Master Classical Arabic through the Jahiz Institute

In today’s interconnected world, understanding different languages and cultures is essential. Arabic, with its rich history, is a key to Middle Eastern culture and thought.

This article features Brian Powell, an experienced Arabic scholar and translator. Brian has founded the Jahiz Institute, a new online institution offering in-depth courses in classical Arabic and Arab/Islamic history.

Brian’s early interest in Arabic script led to the creation of the Jahiz Institute, where he shares his thoughts on Arabic literature and history. This is Brian’s story and the opportunities the Jahiz Institute offers for learning Arabic and its culture.

Can you introduce yourself and tell us how your Arabic journey began?

My name is Brian Powell, and at this point, I’ve been studying Arabic for about 20 years. I originally started studying Arabic just because I was fascinated by the beauty of the Arabic script, and I wanted to understand how it worked. This quickly became an obsession with the language and a fascination with Arabic history and culture.

I was initially going down an academic path in Middle Eastern Studies, but then I moved to Egypt and never looked back. It was in Egypt that I began my career as an Arabic translator, and for the past 12 years, I have been the translation manager for Industry Arabic, a U.S.-based translation agency focused primarily on Arabic.

In some ways, it’s a dream job because I get to work with Arabic every single day and get exposed to all types of material from all over the Arab world. But my real passion is Arabic literature, and we certainly don’t get enough of that in this field!

Note: If you want to learn more about Brian, you can do so in the 9273 Roots interview that Brian was featured in 2019.

20 questions for: Brian Powell (#16)

"9273 roots" interview: 20 questions for the man who works for one of the best translation companies for Arabic: Brian Powell

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September 18, 2019

How did you come up with the idea of ​​founding the Jahiz Institute?

The initial idea came from a reading circle I used to have with a couple of friends who had studied Arabic with me in Egypt. We had all been out of academia for some years, but we still had this desire to read interesting texts in Arabic. So each week, we would pick a text and then meet online to discuss and analyze it. Ibn Khaldun, Ibn Battuta, Mas‘udi, al-Suyuti, and of course – al-Jahiz.

It was great fun, and so I thought: why not create a space to share this experience with a broader audience?

Moreover, in my years of studying Arabic and Persian, I have come to know many wonderful teachers and scholars, and the Jahiz Institute is meant to provide them a platform to offer courses in their areas of expertise.

How did you come up with the name (Jahiz)?

The institute is named in honor of al-Jahiz (عمرو بن بحر الجاحظ), one of the greatest writers of the Arabic language.

He wrote some of the best prose ever written in Arabic, but he wasn’t just a literary figure. He had a wide-ranging curiosity and wrote on philosophy, theology, linguistics, and zoology, among other subjects.

Al-Jahiz represents the sort of humanistic ideal that we are trying to embody in the Jahiz Institute.

Who was al-Jahiz?

Abu Uthman Amr ibn Bahr al-Kinani al-Basri (أبو عثمان عمرو بن بحر الكناني البصري), born in 776 CE in Basra, Iraq, was a prominent Arab prose writer, poet, and scholar whose contributions to Arabic literature and intellectual thought are still celebrated today.

He is particularly noted for his works in the fields of literature, zoology, and history, with his most famous work being Kitab al-Hayawan (كتاب الحيوان), Book of Animals, which combines elements of storytelling with scientific observation, showcasing his unique style and broad expertise. The book contains descriptions of over 350 animal species.

His writings often reflected a deep understanding of the natural world and the complexities of society, earning him a distinctive place in the annals of Arabic literature.

Al-Jahiz died in 869 CE in the city of Basra, which is located in present-day Iraq.

What do you find interesting about ancient Arabic texts and history?

I connect to Arabic texts and history on several levels.

On the most basic level, I’m just in love with the Arabic language and its expressive possibilities. And it was certainly in the pre-modern period that you find Arabic writers exploiting the genius of the Arabic language to the fullest.

One of the great things about Arabic is its incredible wealth of vocabulary and the endless possibilities it offers for metaphor and wordplay.

To give just the most recent example, this week I was reading Ibn al-Farid’s (ابن الفارض) Wine Ode for the course I’m currently teaching on “Sufism in its Original Texts,” and he makes a pun between ẓulm (ظُلْم), meaning “wrong” and another word ẓalm (ظَلْم).

