Your most obedient servant,
VASCO DE GAMA.
471
_On the Arabic Language, as now spoken in Turkey in Europe, in
Asia, and in Africa_.
London, May 10, 1819.
In this enlightened age, when our intercourse is increasing with
nations remote from our own, and possessing different religions,
languages, laws, and customs; when the ambassadors of the Muhamedan
potentates of Europe, Asia, and Africa, are resident in our
metropolis, all understanding _the Arabic language_; when, with a
knowledge of this language, a person may travel and hold colloquial
intercourse with the inhabitants of Turkey, with the greater part
of Asia, and with Africa; and, lastly, when we consider the
valuable and immense stores of Arabian literature, of the best
periods which still remain unexplored, is it not remarkable under
all the exciting circumstances above enumerated, that in this
powerful and opulent country, there should not be found, with all
our boasted learning and eagerness of research, three or four
Englishmen capable of writing and conversing intelligibly in that
beautiful and useful language? The extent of this disgraceful
ignorance would be scarcely credible, were there not proofs beyond
doubt, that our principal seats of learning are as deficient in
472 this knowledge as the public in general[275], and that letters or
public documents written in that language, have been in vain sent
to them for translation. What I have long considered as chiefly
tending to diminish the desire of acquiring this language, is an
opinion dogmatically asserted, and diligently propagated, that the
Arabic of the East and West are so different from each other, as
almost to form distinct languages, and to be unintelligible to the
inhabitants of either of those regions respectively; but, having
always doubted the truth of this assertion, I have endeavoured,
from time to time, _during the last ten years_, to ascertain
whether the Arabic language spoken in Asia be the same with that
which is spoken in Africa, (westward to the shores of the Atlantic
ocean,) but without success, and even without the smallest
473 satisfactory elucidation, until the arrival in London last winter,
of the most _Reverend Doctor Giarve, Bishop of Jerusalem_, who has
given such incontestible proofs of his proficiency in the Arabic
language, that his opinion on this important point cannot but be
decisive; accordingly, on presenting to the reverend Doctor some
letters from the Emperor of Marocco to me, desiring that he would
oblige me with his opinion, whether the Arabic in those letters was
the same with that spoken in Syria, the Rev. Doctor replied in the
following perspicuous manner, which, I think, decides the question:
_"I can assure you, that the language and the idiom of the Arabic
in these letters from the Emperor of Marocco to you, is precisely
the same with that which is spoken in the East."_
[Footnote 275: See page 408. respecting a letter sent to our
late revered Sovereign, by the Emperor of Marocco. In
consequence of the inattention to that letter, the Emperor
determined never to write again to a Christian king in the
Arabic language; and, with regard to Great Britain, I believe
he has faithfully ever since kept his word! Some time before
this letter was written, I being then in Marocco, the Emperor's
minister asked me if the Emperor his master were to write an
Arabic letter to the _Sultan George Sultan El Ingleez_, (these
were his expressions,) whether there were persons capable of
translating it into English: I replied, that there were men at
the Universities capable of translating every learned language
in the known world; and accordingly the letter above alluded to
was written in Arabic, and addressed to His Majesty. This
letter was written by the Emperor himself, which I am competent
to declare, having letters from him in my possession, and being
acquainted with his hand-writing and style.]
It is, therefore, thus ascertained, that the Arabic language spoken
in the kingdom of Tafilelt, of Fas, of Marocco, and in Suse or
South Barbary, is precisely the same language with that which is
now spoken in Syria, and Palestine in Asia; countries distant from
each other nearly 3000 miles, and from information since obtained,
there appears to be no doubt that the Arabic language spoken by the
Arabs in Arabia, by the Moors and Arabs in India and Madagascar, by
the Moorish nations on the African shores of the Mediterranean, are
one and the same language with that spoken in Marocco, subject only
to certain provincial peculiarities, which by no means form
474 impediments to the general understanding of the language, no more,
or not so much so, as the provincial peculiarities of one county of
England differ from another!!
Unwilling to encroach too much on your valuable pages, I will
leave, for the subject of my next letter, the inconceivable
misconstructions and errors into which the ignorance of this
language has led European travellers in Africa, of which I shall
state some examples in a recent publication respecting Africa.