ARABIC AND THE PROBLEM OF THE FORGERY OF PRE-ISLAMIC POETRY: A CRITICAL STUDY OF LINGUISTIC CONCEPTIONS BETWEEN PRESCRIPTIVISM, DESCRIPTIVISM, AND ORIENTALIST REFERENCE

Abstract

This study examines the problem of the alleged forgery of pre-Islamic poetry from a critical linguistic perspective. Rather than limiting the discussion to the authenticity of individual poems and their attribution to their poets, the study investigates the image of the Arabic language that emerged within this controversy and the methodological assumptions that contributed to constructing that image.The study argues that some modern approaches to the problem of forged pre-Islamic poetry went beyond questioning the authenticity of particular texts and associated the systematic nature of Classical Arabic with the assumption of later linguistic fabrication. Prescriptivism, grammatical inflection, dialectal diversity, diglossia, and the relatively late documentation of Arabic were consequently treated, in varying degrees, as evidence of a historical discontinuity between the language of pre-Islamic Arabs and the standardized language transmitted in later sources.The study therefore examines the tension between prescriptive and descriptive approaches and questions whether the distinction between standardized language and everyday linguistic usage can legitimately serve as evidence for textual forgery. It also discusses grammatical inflection and grammatical reasoning, the relationship between Classical Arabic and the ancient dialects, and the concept of diglossia.