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Coining the new concept of the “Arabicate,” this pioneering volume explores its parameters as a world historical process that linked Africa, the Indian Ocean, and the Mediterranean via the impact of Arabic on new cultures of writing. Through regional and linguistic case studies, the dozen contributors map the spatial, social, and intellectual dimensions of this Arabicate world.
After a detailed introduction that theorizes the Arabicate and delineates its criteria, the book traces the interplay between Arabic and newly written languages that drew on it for their script, loanwords, literary genres, or legal and administrative systems. From Italy and Iberia through sub-Saharan Africa to the Maldives, India, and Southeast Asia, the book examines how Arabic shaped the development of dozens of written languages ranging from Arabic-script Spanish, Berber, and Old Kanembu to Swahili, Dhivehi, and Malay.
Nile Green holds the Ibn Khaldun Endowed Chair in World History at the University of California, Los Angeles. His twelve monographs and ten edited books include How Asia Found Herself: A Story of Intercultural Understanding and The Persianate World: The Frontiers of a Eurasian Lingua Franca.