Cultural Implications of Epistemic Terms in the Ancient Northern Arabic Inscriptions (Selected Models)

Abstract

The main aim of this research is to trace the epistemic aspects of the ancient Arab society. Arabic and Islamic sources have reported the prevalence of illiteracy in the north of the Arabian Peninsula before Islam claiming that that Islam appeared in Mecca, there were only seventeen literates, and this was also true all over the country. The findings of this research reveal the prevalence of literacy, and the use of many epistemic words in the Arabian Peninsula community before Islam, as manifested by the inscriptions on the rocks scattered across the country. The study also reveals that the claim about the prevalence of illiteracy is perhaps due to the people limited knowledge of the Arabic calligraphy developed from the Nabatean calligraphy during the second and sixth century AD.