Arabic in the Fray: Language Ideology and Cultural Politics

Develops Yasir Suleiman's groundbreaking project on Arabic in the social world

Taking as its point of departure the symbolic role of language and its use as proxy in the social world, this book investigates how Arabic is involved in ideological and cultural debates in which conflict is a defining feature. The author shows how discussions about the inimitability of the Qur’an in the pre-modern world were, at some deep level, concerned with issues of ethnic election against the background of inter-ethnic strife among Arabs and non-Arabs, mainly Persians. Discussions of the (un)translatability of the Qur’an in this period are further shown to be related to this notion of ethnic election. In this respect, theology and ethnicity emerge as partners in theorising language in society.

Staying within the symbolic role of language and its use as proxy, the book further investigates the role of paratexts and literary production in disseminating language ideologies and in cultural contestation. Language symbolism is also shown to be relevant in ideological debates about hybrid or cross national literary production in the Arab milieu. Language ideology appears to be everywhere, including in discussions of the cognitive role of language in linking thought to reality, to which a whole chapter is devoted.

Here, building on his highly acclaimed previous published works, Yasir Suleiman takes in a new direction his arguments on ideology and cultural politics.