Early nineteenth-century Arabic lacked any word for education as a distinct practice.

Evidence

The word education (tarbiya) in this sense was itself a new usage. In Rifaa al-Tahtawi’s well-known work Takhlis al-ibriz, published in 1834, the first modern Arabic account of Europe, the term tarbiya does not occur, except once or twice in the word’s general sense of ‘to breed’ or ‘to produce’, as in a description of the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris: ‘In the Polytechnique mathematics and physics are taught, to produce engineers (li-tarbiyat muhandisin).’ Nor is there any single word in its place, referring to the distinctive social practice of education. — <cite>Timothy Mitchell, Colonising Egypt, 302</cite> (#corroborates`, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The concept of education lacked a direct Arabic term in 1830s Egypt; Arabic had no word for education as a distinct social practice in 1834. — Timothy Mitchell, Colonising Egypt, 302; The Arabic word for secular was invented only in the late nineteenth century. — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular:…, 981 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Arabic had no word for education as a distinct social practice in 1834. #corroborates (1.00) — Timothy Mitchell, Colonising Egypt, 302