I am, Sir, Your most obedient servant,
VASCO DE GAMA.
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 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 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:[ (return) ] 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 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.
I am, Sir,
Your most obedient Servant,
James G. Jackson.
Cursory Observations on the Geography of Africa, inserted in an Account of a Mission to Ashantee, by T. Edward Bowdich, Esq. showing the Errors that have been committed by European Travellers on that Continent, from their Ignorance of the Arabic Language, the learned and the general travelling Language of that interesting part of the World.