A day to celebrate our language and our diversity.

Arabic is one of just six official languages of the United Nations, is spoken by more than 300 million native speakers in the 22 countries of the Arab League and is familiar to many millions more as the language of the Holy Quran.

While Arabic is now a truly global language, it wasn’t always this way. In the sixth century, Arabic was one of several Semitic languages spoken across the vast Arabian Peninsula. While Arabic had acquired prestige as a language of poetry, it was not widely known outside its native Hijaz.

All that changed, however, with the rise of the Arab Empire in the seventh century. Within just one hundred years, the language had spread far and wide, and it would soon become the everyday spoken tongue of culturally and ethnically diverse people living across an area that stretched from the Atlantic coast in the West to the Arabian Gulf in the East.

With the spread of the Islamic religion into new lands, Arabic vocabulary was absorbed into the languages of millions of people and Arabic script was adopted as the written alphabet of many Asian and Turkic languages.

As the language become spoken across an ever-larger area, its speakers’ desire for knowledge grew exponentially. For nearly six hundred years, starting in the 8th century, Arabic was arguably the world’s leading language for the dissemination of scientific, medical, mathematical, philosophical and historical knowledge. Some of the major breakthroughs attributed to Arab scientists and technicians during this period include surgery, the theory of flight, algebra and optics. The crank was invented and what is believed to the world’s first university, founded by a noblewoman named Fatima Al Firhi, opened in Fez in 859.

Around the year AD 1000, Al Zahrawi’s weighty, illustrated tome Kitab Al Tasrif was published and went on to become a reference work for physicians in both Europe and the Arab world. Around the same time, Ibn Al Haitham would publish his book of optics, which postulated that humans see objects when light reflects off them and enters the eyes.

It was during this period that the Arabic writings of Ibn Sinaa, Ibn Rushd, Ibn Al Haytham and Al Abadi were translated into Latin and disseminated throughout Europe, where they are credited with helping to kick-start the Renaissance.

In an unfortunate twist to this story, many of the original Arabic writings of this period have been lost and only survive in translation. Respect for the written word, however, never faded and became apparent through the elevation of calligraphy into an art form.

Today, we recognize the Arabic language’s immense contribution to human civilization as we mark World Arabic Language Day. For me, it’s not only a day to celebrate our rich language, but to consider the many people from diverse backgrounds and cultural traditions who have contributed to its development. We are 22 nations with unique dialects, cuisines, philosophies, histories and cultural traditions united by pride in our Arab heritage.

Just as diversity contributed so much to the development of our Arabic language, I believe that diversity is vital for success in today’s world. Without it, businesses can become limited in their thinking and risk missing out on great talent.

It’s why I’m proud to work for Dell Technologies, because we take diversity and inclusion very seriously and act on our words with a concerted plan of action. For us, building and supporting a workforce that’s representative of the diverse and global customers we serve is both morally correct and a business imperative.

Consider what the respected McKinsey consultancy group has to say. Its research shows that companies in the top quartile for gender diversity are 21% more likely to have industry-leading profitability compared to companies in the bottom quartile. Companies in the top quartile for ethnic diversity are 33% more likely to have industry-leading profitability compared to companies in the bottom quartile.

For me, it’s clear that our great diversity as a race is one of the major reasons why the Arabic language prospered over a thousand years ago. It’s clear that as global citizens, we all have the power to drive positive change and make our mark in the world, by accepting and championing each other’s cultural differences. For us here at Dell Technologies, diversity, tolerance and inclusion define who we are and drives our success.

@mamin624