Challenging the Transformer-based models with a Classical Arabic dataset: Quran and Hadith

Transformer-based models showed near-perfect results on several downstream tasks. However, their performance on classical Arabic texts is largely unexplored. To fill this gap, we evaluate monolingual, bilingual, and multilingual state-of-the-art models to detect relatedness between the Quran (Muslim holy book) and the Hadith (Prophet Muhammed teachings), which are complex classical Arabic texts with underlying meanings that require deep human understanding. To do this, we carefully built a dataset of Quran-verse and Hadith-teaching pairs by consulting sources of reputable religious experts. This study presents the methodology of creating the dataset, which we make available on our repository, and discusses the models’ performance that calls for the imminent need to explore avenues for improving the quality of these models to capture the semantics in such complex, low-resource texts.