Arabic Afrikaans


Arabic Afrikaans is a West Germanic language and a form of Afrikaans written in Arabic script. It began in the 1830s in the madrasa in Cape Town. Beside a 16th century manuscript of the German language written with Arabic script, it is the only known Germanic language to have been written in an Arabic script.

Texts

Seventy-four Arabic Afrikaans texts are extant. The earliest, the "Hidyat al-Islam", is dated 1845, though its source manuscript no longer exists. The oldest surviving manuscript, which describes the basic Islamic learning, was written by the imam Abdul-Kahhar ibn Abdul-Malik in 1868. The most professional version was written in 1869 by Abu Bakr Effendi, who came from Istanbul to the Cape in 1862.

''Uiteensetting van die Godsdiens''

One of the best examples of this literature was Uiteensetting van die Godsdiens, a book laying out Islamic traditions according to the Hanafi religious law. Written by Abu Bakr Effendi, it was printed using Arabic script throughout, but contained transcriptions of Afrikaans.
According to one of the three experts in this field, the German Hans Kähler, about 20 people were responsible for the text, but the most important contributors to Arabic Afrikaans opinion were:
This is a paragraph of the book Uiteensetting van die godsdiens:
The Arabic-alphabet version uses an Arabic word in several places where modern Afrikaans uses a Germanic word, e.g. dunya دنيا for wêreld, meaning "world". The Arabic words are entirely unknown in Afrikaans.
Without the above Translation into modern standard Afrikaans, it is nearly impossible for an Afrikaans-speaking person to understand the above Transcription of the Arabic-alphabet text. Some words do however appear to resemble phonetic transliterations between Arabic script and the version of Afrikaans spoken by Cape Coloured people, mixed with Dutch.
Islam arrived among the Malays during the early 15th century and these works were most likely teaching tools; a way for Muslim teachers to instruct Malay slaves in the Cape while not necessarily being able to speak Dutch very well or at all.

Qur'an

An example that used Arabic vowels was a handwritten Arabic–Afrikaans bilingual Quran. In it, for example, Surah 67, Ayah 1 says:
Arabic:Afrikaans:
No diacritics
تبارك الذي بيده الملك
ان دى كونڠ سكپ اس بيدى هوك الله تعالا ان ڤارلك الله تعالا اس باس فر الدى اتس
With diacritics
تَبَارَكَ ٱللَّذِي بِيَدِهِ ٱلمُلْكُ
ان دى كُوْنِڠْ سْكَپْ اس بِيْدِىْ هُوْكَ الله تعالا ان ڤَارْلِكْ الله تعالَا اِسْ بَاس فَِرْ اَلْدِىْ اِتْسْ
Transliteratedtabāraka -llaḏī bi-yadihi l-mulk°n dī kūnuň skap is bīdī hūka Allah ta`ālā °n vārlik Allah ta`ālā is bās fir aldī its
In Conventional Afrikaans-En die koningskap is by die hoë Allah ta`ālā en waarlik Allah ta`ālā is die baas van alle dinge.
In EnglishBlessed is the One in Whose hand is the kingdom.And the kingship is with the high Allah and truly Allah is the boss of all things.

Here in the Afrikaans text: