Babel, page 24
ḠAZĀL – gazelle.
Ḡ-R-B (root) – go down, go away. The west, where the sun goes down, is called AL-ḠARB. This is at the root of the name Algarve, in Portugal, as well as Maghreb (MAḠRIB), the westernmost part of the Islamic world. Trafalgar Square is named after a place in Spain whose Arabic name was ṭARAF AL-ḠARB or ‘Western cape’.
ḠŪL – ghoul, demon.
H
ḤAJJ – hajj, pilgrimage. A ḤAJJIYY, English hajji, is someone who has fulfilled this Islamic duty (see under -IYY).
ḤALĀL – halal, permitted, especially under Muslim customs.
ḤALĀWA – halva, a confection made of sesame seed paste. Derived from the adjective ḤULW or ḤALW, ‘sweet’.
ḤAMMĀM – bath(house). In English, the Turkish form hamam, with one m, is used for a Turkish bath. The Arabic form with double m is the original; it’s derived from the root Ḥ-M-M for ‘heating’.
HARĪSA – harissa, a spice mix. A culinary term from Tunisian Arabic, from a verb meaning ‘to crush’.
ḤAŠĪŠ – grass, dried herbs; also hashish. Traditionally the word assassin has been linked to ḤAŠŠĀŠĪN, ‘hashish users’; alternatively, it may come from ʾASĀSIYYŪN, meaning ‘fundamentalists’.
Ḥ-B-B (root) – related to love and seeds.The name ḤABĪB (Habib) means ‘beloved’. ABŪ ḤIBĀB (‘baobab’) means ‘father of seeds’.
ḤIJĀB – hijab, headscarf. From a root denoting concealment.
Ḥ-K-M (root) – wisdom, judging, ruling. The South Asian hakims who practice traditional medicine owe their name to this Arabic word. Hakim (‘wise, ruler’) and Abdul Hakim (‘servant of the allwise [God]) are given names.
Ḥ-M-D (root) – praise, thank. The names MUḤAMMAD (Muhammad) and MAḤMŪD (Mahmud) both mean ‘praised’. ḤAMĪD (‘praiseworthy’) and ḤāMID (‘praiser’), both reduced to Hamid in English, contain the same root.
Ḥ-R-M (root) – forbidden. Three well-known words are derived from this root: harem (borrowed via Turkish), the part of the house forbidden to all males except close relatives; haram, the opposite of halal; and Boko Haram, the West African terrorist organisation that objects to boko, a Hausa word for ‘fake’, used to refer to ‘Westernisation’ or ‘Western education’.
Ḥ-S-N (root) – goodness. The given names ḤASAN (Hassan: ‘good-looking, manly, strong’) and its diminutive ḤUSAYN (which has numerous English spellings) have evolved from this root.
ḤUMMUṣ – hummus; chickpeas. Hummus and Hebrew KHÚMUS are loanwords from Arabic. The full Arabic name is Ḥummuṣ BI-ṭAḤĪNA, ‘chickpeas with tahini’ (see ṭAḤĪNA)
ḤŪRIYYA – houri. A tricky term, this. The Koran mentions the houris several times as fair women with large eyes, but the story about sventy-two virgins is of later, and hearsay, origin. The English word ‘whore’ is unrelated.
I
IḵTĀRA – choose. The ‘choicest’ wool would be MUḵAYYAR, which via Italian and French gave English mocayre, later changed to mohair. The chosen leader of a village is the muḵtĀr.
INTIFĀḍA – shaking off, uprising. From the root N-F-ḍ, which means ‘shake’.
-IYY – suffix forming adjectives and nouns, indicating a relationship to what is mentioned in the headword. One frequent use is in nationalities, such as YAMANIYY (Yemeni) and ĀIRĀQIYY (Iraqi).
J
JAMAL – camel. A word from Arabic or some other Semitic language that has reached English through Greek, Latin and French. Said to be derived from the root J-M-L for ‘beauty’, whence also the given names Jamila (JAMĪLA) and Jamal (JAMĀL), but the connection is unlikely.
JARRA – earthen jug. Our workaday word jar has a surprising but solidly validated Arabic lineage, with French acting as the link.
J-B-R (root) – (to restore) strength. AL-JABR for ‘the setting of bones’ has, through a title of an influential book, given us algebra. (The book was written by a Persian scholar named AL-KHWĀRIZMĪ, whose Latinised name ALGORITMI has given us the word algorithm.) The name Gabriel (Arabic: JIBR(Āʾ)ĪL) means ‘God is my strength’.
J-H-D (root) – to struggle, labour. One derivation is JIHĀD for ‘effort, struggle’, including, but not limited to, ‘holy war’. People involved in a struggle are MUJĀHIDĪN.
