Allah is Arabic

Submitted by Simha (United Kingdom), May 30, 2014 at 04:41

The development al-'ilâh > allâh is in fact well attested in Arabic and has been known in accepted in Western Semitic studies for a long time. Indeed, al-i/uCâC > al-CâC is regular Hijazi, as David Testen has shown (Testen, David 1998. "Literary Arabic and Early Hijazi: Contrasts in the Marking of Definiteness". In Perspectives on Arabic Linguistics: Papers from the Annual Symposium on Arabic Linguistics. Volume XI: Atlanta, Georgia, 1997, Benmamoun, Elabbas, Mushira Eid and Niloofar Haeri (eds.), 209 ff.).

For more on the intricate relationship between Syriac _allâhâ_ and Arabic _allâh_ cf. also Kiltz , D 2012 , ' The relationship between Arabic Allāh and Syriac Allāhā ' Der Islam , vol 88 , no. 1 , pp. 33-50 . (Google it, a free copy is available online). There you'll find some real linguistic arguments rather than just diatribe.

Best,

D.

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