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RQM رقم 
ID – • Sw – • BP – • APD … • © SG | 28Mar2023
√RQM 
“root” 
▪ RQM_1 ‘to mark, brand, imprint; to stripe (a fabric); to provide with points (a text)’ ↗raqama
▪ RQM_2 ‘numeral, number’ ↗raqm
▪ RQM_3 ‘inscription tablet; letter, message’ ↗¹raqīm

Other values, now obsolete, include (Lane iii 1867, Hava1899):

RQM_4 ‘calamity, misfortune, thing that one cannot accomplish or manage’: (bint al-) raqim (var. raqam, raqm)
RQM_5 ‘meadow; side of a valley; reservoir; mellow’: raqmaẗ
RQM_6 ‘plant of the class pentandria’: raqamaẗ
RQM_7 ‘remaining, staying, dwelling, abiding, remaining fixed’ (as a f. epithet): raqūm
RQM_8 ‘a certain serpent’: ʔarqamᵘ
RQM_9 ‘(name of a beek?, or a mountain?, near Mecca?)’: al-Raqam
RQM_ ‘...’: ...

Semantic value spectrum in ClassAr (acc. to BAH2008): ‘speckles, speckled snake, markings, stripes, writings, dotting, to mark, dot, write; a great number; side of the valley, place where flood waters gather’. 
▪ [v1] : According to Landberg1923, the basic value of ClassAr raqama is ‘to mark’, hence also raqm ‘marking, mark, chiffre’. When Kogan2015: 121 #24 reconstructs protSem *rḳm ‘to embroider’ he seems to give the evidence of the non-Ar cognates (Hbr, Pun, Aram Syr, Gz) prominence over the more general Ar ‘marking’. But we should prob. not exclude the possibility that Ar may have preserved the more original meaning, so that one could assume a protSem *‘to mark, brand’ from which several more specific notions (‘to variegate, embroider’, ‘to stripe’, ‘to put dots on s.th., provide a text with points’, ‘to mark with a price label’, etc.) then would derive.
▪ [v2] : The meaning ‘numeral, number’ of Ar raqm seems to be a specialisation from the more general [v1] ‘to mark’: *‘… > to put a mark (on a garment, or piece cloth) specifying its price, put a price-mark on s.th. > price-mark > number’. One may also think of derivation from ‘to inscribe’ (see [v3]).
▪ [v3] : Like [v2], also [v3] ‘inscription tablet; letter, message’ may be derived, as a specialisation, from the more general [v1] ‘marking’, along a hypothetical line of development *‘(to mark, make distinct ↔ to embroider) > to variegate, weave in colour > to paint figures on a tissue, or parchment > to make incisions, write on a clay/lead tablet > inscription tablet > message, letter’. However, the word al-raqīm is first attested not earlier than in the Qur’ān and may be a borrowing or a misreading there. – The meaning ‘to write’ of the vb. I raqama may be secondary, based on the interpretation of al-raqīm as ‘writing, inscription’.
[v4] : According to DHDA, the value ‘calamity, misfortune’ is first attested (as raqam) in a verse by the pre-Isl poet al-ʔAʕšà in which he describes the intensity with which his poetry affects the audience. If akin to [v1], a ‘calamity, misfortune’ brought about by sharp verses may originally have been a *‘decisive mark’ left on the public. Or is a ‘calamity, misfortune’ a ‘predetermined destiny’, *‘inscribed’ in the heavenly document where all events ever to happen in the world are listed? In this case, the closest value would be [v3] ‘inscription’. One may, however, also think of ‘calamity, misfortune’ as s.th. as poisonous as the [v8] ʔarqamᵘ type of snake. An argument in favour of an association with [v3] ‘inscription’ is the expression dāhiyaẗᵘⁿ raqīmᵘⁿ where raqīm is not an adj., but a noun, coming as apposition qualifying the type of dāhiyaẗ as ‘…of the type of / equal to (that of) a raqīm’, i.e., as a predetermined destiny. raqīm can, however, also be used as an adj., as the f. form ²raqīmaẗ ‘intelligent (woman)’ shows. Is the meaning ‘intelligent’ from ‘calamity’ or from ‘snake’, intelligence in a woman seen as ‘misfortune’, or as ‘poison’?
[v5] : Morphologically, the term raqmaẗ for ‘meadow; side of a valley; reservoir’ (Hava1899) is the f. of raqm and can therefore be suspected to depend on the latter and thus, ultimately, on [v1]. But how exactly? The more detailed and complex definition found in Lane iii 18671 does not help to clarify the term’s origin. Could the ‘side of a valley’ have been regarded as an *‘embroidery’? Or did the ‘place where water collects’ look like *‘speckles’ or *‘stripes’?
[v6] : The ‘plant of the class pentandria’ (Hava1899) called raqamaẗ seems to have gotten this name because the five stamens in each flower may have looked like dots or speckles; if this is correct, the term is a development from [v1] *‘to mark, make look distinct’.
[v7] : The FaʕūL pattern of the adj. raqūm implies the strong presence of a certain quality associated with √RQM in the woman who is described as raqūm, but it remains unclear to which of the other values attached to √RQM the meaning ‘remaining, staying, dwelling, abiding, remaining fixed’ should be connected.
[v8] : The type of snake labelled with the el. adj. ʔarqamᵘ is prob. so called after its dotted or two-coloured skin’, cf. the value ‘speckled snake’ given in BAH2008 as one of the values attached to the root in ClassAr (DHDA has ‘male black-white-coloured snake’). – Cf. also [v4].
[v9] : al-Raqam , as in yawm al-Raqam ‘the Battle of al-Raqam’, is said by ClassAr lexicographers to mean a ‘water’ (or possibly a mountain?) close to Mecca, in the lands of the Ġaṭafān tribe. The origin of the name is obscure.
 
