Arabic 19 — Min mudun al-ʿālam al-kubrā — Tokyo, Cairo and New York: reading about the world's great cities مِنْ مُدُنِ العَالَمِ الكُبْرَى

1 · The title #

مِنْ مُدُنِ العَالَمِ الكُبْرَى — some of the biggest cities of the world.

كُبْرَى is the feminine of أَكْبَر. From كَبِير (big) comes the comparative and superlative أَكْبَر (bigger, biggest) — the اِسْمُ التَّفْضِيل. Its feminine is كُبْرَى:

كَبِير ← أَكْبَر ← كُبْرَى

In the same way أَحْسَن (better, best) has the feminine حُسْنَى. So مُدُنُ العَالَمِ الكُبْرَى is the world's biggest cities.

2 · Before reading — four questions #

فَكِّرْ فِي الإِجَابَةِ عَنِ الأَسْئِلَةِ التَّالِيَةِ — think about the answers to these questions.

The answer to the first is القَاهِرَة — Cairo is called مَدِينَةُ الأَلْفِ مِئْذَنَة, the city of a thousand minarets. New York's problems include الجَرِيمَة, crime. The passage gives the rest.

3 · Paragraph 1 — Tokyo #

Tokyo is the capital of Japan, and the number of its inhabitants reaches about ten million people. In Tokyo is the seat of the emperor and the government, and in it are the banks and the companies. Tall buildings are many in Tokyo. The city of Tokyo was founded in 1475 CE. Tokyo faces many problems, such as crowding, pollution and earthquakes.

مَقَرّ is used for the seat of a ruler or an organisation: مَقَرُّ رَئِيسِ سِرِيلَانْكَا, the residence of the President of Sri Lanka. Countries name their rulers by their systems: an emperor (إِمْبِرَاطُور) in Japan; a king (مَلِك) in a kingdom, المَمْلَكَةُ العَرَبِيَّةُ السُّعُودِيَّة; a sultan (سُلْطَان) in a sultanate, سَلْطَنَةُ عُمَان.

4 · The key verbs of paragraph 1 #

These four verbs carry the whole passage. Each is used again for Cairo and New York.

يَبْلُغُ — reaches. يَبْلُغُ عَدَدُ سُكَّانِهَا نَحْوَ عَشَرَةِ مَلَايِينَ — the number of its inhabitants reaches about ten million.

• بَلَغَ is written with غ. With ع it is a different verb: بَلَعَ, he swallowed.
• نَحْوَ — about, approximately. يَبْلُغُ عُمْرُهُ نَحْوَ أَرْبَعِينَ — his age is about forty.
• مَبْلَغ — an amount (of money), from the same root: دَفَعْتُ مَبْلَغًا كَافِيًا — I paid a sufficient amount.

تَكْثُرُ — are many, abound. كَثِير (many) is an adjective; كَثُرَ – يَكْثُرُ is its verb. Both sentences say the same thing:

أُنْشِئَتْ — was founded, was built. A passive form of أَنْشَأَ (he created, built, set up). Its maṣdar is نَشْأَة, origin and growth: نَشْأَةُ عِلْمِ التَّفْسِيرِ — the origin of the science of tafsīr.

تُوَاجِهُ — faces. تُوَاجِهُ طُوكْيُو مُشْكِلَاتٍ كَثِيرَةً — Tokyo faces many problems. The plural to use is مُشْكِلَات; the common مَشَاكِل is counted a mistake.

5 · Paragraph 2 — Cairo #

Cairo is the capital of Egypt and its biggest city. It lies on the river Nile, and the number of its inhabitants reaches about eight million people. In the city of Cairo there are many ancient remains and public libraries, and it is famous as the city of minarets, because of its many mosques. Among those mosques are the mosque of ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ, the mosque of Aḥmad ibn Ṭūlūn, the mosque of Sultan Ḥasan, the mosque of Muḥammad ʿAlī, and the mosque of al-Azhar, which has now become a large Islamic university, where students from every country in the world study the Arabic language and the Islamic sciences.

Cairo has about eight million people — two million fewer than Tokyo.

مِئْذَنَة and مَنَارَة. The tall tower beside a mosque is a مِئْذَنَة. A مَنَارَة is a lighthouse.

The five mosques. The mosque of ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ (raḍiyallāhu ʿanhu) was the first mosque built in Egypt; ʿAmr led its conquest. His name is spelled عَمْرو, with a final و — that و is what tells it apart from عُمَر in writing. مُحَمَّد عَلِيّ is Muḥammad ʿAlī Pasha. The mosque of al-Azhar has become جَامِعَةُ الأَزْهَرِ, the university of al-Azhar.

6 · Paragraph 3 — New York #

New York is the biggest city in the United States of America, and in it is the headquarters of the United Nations, and the banks and the companies. The number of New York's inhabitants reaches about seven million people. People have migrated to it from every country in the world, for work and to seek knowledge. Skyscrapers are many in New York. The city faces many problems, such as poverty, crime and drugs.

By population: Tokyo (١٠ million), then Cairo (٨), then New York (٧).

7 · Three words for a building #

نَاطِحَاتُ السَّحَاب means, word for word, the cloud-butters: نَطَحَ is what a cow does with its horns, and سَحَاب is cloud. A building so tall it butts the clouds.

مَبْنًى ends in alif maqṣūrah: م ب ن ى.

8 · Three uses of مِنْ #

The passage uses مِنْ in three different ways. Ask which one each time.

So the title does not mean from the great cities. It means some of the world's great cities — three of them, out of many.

9 · Drill 1 — which city? #

ضَعْ عَلَامَةَ (✓) أَمَامَ العِبَارَةِ الصَّحِيحَةِ تَحْتَ المَدِينَةِ — tick the city each statement fits.

10 · Drill 2 — the main idea of each paragraph #

ضَعْ عَلَامَةَ (✓) بِجَانِبِ الفِكْرَةِ الرَّئِيسَةِ فِي كُلِّ فِقْرَةٍ — the main idea is the heading that everything else in the paragraph sits under.

The banks, the earthquakes, al-Azhar and the UN are each one detail inside a paragraph. In all three paragraphs the main idea is the opening sentence: what the city is.

11 · Make a sentence #

كَوِّنْ جُمْلَةً مُنَاسِبَةً مِنْ كُلِّ كَلِمَتَيْنِ (لَا تَقِلُّ الجُمْلَةُ عَنْ سِتِّ كَلِمَاتٍ) — use each pair of words in a sentence of at least six words.

The last two pairs — يُشْتَهَرُ / العِلْم and يَزْدَادُ / المَدِينَة — are yours to make in the same way. Then read the three paragraphs again until each sentence pattern is your own.