Now, I’ve never seen this word ẓalm before, so I look to see the definition of it in Lane’s famous dictionary. And how does Lane define it? “The lustre of the teeth, from the clearness of the colour, not from the saliva…so that one imagines that there is in it a blackness, by reason of the intense lustre and clearness.”

My first reaction is, how great is it that Arabic has such a specific word for this concept? In just the definition itself, there are observations that make you see the world in a different way.

And of course, Classical Arabic has a wealth of vocabulary for many other concepts as well: love, colors, physical characteristics, and of course – camels. There’s the old cliché that the indigenous people of Alaska (Inuit) have 50 different words for snow. Well, Arabic has 50 different words for everything.

So back to Ibn al-Farid with our newfound understanding of ẓalm, we can translate the line as follows: “Turning away from the beloved’s bright teeth is wrong.” But in this juxtaposition with the brightness of the teeth, it also seems that he must be evoking ẓulam (ظُلَمٌ – plural of ظَلْمةٌ) as well, meaning “darkness.” Turning away from the brightness of the beloved’s teeth is not just wrong; it’s darkness.

It’s this kind of thing that makes you think that James Joyce should have really written in Arabic.

Do you have a favorite author, period, or theme?

As for favorite authors or periods, it’s really hard to pick just one.

What I find fascinating in the Medieval Islamic world is that it seems to be a fluid world of manifold possibilities, where ideas and visions matter, and where the ordinary bounds of reality do not seem to apply.

There was a certain openness and mobility in the Islamic Middle Period where scholars and merchants could travel from one end of the Islamic world to the other and feel at home everywhere. There was also a sense of metaphysical and intellectual possibility, where new philosophies and religious doctrines were springing up and multiplying at a rapid pace. Even ruling dynasties could spin up out of nothing but a religious vision, as you see with the Fatimids (الفاطميون) and the Almohads (الموحدون).

So I suppose I connect most to Arabic texts that reflect this world of fluidity, mystery and possibility.

• In one sense, you see this in the writings of the Sufis, with their dreams, visions, travels and fortuitous encounters with spiritual masters.
• In another way, you get glimpses of this in the 1001 Nights with its voyages, supernatural incidents and sudden reversals of fortune.
• You also find this in the literature of what C. E. Bosworth called the “Medieval Islamic Underworld,” such as Kashf al-asrār (الكشف عن الأسرار) by al-Jawbari (الجوبري).
• Perhaps the best depiction of this fluid, unpredictable era is in the Maqāmāt of al-Hariri (مقامات الحريري). Each episode takes place in a different city in the Islamic world, and features the enigmatic con man Abu Zayd, who is forever engaged on a new swindle in a new disguise, only to be unmasked at the end.
• The Maqāmāt is also a work of linguistic virtuosity that is a real feast of language. Written in ornate, rhymed prose, it uses recondite vocabulary, wordplay, and metaphor in a way that pushes Arabic to its limit. In that respect, I guess you could say it intersects with my love for Arabic’s expressive power.

So let’s say that the Maqāmāt is my favorite work.

There are plenty of videos and online courses on Arabic now. What would you like to do differently?

What really sets us apart is our focus on the humanities: literature, history, culture. We offer courses on Islam and Islamic texts as well, but from a humanistic standpoint.

Especially when it comes to Classical Arabic, it can be hard to find Arabic teachers who are both qualified to teach it and interested in teaching the more secular – and sometimes scandalous – works in the Arabic literary tradition.

At the Jahiz Institute, we’re proud to say that we’ve put together a team of outstanding Arabic teachers who can do Classical Arabic, who can do MSA, and who love all aspects of Arabic history and culture and want to share that with their students.

Who do you want to attract with your offer? What level of Arabic do you need? How much do you need to know about Arabic history?

We have several target audiences in mind.

In the first place, we are targeting adult learners who have an interest in Middle Eastern literature, culture and history, but who have jobs and careers and who aren’t able to pursue these interests full-time through university courses.

Based on what I’ve seen from my personal experience, there is a growing audience for this type of education model. For instance, out of my friends from grad school, the majority are no longer in academia. But they still have this intellectual curiosity and this desire to continue learning and connect with people with similar interests. Given current trends, there’s a real need for alternative spaces where people can pursue the life of the mind outside of a traditional university setting, and the Jahiz Institute exists to serve that need.