– 
▪ [v1] BDB1906, Zammit2002, Leslau2008 (CDG), Kogan2015: 121 #24 : Hbr rāqam ‘to variegate, weave in colour’, riqmāʰ ‘variegated stuff (woven or embroidered)’, rōqēm ‘variegator, worker\weaver in colours’, Pun rqm ‘to embroider’, Aram riqmᵊṯâ, riqmāṯâ ‘variegated cloth or skin, checks, spots’, Syr tarqᵊmāṯā ‘freckles’, Ar raqama ‘to embroider’, Gz raqama ‘to embroider, paint figures on parchment, (T.Y.M.) make incisions, write’1
▪ [v2] : ↗[v1] (or ↗[v3])
▪ [v3] : ↗[v1] (unless borrowed from an obscure source, or a misreading in the Qurʔān)
[v4] : < [v1]? (or perh. [v3], or [v8]?)
[v5] : < [v1]?
[v6] : < [v1]?
[v7] : ?
[v8] : < [v1]
[v9] : ?
 
▪ See above, section CONC.
▪ For more details about values [v1], [v2] and [v3], see ↗raqama, ↗raqm, and al-raqīm
▪ ...
 
– 
– 
raqam- رَقَمَ , u (raqm
ID – • Sw – • BP … • APD … • © SG | 28Mar2023
√RQM 
vb., I 
1 to write; 2a to point, provide with points (a text); b to brand (a horse); c to imprint (a trace, a mark); d to mark; 3 to stripe (a fabric); 4 to number – WehrCowan1976 
▪ [gnrl] : From among the four main values the vb. raqama can take in MSA, [v2] and [v3] seem to be older, while [v1] and [v4] prob. represent secondary developments. According to Landberg1923, the basic value of ClassAr raqama is [v2d] ‘to mark’ (as distinct, clearly standing out, etc.’), hence also raqm ‘marking, mark, chiffre’. Giving prominence to the Sem evidence outside Ar (Hbr, Pun, Aram Syr, Gz), Kogan2015: 121 #24 reconstructs protSem *rḳm ‘to embroider’, a value that is attested in ClassAr also for raqama. But ‘to mark, make look different, variegate’ may actually be the older value, from which ‘to embroider’ then would only be a specialisation. If Kogan is right, it is the other way round and ‘to mark’ is a generalisation based on the more specific ‘to embroider’.
▪ [v2] : Within [v2], value [v2c] ‘to imprint’ is only a variant of the basic [v2d], focusing on the result of ‘marking’ (i.e., leaving an imprint), and [v2b] ‘to brand’ represents a case of special use (‘marking’ horses etc.). The same may be true for [v2a] ‘to put (diacritical) points on a text’, unless it is secondary from [v1] ‘to write’ (see below).
▪ [v3] : The value ‘striping (a fabric)’ seems to be closely associated with tissues etc., thus in proximity to Kogan’s *‘embroidery’ and the value of RQM in other Sem languages. But one may also regard the ‘striping’ as a special form of the more general [v2d] ‘marking, making distinct’ (which, as we said above, may be the primary value).
▪ [v1] : The value ‘to write’ is prob. a secondary development, either based on [v2a] ‘to put (diacritical) points on a text’ or a denom. derivation from ↗al-raqīm, a term appearing for the first time in the Qurʔān (18:9) and traditionally held to mean ‘inscription tablet, writing, inscription’ (though the commentators were not sure about that and several other meanings have been suggested); the etymology of al-raqīm itself is not clear, but its FaʕīL (quasi-PP) form does not exclude the value *‘s.th. written; s.th. written upon’, which, ultimately, could be from *‘marking, making distinct’.
▪ [v4] : Like [v1], also [v4] ‘to number’ may either be another specialisation of [v2d] ‘to mark’ or denominative from ↗raqm ‘numeral, number’ (itself prob. based on [v2d]).
▪ For other values of, or akin to, raqama in ClassAr see root entry ↗RQM.
▪ …
 
