The language of Qatar

Gorgias Press sent their catalog my way, and in it is a blurb from a book from last January by Mario Kozah and a few others. They're discussing the Beth Qaṭrâyé which means the western Gulf Coast.

Before Islam, Arabic in any form went unspoken along the Gulf - this book argues. Instead the Church of the East recorded "Qaṭrâyîth". In classical antiquity, this Hasa was the home of "Hasaitic" (with Aramaic, for the visitors).

Kozah notes elsewhere the East Syriac Anonymous Commentary – a ninth century exegetical work which in its most extended form covers both the Old and New Testaments. He finds lexemes in here in Qaṭrâyîth. That term "lexeme" implies we're dealing with roots in an inflected language, which I assume means it's Semitic like Hasaitic was.

Is Qaṭrâyîth more-directly related to Hasaitic?