Arabic: Through Fire and Faith
Although Arabic moved to the Middle East and Mesopotamia much the same way as Akkadian, through migrations out of Africa into the region, this is where many similarities in the language's history and strategies end. Arabic took a road less travelled by most languages, tying itself to a faith and spreading very successfully that way. Arabic itself moved out of Africa into what is now the Arabian Peninsula in the form of nomadic tribes which existed pastorally. For the most part they seemed destine to remain footnotes in the history of the region, as they did not make any serious changes to the region or its language until the rise of Islam under the prophet Muhammed in the seventh century AD. Muhammed quickly gathered Arabic converts in the region, and would go on to carve out an empire ruled by Arabs, and this conquest would be carried on by his successors. This unified Arabic state meant that Arabic saw itself rise to the status as lingua franca of the Middle East in a few short centuries.
Arabic spread rapidly on the backs of Islam and the conquests of Muhammed. Islam itself spread rapidly as the newly conquered peoples were forced to convert to Islam if they were not Jewish or Christian (which were seen as Abrahamic faiths close enough to Islam that they were allowed to remain) and this spread of Islam aided in the spread of Arabic. Arabic spread with its faith, as Muhammed declared that the Quran and daily prayers could only be written and read in Arabic (unlike Christianity which allowed for translations of the Bible and other texts), however an interesting phenomena occurred. It was found by many newly conquered peoples that Arabic was what they called an eloquent language, and many converted based solely on the fact that the language spoken seemed been divinely inspired. Another interesting phenomena was that it was found that a single, noble Arabic existed in many regions to be used by the nobility, however hundreds of vernacular and small regional dialects began to appear under the large Arabic language. Another interesting factor was that Arabic was unable to penetrate Iran at all, because even though they were successful initially, the introduction of the Seljuk Turks to the region through conquest causes all their advances to fade away. Despite the Turks speaking Turkish, when the Turks first interacted with Islam and converted, they saw it as an extension of Persian, as Persians were with whom they interacted. This led the Turks who later conquered much of the Muslim world to return Persian as the language of administration in much of their empires, seeing it as what they believed to be the language of Islam. The Turks, too, held on to Turkish despite conversion. Arabic did, however, find success with the Berbers, by merging Arabic with their Punic (descended from Phoenician) languages. Despite this, many Berbers maintained their languages despite conversion, using Arabic solely as their language of faith. This ended when the Banu Hilal descended on the Berber kingdoms of North Africa and wiped them out, except for the Tuaregs of the Sahara. Arabic would also spread to the Moors of Iberia, where they would eventually be removed from by the Spanish during the Reconquista.
Over the course of a few short centuries, Arabic changed from a language spoken by scattered tribes in the Middle East to one that was spoken from Morocco to Mesopotamia. Its influence survived the fall of the initial empire on which it spread, which divided into many different states over time, and the reason that it survived was that even though the state fell, Islam remained, and where Islam remained, so too did Arabic. This meant that if one was to wipe Arabic from a region, they had to convert all of the populous from Islam, which made it very difficult to ever uproot Arabic in a region. Arabic would survive and thrive by attaching its destiny to the fate of Islam, and acts as proof of how religion and language are connected.
Arabic spread rapidly on the backs of Islam and the conquests of Muhammed. Islam itself spread rapidly as the newly conquered peoples were forced to convert to Islam if they were not Jewish or Christian (which were seen as Abrahamic faiths close enough to Islam that they were allowed to remain) and this spread of Islam aided in the spread of Arabic. Arabic spread with its faith, as Muhammed declared that the Quran and daily prayers could only be written and read in Arabic (unlike Christianity which allowed for translations of the Bible and other texts), however an interesting phenomena occurred. It was found by many newly conquered peoples that Arabic was what they called an eloquent language, and many converted based solely on the fact that the language spoken seemed been divinely inspired. Another interesting phenomena was that it was found that a single, noble Arabic existed in many regions to be used by the nobility, however hundreds of vernacular and small regional dialects began to appear under the large Arabic language. Another interesting factor was that Arabic was unable to penetrate Iran at all, because even though they were successful initially, the introduction of the Seljuk Turks to the region through conquest causes all their advances to fade away. Despite the Turks speaking Turkish, when the Turks first interacted with Islam and converted, they saw it as an extension of Persian, as Persians were with whom they interacted. This led the Turks who later conquered much of the Muslim world to return Persian as the language of administration in much of their empires, seeing it as what they believed to be the language of Islam. The Turks, too, held on to Turkish despite conversion. Arabic did, however, find success with the Berbers, by merging Arabic with their Punic (descended from Phoenician) languages. Despite this, many Berbers maintained their languages despite conversion, using Arabic solely as their language of faith. This ended when the Banu Hilal descended on the Berber kingdoms of North Africa and wiped them out, except for the Tuaregs of the Sahara. Arabic would also spread to the Moors of Iberia, where they would eventually be removed from by the Spanish during the Reconquista.
Over the course of a few short centuries, Arabic changed from a language spoken by scattered tribes in the Middle East to one that was spoken from Morocco to Mesopotamia. Its influence survived the fall of the initial empire on which it spread, which divided into many different states over time, and the reason that it survived was that even though the state fell, Islam remained, and where Islam remained, so too did Arabic. This meant that if one was to wipe Arabic from a region, they had to convert all of the populous from Islam, which made it very difficult to ever uproot Arabic in a region. Arabic would survive and thrive by attaching its destiny to the fate of Islam, and acts as proof of how religion and language are connected.