▪ Lane iii 1867: raqama ‘to write (a writing, book, letter); to seal, stamp, print, impress; to mark the writing with the dots, or points, and make its letters distinct, or plain; (al-ṯawb) to figure, variegate, decorate the garment, or piece of cloth; to make it striped, mark with stripes; to figure, variegate, decorate with a certain, or known, figuring, variegation or decoration, such as became a mark thereof; (esp. also) to mark, put a mark (on a garment, or piece cloth) specifying its price, put a price-mark on s.th.; to mark s.th. so as to distinguish it from other things (e.g., by writing etc.); (hence:) zāda fī ’l-raqm, expr., to add to one’s tradition and lie (from raqm signifying the writing upon a garment or piece of cloth)’
▪ ... 
▪ BDB1906, Zammit2002, Leslau2008 (CDG), Kogan2015: 121 #24 : Hbr rāqam ‘to variegate, weave in colour’, riqmāʰ ‘variegated stuff (woven or embroidered)’, rōqēm ‘variegator, worker\weaver in colours’, Pun rqm ‘to embroider’, Aram riqmᵊṯâ, riqmāṯâ ‘variegated cloth or skin, checks, spots’, Syr tarqᵊmāṯā ‘freckles’, Ar raqama ‘to embroider’, Gz raqama ‘to embroider, paint figures on parchment, (T.Y.M.) make incisions, write’2
▪ ...
 
▪ See above, section CONC.
▪ ...
 
– 
raqqama, vb. II, 1 to point, provide with points (a text); 2a to stripe, streak; b to rule; 3 to number: D-stem, denom./caus.

BP#351raqm, pl. ʔarqām, n., 1a numeral; b number, No. | al-ʔarqām al-hindiyyaẗ, the numerals of the Arabs; raqm al-qiyās or al-raqm al-qiyāsī, record (athlet.), saǧǧala raqmᵃⁿ qiyāsiyyᵃⁿ , to set a record (athlet.)
BP#3664raqmī, adj., 1a numerical; b digital: nsb-formation from raqm
raqīm, n., 1a inscription tablet; b letter, message: traditionally seen as quasi-PP I; cf., however, also ↗s.v.
mirqam, pl. marāqimᵘ, n., 1a drawing pencil, crayon; b (painter’s) brush: n.instr.
tarqīm, n., 1 pointing; 2 numbering, numeration: vn. II
marqūm, pl. marāqīmᵘ, n., striped blanket: nominalized PP I.

For other values attached to the root, cf. ↗raqm and ↗¹raqīm as well as, for the overall picture, root entry ↗√RQM. 
raqm رَقْم , pl. ʔarqām 
ID – • Sw – • BP 351 • APD … • © SG | 28Mar2023
√RQM 
n. 
1a numeral; b number, No. – WehrCowan1976 
▪ ‘Numeral; number’ is only one out of a larger variety of values the word raqm could take in ClassAr. According to Lane (iii 1867), raqm is, originally, a vn. of raqama ‘to mark, variegate, make look different, put diacritical points on s.th. written, ( hence also) to write’. Lane reproduces the ClassAr opinion that, from ‘writing’, the meaning developed further: »(hence:) raqm al-ṯawb, writing [or price-mark, etc.] upon a garment, or piece of cloth; (hence:) al-raqm al-hindī, the Indian notation of numerals, adopted by the Arabs; […]«. This explanation sounds rather modern, and Landberg1923 is prob. right when he thinks that, among the bedouins of the South, »le prix d’une marchandise n’est jamais marqué, car il n’y a pas de “prix fixe” […]; il faut marchander […].« Therefore, we would think that the sense of ‘numeral; number’ is secondary, a generalisation from al-ʔarqām al-hindiyya, originally perceived as *‘Indian marks, or characters’ of a diacritical (or variegating?) function, *‘making a difference’ or functioning as a kind of *‘embroidery’. The *‘Indian marks\signs’ became the ‘Indian numbers’ when the Arabs began to understand the function of the Indian characters. Finally, the ‘Indian numbers’ became the numbers\numerals in general. 
▪ ... 
▪ ↗raqama
▪ ... 
▪ See above, section CONC.
▪ Landberg1923: DaṯAr raqam ‘superposer une chose sur une autre, poser sur, appliquer sur’ (to cover s.th. with s.th. else) : »raqam est ici une prononciation pour rakam [↗rakama] .... Les Bédouins de Sud ne connaissent pas le sens littéraire de raqama ‘marquer’, ni le subst. raqm ‘marque, chiffre’. Le prix d’une marchandise n’est jamais marqué, car il n’y a pas de “prix fixe” ...; il faut marchander ....«
▪ ... 
– 
al-ʔarqām al-hindiyyaẗ, the numerals of the Arabs;
raqm al-qiyās or al-raqm al-qiyāsī, record (athlet.) | saǧǧala raqmᵃⁿ qiyāsiyyᵃⁿ , to set a record (athlet.)

