Damascus News Platform, quoting the Hassan bin Mohammed Center for Historical Studies in Doha
A lecture by Professor Dr. Mohammad Harb Farzat
On Saturday evening, September 5, 2026, the Hassan bin Mohammed Center for Historical Studies hosted a lecture by Professor Dr. Mohammad Harb Farzat, former Professor of Ancient History at Damascus University and Qatar University, entitled “Arabs and the Arabic Language: A Historical Inquiry.”
The lecture took the form of a broad and extensive intellectual and historical journey, through which Dr. Mohammad Harb Farzat sought to reconsider the history of the Arabs from a perspective that goes beyond political events and the succession of states. Instead, it brings together geography, history, civilization, humanity, and language, using ancient writings, inscriptions, and vocabulary as tools that can contribute to understanding and rereading history.
The lecturer began with a fundamental principle, expressed in the phrase: “Geography comes first: the land is the stage of history.” He explained that the location of the Arab lands, the nature of their terrain, and their maritime and land routes played a fundamental role in human movement, trade, and communication among civilizations.
He highlighted two major routes that shaped the movement of the region throughout history: an eastern route linking Mesopotamia with Bahrain, Oman, and Qatar, before extending along the coasts of the Arabian Peninsula towards the Indian Ocean; and a western route extending from Egypt towards the Levant, the Red Sea, and East Africa. These were complemented by inland routes connecting the eastern Mediterranean coast with the Arabian Gulf. From this perspective, he emphasized the importance of geography and maps in the study of history, warfare, diplomacy, and the movement of societies.
Dr. Farzat then moved on to a methodological question: Why do we need to study and review history?
He emphasized that historical research continuously opens the door to new areas of investigation and that our knowledge of the past is renewed through the discovery of new sources and documents and the development of research methodologies. He distinguished between history in its absolute sense—the مجموع of events, facts, and developments that actually occurred—and our relative knowledge of history, through which researchers collect, analyze, examine, interpret, and reconstruct historical material according to the available sources and knowledge.
From this perspective, reviewing history becomes a scientific necessity, while rereading ancient sources and asking new questions of them becomes a means of reaching a deeper understanding of the past.
One of the most prominent themes of the lecture was Dr. Farzat’s exploration of the ancient civilizational and linguistic roots of the region. He traced the history of writing and languages from the civilizations of the ancient Near East, examining Sumerian and Akkadian writings and the development of writing systems and alphabets.
In this context, he did not view writing merely as a means of recording events, but rather as a major civilizational transformation that enabled humanity to preserve its memory and transmit knowledge. In his historical overview, he referred to the invention of writing in Mesopotamia around 3200 BC and to the diversity of ancient writing systems, including cuneiform, syllabic, and alphabetic writing, linking these developments to the emergence of cities, organized societies, and the advancement of civilization.
Language formed one of the most important themes of the lecture. Dr. Farzat approached it as more than a means of communication; it is also a repository of memory and a witness to history.
He discussed ancient languages and their connections with one another before turning to ancient Arabian languages and the Arabic tongue. He drew upon diagrams illustrating the branches of several ancient languages and writing systems, including Ugaritic, Phoenician, Aramaic, Ancient South Arabian, and others, highlighting their relationships within the broader linguistic framework of the region.
One particularly notable aspect of his presentation was that he did not limit himself to the theoretical classification of languages. Instead, he compared vocabulary from ancient languages with Arabic words, demonstrating similarities in certain roots, sounds, and meanings. During the lecture, he cited an Aramaic text and compared some of its vocabulary with Arabic to demonstrate how linguistic roots can preserve traces of their history over long periods of time.
In doing so, the lecturer moved the discussion beyond the history of language towards a deeper idea: the possibility of using language itself as a source of history. An inscription, a word, a linguistic root, or a place name may all contain evidence that helps researchers trace communication and interaction among societies and civilizations.
From these comparisons, the lecturer moved to the issue of ancient Arabian languages and the authentic Arabic tongue, linking them to questions concerning the Arabs, their presence in their homeland, and their awareness of themselves, their land, and their language.
The lecture presented a view of the Arabian Peninsula as having contained several linguistic branches, including Ancient North Arabian languages and Ancient South Arabian languages of Yemen, alongside other languages known in the Peninsula, before Arabic acquired its broad position with the emergence of Islam and the religious, linguistic, and civilizational culture it brought with it.
Dr. Farzat then traced a number of historical milestones that he considered essential to understanding Arab history. He discussed the presence and settlement of Arabs in their lands, the formation of communities, tribes, villages, cities, and states, and their presence in historical memory and ancient sources.
He also addressed the emergence of settlement, agriculture, and animal domestication, as well as the development of societies from prehistoric periods through the emergence of villages and cities and the invention of writing, eventually reaching the appearance of the name “Arabs” in certain ancient sources.
The scope of the lecture subsequently expanded to include the relationship between the Arabs and the civilizations and powers surrounding them, conflict in the Mediterranean basin, and interaction with the Greeks and Romans, together with the exchange of ideas, cultures, and civilizational transformations that accompanied these encounters.
Islam and the Transformation of Arab History
The lecturer then examined Christianity in the Arabian Peninsula and its south before moving on to the emergence of Islam as a major historical transformation and the ways in which the Arabs expressed themselves through the message of Islam and the establishment of the state, from the State of Medina to the broader Islamic state.
He discussed the shifting centers of political power and the succession of ruling systems, followed by the conquests and the expansion of the Arab-Islamic state across the Levant, Egypt, North Africa, and Al-Andalus, along with the profound political, civilizational, and cultural transformations that accompanied this expansion.
The historical reading extended to periods of confrontation and interaction between East and West, from the Crusades to the rise of European powers and the colonial project, as well as the transformation of global trade routes following Europe’s expansion into the seas.
Dr. Farzat also discussed the rise of the Ottomans, the fall of Constantinople in 1453, and the continuing struggle over trade routes and maritime passages, leading to Napoleon Bonaparte’s campaign in Egypt and the Levant in 1798, which he considered one of the milestones that opened a new phase in the region’s relationship with the West.
The value of the comparison presented by the lecturer between certain ancient languages and Arabic becomes particularly evident here. It reminds us that history does not exist solely in the books of historians; it may also be preserved in a word whose root has remained alive for thousands of years, in an ancient inscription, in an alphabet, or in a place name passed from one generation to another.
The intellectual journey presented by Dr. Farzat can be summarized through an integrated relationship: the land provides humanity with its field of movement, humanity creates civilization, writing preserves its memory, and language carries part of that memory across generations.
It was therefore natural for the lecture to conclude with the question it had sought to explore from the beginning: the Arab individual, the Arabic language, and identity. In his conclusion, the lecturer emphasized the importance of Arabs maintaining their language, serving and studying it, and paying attention to its sciences and terminology, considering this a means of preserving their identity and their civilizational continuity among nations.
Mohammad Hammam concluded by emphasizing that the Hassan bin Mohammed Center for Historical Studies was pleased to host a scholar who had spent decades teaching and researching history. He noted that the value of the lecture lay not only in the breadth of the historical periods it covered but also in its invitation to reconsider the very tools used to write history—from geography and maps to archaeological evidence and inscriptions, and from ancient texts to language and words.
On behalf of the Hassan bin Mohammed Center for Historical Studies, he extended his thanks and appreciation to Professor Dr. Mohammad Harb Farzat for this scientific and intellectual journey, which began with the land, crossed civilizations, languages, and alphabets, and concluded with the Arabic language as one of the most important vessels of civilizational memory and identity.
Mohammad Hammam Fikri
