Terminology in Ibn al-Ṭayyib's Introduction to the Psalms

[Steven Firmin]

Dear All, 

Working through Ibn al-Ṭayyib's introduction to the Psalms, he speaks about some which are prayed بحرفين حرفين and others which are prayed بحرف حرف . Might anyone be able to shed light on the meaning of these phrases? 

My supposition would be that it refers to something like single and double chant recitations styles, such that حرف would mean something like  "verse". My other supposition would be that it refers to direct and responsorial Psalmody, but I cannot find a satisfactory meaning for حرف  in the lexicons and dictionaries to substantiate either of these ideas further and the traditional meaning of "word" does not seem to fit the context.  IT can say later, for example, that:

 وكانت هذه المزامير يُسبَّح بها بألحان شجية 

يقول رئيس الجماعة الحرف ويُعيده باقي الجماعة

I'm not aware of any Psalm chanting traditions that alternate single words between cantor and congregation.  I'm aware this may also be addressed in the Syriac Psalm commentaries which he is working from, but this exceeds my skill level at present. 

Thanks very much for any help you can offer. 

Kind regards, 

Steven

[Bishoy Habib]

Dear Steven, 

I have been working on Ibn al-Ṭayyib's commentary on Luke and had the same issue with the word حرف. Here's my passage (I added the quotation marks for clarification):

وقوم قالوا ان قوله "كما كتب فى اشعيا" ليس هو اشارة الى "انني مرسل ملكي" وهو الحرف الذي بعده لكن الى الثالث القايل "صوت يدعوا في البر" وهذا في الحقيقة هو مكتوب فى اشعيا

Since it's impossible to understand the word حرف here in it's traditional sense "letter" I went to medieval Arabic dictionaries but I found no help there. Like you I understood it to mean "verse". I had nothing to support my claim but the context. 

However, I've seen a pattern of errors in Arabic that can only be explained by Ibn Al- Ṭayyib's bilingualism in two Semitic languages that share many cognates. My guess (I have no Syriac) is that there's a word in Syriac that means both letter and verse, maybe ܣܰܪܓܶܕ 

Best wishes with your work,

Bishoy Habib 

[David Taylor]

The standard Syriac term for a verse of scripture is petgāmā, and in the Psalms in particular the division into petgāmē is indicated at the start of each psalm. In all other contexts  petgāmā means "a word", "an utterance". Could حرف be a calque translation of this?

All the best,

David

__________________________________________

Prof. David G.K. Taylor,
Associate Professor of Aramaic and Syriac,
The University of Oxford.

Faculty of Asian & Middle Eastern Studies,
Pusey Lane,
Oxford, OX1 2LE,
U.K.

Tel.:    0044 - 1865 - 278239
Web:  www.orinst.ox.ac.uk

---

From: nas...@googlegroups.com <nas...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Bishoy Habib <bisho...@gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, September 18, 2025 20:38
To: North American Society for Christian Arabic Studies <nas...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [nascas] Re: Terminology in Ibn al-Ṭayyib's Introduction to the Psalms

--
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "North American Society for Christian Arabic Studies" group.
To post to this group, send email to nas...@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
nascas+un...@googlegroups.com
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/nascas?hl=en
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "North American Society for Christian Arabic Studies" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to nascas+un...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/nascas/086b53cb-416d-4ec7-ba94-383d3ef5ef6cn%40googlegroups.com.

[Salam Rassi]

Dear Steven,

I agree with David that ḥarf seems to be calqued from the Syriac peṯgāmā. In his Syriac-Arabic lexicon, Ḥasan bar Bahlūl (fl. 10th ce.) gives ḥarf and āyah (among others) for this word.

Best wishes,

Salam  

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/nascas/LO4P265MB67934D9B0ED56747700765578816A%40LO4P265MB6793.GBRP265.PROD.OUTLOOK.COM.

[Steven Firmin]

Thanks, all. Very helpful indeed. 

Kind regards, 

Steven

You received this message because you are subscribed to a topic in the Google Groups "North American Society for Christian Arabic Studies" group.
To unsubscribe from this topic, visit https://groups.google.com/d/topic/nascas/sa3ii5kInpo/unsubscribe.
To unsubscribe from this group and all its topics, send an email to nascas+un...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/nascas/CA%2BqejPqwHfVcNSsEd3DhXqVZX-PS5CXj7oatFMsz%2BHxJdOv5-A%40mail.gmail.com.

[Mara Nicosia]

Dear Steven,

For what it's worth, it perhaps may be useful for you to know that حرف is used in the Arabic version of Aristotle's Rhetoric (BnF ms ar. 2346, composed by Ibn al-Samḥ - d. 1027) as a translation of ܐܣܛܘܟܣܐ (ʼsṭwks) < Gr. στοιχεῖον (even though the input form for this loanword was likely στίχος or στοῖχος, but this is beyond the point). The Greek word means 'element', 'first principle', so in rhetoric it is usually understood as 'a certain prescription or principle of the art of rhetoric'. In the Arabic translation of Aristotle's text, حرف is almost always used as a synonym for the loanword اسطقسات (in the plural).  This could be understood as a reader-oriented translation strategy, perhaps prompted by the fact that στοιχεῖον has among its meanings that of 'letter', exactly like حرف. 

Given that David Taylor's and Salam Rassi's hypotheses are, in my opinion, absolutely right and impeccable, I wonder whether this convergence of meanings, in which حرف is used to translate something that could mean 'a simple part', provides some further support for the reason why حرف has been chosen over other words in the context. Additionally, the Syriac word petgāmā, to which David and Salam referred, is used in the Syriac rhetorical handbook written by Antony of Tagrit in the ninth century with the meaning of 'line', 'verse'. The reason why I'm bringing rhetoric up in this context is that Ibn al-Ṭayyib wrote a Long Commentary (tafsīr) to Aristotle's Rhetoric and a compendium, so he must have been familiar with such technical terminology.

I hope this helps!

With best wishes, 

Mara

ᐧ

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/nascas/CAHqxvcm-0dNpuE%3DB%3DZ-7va05U%2Bqis51pYEZncoOSdkqfVUtKWQ%40mail.gmail.com.