Secondly, our courses can be a useful supplement for Arabic students who are currently enrolled in undergraduate and graduate programs.

One of the best ways to improve your language skills is through extensive reading, especially reading literature. Our language courses give students texts to read that are interesting, fun, culturally significant – and that are slightly different than what you’ll find in classic textbooks like al-Kitab.

For students with more niche interests, we also offer private tutorials where you can study a text or topic of your choice with one of our instructors. Do you want to read Deliverance from Error (المنقذ من الضلال) by al-Ghazali (الغزالي) in the original Arabic? Do you want to read some poems from al-Mutanabbi (المتنبي)? Would you like to read the latest short stories from the Arab world? We can design a lesson plan around your particular interests.

Finally, we also aspire to reach the general public of people who have a curiosity about the Middle East and would like to learn more.
Our belief is that Islamic civilization possesses an intellectual and artistic heritage that can be valuable and life-enriching for everyone, regardless of background.

To that end, we have course offerings for every level, from people with zero Arabic and zero background knowledge all the way up to advanced students and researchers.

Courses range from Early Islamic Texts to Sufism to Ibn Battuta. What can I expect to learn in the Ibn Battuta course?

Several of the courses, like the Ibn Battuta course, are structured along two tracks.

• The main course is taught in English and the texts are read in translation. This allows us to open the course to the general public and anyone who is interested in these topics.
• Then there is an additional Arabic section where we read the same texts in Arabic with the students. For students trying to develop reading ability in Classical Arabic, we find that this combination of reading both a translation and the original helps smooth the transition toward sight-reading untranslated texts.

The main course meets once a week. For students enrolled in the Arabic section, they will attend the main course and an additional class session to read the Arabic texts.

Other classes are entirely language focused. For example, the course on “Early Islamic Texts” is designed for intermediate and advanced students of Arabic who would like to start reading Qur’an, hadith, and other religious texts from the early centuries of Islam.

Of course, these texts have a great deal of theological and historical significance and we will touch on that in the course, but the main focus is on developing students’ ability to read and understand these texts in Arabic at a linguistic level.

Is there homework? Do you get handouts? A certificate?

The course is also taught in Arabic, so students will have a chance to practice their speaking and listening as well. In general, we try to make our courses accessible for people with busy lives and other commitments.

Classes usually assign weekly readings that should take about 2 to 3 hours maximum. Students will get the most out of the class if they do the readings, of course. However, we understand that life gets in the way and so lessons are structured so that you will still be able to benefit from the class if you haven’t done the reading.

Classes take place on Zoom and are recorded for the benefit of students who have to miss a session or who can’t attend live. We’re happy to provide certificates for students who need one, but it’s not a regular feature of our courses.

For students who know Modern Standard Arabic, what is the value of studying Classical Arabic?

So first off, there is a wide range of difficulty among texts in Classical Arabic. There are a lot of works that are probably easier than your average modern Arabic novel, for instance.

One thing that Classical Arabic writers liked to do was collect witty, humorous and/or wise anecdotes, and there is a wealth of collections like these full of short anecdotes that make for fun and relatively simple reading.

And the best part is, if you don’t understand one anecdote, you can just skip to the next one. It’s not like a novel where if you miss one crucial detail you are lost for the rest of the book. Examples include The Book of Misers by al-Jahiz (كتاب البخلاء) and Ibn al-Jawzi’s Sketches of Fools and Simpletons (أخبار الحمقى والمغفلين).

Even the Qur’an and the Hadiths are relatively straightforward to read on the grammatical and syntactical level. They do have some obscure vocabulary, but of course these works have great resources available to help you with that.

So here you have the advantage that some of the most important works in the Arabic tradition – works that continue to shape the Arabic language today – are also some of the most accessible texts to read in Classical Arabic.

Of course, I’m not going to deny that some works in Classical Arabic are challenging. The poetry especially can be difficult.

But it’s precisely this type of challenge that will help you level up your Arabic. You can’t just feel your way or guess your way through it, like you can with a contemporary news article. You have to pay close attention to the grammar and the precise meanings and connotations of words.

Ultimately, reading Classical Arabic is what will enable you to grasp the nature of the Arabic language on a very deep level.

Brian Powell, thank you for your time.