Arabic Language Blog

!لا تَفْجَعُـــــــــــــوا يا أَصْدِقَــــــــــائي (Don’t panic, my friends!)

Today’s post is not yet another vulgar compilation of الكلام الفاحش (profanities) such as the ones you can often run into on the Web in almost any language… Not at all.

What you will find here is a quick intro to rather “classier” examples and paradigms of how insults are proffered in classical Arabic: العَرَبِيَّــــــــة الفُصْحَــــــــــى.

Let us for now focus on “الأبجديــــــــــــات” (“the basics.”)  

Probably the most common swear word in classical Arabic is “تَبًّــــــــــا” (read “Tabban”), which can come alone, as in the interjection “! تَبًّــــــــــا” (“damn!”), or “اللَّعْنَــــــــــــة” (literally “damnation.”)

Before we go further, notice with me one particularly interesting observation about the word “لعْنَــــــة“, which, to my knowledge, has never been picked up anywhere: Its trilateral root, “ل–ع–ن” is intrinsically linked to its anagram “ن–ع–ل“, which forms the word “نعل” meaning a “shoe.”

In addition to the fact that a shoe may ordinarily step on dirty things (نجاســــــات), such a linguistic connection between the Arabic words of “damnation” and “shoe” may help explain why throwing it at someone is culturally tantamount to a strong insult within the Arab world.

You may recall the images of a group of Iraqis throwing their shoes at a falling statue of صدَّام حُسين (Saddam Hussein) in the Spring of 2003, or more recently the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at جورج بوش الإبن (George W. Bush Junior) during a press conference in Baghdad in 2008, prompting a huge buzz and countlessly many political jokes at a time when the former US President was about to end his second term, and leaving many Americans and Europeans wondering: Just why the shoes?!

Even today, in the دَارِجَــــــــــة (informal Arabic) spoken in the Maghreb countries of Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco, you will find people saying “يَنْعَـــــــل ” (a verb that sounds like the Arabic word for “shoe”) instead of “يَلْعَــــــن” (the properly designated word for “damn.”)

At any rate, these expressions can also be directed towards someone who, for one reason or another, earned your wrath. For example:

• “تَبًّــــــــــا لك” or “اللَّعْنَــــــــــــة عليك” (“Damn you/Get lost”)
• “لعنـــــــة الله عليك” (“God damn you!”), which is essentially telling someone “!اذهب الى الجحيـــــــم” (“Go to hell!”)
• “! ويــــــحك” (“Shame on you!”)

But then, why stop there?

You can, of course, still with style, be even more explicitly descriptive about your target by adding:

• “…يا أيُّهــــــــــــا” (“O You…”): 
• If the person is acting stupid:
  

  "أخبار الحمقـــــــى والمغفليـــــــــن" ("Stories of Fools and Imbeciles"): A prodigious work of أبو الفرج بن الجوزي (Abu'l-Faraj ibn al-Jawzi) who lived in the 12th century in Iraq: It establishes an entire abstract hierarchy composed of fools, imbeciles, and other "dim-witted" individuals within the different fields of society, and raises the question of whether stupidity is a psychological feature that is فطــــــــــرية (innate) or مُكتـــــــــسبة (acquired)---a long time before the issue was to be tackled by modern social behaviorists!

• !المغفـل… (…imbecile!)
• الأحمـــق… (…fool)
• الأبله… (…idiot/feeble-minded)
• الغبي… (…moron)
• البليـــد… (…dunce)
• المُتَخَلِّــــــــــف عَقْلِيًّـــــــــــا / …المعتوه (…mentally retard)
• الأرعن… (…cretin)
• المُهَرِّج… (…buffoon)
• البَهْلَـــــــــوان… (…clown)
• الجَـــــــاهل… (…ignoramus)
• المُنهزم فِكْــــــــرياً (“intellectually defeated”, close to the English “intellectually challenged”)

Example:  ”!تَبًّـــــا! دَعْنِي وَشَأْنِي يا أيُّهَا الأرعن، إن تَصَرُّفك هذا يَلِيقُ بِبَهْلَوَان“

  (“Darn! Spare me, you cretin, your behavior is truly worthy of a clown!“)

• If the person is acting very low:

• الصُعْلوك… (…rascal)
  
• الوَغـــــد… (…scoundrel)
• البغيـــــــض… (…creep)
• الحقير… (…lowlife)
• الفاشل… (…loser)
• النذل… (…depraved)
• أسفل السَّـــــــافليـــــــن / …السافل… (literally “the lowest of the lowest”; scum of the earth)
• عُرَّة القوم (“the shame of the nation”, “national embarrassment”)
• اللئيم… (…ignoble person)
• القَذِر… (…dirty wretch)
• المعفن… (…rotten)
• المنحط أخلاقِيًــــــا… (…immoral)

