Western scholars of Arabic long studied the classical language over living dialects

Evidence

When I arrived in Egypt the only Arabic I knew was classical Arabic, which was about as useful for conversation as Ciceronian Latin would be in present-day Naples. But I managed to acquire some colloquial Arabic, and enrolled as an “auditor” in Cairo University. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 74

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Orientalism’s critique of philological study of classical texts over living societies.