Language and Identity: The Twin Histories of Arabic and Aramaic (and: Why did Aramaic Succeed where Greek Failed?)

Abstract

This article looks at the long intertwined relationship between Aramaic and Arabic across nearly 3000 years. In particular, it points out that Arabic was written down centuries before the rise of Islam, much earlier than is usually supposed, and that Aramaic continued to be employed for literary purposes later and more widely than is usually supposed. Some thought is given as to why Aramaic fared better than Greek, which ceased to be a major written language of the Islamic Empire already by the ninth century.