The Arabic language has a long history in China. Before there was pinyin using the Latin letters, there was xiao’erjing using the Arabic script. Before there was Chinglish, there was surely… Sinabii.

Ah, well, I don’t actually know what it would be called. Arabish in Arabic is called “Arabeezy”, “-eezy” being the last half of the word for English. Anyway…

It snuck up on me really. I was in the kitchen, trying to de-gunk the range, when I saw on my shelf a box of 王守义 brand 十三香. It’s a spice mix, containing 13 in total, 10 of which I’m sure are anise. But then written down the side of the package, I saw something that made me do a double take.

التوابل من الانواع الثلاثة عشر

That’s not Uyghur. It’s straight up Arabic. In full it would be

‎الْتَّوَّابِل مِن الانْوَاع الْثَّلاثَة عَشَر
āl-taūaābil min āl-ānūaāʿ āl-ṯalāṯaʰ ʿašar

Except, and I could be wrong because it’s been a while, it’s not right. I couldn’t put my finger on it but something seemed wrong about it. What they’re trying to say could be one of two things. One, the simpler, would be “thirteen kinds of spices¹”. The other, which matches the text better, is “spices from thirteen kinds²”. Either way, it begs the question:

Why Arabic?

As far as I know it’s only a language in China when used for liturgical purposes. Qur’anic reading can be done in Arabic, but the sermon must be in Mandarin. No one here speaks it natively, if they ever did. Uyghurs don’t usually learn it, and Hui are native Mandarin speakers.

The package says 清真, meaning halal/kosher, which any Uyghur would be able to read. Actually, there’s a small nanwalla in my neighbourhood who has حلال (halal) with an arrow painted on the wall near his shop. I always assumed it was for tourists. That doesn’t seem to be the case with 王守义. It’s not the kind of thing I picture a Saudi tourist picking up at the local 家乐福 (Carrefour).

A mistake in English is funny. A mistake in Arabic, a highly inflected language, may render it almost unreadable.

Should this be chalked up as another case of just showing off?

1. ثَلَاثَة عَشَر أَنْوَاع مِن الْتَّوَابِل
2. ‎الْتَّوَّابِل مِن الانْوَاع ثَّلاثَة عَشَر