When does the cinema apologize for the classical Arabic language?

The jurist Ibn Rushd enters the Caliph Abu Jaafar al-Mansur in his palace, and finds him lying on his couch playing with one of the chess pieces.

Al-Mansur addresses Ibn Rushd in the colloquial Egyptian dialect, saying: I finally came.

The latter asks if the caliph was ill, and he answers him in the negative and invites him to play chess late at night, because he suffers from insomnia.

And while the caliph and the jurist are playing, they talk about the children of the caliph al-Nasser and Abdullah, and Ibn Rushd gives him advice on education. Shaheen in 1997.

The film is considered one of the very rare examples that broke the barrier of the historical film’s monopoly on the classical Arabic language, as Shaheen ventured to make the language of dialogue on a historical issue, which is Andalusia, and on a prominent philosophical and jurisprudential figure, Ibn Rushd in the Egyptian colloquial, although the subject of the film is historically far from Egypt. and its contemporary tone.

Thus, he was able to transfer the issues of philosophy, jurisprudence, and the stories of Andalusia from serious historical discussion to the local dialect, to provide an intellectual bridge between the past and the present.

Apart from the historical controversy raised by the film at the time, this artistic adventure was not repeated in reverse, that is, no director ventured to make classical Arabic the language of dialogue in an ordinary, non-historical drama.

Cinema has borrowed, and still is, from Arabic literature, its storytelling spirit and method of narration. It also borrowed a lot from the theatrical heritage of the great writers and turned it into films, but it was an unrighteous son of Arabic literature, as it wronged classical Arabic and did not fulfill its right.

On the occasion of the International Day of the Arabic Language, if we make a comparison between cinema as a medium for display and the medium that precedes it, which is the theater, and the one that follows it, which is television, we find that theater and television have rendered great services to the classical Arabic language, and that cinema owes an apology to classical Arabic because it fell severely short towards this language.

The Arab theater knew the classical language on different levels, and the Prince of Poets, Ahmed Shawqi, had poetic plays in classical Arabic on non-historical topics, such as the play "The Miser" about a woman living in Cairo in 1907.

There is also the play "Soft Hands" in classical Arabic by the writer Tawfiq al-Hakim, in addition to other plays that mixed two dramatic lines, one in classical Arabic and the other in colloquial Arabic, for a generation that followed them, such as the play "The Witch" written by Yusri al-Jundi and the poetry of Jamal Bakhit.

In the same footsteps of theatre, television followed in the Arab world, so it goes without saying that the small screen maintained at least a minimal level of classical Arabic, at least in terms of news bulletins and many programmes, before the emergence of news channels with which the classical Arabic language flourished and introduced it in sound and image to every a house.

As for the cinema, it confined the Arabic language to the prison of history as if it were part of the past, without any attempts, even at the experimental level, to make the classical language the normal language of the dramatic film.

Film writers, directors, or producers have no excuse for this. What makes children in their early ages digest and love classical Arabic in cartoon films makes adults do the same, the only difference is that no one took this step.

Cinema and teaching Arabic

It is known and understood that cinema is not primarily an educational medium, but like theater it can be used for educational purposes.

Theater was and still is one of the effective means in the educational process in various schools in many countries and cultures.

And once again, the school and university theater proved its ability to contain the Arabic language and promote its practice by children and youth, while cinema disappeared and retreated sharply in this field for reasons that are not understood or justified.

Moroccan researcher Akthiri Boujemaa suggests using a short film in classical Arabic as one of the mechanisms for teaching Arabic to non-native speakers.

In his study on how cinema is used to teach Arabic to non-native speakers at Ibn Tufail University in Morocco, he adds that the film should be related to the subject of the study in a language that is methodologically suitable for the education process, and that it aims to extract linguistic knowledge during the stages of presentation and discussion after the show with students, and to analyze the scenes linguistically and visually. as an accompanying learning activity.

The same thing is advised by Kieran Donaghy, winner of the British Council Award for creating teaching aids for teachers in 2013. Donaghy created the “Film English” project, which won this award, and allows English language teachers and students to use it, and relies on the use of a large number of Dramatic short films dedicated to teaching English in a way that mixes passion, fun and education at the same time.

The project's use of films is not based on an auxiliary mediator in the educational process, but as a main mediator, as it has more than 200 films of various genres serving specific topics, which it uses as a main means to communicate linguistic concepts to students.

Students pass from one stage to another after watching selected groups of films, according to a specific educational methodology that the student is familiar with in advance.

Cinema has borrowed, and still is, from Arab literature, its storytelling spirit and method of narration. It also borrowed a lot from the theatrical heritage of the great writers and turned it into films, but it was an unrighteous son of Arabic literature, as it wronged classical Arabic and did not fulfill its right.

We cannot separate the refined literary language in which this literature was written and its true spirit, many of which disappear when it turns into colloquial dialogues on the cinema screen.

The time has come for Arab cinema to apologize for the classical Arabic language, and to restore its consideration in cinematic works away from the historical aspect, in order to liberate itself from the past a little and bring the classical language down to the ground of reality.

And if this is possible and enjoyable at the level of ordinary films, it is necessary and required at the level of the process of teaching the Arabic language, whether to native speakers or non-native speakers, as an effective way to preserve and enhance it.