▪ RḤM_1 ‘…’ ↗… ▪ RḤM_2 ‘…’ ↗…♦ Semantic value spectrum in ClassAr (acc. to BAH2008): ‘the womb, blood relatives; mercy, kindness, compassion, pity, sympathy, to show mercy, to show compassion, to let off, to be kind, forgiveness, bounty, good fortune, blessing’
▪ eC7 Q : Occurs some fifty-six times outside its place in the superscription of the Suras, 'The Merciful’.
▪ … ▪ …
▪ Jeffery1938, 140-41: »I[n the Qurʔān, i]t occurs always as a title of God, almost as a personal name for God.1
– Certain early authorities recognized the word as a borrowing from Hebrew. Mubarrad and Thaʕlab held this view, says as-Suyūṭī, Itq, 321; Mutaw, 58, and it is quoted from az-Zaǧǧāǧ in LA, xv, 122. – The root rḥm is common Semitic [↗√RḤM ], and several Ar forms are used in the Qurʔān, e.g. raḥima; raḥmaẗ; riḥm; raḥīm; marḥamaẗ; but the form of raḥmān is itself against its being genuine Ar. Fraenkel, Vocab, 23, pointed out that RḤMNā occurs in the Talmud as a name of God (e.g. ʔMR RḤMNā ‘saith the all-merciful'), and as Hirschfeld, Beiträge, 38, notes, it is also so used in the Targums and in the Palmyrene inscriptions (cf. NSI, p. 300; RES, ii, 477). In the Christian-Palestinian dialect we find RḤMN, which is the equivalent of the Targumic MRḤMN and in Lk. vi, 36, translates [Grk] oiktírmōn,2
and in the SAr inscriptions RḤMNN occurs several times3
as a divine name.4
– There can be little doubt that it was from S. Arabia that the word came into use in Ar,5
but as Nöldeke-Schwally, i, 113, points out, it is hardly likely to have originated there and we must look elsewhere for the origin.6
Sprenger, Leben, ii, 198-210, in his discussion of the word, favours a Christian origin, 7
while Hirschfeld, Beiträge, 39, insists that it is of Jewish origin, and Rudolph, Abhängigkeit, 28, professes to be unable to decide between them.8
The fact that the word occurs in the old poetry9
and is known to have been in use in connection with the work of Muḥammad's rival Prophets, Musailama of Yamāma10
and al-Aswad of Yemen, 11
would seem to point to a Christian rather than a Jewish origin, though the matter is uncertain.«
▪ Lokotsch1927#1687: Ar raḥmān > Tu rahman (or rather Hbr raḥᵃmānî ‘merciful, compassionate, pitiful’ [hapax in the Bible, Lam. 4:10])?) > Ru raḫmannyj, Pol rachmany (rare), more common rochmanny ‘tamed, mild, compassionate, tender’.