raqama, u (raqm), vb. I, 1-3 see ↗s.v.; 4 to number: G-stem, denom. (?)
raqqama, vb. II, 1-2raqama; 3 to number: D-stem, denom./caus.

BP#3664raqmī, adj., 1a numerical; b digital: nsb-formation from raqm
tarqīm, n., 1raqama; 2 numbering, numeration: vn. II

For other values attached to the root, cf. ↗raqama and ↗¹raqīm, as well as, for the overall picture, root entry ↗√RQM. 
raqīm رَقيم 
ID – • Sw – • BP … • APD … • © SG | 28Mar2023
√RQM 
n. 
1a inscription tablet; b letter, message – WehrCowan1976 
▪ Given the fact that the term al-raqīm, as appearing in Q 18:9 in the context of the Qur’ānic story of the ‘People of the Cave’ (the “Seven Sleepers”), gave rise to controversial discussion among Muslim scholars, the word does not seem to have formed part of the common Ar vocabulary of the time, and it is therefore quite plausible to assume that, unless it was a misreading (as some Western scholars believe), it may well have been a borrowing from another language (some Muslim lexicographers thought it was Grk, meaning ‘writing’ or ‘inkhorn’). Those who tend to take it as a misreading, would emend the text into *DQYS ‘Decius’ (the name of the Roman emperor figuring in the Christian legend) or into *al-ruqād ‘…of the sleep’ (cf. ↗raqada). Other readings include the name of a place (village, valley, mountain?, close to modern ʕAmmān, or in the SPal desert?), or that of the dog that, according to tradition, accompanied the Seven Sleepers and is mentioned a few verses later (Q 18:17). Despite its unclear meaning, tradition nonetheless tends to derive it, as a quasi-PP I, from √RQM, similar or even identical in meaning with the kitāb marqūm ‘writing, inscription’ (mentioned in Q 83:9 and containing the genuine PP I, marqūm, not the quasi-PP of the FaʕīL pattern). DHDA, for instance, confirms that the Qur’ānic verse is the first attestation of the term, gives its meaning as ‘tablet written on’ (al-lawḥ al-maktūb fīh), thus, implicitly, likening it to the lead tablet on which, according to the Christian version of the story, the names of the Seven Sleepers were inscribed.
▪ If the word is genuine, from √RQM, and if the meaning ‘writing, inscription’ is correct, one will have to imagine a semantic development along the line *‘(to mark, make look different, distinct? >) to embroider > to variegate, weave in colour > to paint figures on a tissue, or parchment > to make incisions, write on a clay/lead tablet > inscription’. In view of the attested meanings of ↗raqama and its Sem cognates, such a development is not inconceivable.
▪ … 
▪ eC7 Q 18:9 ʔam ḥasibta ʔanna ʔaṣḥāba ’l-kahfi wa’l-raqīmi kānū min ʔāyāti-nā ʕaǧaban ‘Or deemest thou that the People of the Cave and the Inscription are a wonder among Our portents? (Pickthall)| Or do you consider the People of the Cave and the inscription are a wonder among Our signs? (McAuliffe)’
▪ ClassAr period (as summarized from Lane iii 1867): ‘(sky) figured\decorated with stars; book, writing; tablet of lead whereon were inscribed\engraved the names of the People of the Cave (commonly called the Seven Sleepers) and their ancestry, and their story, and their religion, and what it was from which they fled; mass of stone; stone tablet on which were insribed their names, and a which was put upon the entrance of the cave; (or) the town\village from which they came forth, (or) the mountain\valley in which was the cave; (or) their dog; receptable for ink (Ibn Durayd, with uncertainty as to its correctness); said to be of the language of the Greeks; tablet’
▪ ... 
▪ ↗raqama (unless a borrowing from an unknown source)
▪ ... 
▪ See above, section CONC.
