The Quran contains words from Ethiopian, Persian, Indian, Turkic, Nabatean, Syriac, Coptic, Hebrew, Greek, and Berber, and Abyssinian origin. Writing in the late 1400s AD Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti (d. 1505) provides us with a neat list medieval authorities who attested to the presence of foreign vocabularies in the Quran. Let’s start with Ethiopian vocabularies, which is rendered اللغة الحبشية (which could perhaps also be rendered as Amharic አማርኛ), In Quran 4.51 the word جبت is an ancient Ethiopian name (or image) of the devil, while طاغوت stands for diviner or type of seer, according to hadith critic and exegete Ibn Abi Hatim (d. 938) who cited the authority of Ibn ‘Abbas.
Another of many Ethiopian vocabularies in the Quran is the word سكراً found in Quran 16.67. In his exegesis al-Tabari attributes an exegesis to Ibn ‘Abbas who said سكراً is Ethiopic for vinegar.
Most interestingly, however, is the exegesis of يٓس the name of thirty-sixth chapter of the Quran. Both al-Tabari and Ibn Abi Hatim attribute a reading to Ibn ‘Abbas that renders يٓس as Ethiopic vocative O, as in “O, man”.
How about the Persian vocabularies in the Quran? The most notable candidate is the word استبرق which occurs 4 times in the Quran, e.g. 18.31. The Successor al-Dahhak (d. 724) says the word is from Persian ستبر for “thick” (hence “thick silk” in Quran).
And what of Greek vocabularies in the Quran? The word الفردوس (for example, Quran 18.107) is of Greek origin, according to the early exeget Mujahid (d. 722), possibly deriving from παράδεισος (paradeisos) (and perhaps mediated via Persian.
Another interesting Greek term in the Quran is الصراط usually rendered the “path”. Al-Suyuti cites Ibn al-Jawzi (d. 1209) who said the word comes from the Greek for “path”.
It seems that the early Muslims were indeed confused about the spelling of “path” in Arabic. Some rendered it سراط, others زراط. It seems that the Arabic was mediated by Syriac ܐܣܛܪܛܐ (sirata) from the Greek στράτα.
Are there Indian vocabularies in the Quran? Medieval Muslim authorities cite a few examples. Al-Suyuti recalls an exegesis of Ja’far al-Sadiq (d. 765) who narrates from his father Muhammad al-Baqir (d. 733) that ابلعي in Quran 11.44 is Indian for “consume” or “drink”
There’s quite a few words of Syriac loanwords in the Quran. Let’s recalls one notable example. The term الربانيون in Quran 3.79 is a Syriac loanword according to multiple medieval Muslim authorities. It’s from the Rabbinic רבנים (rabanim) that Syriac ܪܒܝ (rabi) derives.
Likewise we’ll limit ourselves to one example of Hebrew loanwords in the Quran. In the view of Ibn Abi Hatim the word كفر in Quran 47.2 (and elsewhere) is a Hebrew loanwords. Presumably, k-f-r is from Hebrew כפר meaning “to cover or conceal”
How about Nabatean loanwords in the Quran? The most obvious example is طور سينين in Quran 95.2. Some medieval Muslim aturbories made clear that the words are Nabatean. The word اسفارا too is Nabatean for “book”, as well as الحوارين
What of Coptic loanwords in the Quran? In Quran 12.31 the word متكأً is a Nabatean calque meaning citrus fruit, according to Mujahid, the early Muslim exegete.
As for Turkic loanwords in the Quran, medieval authorities cite one example. In Quran 78.25 the word غساقاً is Turkic for something cold and rotten.
And there appears to be one Abyssinian claque in the Quran, according a reading attributed to Ibn ‘Abbas. The word حصب in Quran 21.98 is Absyinnian for firewood.
And lastly there’s a few Berber loanwords in the Quran, such as, for example, المهل in Quran 70.8, rendered as “falling” or “dropping down”.
According to Reynolds, the Arabic words Injīl (gospel) and mā’ida (table) are likely Arabized forms of the Ethiopic words wāngel (itself derived from the Greek evangelion, meaning gospel) and mā’edd (meaning banquet or table) (The Qur’an and the Bible, p. 109, 217). For some more examples of Ethiopic loan words, check out the following paper: https://www.academia.edu/47608498/Beyond_Single_Words_mā_ida_shayṭān_jibt_and_ṭāghūt_Mechanisms_of_Translating_the_Bible_into_Ethiopic_Gǝʿǝz_Bible_and_of_Transmission_into_the_Qur_ānic_Text
- Hajayneh, H: The usage of Ancient South Arabian and other Arabian languages as an etymological source for Qur’anic vocabulary in Reynolds, G (ed): New Perspectives on the Qur’ān – The Qur’ān in its historical context 2 from Rippin, A (ed): Routledge Studies in the Qur’ān, Routledge 2011, pp.117-146. https://web.archive.org/web/20210513193320/http://www.almuslih.org/Library/Reynolds,%20G%20(ed)%20-%20New%20Perspectives.pdf Carter, M – Foreign Vocabulary in Rippin, A (ed): The Blackwell Companion to the Qur’ān Blackwell Publishing, 2006, pages 120-139. https://web.archive.org/web/20210513193320/http://www.almuslih.org/Library/Rippin,%20A%20(ed)%20-%20The%20Blackwell%20Companion.pdf Dye, G: Traces of Bilingualism / Multilingualism in Qur’ānic Arabic from Arabic in Context, ed. Ahmad al-Jallad, Leiden, Brill (Studies in Semitic Languages and Linguistics). https://web.archive.org/web/20210513193320/http://www.almuslih.org/Library/Dye,%20G%20-%20Traces%20of%20Biligualism.pdf Jeffery, A: The Foreign Vocabulary of the Qur’ān with a Foreword by G. Böwering and J. D McAuliffe. Brill Leiden, Boston, 2007.
