Leg Over Leg: Volume One

Glossary

351 351 Glossary Abū Nuwās (al-Ḥasan ibn Hāniʾ al-Ḥakamī) a poet (ca. 140–98/755–813) of the Abbasid period. Bag-men (khurjiyyūn) the author’s term for Protestant missionaries in the Middle East, whether the American Congregationalists of the Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions, with whom he first came into contact in Beirut, or the British Anglicans of the Church Missionary Society, for whom he worked later in Malta, Egypt, and London. The Congregationalists established their first mission station in Beirut in 1823 (Makdisi, Artillery, 81, 83). In December 1823, when their intention to proselytize became clear, Maronite patriarch Yūsuf Ḥubaysh (1787–1845), who had initially received them cordially, ordered his flock to avoid all contact with what he referred to as “the Liberati” or “Biblemen” (Makdisi, Artillery, 95–97). Bilqīs Queen of Sabaʾ (Sheba) in Yemen, the story of whose visit to Sulaymān (Solomon) is told in the Qurʾān (Q Naml 27:22–44). Druze a monotheistic religious community found primarily in Syria and Lebanon. emir (amīr) a title (lit., “commander” or “prince”) assumed by local leaders in the Arab world; as used in Book One, the term refers most often to the emirs of the Shihābī dynasty of Mount Lebanon. Fāriyāq (The) the hero of the events described in the book and the author’s alter ego, the name itself being a contraction of Fāri(s al-Shid)yāq. Iblīs the Devil, Satan. Khawājā a title of reference and address afforded Christians of substance. kuttāb a one-room school in which children are taught reading, writing, and numeracy. maqāmah, plural maqāmāt “short independent prose narrations written in ornamented rhymed prose (saj‛) with verse insertions which share a common plot-scheme and two constant protagonists: the narrator and the 352 352 Glossary hero” (Meisami and Starkey, Encyclopedia, 2:507). The thirteenth chapter of each book of the present work is described by the author as a maqāmah, the plot-scheme in these maqāmāt being a debate. See further Zakharia, “Aḥmad Fāris al-Šidyāq.” Market Boss (The) (shaykh al-sūq) the author’s term for the Maronite patriarch. Market-men (sūqiyyūn) the author’s term for the Maronite and Roman Catholic clergy, or the Maronite and Roman Catholic churches in general. market trader (ḍawṭār, plural ḍawāṭirah) the author’s term for a member of the Maronite upper clergy. Maronite of or pertaining to the Maronite Christian community, whose historical roots lie in northern Syria and Lebanon and whose church, while using Syriac as a liturgical language, is in communion with the Roman Catholic church. Mountain (The) Mount Lebanon, a mountain range in Lebanon extending for 170 kilometers parallel to the Mediterranean coast and the historical homeland of both the Maronite and Druze Lebanese communities. Qāmūs (al-) Al-Qāmūs al-muḥīṭ (The Encompassing Ocean), a dictionary compiled by Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb al-Fīrūzābādī (d. 817/1415) that became so influential that qāmūs (“ocean”) eventually came to mean simply “dictionary .” The author later published a study of the Qāmūs entitled Al-Jāsūs ʿalā l-Qāmūs (The Spy on the Qāmūs). Recoiler (The) (al-Khannās) Satan, so called because he recoils at the mention of the name of God. rhymed prose (sajʿ) “artistic prose, subject to certain constraints of rhyme and rhythm . . . Etymologically, the word referred to the cooing of pigeons” (Meisami and Starkey, Encyclopedia, 2:677). First used by pre-Islamic soothsayers, the form developed, often in combination with other types of parallelism, until it became virtually de rigueur by the tenth century ad, and it remained in use into the early twentieth century, “by which time, however, the modern revolt which has now largely swept away this sort of artifice was already growing strong” (idem). The author uses saj‛ in the title of the work and most of his chapter titles, in short scattered bursts in the midst of unrhymed prose (especially at moments of drama), and sometimes, as in the four preceding chapters, in sustained blocks. For further discussion of sajʿ in this work, see Jubran, “Function.” Sām Seth son of Noah. 353 353 Glossary Sībawayhi Abū Bishr ʿAmr ibn...