Living Language Preservation

Languages are tricky to preserve. Last month, we discussed the cultural genocide that targeted Indigenous languages of North America. Boarding Schools mandated that children use English (or another language of the colonizing nation) and strictly enforced a ban of the local culture, customs, and language. Through violence, hundreds of languages were stolen from native peoples and, still today, there are over 3000 languages from around the globe considered  to be “endangered” and on track to be extinct before the end of the 21st century. This is not a problem of our past. Endangered languages remain an incredibly urgent issue for many living cultures in the “Modern” World.

But, this month, our club discussion shifted away from language extinction and into the way Islamic cultures have preserved their own holy word. 

In the documentary Koran By Heart (2011), hundreds of children from around the world gather in Egypt to compete in an annual Koran recitation competition. Despite coming from dozens of cultures and being fluent in their own local languages, each of the children were required to recite in Arabic. In the film, Kristina Nelson, an ethnomusicologist, explains that the kids are also following the “Rules of Tajweed” to guide their diction, pronunciation, and intonation. By following these standardized guidelines, anyone who studies Quran recitation can learn to speak the holy word in the same voice as the Prophet Muhammad first heard and spoke it himself. In fact, the Arabic word “Qur’an” directly translates to “the recitation.” 

As far as I know, no other text in human history has ever been so purposefully preserved that it can be recited in the same way it was written over a thousand years later. Latin is a dead language. We still cannot translate Linear A (a writing system used by the Ancient Greeks on the isle of Crete). Even relatively new languages like English have undergone such drastic changes that a modern reader cannot pick up a copy of an Old English text (like the Epic poem Beowulf) and easily decipher what it says. Most readers need an “English to English” dictionary. So, to memorize not only a 600 page text… but also the specific rules to pronounce each word the same way they were written over a thousand years ago is no simple feat. Not to mention that the three children we follow in the documentary aren’t even fluent in Modern Arabic. 

Recitation of the Quran is an artform unlike any other speech competition in the world. At ten years old, these kids are able to breathe life (literally) into an ancient text from memory and under extreme scrutinization. And, while it is easy to compare this competition with something along the lines of an English Spelling Bee, we must remember that this text is not arbitrary… or specifically designed to be difficult. It is the sacred word for families and countries from over a hundred cultures spanning the globe. When a child memorizes the Quran, they’re practicing faith and preserving not only the language, but the civilization who wrote it. Unlike the Ancient Greeks and Romans, the Islamic World is alive and still breathing today. 

In a world where language preservation is a fight against cultural genocide, it’s important to recognize how well Muslims have bestowed knowledge and customs onto their posterity. And for generations to come.