Classical Arabic

Studies ancient classical language from religious, social, literary, and historical sources. Enables distinguishing between classical and Modern Standard Arabic, understanding classical Arabic grammar, comparing language use across different sciences, and developing the ability to read quickly with strong comprehension

The texts are available across three levels: beginner, intermediate, and advanced, covering various topics such as Qur’anic hermeneutics, the life of Prophet Muhammad, Prophetic biography (Seerah), hadith studies, Islamic jurisprudence, literature, sociology, and philosophy. To optimize benefits and address students’ needs comprehensively, there is an option to delve into a specific focus area, like Qur’anic hermeneutics, or study a particular book within a selected subject.

Skills

The Classical Arabic program initially focuses on the skill of reading due to the specificity of Classical Arabic and one’s purpose for learning it.
Therefore, we in Faseeh teach reading as a sophisticated, comprehensive skill – not just a matter of reading a text. Accordingly, the program presents three aspects for the development of students’ reading:

1. Deep Reading Class (Home): The student reads a relatively long text and analyzes it from several viewpoints – e.g., grammatical, stylistic, informational – while adding their opinions and linking all these with the text’s chronological, scientific, and cultural background.
2. Speed Reading Class (Classroom / Under Time Pressure): It aims to develop the ability to understand what one is reading under time pressure through reading two types of texts: a. Medium texts (no more than a page); b. Short texts.
3. Discussion Class: In it, the student tries to deduce the texts’ temporal-spatial dimensions and the political, social, and cultural conditions that characterized these texts and made them belong to one era, thus forming a comprehensive view of the features of various writings of different eras.

Arabic Language Sciences

1. Syntax and Morphology (Grammar): We teach grammar with the flipped classroom strategy mentioned above, wherein the student builds knowledge of the theoretical side of grammar through the explanatory educational video at home and then practices the grammar in an applied way in the classroom. In the Classical Arabic program, we focus on the grammar that helps the reader to understand a given text. So, in the teacher’s video, they present this relevant grammar in the form of a general template that can be applied to any classical text.
2. Rhetoric: The Classical Arabic program is concerned with teaching the semantics section of rhetoric because it focuses on changes in composition such as fronting and postponing, elision, and assertion, and the meanings and implications of these changes. This is what Classical Arabic is famous for.

In rhetoric lessons, we follow the flipped classroom strategy as well, allowing the learner the opportunity to apply what they learned in the video in front of the teacher and thus get appropriate directions/guidance/corrections.