Intermediate - Joha goes to war

The fact that an Arabic word sounds like an English word does not necessarily mean that an English term has been integrated into the Arabic vocabulary. ﺍﺴﺘﺮﺍﺘﻴﺠﻴﺔ may have been borrowed directly from Greek. The Greek noun στρατηγία means “generalship” or “the office of general”.

The English word “strategy”, which is first attested in 1810, was borrowed from French, and the French noun “stratégie” was in turn borrowed from Greek. “Strategia” is also used in classical Latin, but in Latin texts it normally denotes an administrative division of a province. Kilikia, for instance, was known in ancient times as the Strategia of Cappadocia, and English archaeologists use “strategia” in the Roman sense (cf. W. M. Ramsay, The Historical Geography of Asia Minor, Cambridge, 1890).

Perhaps Ehab can tell us when the word ﺍﺴﺘﺮﺍﺘﻴﺠﻴﺔ was first used in Arabic. If it occurs in Arabic texts written before 1810 it can’t have been borrowed from English.

Perhaps ﺍﺴﺘﺮﺍﺘﻴﺠﻴﺔ was borrowed from Spanish. The Spanish word for “strategy” is “estrategia” The “e” at the beginning of the Spanish word corresponds to the initial letter of the Arabic term.

Wonderful listening experience, thanks Mohamed and Ehab, and shokran also to Tomes for inspiring our teachers to do this lesson :)

lovely lesson, would the masdar of dabbara (derived verb form two) work out to mean strategy also ?

مخطط ذكي or.....löl.......

clever strategist from 7´66 (again form 2) would be a more arabic form ? Ehab has cleared it up whether th eword in the pod cast is english or not, thank you , also as i have yet to find "STRATEGY" in the mushaf, it is probably english derived from latin , or perhaps greek.

The Romans didn’t use “strategia” in a military sense. In Latin “strategy” has to be rendered by expressions such as “disciplina bellica”, “disciplina militaris”, “artes belli” or “artes bellicae”. English, French, German, Italian and Spanish words such as “strategy”, “stratégie”, “Strategie”, “strategia” and “estrategia” all derive directly or indirectly from the Greek noun στρατηγία.

I never came across the word (istrategeyyah - strategy) being used in Arabic script before the last 100 years. Words like (mu7'a6a6 مخطط) or (tadbeer تدبير) could be used, as it was mentioned in the comments, but strategy is more of new term that has been used in Arabic.

That’s interesting, Ehab. I would have been very surprised if you had quoted examples from ﺍﻠﻤﻌﻠﻗﺎﺖ.

We can now partially reconstruct the evolution of the concept behind the word ﺍﺴﺘﺮﺍﺘﻴﺠﻴﺔ. The concept in question apparently began to take shape in the second half of the eighteenth century when the Spaniards coined the term “estrategia”. In 1803 “stratégie” appeared in French, and in 1810 “strategy” made its appearance in English. The Arabic term ﺍﺴﺘﺮﺍﺘﻴﺠﻴﺔ must have been coined much later, and the form of the word suggests that it was borrowed from Spanish. Given the nature of the links between Spanish and Arabic culture, this is hardly surprising.

What is surprising is the fact that thousands of years elapsed before the Europeans and the Arabs felt the need to coin a precise term to denote a plan of action devised with a view to attaining a military goal. Although the Romans had a keen interest in warfare and a rich military vocabulary, they made do with vague circumlocutions, just as the Arabs were content to use relatively imprecise terms such as ﺘﺪﺒﻴﺮ and ﻤﺨﻂﻂ.

Perhaps Tomes can tell us when the text presented in the podcast was written. Joha is apparently a contemporary of Tamerlane, who was born in 1370 and died in 1405. If the story is true, Joha can’t have used a modern word like ﺍﺴﺘﺮﺍﺘﻴﺠﻴﺔ. He must have employed an older and less precise term – a Mongolian word corresponding approximately to the Latin expression “fraus bellica” or the German term “Kriegslist”.

thsnk you ehab, for the form of the masdar (mu7'a6a6 )they have so many forms it is always nice to collect one in context, it helps me to remember them.

Mohamed and Ehab,

You both did a wonderful job turning the lesson to a product that everyone can find useful! I'm not nearly as tech savvy or fluent in Arabic to turn it into the lesson that you did! I'm glad that people have enjoyed, I have a book full of Joha stories that I bought in Spain! I look forward to typing out another one with translations!

Tomes

Thank you, Tomes. I'm looking forward to the other stories. Have you any idea when the Arabic texts in your book were written?

Question about the translation of "Kaan raakeban fawq 7emaareh, faqaal lahu taymoorlenk:" You translate as "He was riding on his donkey, wearing work clothes, and carrying his bow.
Tamerlain told him,"

Where is wearing work clothes and carrying his bow?

You're right, Charles. The translation does not tally with the original text.

Hello,
On the second paraghaph, I cannot find the arabic for "wearing work clothes, and carrying his bow", is that missing?

Thanks

Yes, tetraclinix, this word-group is missing. See the two preceding comments!

Sorry about that guys, we removed that line from the transcripts.

Would it be possible to put the missing words back into the Arabic text, Mohamed?

Hi Desmond, that Arabic text wasn't actually part of the audio monologue. The English text was there mistakenly

Thanks for your rapid reply, Mohamed. I thought you'd omitted part of the text that Tomes sent you.

This is one of my favorite lessons. There is a great little book that has just recently come out with folk stories in translation. Includes some of the Juha stories. Arabic text on one side, English on the other, and an audio disk. http://www.amazon.com/Arabic-Stories-Language-Learners-Middle-Eastern/dp/0804843007/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1395885341&sr=8-1&keywords=arabic+stories For intermediates.