Islam without Arabic

How could we get Islam to spread across Mesopotamia and North Africa while maintaining the local languages and cultural identities? Plenty of regions that were Islamized later, like Iran, Indonesia, and Senegambia managed to adopt the faith while retaining their native languages... So, for example, why not have an Egypt that still speaks (and writes) in a form of Coptic? What would be the effects of an "Islamic World" without an "Arab World"?
 
How could we get Islam to spread across Mesopotamia and North Africa while maintaining the local languages and cultural identities? Plenty of regions that were Islamized later, like Iran, Indonesia, and Senegambia managed to adopt the faith while retaining their native languages... So, for example, why not have an Egypt that still speaks (and writes) in a form of Coptic? What would be the effects of an "Islamic World" without an "Arab World"?
That's not possible without changing Islam, because Arabic is the sacred language that must be written in the Quran.
 
That's not possible without changing Islam, because Arabic is the sacred language that must be written in the Quran.

That's why no Muslims speak Javanese, Bengali, Farsi, Turkish, Albanian, Wolof, or English as their first language, right?
 
That's why no Muslims speak Javanese, Bengali, Farsi, Turkish, Albanian, Wolof, or English as their first language, right?
Yep. They aull speak Ar'h'bic or, Saudi, or, Terr'st whadever y'call it. All dous Muslems. That's wah we invaided 'em in the first plaice.



But seriously, if it becomes a part of the Caliphate, then it's doomed to speak Arabic. So to prevent Arabic from expanding out of Arabia, have the Caliphate fail to expand, or break up quickly, and have the native cultures regain control.
 
You'll need am early change in stance on the status of language in revelation and ritual, basically. The problem is not that Muslims 'all must speak Arabic', it is that because of the special status of Arabic as the language of the Qur'an and of religious and legal scholarship, it became the entrance ticket to a global community of highly respected leaders. A bit like Latin in Western Europe, except that there was still a significant community of people who spoke living Arabic, too. It probably won'rt be possible to remove that status entirely (the original revelation was in it, and the holy cities are in Arabic-speaking lands), but if the early position on translation were different, ironically if the early Muslims had been as bent on converting the infidels as many modern people think they were, we could see the early emergence of a Greek, an Aramaic, a Coptic and Persian-speaking Islamic culture much more distinct and separated from the Arrabic core than they were IOTL.

I'm not sure that would be a Good Thing, but iot could certainly result in some very interesting developments down the road. Would make religious separatism and 'heresy' easier, for one thing.
 
As stated by carlton_bach above, Arabic's spreading along with Islam had more to do with it being a convenient common language (convenient because it was the language of the Qur'an), more than it had to do with the fact that it was the language of the Qur'an itself. (I hope that made sense)

I'd have to agree with what seems to be the consensus developing; the best way to preserve native or at least regional languages is to reduce the need for a common language, i.e., eliminating the Caliphate. Be it by never spreading as it did (hard to do without also hampering the spread of Islam), or by breaking it up early on.
 
How could we get Islam to spread across Mesopotamia and North Africa while maintaining the local languages and cultural identities? Plenty of regions that were Islamized later, like Iran, Indonesia, and Senegambia managed to adopt the faith while retaining their native languages... So, for example, why not have an Egypt that still speaks (and writes) in a form of Coptic? What would be the effects of an "Islamic World" without an "Arab World"?
The problem here is twofold:
  1. Like it or not, an Arabic speaking elite did establish themselves directly in the Fertile Crescent and North Africa.
  2. More tellingly Aramaic and to a lesser degree Coptic were closely related to Arabic, to the point that those fluent in the Levantine verancular can still understand spoken Aramaic. Persian was different enough, and had enough prestige, to reestablish itself and Mozarbic may have done likewise without a Reconquista.

HTG
 
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