fi tabaqat al-attibba' [Beirut: Dar maktabat al-hayat, n.d.], 241).

It is also worth noting that "sightseeing" (al-furja) and (al-tafarruj) are derivations of tafarraja, a classical Arabic verb. Their current usage, however, is ascribed to the colloquial.

The institution of "coffee houses" had not acquired the current literary Arabic term al-maqhd at al-Tahtawi's time. To express the idea, he used the still-in-use colloquial al-qahwa and its plural form, al-qahdwi.

51Qahwaji, for example, comprises the Arabic stem "coffee" (qahwa) and the Turkish suffix "maker, owner, relevant to" (Ji); al-harbajiyya consists of "war" (harb) and the Turkish suffix Ji, plus the Arabic nisba adjectival suffix -iyy and the feminine marker -a(t); and "guard" (nubatshi or nubatchi), consists of the Arabic "time, turn, occurrence" (nauba) and the Turkish -l. Note the change of nauba to nuba and the phonological change in Ijil to Ichil or Ishil following [t] in nauba, as in nubatchi or nubatshi.

52"Treasurer" (khdzin dar) comprises the agentive noun khazin from the Arabic verb "to store, trea- sure" (khazana) and the substantive "house" (ddr). Qdntin nama is from the Arabic qcniin (originally Greek) and Persian ndma, "book, work."

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