Arabic and Scientific Terms – Al-Madina Newspaper

In the context of the clash of civilizations, the movements of orientalists and the arrogance of colonialists, the West preaches that our Arabic language is incapable of assimilating the vast number of “terms” created by their countries for modern science. They turn a blind eye to the fact that the Arabs are the guardians of the cultural heritage of humanity and the Arabic language. This is acknowledged by fair-minded people, such as the orientalist Sigrid Noldeke in her book “The Arab Sun Shines on the West”, and the Russian orientalist (Arabist) Ignatius Krachovsky in his book “History of Arabic Geographical Literature”. He collected the contributions of the Arabs to philosophy, science, geography, astronomy, medicine and pharmacy, etc. The West records in its scientific heritage names such as Ibn Rushd and Ibn Sina (Ephrus and Abusin). They have established a large part in mathematics, computer science and programming, which they call algorithms, named after the Arabic word Al-Khwarizmi. The poet Hafiz Ibrahim said: I expanded the Book of God in words and purpose.

I am not tired of the verses containing the sermon

How would I describe a machine today?

and the name of the coordinating invention

In view of this, we discuss the status of this scientific term in Arabic. This term is defined as a word or phrase that has been recognized by a society or academy of sciences, or invented by a specialized author, and expressed in a concise and eloquent language. It achieves the purpose for which it was established and achieves the goals of science. Let us take the term “greenhouse effect” in climatology as an example, it means that the air is heated from the side of the earth, rather than from the side of the sun, which is closest and second highest. It cannot absorb the short solar rays, so most of them penetrate to the earth to be absorbed and return, heated, as long heat waves, where the air is able to absorb them. We find this feature in greenhouses where vegetables are grown in cold countries. It allows the short rays falling from the sun to penetrate the earth’s surface and prevents most of the earth’s long heat rays from escaping into the atmosphere, retaining them in the atmosphere to provide the warmth needed for growth and prevent ice from forming. Its convex roof prevents ice from falling on the plants. If we translate this word literally, the reader may be confused because the green refers to the plants seen through the glass. In our hot countries, greenhouses for crops are built to perform the exact opposite function, i.e. to limit the loss of irrigation water, whose evaporation is accelerated by excessive heat and wind. They are called (greenhouses) and are known as (vegetable sheds).

Another example is the Great Rift Valley of Africa, which is a geological rift extending northward from central Africa, containing Lake Nyasa, Lake Edward and Lake Albert, then splitting the Ethiopian Plateau eastward and forming the African continent northward. The Red Sea and the Dead Sea, Lake Tiberias. Recently, it has been called a “rift valley”, but it is more appropriate to call it a “rift valley” because it is an ancient geology that occurred in a sentence, rather than a landform that cracked over time.