JUBBA – outer garment, jubbah, jibba. It has given French its standard word for ‘skirt’, jupe, which is used in English for a specific kind of skirt or jacket. It may also be, through some roundabout maritime conection, at the root of the word jumper for ‘sweater’.
J-Z-R (root) – to cut off. TV station Al Jazeera and the country Algeria both derive their names from AL-JAZĪRA, ‘the island’.
K
KAĀBA – Kaaba, cube. The Kaaba or ‘cube’ in Mecca is the holiest place of Islam and one of the destinations of the HAJJ (pilgrimage).
KABĀB – kebab. Related to a root for ‘roasting’. The English form was influenced by Turkish KEBAP.
KĀFIR – non-believer. The original meaning was ‘concealer’, namely of the truth. Whether Jews and Christians, the other ʾAHL AL-KITĀB or ‘people of the book’, are included or not is a matter of some debate.
K-B-R (root) – to be big or great. It has gained notoriety due to the phrase ALLAHU AKBAR ‘God is supreme’ which traditionally was a simple expression of gratitude, not unlike ‘thank God’.
KĪMIYĀʾ – chemistry. It is at the root of both our words chemistry and alchemy (with the article al). The Arabs borrowed it from Greek KHUMEÍA.
ḵ-L-F (root) – change, transition. The caliph (ḵALĪFA) is the ‘successor’, the leader of the faithful in Muhammad’s stead.
K-T-B (root) – write. One of the best-known Arabic and indeed Semitic roots, though none of the derivations is all that frequent in English. The ʾAHL AL-KITĀB are the ‘people of the book’ (see KĀFIR). A maktab in English refers to a traditional Islamic school, where children mostly learn to read the Koran; in Arabic, the meaning has moved on to ‘office’. The word MAKTŪB, meaning ‘written, fated’ as an adjective and ‘destiny’ as a noun, is regularly quoted in English as maktub to express acceptance of fate.
KUḤL – antimony; kohl. A dark powder, used as eye make-up. The word may also be at the root of alcohol, but this is contentious.
ḵURŠŪF – artichoke. The Spanish kept the article AL and changed the whole word into ALCA(R) CHOFA, Medieval Italians turned it into ARCICIOFFO, the North Italian Lombards preferred to say ARTICIòC and this badly mangled name reached English.
L
LAYMŪN – lemon. From Persian limu, which in turn may have borrowed it from a language related to Malay.
LĪLAK – lilac. Originally from Sanskrit NĪLĀ for ‘dark blue’. From this origin, the word has travelled through Persian, Arabic and French to English.
M
M – prefix for ‘place’. A MASJID is a ‘place of prostration’; European languages have metamorphosed the word to mosque (Moschee, mezquita, etc.).
MADĪNA – town, city. In English, medina refers to the older part of a North African town. Since the Arabs traditionally didn’t have towns, the word was borrowed from Aramaic.
MADRASA – school. The Arabic word, unlike the English loanword madrasah, refers to any kind of school, not just the religious kind. It’s based on the root D-R-S for ‘study’.
MAḵZAN – storehouse, place for storage. The plural MAḵĀZIN has, through Italian and French, produced the word magazine, originally meaning a military storehouse, later a ‘storehouse’ of information, and thus a ‘journal’.
MASĪḤ – anointed. The Arabic cognate of Hebrew MĀŠîAḤ, which has given us messiah. Christianity is in Arabic called MASĪḤIYYAH, ‘Messianism’.
MASSA – feel, touch. French Oriental travellers added a French ending to the Arabic word, giving the world MASSAGE.
MIQRAM; MIQRAMA – bedspread; cloth. Through Turkish, this has resulted in a French word that is now widespread, macramé: a knotting technique for producing decorative textile, said to be of Arab origin.
M-L-K – rule, possess. Hence MALIK(A): king, queen. The word mameluke for ‘(European) slave’ comes from Arabic MAMLŪK. Several Muslims rulers of slave origin called their empire or dynasty Mamluk.
MU- – participle prefix, either active (as in ‘doing’) or passive (as in ‘done’). Active: a mujahideen is a fighter, a Muslim is an Islamic believer, a mufti delivers formal opinions or fatwas. Passive: the first names Mustafa and Mukhtar both mean ‘the chosen one’, and MUḤAMMAD is ‘the praised one’.
N
NĀʾIB – deputy. The plural NUWWĀB was borrowed into Persian, then Hindustani as NAVĀB, where it came to refer to an Indian ruler within the Mughal empire, rendered as nawab or nabob in English.
