Bibliotheca Polyglotta

▪ ZKW/Y_1 ‘to thrive; to grow, increase’ ↗zakā / zakiya
▪ ZKW/Y_2 ‘to be pure in heart, be just, righteous, good; to be fit, suitable’ ↗zakā
▪ ZKW/Y_3 ‘alms tax, zakat (Isl.)’ ↗zakāẗ

♦ Semantic value spectrum in ClassAr (acc. to BAH2008): ‘to grow, to flourish; to reach, to attain; to purify, to be purified’

The semantics within this root reflect a rather complex overlapping of original meanings and later borrowings. It seems that, etymologically, two main values/items should be distinguished:

▪ ‘to grow, increase’, most probably attached to a Sem root *ZKW/Y, and
▪ ‘to be(come) clean, pure’, attached to Sem *ḎKW/Y.

Both roots and their values are preserved in MSA. Sem *ḎKW/Y, however, has also gone into Hbr and Aram and taken on a specialized religious-ethical meaning there (initial Sem *Ḏ‑ became Z‑ in both—a regular sound change in Hbr, but probably under Akk influence in Aram; there are however also Aram forms with initial ḏ‑). From there, and with the technical religious sense of ‘moral purity’, the word(s) passed into Ar, coming on top of the values ‘growth’ (√ZKW/Y) and ‘brightness, sharpness, clarity’ (√ḎKW/Y) that already existed there from Sem times. This made √ZKW/Y a homonymous root although, from an etymological point of view, it should have been √ḎKW/Y rather than √ZKW/Y.

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▪ DRS 8 (1999)#ZKW/Y–1 Ar zakā, zakiya ‘croître, grandir, prospérer, être pur, probe’; Mġr zkā ‘gonfler en cuisant (couscous)’. –2 zakiya ‘avoir soif’. — See also ZKY. –1 See Ḏ/ZKW/Y/K.
▪ DRS 4 (1993)# Ḏ/ZKW/Y/K–1 Akk zakū ‘(être) propre, pur, clair, libre d’obligations’, Hbr zākāh ‘être pur’, zak ‘être clair, pur’, Phn zkʔ ‘pur’, EmpAram dky, zky ‘innocent, pur’, Palm *dk ‘rituellement pur’, Mand dakia ‘propre, pur’, BiblAram zākū ‘innocence’, JP Syr zəkā ‘être innocent’, zākūtā ‘innocence, victoire, règne’, Mand zakaia ‘innocent, victorieux’; Ar ḏakā ‘être égorgé selon les règles (animal)’, ḏakwaẗ ‘oblation (pour le péché)’; zakā ‘être pur, sans tache’, Sab ḏkw ‘égorger, achever’, Ar zakāẗ, Sab zkt ‘grâce divine’, Jib zeke, ziki ‘être pur’, Jib Mhr Ḥrs zekōt ‘aumône’, Gz zakik ‘pur, purifié’, Te zäkat ‘aumône légale, impôt’. Les formes en z semblent des emprunts à l’Akk; au contraire: Bauer OLZ 29:803 pense à un emprunt can. Ces formes Aram seraient passées à l’Ar. Sab zkt = empr. Aram. Pour les formes nommant l’aumône légale islamique, SAr et Eth dépendet évidemment de l’Ar. –2 Ar ḏakiya ‘paraître, pousser, percer’, ḏakā ‘être vif, perçant (esprit), être prompt à comprendre; brûler avec intensité, avec violence (feu), dégager une forte odeur’, Liḥ ḏakaw ‘flamme’, Ar ʔaḏkā ‘allumer, bouter le feu’; ? ‘envoyer’; Sab ḏkw ‘détacher (une troupe)’, ḏky, hḏky ‘envoyer’.

▪ Jeffery1938 thinks that ‘to grow, increase’ (ZKW/Y_1) is the primary value of the root and the only one that Ar has directly from Sem, while ‘purity’ (ZKW/Y_2) and ‘alms tax’ (ZKW/Y_3) for him are Aramaisms. The corresponding root in Ar is not ZKW/Y but ↗ḎKW/Y.
▪ For Huehnergard 2011, [v3] is from Aram zākutā ‘innocence, justification, merit, meritorious deed’, from zəkā ‘to be innocent, be worth, give alms’. The latter (which is also akin to [v2]), H. thinks, is either from Can *zakā ‘to be worth, be worthy’, or Akk *zakû ‘to be(come) pure, innocent’, for which Sem *ḏkw ‘to be(come) clean, pure’ can be reconstructed.
▪ For unknown reasons, DRS in its entry #ZKW/Y-1 neither distinguishes between ‘croître, grandir, prospérer’ and ‘être pur, probe’ nor explains how these values could be seen as one. In fact, they probably can’t: ‘purity’ seems to be a secondary addition based on a borrowing from Aram which, etymologically, is akin to Ar ḎKW/Y rather than to ZKW/Y.