▪ Horovitz1926[=KU]: 95: »Q 18:8 heißen die Siebenschläfer ʔaṣḥāb al-kahf wa’l-raqīm. Clermont-Ganneau, Études d’archéologie orientale III: 295, wollte darin mit al-Muqaddasī die Ortschaft al-Raqīm im Ostjordanland unweit ʕAmmān sehen, wo sich eine Höhle befindet. Doch steht nichts weiter fest, als daß man in nachkoranischer Zeit den Ort – wenn es im Koran einer ist – dorthin verlegte, vgl. zur Kritik dieser Gleichsetzung auch Huber, Die Wanderlegende von den Siebenschläfern, 236ff. Eher ist vielleicht an die Bedeutung ‘Schrift’ zu denken, um so mehr als in Q 83:9 kitāb marqūm vorkommt und die bleiernen Tafeln, auf welche die Jünglinge ihre Namen schrieben, in den verschiedenen Texten ausdrücklich hervorgehoben werden (Guidi, Testi, 20, 70f. lawḥē men abrā; Cod. Sachau 321 lawḥē de abrā). Von den Deutungen, die die arabische Tradition sonst noch für al-raqīm gibt, ist die eine, derzufolge darin der Name des Q 18:17 erwähnten Hundes zu sehen sei, auch in einem dem ʔUmayya zugeschriebenen Verse zu finden (Fragment 8,2 Schulthess); er stimmt jedoch mit Q 18:8,17 so nahe überein, daß er als unecht gelten muß). Neuerdings will Torrey (A Volume of Oriental Studies Presented to E. G. Browne, 457f.) raqīm als Verlesung von dqym deuten, das seinerseits fälschlich für Syr dqys stehe, der syrischen Umschreibung des Namens Decius. Aber koranische Namensformen, die auf Verlesung beruhen, sind sonst nicht nachweisbar, und selbst wenn man grundsätzlich eine Entstehung koranischer Namen aus Verlesung für möglich halten sollte, so bliebe immer noch der Artikel unerklärt; daß Muḥammad ihn von sich aus einem fremden Eigennamen vorgesetzt hätte, stimmt ebenfalls nicht zu seiner sonstigen Gewohnheit. Auch wird im Verlauf der Erzählung von den Siebenschläfern selbst im Koran sonst kein einziger der Beteiligten mit Namen genannt.«
▪ Jeffery1938: »al-Raqīm is mentioned at the commencement of Muḥammad’s version of the story of the Seven Sleepers. The Commentators present the widest divergences as to its meaning. Some take it as a place-name, whether of a village, a valley, or a mountain. Some think it was a document, a kitāb or a lawḥ. Others consider it the name of the dog who accompanied the Sleepers; others said it meant an inkhorn, and some, as Ibn Durayd, admitted that they did not know what it meant. / Their general opinion is that it is an Ar word, a form FaʕīL from √RQM, but some, says al-Suyūṭī, Itq, 321, said that it was Grk, meaning either ‘writing’ or ‘inkhorn’ in that tongue. / The probabilities are that it is a place-name, and represents [Syr] rqm ḏgānā, otherwise known as rqm bmr brā ḏṣyn, a place in the desert country of S. Palestine,1 very much in the same district as the Muslim geographers place al-Raqīm.2 ,3 «
▪ Paret1980 (Konk.) 310: »Vielleicht ist das Wort im Sinn von “Inschrift” gemeint, wobei an die bleiernen Tafeln zu denken wäre, auf denen nach christlicher Überlieferung die Namen der Siebenschläfer verzeichnet waren« (i.e., perh. ‘inscription’, sc. on the lead tablet on which, acc. to Christian tradition, the names of the Sleepers were inscribed)
▪ Luxenberg2000: 65-67 suggests that al-raqīm is a misreading for al-ruqād and translates accordingly: ‘Meinst du etwa, daß die Leute der Höhle und des Schlafes unter unseren Zeichen wunderlich waren?’
▪ ...
 
– 
raqama, u (raqm), vb. I, 1 to write: G-stem, perh. denom.; 2-3raqama; 4raqm

mirqam, pl. marāqimᵘ, n., 1a drawing pencil, crayon; b (painter’s) brush: n.instr., from ↗¹raqama

For other values attached to the root, cf. ↗raqama and ↗raqm, as well as, for the overall picture, root entry ↗√RQM. 
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