- https://web.archive.org/web/20210513193320/http://www.almuslih.org/Library/Jeffery,%20A%20-%20The%20Foreign%20Vocabulary%20of%20the%20Qur’ān.pdf Kropp, M: Beyond single words: Mā’ida – Shayṭan – jibt and ṭāghūt. Mechanisms of transmission into the Ethiopic (Ge‘ez) Bible and the Qur’ānic text in Reynolds, G (ed): The Qur’ān in its Historical Context, Routledge Studies in the Qur’ān. London / New York: Routledge, 2008. Pages 204-216. https://web.archive.org/web/20210513193320/http://www.almuslih.org/Library/Reynolds,%20G%20(ed)%20-%20The%20Qur’ān%20in%20its%20Historical%20Context.pdf Monferrer-Sala, J: One More Time on the Arabized Nominal Form Iblīs. Studia Orientalia, Vol. 112, Finnish Oriental Society, pp.55-70. A discussion on the origins of the terms Iblīs and Shayṭān in the Qur’ān. https://web.archive.org/web/20210513193320/http://www.almuslih.com/Library/Monferrer-Sala%2C%20J%20-%20Iblis.pdf Pennachio, C: Lexical Borrowing in the Qur’ān The Problematic Aspects of Arthur Jeffery’s List. Bulletin du Centre de recherche français a Jérusalem, 22 (2011). An evaluation and updating of A. Jeffery’s The Foreign Vocabulary of the Qur’ān.
- https://web.archive.org/web/20210513193320/http://www.almuslih.org/Library/Grumbach,%20J%20-%20Lexical%20Borrowing%20in%20the%20Qur’ān.pdf Toorawa, Sh: Hapaxes in the Qur’ān: identifying and cataloguing lone words (and loanwords) in Reynolds, G (ed): New Perspectives on the Qur’ān – The Qur’ān in its historical context 2 from Rippin, A (ed): Routledge Studies in the Qur’ān, Routledge 2011, pp.193-246. https://web.archive.org/web/20210513193320/http://www.almuslih.org/Library/Reynolds,%20G%20(ed)%20-%20New%20Perspectives.pdf Zinner, S: The Phoenix of 2 Enoch/3 Baruch in Qurʾān Sūra 100. A disproportionate amount of the total words in āyāt 1-5 of Qurʾān Sūra 100 are hapax legomena, namely, al-ʿādiyāti, ḍabḥā, qadḥā, al-mūriyāt, naqʿā and wasaṭna. Since these words were intensely disputed by traditional tafsīr authorities, part of the difficulty may lie in the possible status of at least some of these words as foreign loanwords. Enochic traditions of Rabbinic literature may shed light on sūra 100. https://web.archive.org/web/20210513193320/http://www.almuslih.com/Library/Zinner%2C%20S%20-%20Phoenix.pdf Word of Malay origin in the Qur’an https://indomedieval.medium.com/camphor-in-the-qurān-8201083b17f6
Cf. zanjabīl “ginger” ultimately from Dravidian, attested in Q 76:17. Qur’ānic “bahīmat” for animals fit to sacrifice (5:1; 22:28, 34) is likely from Heb. “behemoth” in context of dietary law: e.g. Lev. 11:2-3. https://knowledge.uchicago.edu/record/1343
The limitation to Semitic languages is based on the well-attested precedent of sociolinguistic contact between speakers of Classical Arabic and other Semitic languages, as is evident in the borrowed terms in the Qurʾān itself. Zammit notes that of the 322 words in Jeffery’s Foreign Vocabulary, 75% of nouns and adjectives are of “Northwest Semitic origin,” 13% are of “South Semitic” origin, and 12% are of outside origin: M.R. Zammit, A Comparative Lexical Study of Qurʾānic Arabic (Leiden: Brill, 2002), p. 59. Cf. Carter, “Foreign Vocabulary,” p. 124f.; S. Weninger. “Aramaic-Arabic Language Contact,” in S. Weninger et al., (eds.), Semitic Languages: An International Handbook, (Berlin: de Gruyter Mouton, 2011), pp. 747-755.
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