Due to its morphological structure, and because it is an extremely rich language, Arabic has a virtually unique feature compared to other world languages: Simply substitute one حــرف (letter) by another, and you will most likely end up with a whole new word!

An interesting feature characterizing Arabic language, to the utter delight of Arab poets and wordsmiths throughout history, but much to the chagrin of Arab newspapers—Not to mention, of course, the unfortunate people who fall prey to their occasionally “deadly” printing mistakes…

The following story will facetiously illustrate this point.

Around the early decades of the 20th century, “الأهـــــــــــرام“ (literally “The Pyramids“), the flagship of Egyptian newspapers, ran a special edition article about the renown Sheikh محمد الخضـــــــــــري (Mohamad Al-Khadhari), a leading scholar from Al-Azhar University, which is, as you should know it already, the Cairo-based spiritual and academic institution whose prestige in the Arab and Islamic world is, in many aspects, comparable to that of Oxford in the UK and la Sorbonne in France.

The works of Sheikh Al-Khadhari were particularly astonishing by their erudition and precision. They concentrated on several periods of Islamic history, from “الدولة الأمويــــــــــة” (“The Umayyad State”) and “سيــــــــرة الخلفــــــــاء” (“The Biography of the Caliphs”), to “تاريخ الأمم الإسلاميــــــــة” (“The History of the Muslim Nations.”)

Notwithstanding the undeniably high intellectual value of Sheikh Al-Khadhari, it was alas also known that towards his older age, he became a bit hard to manage for his family and entourage.

According to a rather colorful anecdote told by Syrian Sheikh Ali Al-Tantawi رحمــــــــــه الله (May God have his soul), Sheikh Al-Khadhari suffered from what was deemed a peculiar delusional disorder: He was absolutely convinced that, not just a worm, but an entire ثعبـــــــــان (snake) resided deep in his intestines.

After several fruitless medical examinations, one savvy doctor who was well aware of the single power of الإيحـــــــــاء العقلــــــــي (mental suggestion) and its healing properties, had the genius idea of stealthily placing a very real snake in the bathroom of the Sheikh, thus making him believe that he was, at last, rid of the vicious snake!

At any rate, in the special article devoted to the Sheikh, the journalist of “Al-Ahram” newspaper wished to praise “الهمــــــة الكبيــــــــرة” (“the huge energy”, or “the huge verve”) of the venerable scholar.

Instead of that, due to a malignant printing mistake, the article read: “We wish to praise العمــــــة الكبيــــــــرة (the huge aunt) of the Sheikh”…

ما زاد الطيــــــن بِلَّة  (what made things worse) was that, unfortunately, it was already public knowledge that the Sheikh had indeed one pretty huge aunt.

A fact which, at the time, nearly caused a major crisis between him and the prestigious Egyptian newspaper!

“The Abbasid State” by Sheikh Mohamed Al-Khadhari

Despite النــــــــــــــــادرة الطريفـــــــــــة (the colorful anecdote) that we owe to Sheikh Al-Tantawi “starring” Sheikh Al-Khadhari, the history books of the latter Sheikh make an enjoyable and valuable read. They are readily accessible here.