• If the person does not have a bad personality—just no personality at all

• التافه… (…petty person)
• السخيف… (…silly person)
• الساذج… (…simpleton)
• الفارغ… (literally “empty”)
• من لا خير فيك / …معــــــدوم الجدوى / …معــــــدوم الفـــــــائدة… (…good-for-nothing) 
  

  They did not launch ""حروب عنكبوتيـــــــة" ("cyberwars") back in the Umeyyad Califate, but they sure waged psychological warfare through a medium of choice: الشِّـــــــــعر العَرَبِـــــــــــي (Arabic poetry)... This book titled "الهجـــــــاء عند جريــــــر والفرزدق" ("The Satirical Poems of Jarir and Al-Farazdaq") by Dr. Khaled Yusuf describes the long literary wars pitting two major figures of Arab poetry

• السفســــــــــاف… (…pettifogger)
• المتذلل (…sycophant) 

 Example: “!يا له من فيلم سخيــــف، لقد ضيَّعتُ ساعتين كاملتين من عمري“

• If your target is deceitful:
• المنافق… (…hypocrite)
• المداهـــن / …المتملِّق… (…adulator)
• ذو اللونين /  ذو الوجهين (double-faced, double-dealer—Notice that when preceded by “…يا” (“O…”), the right spelling becomes “ذا اللونين / ذا الوجهين“)
• الدَّجٌّـــــــــــــال / المُشَعـــــــــــوذ (…charlatan)
• عين الخداع (…”snake eyes”, but here literally “eye of deceit”)

 Example: “لقد كُنتَ مخطئاً حينما وضعتَ كل ثقتك في هذا المُشعــــــوذ“

International Women’s Day

         Google celebrates today the International Women’s Day يــَــوْمُ الــمــَــــــرأة الــعــَـــــالــَــمــِــــــــيّ  (IWD), so ‘Happy International Women’s Day‘ to all women all over the world. The day is marked on March 8^th every year and is a national holiday عــُــطـــْـــلــــَـــة in many countries. The focus of the celebration ranges from showing respect اِحــْـــتــِـــــرام  , appreciation تـــَـــقـــْـــــديـــــِـــــر and love towards women to celebrating women’s economic, political and social achievements إنـــْــــجـــَـــــازات . The occasion summarizes the story of ordinary women as history-makers; a story which is deeply rooted in the centuries-old struggle of women to participate in society on an equal foot  عــَــلـــى قـــَــــدَم الــمــُـــســَـــــــــاوَاة with men.

      Celebrating the International Women’s Day has been observed since the early 1900s which  was a time of great turbulence اِضــطــــراب and expansion in the industrialized world الــعــَــــالـــَـــــــم الــصــِّـــــنــَــــاعيّ that saw booming population growth and the rise of radical ideologies.

       In 1908, there was great unrest and critical debate amongst women الــنـــِّـــســَـــــاء . Women’s oppression and inequality was pushing women to become more and more active نــَــــشــــِــــيـــــــط in calling for change. More than 15,000 women marched through New York City demanding shorter hours of work, better pay and the right to vote. In 1909, the first National Women’s Day   (NWD) was declared on 28 February by the Socialist Party of America الـحـــِـــــزبُ الاشــْــــتـــِـــرَاكــــِيّ الأمــْـــريــــكــِـــــــيّ .

       In 1910 and during a conference of Working Women inCopenhagen, a German woman called Clara Zitken presented the idea of an international Women’s Day. She proposed that every year in every country, there should be a celebration اِحـــْــــتــــِــــفـــَـــــــال  on the same day – a Women’s Day – to press for their demands. All the 100 women attending the conference مـــُــــؤتــــَـــمـــَــــر from different countries approved the idea and thus  International Women’s Day was the result. On March 19, 1911, the International Women’s Day was honoured the first time in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland. More than one million women and men attended IWD rallies campaigning for women’s rights حـــُـــــقــــــُـــــوق الــمــَــــرأة to work, vote, be trained, hold public office and end discrimination الــتـــَّــــمـــْــــيــــيـــز .

        During the first World War, Russian woman observed their first International Women’s Day on the last February 1913. Later on that year the day was transferred to March 8 and since then this day has remained the global date for celebrating the International Women’s Day. In 1914, further women inEuropeheld rallies to campaign against war الـــحــــَــــرْب  and to express women’s solidarity.