NĀRANJ – bitter orange. This wandering word probably started out in a Dravidian language, passed through Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic and Spanish before losing its initial n in French, where UNE NORANGE (‘an orange’) was reinterpreted as UNE ORANGE.
NAẓĪR – The first part of the geometrical term NAẓĪR AS-SAMT ‘the counterpart to the zenith’ (see under SAMT) produced the Medieval Latin nadir, which English adopted.
Q
QĀĀIDA – foundation, (military) base. The name of the terror organisation translates as The Base. In the plural, QAWĀĀID, the word means ‘grammar’.
QĀḍIN – judge. As qadi, the word is used in English for a civil judge in an Islamic context. The Spanish ALCALDE (mayor) has the same origin.
QAHWA – coffee. The Arabic word reached English through Turkish, Italian and Dutch.
QALIY – ashes. Based on the verb QALĀ for ‘bake, fry’. With the article al, this has given us alkali. The ‘ashes’ were those of a plant rich in an alkaline substance.
QAṣR – castle. An alcazar /al-KA-sar/ is a Moorish castle in Spain, directly derived from AL-QAṣR. qaṣr was borrowed from Latin, where CASTRUM means ‘castle’. Through French, the same word has given us CASTLE and CHTEAU.
QĪRĀṭ – carat. The English word was borrowed, via French and Italian, from the Arabic, which in turn took it from Greece, where it meant ‘carob seed’.
QĪṯĀRA – guitar. It’s not quite clear how this word travelled from one language to the other. All forms can be traced back to Greek (KITHÁRĒ), which seems to have borrowed it from some unknown local language. The string instruments zither and cittern have the same origin.
QIṭṭ – cat, tomcat. Many languages in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa have similar words for ‘cat’. As felines were first domesticated in Egypt, the likely origin is a language spoken in that region.
QUBBA – dome. With the article al, it has produced alcove for ‘a small recessed area set off from a larger room’. The Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem is called QUBBAT AL-SAKHRAH. Arabic borrowed the word QUBBA from Persian.
QURʾĀN – recitation; Koran.
QUṭN – cotton. The Arabic word has reached English through Italian and French.
R
R-ʾ-S (root) – to be at the head. The word raʾĪs for ‘head, chief’ has given English reis or rais for ‘leader’ or ‘captain’ in Middle Eastern contexts. The explorer Piri Reis may be the most famous.
RĀḤA – leisure, ample space, palm of the hand. A (tennis, badminton) racket/racquet is a device for amplifying the palm of the hand.
RAMAḍĀN – Ramadan. Month of fasting.
RIBĀṭ – tie, bond, frontier post, and later small monastery. The word ribat is sometimes used in English for a military frontier post in the Arab world. A MURĀBIṭ is someone dwelling in a RIBĀṭ, a soldier or a hermit, which has given us marabout for ‘Muslim holy man or mystic’.
RIZMA – bundle, package. Via Spanish RESMA and Old French RAIME, the word has resulted in ream, a bundle or package of paper.
S
SĀFARA – to travel. The English word safari stems from Swahili SAFARI, which is of Arabic origin.
ṣĀḤIB – companion. Via Persian it reached Hindustani, where it became a term of respect for European males. The first syllable of the female form, memsahib, derives from English ma’am.
SĀḤIL – coast. The singular has given us the name Sahel, the ‘coast’ or fringe of the Sahara desert. The plural SAWĀḤIL is the origin of the name Swahili Coast, the coastal areas of Kenya, Tanzania and Northern Mozambique, where the Swahili language originated.
ṣAḤRĀʾ – desert, Sahara. The English name stems from the Arabic plural, ṣAḤĀRĀ.
SALAF – predecessor(s), ancestor(s). Salafism is a movement that takes early Islam as its ideal.
SAMT – path. Medieval Latin corrupted it to CENIT, which has given us ZENITH.
ŠARĪĀA – path; sharia. The latter meaning is a specific, metaphoric case of the former.
ŠARĪF – noble. A sharif or shareef is a person of noble ancestry.
ŠĀŠ – muslin, white cloth. This is where the word sash comes from.
ŠAYḵ – sheik. The name is related to a word for ‘ageing, growing old’, like the English words alderman (compare old and elder) and senator (compare senior and senile).
ṣIFR – zero. The original meaning of ṣIFR was ‘empty’. The Arabs used it to translate Sanskrit śŪNYA, which also first meant ‘empty’ and was then extended to the concept of ‘zero’ (via ZEPHIRUM in Latin). ṣIFR also begat CYFRE in Old French, which became CIPHER (or CYPHER) in English.
SIKKA – coin. Italian borrowed it as ZECCA and turned it into the diminutive ZECCHINO which was adopted by French and then English as seguin.
