Note 220
From The Invasion of Spain, part of Chapter 51 of the Decline & Fall

The Arabic of the Koran is taught as a dead language in the college of Mecca. By the Danish traveller, this ancient idiom is compared to the Latin; the vulgar tongue of Hejaz and Yemen to the Italian; and the Arabian dialects of Syria, Egypt, Africa, etc., to the Provencal, Spanish, and Portuguese (Niebuhr, Description de l'Arabie, p. 74, etc.).