▪ Engl zakat ↗zakāẗ.

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zakā / zakaw‑ زَكا / زَكَوْـ , ū (zakāʔ)

ID 360 • Sw – • BP – • APD … • © SG | 15Feb2021

√ZKW

vb., I

1 to be pure in heart, be just, righteous, good; to be fit, suitable (bi‑ for s.o.). – 2 for other meanings ↗zakā / zakiya – WehrCowan1979.

▪ With the meaning ‘purity’ (and also ‘alms tax’, ↗zakāẗ), the root ZKW/Y is most probably an Aramaism that came in addition to the earlier value ‘to grow, increase’ (↗zakā / zakiya), making the root a homonymous one.
▪ According to Huehnergard 2011, the source from which the Ar items are borrowed, Aram zəkā ‘to be innocent, be worth, give alms’, is from Can *zakā ‘to be worth, be worthy’, or Akk *zakû ‘to be(come) pure, innocent’, from Sem *ḏkw ‘to be(come) clean, pure’.
▪ Thus, etymologically speaking, the Ar items with this meaning are not akin to ZKW/Y but to ↗ḎKW/Y.

▪ eC7 Of frequent occurrence in many forms in the Q : ʻto be pure’, e.g.,
▪ (zakā, u, vb. intrans., to reach a level of acceptability [by God], to attain enough purity; to increase in purity) Q 24:21 wa-law-lā faḍlu ’ḷḷāhi ʕalay-kum wa-raḥmatu-hū mā zakā min-kum min ʔaḥadin ʔabadan ‘were it not for God’s grace and mercy towards you, not a single one of you would ever have attained [enough] purity [to be acceptable to God]’
▪ (zakkà, vb II. trans., to purify, to cause to grow in purity) Q 9:103 ḫuḏ min ʔamwāli-him ṣadaqatan tuṭahhiru-hum wa-tuzakkī-him bi-hā ‘take from their possessions alms with which you cleanse them and purify them/cause them to grow in purity’, (to vouch for, to praise, to justify, to vindicate) 53:32 fa-lā tuzakkū ʔanfusa-kum huwa ʔaʕlamu bi-man ittaqà ‘so do not praise yourselves—He knows best who is mindful [of Him]’
▪ (tazakkà, v. V intrans., to seek purity, to strive for God’s grace) Q 35:18 wa-man tazakkà fa-ʔinna-mā yatazakkà li-nafsi-hī ‘whosoever purifies himself, does so only for [the good of] his own soul’
▪ (ʔazkà, elat., purer/purest, more/most godly or virtuous) Q 2:232 ḏālikum ʔazkà la-kum wa-ʔaṭharu ‘that is more virtuous/righteous and purer for you’, (better/best in quality) 18:19 fal-yanẓur ʔayyu-hā ʔazkà ṭaʕāman fal-yaʔti-kum bi-rizqin min-hu ‘let him look which is the best quality food, and bring you some of it’
▪ (zakiyy, quasi-AP, pure, pious) Q 19:19 qāla ʔinna-mā ʔanā rasūlu rabbi-ki li-ʔahiba la-ki ġulāman zakiyyan ‘He said, “I am only a messenger from your Lord, [come] to grant you a pure boy”’, (innocent) 18:74 ʔa-qatalta nafsan zakiyyatan bi-ġayri nafsin ‘how could you kill an innocent person without [it being in exchange for his killing of] another?’
▪ (zakāẗ, n., prescribed alms) Q 73:20 wa-ʔaqīmū ’l-ṣalāta wa-ʔātū ’l-zakāta wa-ʔaqriḍū ’ḷḷāha qarḍan ḥasanan ‘keep up the prayer, pay the alms, and make God a goodly loan’