S-L-M (root) – to be safe, at peace; to submit. This has been a very productive root of words and names well known in the West. Words based on it include SALĀM for ‘peace’ (as in DAR-ES-SALAAM, ‘house of peace’ and the greeting AS-SALĀMU ĀALAYKUM, ‘peace be upon you’), ʾISLĀM for ‘Islam, submission (to God)’ and MUSLIM for ‘person who submits (to God)’.
Š-R-B – drink. The word ŠARĀB (a drink) has left several traces in English: syrup, sorbet, sherbet.
Š-R-Q (root) – to rise (sun); East. ŠARQIYY for ‘eastern wind’ led, through a dialectal form SHORUQ, to the Italian word SCIROCCO, the sirocco desert wind. ŠARQIYY is also the likely origin of Greek SARAKENOS, which became Saracens.
ṣŪF – wool. The adjective ṣŪFIYY means both ‘woollen’ and ‘Sufi’; the Sufis would wear wool instead of silk.
ṣUFFA – stone bench, sofa. The word travelled from Aramaic to Arabic and thence to French and English.
SUKKAR – sugar. Yet another word that has come to us along a path well travelled: from Sanskrit (where śáRKARĀ for ‘grit’ or ‘gravel’ was applied to the sweet stuff) through Persian to Arabic, and hence via Italian, Medieval Latin and French to English. Spanish and Portuguese have maintained the Arabic article: AZÚCAR, AçúCAR.
SŪQ – market. Rendered in English as souq or souk.
T
ṭAḤĪNA – tahini, sesame paste. Derived from the root ṭ-Ḥ-N for ‘to grind’.
TĀJ – crown. Best known from TĀJ MAHAL, a Hindustani name meaning ‘crown of palaces’. MAHAL also derives from the Arabic: MAḤALL means ‘place’ or ‘residence’.
ṭĀLIB – seeker, student. Taliban is the plural, not in Arabic but in Pashto, one of Afghanistan’s two major languages.
TAMR HINDIYY – tamarind. The Arabic name literally means ‘Indian date’.
ṭARAḤA – throw. The ‘place where something is thrown’ is MAṭRAḤ in Arabic, which, through Old French, became mattress. ‘That which is thrown away’ is ṭARḤA, which through Italian (TARA) and French became tare, the empty weight of a container, as in the formula ‘gross weight = net weight + tare weight’.
ṭŪB – brick. With the article AL, assimilated to the initial consonant of the noun, this has produced the Spanish word ADOBE for ‘sun-dried brick’. This has become part of English vocabulary. In California, there is an Adobe Creek, after which a well-known software company was named. Arabic borrowed the word from Coptic, the previous language of Egypt.
ṭŪFĀN – storm. A regional word that also exists in Persian and Hindustani, borrowed by English as typhoon. Its ultimate origin may be Chinese.
W
WĀDIN – valley, riverbed. The form WĀDĪ can be recognised in many Spanish river names, such as Guadalquivir. In English, a wadi is a dry riverbed occasionally filled by flash floods.
WAZĪR – helper, minister. Through Turkish VEZIR and probably one of the Romance languages, this became English vizier for a highranking Ottoman official.
Y
YĀSAMĪN – jasmine. Via French jasmin from Arabic, which borrowed it from Persian.
Z
ZAĀFARĀN – saffron. The Arabic word, possibly of Persian origin, has reached English through Medieval Latin and French.
ZAHR – flower, di(c)e. The English word hazard, whose first meaning was ‘game of chance’, has come via French from Spanish AZAR (now ‘chance, misfortune’, but originally also ‘game of chance’), which in turn is derived from an Arabic noun with its article: AZ-ZAHR. The semantic connection is that the lucky side of the dice had a flower on it.
ZARĀFA – giraffe. English borrowed the word from French, which had it from Arabic.
Different letters, different litters
So much for vocabulary. How about the other major aspects of language: the sounds, the grammar and the script?
We saw in the previous chapter that the Arabic abjad and the Latin alphabet share a common origin. But that’s not much use when it comes to learning to read and write Arabic. The best that can be said is that the script has a manageable number of different characters, more or less on a par with Latin and Cyrillic. That makes Arabic easier than the Brahmic scripts and much easier than Chinese and Japanese. Also, unlike in Chinese and Vietnamese, it’s usually clear where words begin and end.
Phonologically speaking, all varieties of Arabic are rather different from European languages. But then again, it has no tone, no complicated consonant clusters and few vowels. It’s not exactly easy to pronounce Arabic correctly, whether the standard language or any of the ‘dialects’, but neither is it exceptionally difficult.
