A COMPARATIVE LEXICAL STUDY OF QUR'ANIC ARABIC HANDBOOK OF ORIENTAL STUDIES HANDBUCH DER ORIENTALISTIK SECTION ONE THE NEAR AND MIDDLE EAST EDITED BY H. ALTENMULLER • B. HROUDA • B.A. LEVINE • R.S. O'FAHEY K.R. VEENHOF • C.H.M. VERSTEEGH VOLUME SIXTY-ONE A COMPARATIVE LEXICAL STUDY OF QUR'ANIC ARABIC A COMPARATIVE LEXICAL STUDY OF QUR'ANIC ARABIC BY MARTIN R. ZAMMIT BRILL LEIDEN • BOSTON • KOLN 2002 This book is printed on acid-free paper. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Zammit, Martin R. A comparative lexical study of Qur'anic Arabic / by Martin R. Zammit. p. cm. — (Handbook of Oriental studies. Section one, the Near and Middle East, ISSN 0169-9423 ; v. 61) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 9004118012 (alk. paper) 1. Arabic language—Lexicology. 2.Semitic languages—Lexicology. 3. Arabic language—Lexicography. 4. Semitic languages—Lexicography. 5. Koran—Language, style. I. Title. II. Handbuch der Orientalistik. Erste Abteilung, Nahe und der Mittlere Osten ; 61. Bd. PJ6611.Z36 2001 492.7'3028^dc21 2001025942 CIP Die Deutsche Bibliothek - CIP-Einheitsaufnahme Zammit, Martin K.: A comparative lexical study of Qur'anic Arabic / by Martin R. Zammit. Leiden ; Boston ; Koln : Brill, 2002 [Handbook of oriental studies : Sect. 1, The Near and Middle East; Vol.61) ISBN 90-04-11801-2 ISSN 0169-9423 ISBN 90 04 11801 2 © Copyright 2002 by Koninklyke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Brill provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910 DanversMA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. PRINTED IN THE NETHERLANDS (The Holy Qwr^ 30:22) This page intentionally left blank CONTENTS Acknowledgements ix Abbreviations & symbols xi Introduction 1 1. Past lexical studies 17 1.1 Muslim lexicography 17 1.2 Jewish Medieval scholarship: the exegetical background 19 1.3 Early modern and modern Semitic lexicology 20 1.3.1 The recourse to Arabic lexical sources 21 1.4 The Common Semitic vocabulary 22 1.5 Lexicostatistical studies: the Semitic languages 23 1.5.1 Lexicostatistical studies: the Arabic dialects 26 2. The Qur'anic Text 29 2.1 cdriba and mustcfraba 29 2.2 The ancient Arabs 30 2.3 The Arabic language 34 2.3.1 The earliest attestations 34 2.3.2 The 'ambiyya question and Quranic Arabic 37 2.4 The Qur'an: etymology and compilation 43 2.5 The Qur'anic lexicon 47 2.5.1 Loanwords in the Qufan 51 2.5.2 Lexical miscellanea 61 3. The lexical corpus 64 3.1 The choice of the languages 64 3.2 The lexical grid 447 4. Diachronic semantic observations 514 4.1 Introduction 514 4.1.1 Context, meaning, and glosses 516 Vlll CONTENTS 4.2 Extensive lexical community between Arabic and other Semitic languages 517 4.3 Semantic retention in Arabic and in other Semitic languages 527 4.4 Semantic specialization in Arabic 543 4.5 Other lexical cases 554 4.6 Summing-up 559 5. Discussion of the figures 561 5.1 The basic figures 561 5.2 Distribution of the lexical resources 561 5.3 Distribution by semantic classification 564 5.4 Areal distribution of the lexical material 567 5.4.1 Distribution patterns 1-4 572 5.4.2 The other distribution patterns 5-18 573 5.5 The Common Semitic element in the Qur'anic lexicon 573 5.6 Lexical exclusivity in Arabic 575 6. Summary and conclusions 578 6.1 General historical and linguistic background 578 6.2 Concluding remarks 584 6.2.1 This research in general 584 6.2.2 A brief outline of the findings 586 Appendix: General lexical notes 591 Bibliographical references 617 Index of Arabic Lexical Items 629 General Index 646 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In the course of the preparation of this work, I was lucky to receive the precious support of a number of people. Special thanks are due to Prof. Anthony J. Frendo, Head of the Department of Arabic and Near Eastern Studies (University of Malta) for his constant encour- agement and overall guidance. I am also immensely grateful to compatriot and friend Prof. Alexander Borg of the Jacob Blaustein Institute for Desert Research (Ben Gurion University) for his criti- cal reading of the manuscript and his invaluable remarks. I also wish to express my gratitude to Prof. Peter Serracino Inglott, Chairman of the Mediterranean Institute (University of Malta) for being sup- portive of this work and for granting me precious time to carry out my research during the period of my employment with the above Institute. Moreover, I was very fortunate in receiving the expert tech- nical help of Karistu Abela in solving computing problems in gen- eral, and for designing the Semitic font in particular. I am also most grateful to: my colleague Dr Manwel Mifsud lecturer at the Department of Maltese (University of Malta) for his unabating moral encour- agement; to the members of staff at the libraries of the University of Malta, the School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London), the University of Leeds, and the Pontificial Biblical Institute (Rome); to Ms Trudy Kamperveen of Brill Academic Publishers for her patience and kind assistance in bringing this work to press. Last, but certainly not least, I wish to acknowledge my indebtedness to my wife Gertrude, and my children Stefan and Christine, who patiently and lovingly put up with the strain involved in the prepa- ration of this work. Msida, August 2001 This page intentionally left blank ABBREVIATIONS & SYMBOLS General abbreviations AA ancient Aramaic f. feminine ace. accusative fasc. fascicle act. active fig. figuratively adj. adjective fn. footnote adv. adverb/ial fr. from af. 