▪ DRS 4 (1993)# Ḏ/ZKW/Y/K–1 Akk zakū ‘(être) propre, pur, clair, libre d’obligations’, Hbr zākāh ‘être pur’, zak ‘être clair, pur’, Phn zkʔ ‘pur’, EmpAram dky, zky ‘innocent, pur’, Palm *dk ‘rituellement pur’, Mand dakia ‘propre, pur’, BiblAram zākū ‘innocence’, JP Syr zəkā ‘être innocent’, zākūtā ‘innocence, victoire, règne’, Mand zakaia ‘innocent, victorieux’; Ar ḏakā ‘être égorgé selon les règles (animal)’, ḏakwaẗ ‘oblation (pour le péché)’; zakā ‘être pur, sans tache’, Sab ḏkw ‘égorger, achever’, Ar zakāẗ, Sab zkt ‘grâce divine’, Jib zeke, ziki ‘être pur’, Jib Mhr Ḥrs zekōt ‘aumône’, Gz zakik ‘pur, purifié’, Te zäkat ‘aumône légale, impôt’. Les formes en z semblent des emprunts à l’Akk; au contraire: Bauer OLZ 29:803 pense à un emprunt can. Ces formes Aram seraient passées à l’Ar. Sab zkt = empr. Aram. Pour les formes nommant l’aumône légale islamique, SAr et Eth dépendet évidemment de l’Ar. — 2 Ar ḏakiya ‘paraître, pousser, percer’, ḏakā ‘être vif, perçant (esprit), être prompt à comprendre; brûler avec intensité, avec violence (feu), dégager une forte odeur’, Liḥ ḏakaw ‘flamme’, Ar ʔaḏkā ‘allumer, bouter le feu’; ? ‘envoyer’; Sab ḏkw ‘détacher (une troupe)’, ḏky, hḏky ‘envoyer’.

▪ Jeffery1938, 152-53: »The three forms [in the Qurʔān] which particularly concern us are zakā (cf. xxiv, 21), zakkà (ii, 146; iv, 52; xci, 9), and tazakkà (xx, 78; lxxxviL 14). – The primitive meaning of the Ar zky is ʻto grow, to flourish, thrive’, as is recognized by the Lexicons (cf. LA, xix, 77; and Rāghib, Mufradāt, 212).¹ This is the meaning we find in the earliest texts, e.g. Ḥamāsa, 722, 11; Labīd (ed. Chalidi), etc., and with this we must connect the ʔazkà of ii, 232; xviii, 18, etc., as Nöldeke notes.² In this sense it is cognate with Akk zakū ʻto be free, immune’³ ; Aram זכא ‘to be victorious’, Syr zəḵā, etc. – In the sense of ʻclean, pure’, however, i.e. zakā, i, zakkà, and tazakkà, it is obviously a borrowing from the older religions.⁴ Hbr זכא (like Phoen זכא) is ʻto be clean or pure’ in the moral sense, and its forms parallel all the uses in the Qurʔān. So the related Aram דכא, זכא, and זכי, Syr ḏəḵā, ḏəḵī, and zəḵā mean ʻto be clean’ both in the physical and in the moral sense. The Ar equivalent of these forms, of course, is ḏakā ʻto be bright’ [↗ √ḎKW/Y], and so there can be little doubt that zakā used in its technical religious sense was borrowed from an Aramaic form. It is, of course, difficult to decide whether the origin is Jewish or Christian. Nöldeke, Neue Beiträge, 25, n.; Schulthess, ZA, xxvi, 152; and Torrey, Foundation, 141, favour a Jewish origin, but Andrae, Ursprung, 200, points to the close parallels between Muḥammad’s use of the word and that which we find in contemporary Syriac literature,⁵ so that there is ground for thinking that it came to him from Christian sources.«

1. And see Hurgronje, Verspreide Geschriften, ii, p. 11. 2. Neue Beiträge, 25 n. 3. Zimmern, Akkad. Fremdw, 25. 4. Grimme, Mohammed, 1892, p. 15, tried to prove that tazakkà for Muḥammad meant ʻto pay legal alms’ (zakāt), but this is far fetched, as Hurgronje, RHR, xxx, 157 ff., pointed out. It is true, however, that in his later years Muḥammad did associate justification before God with almsgiving (Bell, Origin, 80; see also Ahrens, Christliches, 21; Horovitz, JPN, 206 ff.). 5. Vide also Bell, Origin, 51. It is possible that the Phlv dakia of PPGl, 104, may be from the same origin. Frahang, Glossary, p. 87.

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► zakkà, vb. II, 1 to purify, chasten; to justify, vindicate, vouch for, or bear witness to s.o.’s integrity, declare s.o. honest, upright or just, attest the honorable record of s.o.; to attest to the truth, validity or credibility of s.th.: caus.; 2 for another meaning ↗zakā / zakiya.
► tazakkà, vb. V, to be purified, be chastened: refl./pass. of II.

