Quote?َ

[tomest05]

Hi, I am a new podcaster to ArabicPod. I was interested in the quote you have on the homepage... I think that I understand some of it. I was hoping to see if I'm somewhat right... My first problem is sometimes I have a hard time reading anything beyond the standard script. ّIf I remember from class a few years ago, that's a Kufi script at the top. I always get the kh, h, dad, dhals, mixed up in that script sometimes. And ه　and م
looks very similar to me .

Anyway here's what I think it says, please let me know a better translation:
العلم يبني للشعوب منارة والجهل يخبو منه ضوء الانجم

So....
"Knowledge builds a lighthouse/beacon for people, and ignorance takes away the star light"

is يخبو the conjugation of خبا؟
cuz I looked that up in the dictionary instead of خبو

it's a very nice saying! Where is that from? The Quran? Or the Prophet (pbuh)? Thank you for all your time in teaching us more Arabic! Speaking and listening are my absolute weakest skills and this truly helps build my conversational skills up.

Tomes

[Ehab]

Hello Tomes;
I think you don’t understand some of it only, you are fully understanding all of it
First, the Arabic calligraphy on the top of the home page is Andalusi font, similar to Kufi, and the script that you wrote is exactly what is written,, so well done.
About the confusion in Arabic letters, I do agree some of them are similar to each other specially if there is some complex calligraphy, which opens a gate to us to explain some of these issues and even make a forum for Arabic calligraphy, which I like so much.
Your translation of the Bayt (any line of Arabic poetry is called Bayt) is brilliant,, thanks for that.
The word (ya7’bo) is the present tense of (7’aba) which means (to hide something) and to let every one know that in Arabic the roots of the words are normally the past tense, so 7’aba is the root of the word and the past tense too.
I’m happy that you like it,, it is NOT from Quran nor from the prophet,, it is just one bayt from a long Arabic poem,,, I can post the entire poem if you are interested.. Finally,, who is the poet?!!.. this should be answered by Mohamed Moshaya,, I can’t answer this
I hope I’ve answered all your questions.
Salam
Ehab

[tomest05]

Ehab,

Thank you very much for your reply! Sorry for my delay I have been traveling and on vacation the last few days! I am glad to see that I can still read Arabic some what properly ! Ahhh so it's Anadlussi script, I am assuming it's called that because it was used in Spain alot? Thank you for that information too about bayt, I did not not that's the word for a "line of poetry"! I don't know many poets... I know of Abdel Hafez and Al-Bayati. Is it any of those two? And i love translating things or trying to at least translate. I'd love to look over the poem. The line if very similar to one of my favorite lines in Arabic... and the sad thing is, I know forget where it's actually from, but I used it in most of my e-mail signatures!

العلم نور والجهل ظلام
al-3alem nuran wa al-ja7al 6'lam.
Knowledge is light and ignorance is darkness!

Also, I am still learning to write Arabic in the keyboard/transliteration form... I was always wondering what number corresponded with what letter! Thanks! Question though, how are the long vowels written? Alef = aa? Waw= oo Yaa= ee/ii?

Just wondering thanks again guys!

Tomes

[Ehab]

Great knowledge you have Tomes;
The say “al-3elmo nuran wa al-jahlo 6'lam” is just a say and not poetry,, Arabic poetry is a bit complex and has a special scales to measure them,, there are 14 scale we call them Bo7or (seas)
The writer of the Bayt is not Al-Bayati or Abdel Hafez,,,, it’s simply,,,, myself .. I’ll post the entire poem if you want,, I wrote it when I was 21 I think
About the last point you’ve mentioned,, It is veeery important point,,, How do we differentiate between the 7araka (i.e: fat7a, 9’ama and kasra) and the vowel (i.e: alef, wow and ya),,, I do agree with you,, there is no such a way to differentiate them,,, so we need to make up a new thing to do,, I need to hear your opinion about it,, any suggestions.
Also I talked to Moshaya about this: can you differentiate between TH (i.e: Think) and TH (i.e: They) ,, in English both are written in the same way,, but in Arabic,, they are two letters!!! I was thnking to make TH (i.e: They) to be D’ and keep the TH (i.e: Think) the same.. let me know what do you think.
Salam
Ehab

[tomest05]

Ehab,

Thanks for responding, you provided great and interesting information for us language learners interesting in the beautiful aspects of the language.

As for transliteration, I know from my history courses, that there is a "standard" English transliteration for Arabic that distinguishes every letter properly with an english correspondence. I think it's quite different than the computer keyboard system you use. I have usually seen ظ　written as 'zh or 'd if I remember. I will try to find perhaps a website that has the true transliteration system. Perhaps Encylopedia Islamica is a good source, I know they use a British system of transliteration.

thanks!