Saturday, March 10, 2007

Mother`s Day يوم الأمّ (Yaum al-Umm)


Mother's Day or يوم الأمّ (Yaum al-Umm) in Arabic is a holiday honouring mothers, celebrated on various days in many places around the world where mothers often receive gifts on this day.Different countries celebrate mother's day on various days of the year because the day has a number of different origins.March 21st which is the first day of spring marks the celebration of mother`s day in the majority of Arab countries such as Bahrain,Egypt,Lebanon, Syria,Jordan, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates and Yemen,in Algeria however it is celebrated on March 8.

Friday, February 2, 2007

Arabic Language اللغة العربية

Arabic language اللغة العربية al lugatu-l-arabiyyah or just عربي arabi ranks sixth in the world's league table of languages and is the largest living member of the Semitic language family in terms of speakers. Classified as Central Semitic it is closely related to Aramic ,with an estimated 186 million native speakers. As the language of the Qur'an, the holy book of Islam, it is also widely used throughout the Muslim world.Classical Arabic – the language of the Qur'an was originally the dialect of Mecca in what is now Saudi Arabia. An adapted form of Classical Arabic known as Modern Standard Arabic, is used in books, newspapers, on television and radio, in the mosques, and in conversation between educated Arabs from different countries .There are many local spoken dialects that vary widely throughout the Middle East. Arabic is written from right to left and it`s alphabets consist of 28 consonants and 3 vowels which can be short or long and some of the sounds are unique to Arabic only.Arabic has lent many words to other languages of the Islamic world, akin to the role Latin has in Western European languages . The influence of Arabic has been most profound in those countries dominated by Islam and is a major source of vocabulary for languages as diverse as Berber, Kurdish,Farsi,Swahili,Urdu,Turkish and Bahasa.During the Middle Ages Arabic was also a major vehicle of culture, especially in science, mathematics and philosophy, with the result that many European languages have also borrowed numerous words from it, many English words are derived from Arabic, often through other European languages, especially Spanish and Italian.

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

The meaning of Arabesque


Arabesque is an element of Islamic art usually found decorating the walls of mosques, the arabesque is an elaborative application of repeating geometric forms that often echo the forms of plants and animals. The choice of which geometric forms are to be used and how they are to be formatted is based upon the Islamic view of the world. To Muslims these forms taken together, constitute an infinite pattern that extends beyond the visible material world. To many in the Islamic world they in fact symbolize the infinite and therefore uncentralized nature of the creation of the one God ,furthermore the Islamic Arabesque artist conveys a definite spirituality without the iconography.The word Arabesque is derived from latin meaning of Arabic design .