► zakiyy, pl. ʔazkiyāʔᵘ, adj., pure; chaste; guiltless, blameless, sinless; (also = ḏakiyy, e.g. rāʔiḥaẗ zakiyyaẗ, n., delightful odor).
► zakāʔ, n., 1 (moral) purity, integrity, honesty, righteousness; 2 ↗zakā / zakiya : vn. I.
► ^BP#4006zakāẗ ↗s.v..
► ʔazkà, purer; more befitting, more appropriate; better; (also = ʔaḏkà, e.g., ʔazkà rāʔiḥaẗ, the most delightful odor): elat.
► tazkiyaẗ, n.f., purification, chastening; pronouncement of s.o.’s integrity or credibility; attestation of (a witness’) honorable record (Isl. Law): vn. II.

zakā زكا / zakaw‑ / zakiy زكِيَ , à (zakāʔ)

√ZKW/Y

vb., I

1 to thrive; to grow, increase. – 2 for other meanings ↗zakā ū – WehrCowan1979.

Jeffery 1938 thinks that this value of the root ZKW/Y is the primary one, i.e., the one that Ar has preserved from Sem, while other meanings (treated under ↗zakā here) are from Aram.

▪ …

▪ DRS 8 (1999)#ZKW/Y–1 Ar zakā, zakiya ‘croître, grandir, prospérer, être pur, probe’; Mġr zkā ‘gonfler en cuisant (couscous)’

▪ DRS sees ‘croître, grandir, prospérer, être pur, probe’ as one semantic unit but does not explain why/how ‘croître, grandir, prospérer’ should be seen together with ‘être pur, probe’.
▪ The value ‘to grow, increase’ seems to be attested in Ar only. For ‘purity’ (and ‘alms’) which, as an Aramaism, ultimately goes back to Sem *ḎKW/Y rather than to *ZKW/Y, see ↗zakā ↗zakāẗ.
▪ For a discussion of the complex entanglements within the root, see disambiguation entry ↗ZKW/Y.

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► zakkà, vb. II, 1 to increase, augment, make grow: ints.?; 2 for another meaning ↗zakā.
► ʔazkà, vb. IV, to cause to grow; to grow (s.th.): caus.

► zakāʔ, n., 1 growth: vn.; 2 for another meaning ↗zakā.

zakāʔ زَكاء

√ZKW/Y

1 growth. – 2 (moral) purity, integrity, honesty, righteousness – WehrCowan1979.

zakāʔ is the vn. of both ↗zakā ū ‘to be pure in heart, be just, righteous, good’ and ↗zakiya à ‘to grow, increase’.

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zakāẗ زَكاة var. زكَوة , pl. زكاً zakan , zakawāt

√ZKW

purity; justness, integrity, honesty; justification, vindication; alms-giving, alms, charity; alms tax, zakat (Isl. Law) – WehrCowan1979.

▪ It seems that the word was borrowed in early Islamic times from JudAram zəḵūṯā ‘voluntary deed of merit in accordance with God’s commandments’ to provide a counter-concept ‘collective charity’ against, and to compete with, old Arabian charity as practised by clan/tribe chiefs through individual acts of generosity. The latter was integrated into Islam in a modified, ‘milder’ form as ↗ṣadaqaẗ while zakāẗ was made obligatory (and more reliable) and thus given priority over the latter. However, pre-Islamic ideals were not completely replaced by zakāẗ and ṣadaqaẗ; rather, they continued into Islamic times (↗ǧūd, ↗karam, ↗saḫāʔ). The meaning ‘alms (tax)’ does not seem to have been attached to the Aram source yet and was therefore probably added by Islam.
▪ Together with the vb. ↗zakā ‘to be pure in heart, be just, righteous’ (which is from Aram zəkā ‘to be innocent, be worth, give alms’), the item goes back to Can *zakā ‘to be worth, be worthy’, or Akk *zakû ‘to be(come) pure, innocent’, both from Sem *ḏkw ‘to be(come) clean, pure’.¹

1. …with Aram *dəkā > zəkā under Akk influence?

▪ eC7 Q 2:43,83,110,177,277; 4:77, etc. ʻlegal Alms’. Occurs only in Medinan passages, such as Q 2:43,83,110,177,277; 4:77, etc. Another example is Q 73:20 wa-ʔaqīmū ’l-ṣalāta wa-ʔātū ’l-zakāta wa-ʔaqriḍū ’ḷḷāha qarḍan ḥasanan ‘keep up the prayer, pay the alms, and make God a goodly loan’.