'afel frag. fragment/ary Akk. Akkadian G. Grundstamm, basic verbal stem Amh. Amharic Ge. Ge'ez Amor. Amorite Gk. Greek Arab. Arabic Gn. Genesis Aram. Aramaic h. A-verbal prefix in ESA aux. auxiliary haf. hafel Bab. Babylonian Heb. Hebrew BA Biblical Aramaic hif. hif'il BH Biblical Hebrew hitpa. hitpa'el Can. Canaanite hitpe. hitpe'al c. century hitpo. hitpolel ca. circa id. idem cf. confer i.e. id est chap. chapter II-X Arab, verbal derived Chr. Christian categories col. column imp. imperative coll. collective ImpA Imperial Aramaic comp. comparative indef. indefinite contr. contracted inf. infinitive cp. compare insc. inscription conj. conjunction interj. interjection CS' Common Semitic interrog. interrogative D. Doppehtamm, verbal intr. intransitive stem with doubled second Is. Isaiah radical itpa. 'itpa'al dem. demonstrative itpalp. 'itpalpel denom. denominative itpe. 'itpe'el deriv. derived, derivative, derivation Jb. Job Dn. Daniel Jer. Jeremiah ES East Semitic Jew. Jewish e.g. exempli gratia JP Jewish-Palestinian encl. enclitic Eat. Latin ESA Epigraphic South Arabian lit. literally etpa. 'etpa'al Iw. loanword etpe. 'etpe'el m. masculine etym. etymological metaph. metaphor/ically esp. especially Mic. Micah euph. euphemism Min. Minoan Eze. Eykiel n. noun Xll ABBREVIATIONS & SYMBOLS n.d. no date pu. pu'al NH Neo-Hebrew Pun. Punic nif. nif'al Q. The Qufdn no. number Qat. Qatabanian NP Neo-Punic QA Qur'anic Arabic NT New Testament re. regarding num. numeral rel. relative NWS North-West Semitic rt. root OA Old Aramaic sec. section obi. oblique Sf. Sefire Inscriptions obsol. obsolete sg. singular OffA Official Aramaic Skr. Sanskrit orig. originally s.o. someone o.s. oneself SS South Semitic OT Old Testament st- st- verbal prefix in ESA pa. pa'el s.th. something Palm, Palmyrene subst. substantive part, participle Sum. Sumerian partic. particle Syr. Syriac pass. passive /. sqfel PbH Post-Biblical Hebrew st- st- verbal prefix pe. pe'al Talm. Talmud perh. perhaps Targ. Targum pers. personal tD. t- prefix affixed to Doppelstamm Pers. Persian in Akk. Ph. Phoenician ti. t- verbal infix in ESA Phlv. Pahlavi tp. t- verbal prefix in ESA pi. picel tQ. t- prefix affixed to the simple pilp. pilpel verbal form pi. plural tr. transitive poet. poetic Ug. Ugaritic prep, preposition var. various prob. probably vb. verb pron. pronoun voc. vocative pr.n. proper noun w. with Prov. Proverbs WS West Semitic PS Proto-Semitic yif. yifil Bibliographical Abbreviations The following are abbreviations of standard works on Semitic studies. For full bib- liographical details see the Bibliography section: AHw von Soden, Akkadisches Handwbrterbuch BDB Brown, Driver, Briggs, Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament CAD Gelb, Jacobsen, et alii eds. Chicago Assyrian Dictionary CDG Leslau, Comparative Dictionary of Ge'ez DCH Clines, The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew DISO Jean, Hoftijzer, Dictionnaire des Inscriptions Semitiques de I'Ouest DNWSI Hoftijzer, Jongeling, Dictionary of the North-West Semitic Inscriptions DRS Cohen, Dictionnaire de racines semitiques ou attestees dans langues semitiques HAL Koehler and Baumgartner, Hebrdisches und Aramdisches Lexikon zum Alien Testament LA Ibn Manzur, Lisdn al-carab ABBREVIATIONS & SYMBOLS Xlll Lex. Syr Brockelmann, Lexicon Syriacum Q. The Qur'dn UT Ugaritic Textbook References to the following sources of frequent mention will be indicated by the authors' surnames and page number/s only: Aistleitner Worterbuch der ugaritischen Sprache Brauner A comparative Lexicon of Old Aramaic Conti Rossini Chrestomathia Arabica Meridionalis Epigraphica Biella Dictionary of Old South Arabic—Sabaean Dialect Dillmann Lexicon Linguae Aethiopicae Fraenkel Die aramaischen Fremdworter im Arabischen Gibson Canaanite Myths and Legends Gordon Ugaritic Textbook Ibn Faris Maqayls al-Luga Jastrow A Dictionary of the Targumin, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi and the Midrashic literature Jeffery The Foreign Vocabulary of the Qur'an Lane Arabic-English Lexicon del Olmo Lete Diccionario de la Lengua Ugaritica Payne Smith A Compendious Syriac Dictionary Penrice Dictionary and Glossary of the Kor-dn Tomback A Comparative Semitic Lexicon of the Phoenician and Punic Languages Other bibliographical abbreviations AAL Afroasiatic Linguistics ed.