Jews' language in the North of Arabian Peninsula
Mohammad Al-Garah, MahmoudAl-Omrat and Mousa Al-Zo’by, Department of Semitic and Oriental Languages, Yarmouk University, Irbid, Jordan.
Abstract
This Study investigated the language used by Jews during their presence in the Arabian Peninsula. For that purpose it was necessary to review the opinions of Muslim historians and orientalists about some issues that might help in this issue. The researchers reviewed the different views about the arrival of Jews to the Arabian Peninsula and about the languages that might be used by Jews during that time beside Arabic, which they spoke it fluently. This is based on the views of Muslim historians and scholars of Sunnah and through reviewing of some examples. Then we moved to view the Syriac and Aramaic and Hebrew, in an attempt to link the historical periods of prosperity and the prevalence of each of these languages with the arrival of Jews to the Arabian Peninsula and then connect them with the examples that have been analyzed in the study. This was done in order to determine the language used by Jews at that period. The study concluded that Hebrew-Aramaic might be the Jews' language during their presence in the Arabian Peninsula.