Since 2012, every year, on December 8, the World Day of the Arabic Language is celebrated, also called the language of the Dahd. Born in Metz in the south of France in 1929 and passed away a few weeks ago, André Miquel said: “I adopted the Arabic language and Islam as the message of a prosperous civilization.”
He met the Dhad language by chance in the 1940s, so he sailed in it, fell in love with it forever, defended it and raised its flag in all regions and horizons, finally becoming an ambassador of that language. It was an encyclopedia and a “mobile Arabic library” in which East and West intertwine.
Being revealed in the Arabic language, the Holy Quran has always aroused the curiosity of many thinkers and philosophers of all ages. “We have sent down the Qur’an in Arabic language.” (02:12)
Ever since he read the Holy Qur’an and studied its interpretations in French, learned the depth of its verses and the wisdom of its manifestations, became a prisoner of its hidden light, and ever since he translated the poetry of “Majnoun (mad) Layla” and He discovered its history, fell in love with classical Arabic poetry and became a new madman for the Arabic language, culture and civilization.
Miquel remembers the programmed coincidence of fate that led him to love the Arabic language and culture and to discover the other side of the Mediterranean. In one of his dialogues, he said: “Since I was a child, I dreamed of traveling to that region that has an exotic flavor (speaking of the Maghreb countries), of reaching the other shore and seeing its palm trees and lighthouses.”
That spiritual journey through the Maghreb marked his academic and research career and his attachment to the Arabic language, as he admits in one of his later dialogues.
He was the author of several reference books on Arab human geography and Islam, including Human geography of the Islamic world, From the desert of the Arabian Peninsula to Spain and others. Miquel’s writings exceeded 250 books during his long career of knowledge.
After Miquel’s death, President Macron said: “I salute in him the journey of the creative craftsman, the dialogical and open-minded person who was the most western of the east and the most eastern of the west, who knew and loved the beauty of Arab culture”.
* Imam, member of Comipaz
