ARABIA, COUNCIL OF [Concilium Arabicum], was held in 247(?) against the Elkesaites (q. v.), who held that the soul, dying with the body, was to be raised with it at the resurrection. Origen was invited to this council, and boldly combated the Psyehopanni- chites (Hypnopsychites), Eus. vi, c. 37; torn, i, cone, p. 650. — Smith, Tables of Church Hist. ; Landon, Man- ual of Councils.
Ara'bian (Heb. Arabi', I2fl3>, Isa. xiii, 20; Jer. iii, 2; or ArW, "<2yj, 2 Chron.'xvii, 11; xxi, 16; xxii, 1; xxvi, 7; Neh. ii, 19; iv, 7 [1]; vi, 1; Gr. "Apajj, 1 Mace, v, 39 ; xi, 17, 39 ; xii, 31 ; 2 Mace, v, 8; xii, 10), the national designation of an inhabitant of that general district denominated Arabia, i. e. the nomadic tribes inhabiting the country to the east and south of Palestine, who in the early times of Hebrew history wore known as Ishmaelites and descendants of Keturah. Their roving pastoral life in the desert is alluded to in Is. xiii, 20 ; Jcr. iii, 2 ; 2 Mace, xii, 11 ; their country is associated with the country of the Dedauim, the travelling merchants (Is. xxi, 13), with Dedan, Tema, and Buz (Jer. xxv. 24), and with De- dan and Kedar (Ez. xxvii, 21), all of which are sup- posed to have occupied the northern part of the penin- sula later known as Arabia. During the prosperous reign of Jchoshaphat, the Arabians, in conjunction
ARABIANS
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ARABIC LANGUAGE
■with the Philistines, were tributary to Judah (2 Chr. xvii, 11), but in the reign of his successor they revolt- ed, ravaged the country, plundered the royal palace, slew all the king's sons with the exception of the youngest, and carried off the royal harem (2 Chr. xxi, 16; xxii, 1). The Arabians of Gur-baal were again subdued by Uzziah (2 Chr. xxvi, 7). During the Captivity they appear to have spread over the country of Palestine, for on the return from Babylon they were among the foremost in hindering Nehemiah in his work of restoration, and plotted with the Ammonites and others for that end (Neh. iv, 7). Geshem, or Gashmu, one of the leaders of the opposition, was of this race (Neh. ii, 19 : vii, 1). In later times the Arabians served under Timotheus in his straggle with Judas Maccabseus, hut were defeated (1 Mace, v, 39 ; 2 Marc, xii, 10). The Zabadseans, an Arab tribe, were routed by Jonathan, the brother and successor of Ju- das (1 Mace, xii, 31). The chieftain or king of the Arabians bore the name of Aretas as far hack as the time of Antiochus Epiphanes and Jason the high- priest (2 Mace, v, 8 ; comp. 2 Cor. xi, 32). Zabdiel, the assassin of Alexander Balas (1 Mace. xi,17), and Simalcue, who brought up Antiochus, the young son of Alexander (1 Mace, xi, 39), afterward Antiochus VI, were both Arabians. In the time of the N. T. the term appears to have been used in the same manner (Acts ii, 11). — Smith, Append, s. v. See Arabia.
Bedouin Arabs. 1, 2, Of the Jordan ; 3, Of the Hauran ; 4, 5, Of the Desert— Arabia Tetrfea,
Arabians or Arabici, a sect of heretics who sprung up in the third century in Arabia during the reign of the Emperor Severus. They held that the soul of man dies with the body, and "will be resusci- tated with it in the day of resurrection. Origen con- futed this opinion in a council held in the year 217, called "the council of Arabia."— Euseb. Hist.Eccl.vi :;7 ; Mosheim, Comm. ii, 242.
Arabic Language, the most perfectly formed, most copious in vocabulary, most extensively spoken, and most perfectly preserved of all the Shemitic fam- ily of languages. It therefore presents peculiar points <>f interest to Biblical scholars. See Shemitic Lan-
i.i IGl 3.
I. Distribution n,„l Diakets.— Originating in Arabia, the Arabic language spread itself, by th,- conquests of
the Arabs [sec Mohammed], in the sixth and seventh centuries, so extensively as to become not only prev- alent in the countries adjoining Arabia, but even the religious anil learned language of Irak, Cyprus, Pales- tine, Egypt, and Northern Africa, where, by the influ-
ence of Islamism and the supreme authority of the Koran, it has finally supplanted the original languages of those countries, and become the mother tongue of the inhabitants. It has even penetrated to the inte- rior of Africa, as well as insinuated itself, in part at least, throughout Turkey and Central Asia. In Mal- ta, Spain, and Sicily, dialects of it were for a time spoken, and have not yet become entirely extinct. Through the intercourse of Europeans during the Cru- sades, and especially during the temporary residence of the Saracens in Spain, man}' Arabic words have crept into Occidental languages, not excepting the English ; while the scientific researches of the medi- aeval Arabs caused many technical terms to be intro- duced into general literature. The ciphers in use among all Christian nations are but modified forms of those used in Arabic notation.
Long before the Mohammedan sera, two dialects were prevalent in Arabia: 1, the Flimyaritic, which was spoken in Yemen, or Arabia Felix, and had its closest affinities partly with the Hebrew or Aramsean languages (q. v.), and partly with the Amharic (q. v.); 2, the Koreishitic, or pure Arabic, as found in the Ko- ran, and through its influence preserved from all vul- garism and provincialisms, as the language of state and literature; in other words, the spoken differed somewhat from the written language. The Arabic had attained its flourishing period after the composi- tion of the Koran. With the restoration of Arabic literature under the Abbasid caliphs, sci- entific prose took the place of the earlier poetry, and the lan- guage was philologically illus- trated and protected from ob- livion ; but at the same time it gradually became deteriorated in respect to flexibility and va- riety, and circumlocutions were employed instead of idiomatic formations. Since the four- teenth or fifteenth century the Arabic language has undergone no change. There still prevail, however, certain dialects with considerable variations ; e. g. the Moorish, or that of Morocco (see Bombay, Grammat. lingua Jlfauro-A rabicce, Vienna, 1800), the altogether peculiar Maltese (Gesenius, Versuch ijber d. mal- thch. Sprach. Lpz. 1810), the Melindan, Mapulian, and oth- ers. In Aleppo, Arabic is spoken in the softest and purest form. II. Elements and Structure.— The letters of the al- phabet arc twenty-eight, and, as in Hebrew, they are all consonants, and read from right to left. They differ, however, entirely in form from the Heb., more closely resembling the Syriac, and their order is al- most wholly different from either of those languages. The form, too, of most of them undergoes a considera- ble change when connected with a preceding or fol- lowing letter, or when final. Several of them differ from each other only by the addition of a diacritical point (as b from "d). Their peculiar power is such that many of them can hardly be accurately repre- sented either by the Heb. or by English characters; the sound of some of them, indeed, is described as al- together foreign to European tongues. The letters are also often compounded in writing into ligatures. The "weak letters" (corresponding to X, 1, and *) are also used to prolong a vowel sound, or (as in Syriac) to form a diphthong. The vowel points are far more simple than in Heb., but this is fully made up, in point