Shu’ubiyya

To see how we move from a discourse about Arabness to language (whether ‘arabiyya [= Arabic-ness] or ibraniyya [= Hebrew-ness]), see this blog post.

An 11th-century Epistle

This was written by Ibn Gharsiya [= Garcia] al-Bashkunsi, an 11th-century Basque muwallad Muslim who wrote about Arabness in Arabic.

Source, pp. 23-9.

An 11th-century Poem

This snippet was written by a Jewish poet in the 11th century, making the claim that Hebrew was better than “Edomite” (Romance) and “the language of Qedar” (Arabic).

Source, p. 72.