     Since its birth in the socialist movement, the International Women’s Day has grown to become a global day of recognition and celebration across developed and undeveloped countries alike. For many years, the United Nations الأمـــَــــم الــمـــُــــتـــــَّــــــحـــِــــدة  has held and annual IWD conference to coordinate international efforts for women’s rights and participation in social, political and economic processes.

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Check us back soon

Peace  سلام  /salam/

Who would have anticipated that كُتُبٌ عَرَبِيَّــــــــــة قَدِيــــــــــمة (old Arabic books), far from being “woefully outdated”, would maintain a thriving relevance for several centuries to come, and help humanity understand a world beyond the time and place they were written in—Our world today?

Three days ago, the UK’s Daily Mail published an article citing an academic study which shows how ancient Arabic manuscripts are now providing crucial meteorological insights to help scientists reconstruct past مَنَـــــــــــاخ (Arabic word for “climate“—Remember that the word “مَنَـــــــــــاخ” is the etymological basis of the English word “almanac.” See our Blog’s post “Top 50+ English Words—of Arabic Origin.”)

Scientists from the University of the autonomous community of Extremadura, the Spanish region bordering الأندلــــــــــــس (Andalusia) on the north, have turned to Arabic books that go back to the 3rd and 4th centuries of the Islamic calendar (roughly 800-900 AD), to analyze the works of historians, scholars, and diarists, most of whom nurtured a close relationship with the prominent Baghdad-based “House of Wisdom” (More on this scientific institution on this post: “The House of Wisdom: The Leadership of a Scientific “Think Tank” of the Arab World.“)

The majority of the data available in these works is related to extreme climatic conditions, such as موجـــات الحرارة (heat waves), عواصــــف (storms), الجفـــاف (drought), and الفيضـــــانات (floods.)

But that is not all: These books also provide precious details on natural phenomena that were little understood until then, such as عواصــــف البرَد (hailstorms), the freezing of rivers such as the Tigris in Baghdad, and extreme cases of snow in the desert regions.

All these conditions were carefully studied in the Abbasid capital, بغــــــداد (Baghdad), which was then, as the director of the scientific study rightfully points out, “a centre for trade, commerce and science in the ancient Islamic world.”

"تــــــاريـــخ اليعقوبـــــي"---A classical work in Arab history by Al Yaqubi, the Baghdad-born scholar whom the UK's Daily Mail journalist, Ted Thornhill, wrongfully presents as "Berber"---probably just because his Wikipedia article says so! Now what if it said "Papuasian" or "Micronesian"?

The Daily Mail article reports that in 891 AD, the renown geographer Al Yaqubi, which the British newspaper wrongfully presents as a Berber (only because his Wikipedia article says so! He was in fact a native Baghdadi), wrote that Baghdad City had no rival in the world. It had hot summers and cold winters, both ideal climatic conditions that ensured فِلاَحَـــــــة قَوِيَّــــــــة (a strong agriculture.)

Despite the terrifying Mongol invasion of the region in the 13th century, during which the waters of نهر دجلة (the Tigris river) turned black from the ink of the millions of books flung into its midst by the invading soldiers, some valuable meteorological information survived in the works of scholars such as ابن الأثيـــــــــر (Ibn Al Athir) and الطَّبــــــــــري (Al Tabari), in addition to later writers such as السُّيُوطــــــــــي (Al Suyuti.)

The first results of the study reveal that a cold wave occurred in the first half of the 10th century, including ”a significant drop of temperatures during July AD 920, and three separate recordings of snowfall: in 908, 944 and 1007.”

The kind of information that leaves many Baghdadis quite speechless today, since “the only record of snow in modern Baghdad was in 2008, a unique experience in the living memories of Iraqis”!

Dr Domínguez-Castro, the head of the research study, said that “these signs of a sudden cold period confirm suggestions of a temperature drop during the tenth century, immediately before the Medieval Warm Period.”

“We believe the drop in July AD 920 may have been linked to a great volcanic eruption but more work would be necessary to confirm this idea,” he said.

 Further studies based on these results will enable scientists to better understand the reasons behind our weird تغيُّــــــر منــــــــاخي (climate change) today, and the challenges it poses to the planet.

He befriended Iraqis and was amazed by their country, especially under the snow:
“Cool! What a contrast, snow and palm trees. LOVE!”
“I love Iraq! I hope I did some good while I was there, and hope to go back some day when Iraq is like Dubai or Bahrain.”
—Jim Boking, A US soldier who served in Iraq, 11th of January, 2008