From Alfiyya to Berlitz: modernising Arabic language pedagogy in protectorate-era Morocco

It is often assumed that colonial administrators across North Africa were involved, explicitly or implicitly, in the suppression of fu a (classical Arabic). This paper adds nuance to such generalisations by examining debates over Arabic language pedagogy during the French protectorate in Morocco. Drawing on official correspondence and internal notes exchanged between the Direction de l'instruction publique (DIP) and local school administrators, this article shows that, far from disregarding Arabic as a school subject, French colonial administrators actively attempted to reform and modernise Arabic language pedagogy by drawing on European pedagogical methodologies and new trends in foreign language teaching. I argue that these overlooked pedagogical reforms radically, if unintentionally, reframed classical Arabic from a divinely privileged language offering unique access to knowledge about the world, to merely one language amongst others, a token of a type, in need of being taught according to the universal rules of language pedagogy. In doing so, I suggest that protectorate-era Arabic classes in DIP-run schools helped lay the foundation for postcolonial debates over Arabisation and the status of Arabic dialects.