Expert: Michelle Grech - 12/2/2008

Question
Dear Michelle,

I hope it’s all right to ask you a cultural question rather than specifically geographical.

Since Maltese is a dialect of Arabic (am I right in thinking that you understand some dialects of Arabic?), are the Maltese people Arabs who were converted forcibly to Christianity by the Catholic Church as someone (not very reliable) told me once? If not Arabs, who are the Maltese descended from?

Has there ever been any forcible religious conversion in your history?

Many thanks,

Simon

Answer
Hi Simon

Maltese is not a dialect of Arabic but a language in it's own right. Yes there is a lot of Arabic influence (hence it's a semitic language) but there is a lot of English, Italian and trench too.

The Maltese were never forcibly converted to Christianity. St Paul was on his way to Rome from Damascus I believe and he was shipwrecked near Malta. he took refuge on the island and that is when the maltese converted to Christianity. I don't know what they were before but I don't think that Malta was ever a Muslim country.

This link might help:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Malta

Michelle