Thirty students and faculty gathered in Craig Lecture Hall on Monday evening. French professor Ali Yedes stood beaming behind the podium, and silence hung over the audience as they awaited his introduction: an Arabic scholar had come to Oberlin.

Salman Alani is a professor of linguistics, Arabic and Arab literature at Indiana University. Alani is a prolific scholar: during his introduction, Yedes attempted to list all of the books and essays Alani had published. Out of breath, Yedes eventually abandoned the endeavor. Alani’s talk, titled “Arabic Language: Sacred & Secular; History, Teaching & Varieties,” was sponsored primarily by the French and Italian department.

“This isn’t really about any specialized point. It’s simply a general statement,” Salman began. The lecture, like the first of a good introductory course, was punctuated with informative blue PowerPoint slides and readily accessible to those with little to no previous exposure to Arabic. Following the lecture, Alani told the Review that he did not want to overwhelm those who were new to the field.

“Originally, in the fifth century A.D. and before that, Arabic was mostly confined to one geographic area, mostly Arabia,” said Alani.

Behind him was a map of the world. Large portions of North Africa, Europe and Asia were rectangled off to represent the 300 million native speakers of Arabic and the 23 countries of which it is the official language. Alani explained that when the Qur’an was revealed in Arabic, the nature of Arabic changed both in geographic scope and in how it is regarded by those who speak it.

“Wherever Islam went, Arabic went along,” said Alani.

Within a period of 15 to 100 years, Arabic spread to the geographic regions it is found in today, displacing the native languages of those regions as Islam gained greater prestige. Out of Arabic’s sacred value to these cultures rose the desire among scholars for a definitive grammar. The most complete grammar text was written in the eighth century in what is now Iraq. Except for vocabulary, inevitably altered by advances in technology, the Arabic language has held to a consistent structure — that used in the Qur’an — for 15 centuries.

“The Arabic script, from the moment the Qur’an was revealed in it, acquired almost a sacred level of respect...People did not dare to change [the style of writing],” Alani said.

Alani went on to talk about the history and structure of the Arabic language. He began by discussing the common basis shared by Arabic, Hebrew and English.

He explained that these alphabets can be traced back to the North Semitic 22-consonant alphabet, used by the Phoenicians, who lived in 1500 B.C. Alani discussed the subtle differences the script acquired as it was passed from the Phoenicians to the Greeks and eventually to speakers of Hebrew, Arabic and modern English. One such change was the direction of writing: It changed from scannng right to left, to scanning left to right.

Alani then turned the discussion to different incarnations of Arabic within Arab/Islamic culture. He started by discussing the Arabian Nights, which began as oral folk tales told in private and public gatherings throughout Arabia.

“It’s like the soap opera of today,” said Salman. “People [sat] around the storyteller every evening, and he would stop at a point that would keep everybody in suspense. People in the audience would be shouting, screaming ‘C’mon, tell us what happened!’”

During the question and answer session, Alani clarified that Arabian Nights is not considered a work of great literature in Arabic scholarship.

Alani then turned the discussion to the role of Arabic script within Islamic art.

“The Arabic Islamic art developed around verses in the Qu’ran: famous sayings, verses of poetry. The reason it developed [this way] is because drawings and images in the Arabic/Islamic environment are discouraged,” Alani explained.

Alani showed a white vase embellished with the word “Allah.” The strokes of the calligraphy were so thick they looked like flames. Another image held a verse in the shape of a star and crescent moon, and another in the shape of a pear. One impressive image contained “There is no God but Allah, Muhammad is His Messenger,” in 15 different styles of calligraphy.

Alani concluded the lecture by discussing two important Arab historical figures: Ibn Sina, a great philosopher and physician, and Al-Idrisi, who compiled the first map of the world.

Most of the questions following the lecture directed Alani back to his initial thesis that Arabic and Islam are inextricably linked. While Salman conceded that many Arabic speakers are secular, and many Muslims do not speak Arabic, he reiterated the sacred nature of the language to Islam.