Shirvani Arabic () was a variety of Arabic language that was once spoken in what is now central and northeastern Azerbaijan (historically known as Shirvan) and southern Daghestan.
History
Arabic had been spoken in the region since the Muslim conquest of the
South Caucasus at the beginning of the eighth century. It was brought there by Arab settlers consisting mostly of military staff, merchants and craftsmen from
Iraq and
Syria, and was used as an official language. It experienced decline after the weakening of the Caliphate in the thirteenth century and was gradually replaced by
Persian language/Tat and Azerbaijani. Groups of Arabs (mostly from
Yemen) continued to immigrate to southern Dagestan influencing the culture and literary traditions of the local population who had already become
Islamization.
[ Anna Zelkina. The Arabic Linguistic and Cultural Tradition in Dagestan: an Historical Overview. Arabic as a Minority Language by Jonathan Owens (ed.). Walter de Gruyter Publ. Berlin: 2000. ]
The latest documentation of the existence of Shirvani Arabic is attributed to the Azerbaijani historian Abbasgulu Bakikhanov who mentioned in his 1840 historical work Golestan-i Iram that "to this day a group of Shirvan Arabs speaks an altered version of Arabic." Arabic continued to be spoken in Dagestan until the 1920s mostly by upper-class feudals as a second or third language, as well as a language of literature, politics and written communication.[ Literatures of the North Caucasus and Dagestan by L.G. Golubeva et al.]
See also
-
Arabs in the Caucasus
-
Khuzestani Arabic
-
Central Asian Arabic