Aram zkwt, Syr zᵊḵūṯā are not cognates proper since zakāẗ is loaned from there. This notwithstanding, it does of course belong to the same Sem root, cf. ↗ZKW/Y. The word appears already in some Sab inscriptions as zkt (dated 542 and 619 Himyarite era, i.e., c. 430 CE and 508 CE, respectively), meaning ‘Heilstat, Gnade (Gottes)’¹ SAr zkt ? – Aram zkwt, Syr zᵊḵūṯā are not cognates proper since zakāẗ is loaned from there. This notwithstanding, the item does of course belong to the same Sem root, cf. ↗ZKW/Y.

1. Müller2010

▪ Jeffery1938, 153: »Naturally the Muslim authorities explain this word from ↗zakā, and tell us that an Alms is so called because it purifies the soul from meanness, or even because it purifies wealth itself (cf. Bayḍ, on ii, 40, etc.),⁶ though some sought to derive it from the primitive meaning of ʻto increase’ (see Rāghib, Mufradāt, 212, and the Lexicons). – zakāẗ, however, is another of the technical religious terms taken over from the older faiths. Fraenkel, Vocab, 23, suggested that it was from the Aram זכות. The primary sense of זכות, זכותא is ʻpuritas, innocentia’, from which developed the secondary meaning of ʻmeritum’ as in the Targum on Ruth iv, 21, but it does not seem that זכותא, or its Syr equivalent zəḵūṯā, ever meant ʻalms’, though this meaning could easily be derived from it. Fraenkel is inclined to believe that the Jews of Arabia had already given it this meaning before Islam "sed fortasse Iudaei Arabici זכות sensu eleemosynarum adhibuerunt" (so Torrey, Foundation, 48, 141). Nöldeke, however (Neue Beiträge, 25), is inclined to believe that the specializing of the word for alms was due to Muḥammad himself.⁷ «
▪ Pennacchio2014, 19: The old writing with و as mater lectionis (زكوة) is a strong indication of the word’s Aram origin.
▪ Pennacchio2014, 138: »Dans la littérature rabbinique, zkwtʔ ‘bénéfice’, ‘mérite’ fonctionne comme l’équivalent hébraïque des ṣədāqā ‘aumône’. […] Le fait qu’on ait deux mots en ar., zakāẗ et ṣadaqaẗ, et en héb. zəkūtâ et ṣədāqā, suffit à prouver l’emprunt au judaïsme.«
▪ Huehnergard2011: from Aram zākutā ‘innocence, justification, merit, meritorious deed’, from zəkā ‘to be innocent, be worth, give alms’, from Can *zakā ‘to be worth, be worthy’, or Akk *zakû ‘to be(come) pure, innocent’, from < Sem ḏkw ‘to be(come) clean, pure’.
▪ Kerr 2014: »The nearest cognate meaning of this root is found in JP / Galilean Aram zky ‘to give to charity’. The precursors of this semantic development can probably still be seen in Syr zāḵūṯā ‘acquittal, innocence’ (also ‘grave of a martyr’) or possibly in Jewish-Babylonian Aram, Pal Targ-Aram and Galilean Aram zəḵūṯā ‘reward‚commendable deed’. The latter seems more likely to me.«

6. The origin of this idea, of course, is in the Qurʔān itself, cf. ix, 104. 7. See also Bell, Origin, 80; Schulthess, in ZA, xxvi, 1.50, 151; Ahrens, Muhammad, 180; Von Kremer, Streifzüge, p. xi; Horovitz, JPN, 206. Wensinck, Joden, 114, says: »Men zal misschien vragen of tot se Mekkaansche instellingen niet de zakat behoort. En men zou zich voor deze meening op talrijke Mekkaansche openbaringen kunnen beroepen waar van zakāẗ gesproken wordt. Men vergete echter niet, dat het woord zakāẗ het Joodsche זכות, verdienste beteekent. Deze naam is door de Arabische Joden of door Mohammed uitsluitend op het geven van aalmoezen en daarna op de aalmoes zelf toegepast.«

▪ zakat: in Engl attested since 1802. Via Pers zakāt, from Ar zakāẗ – EtymOnline.
▪ (Huehnergard2011:) Engl zakat, from Ar zakāẗ ‘purity, justness, alms, charity’, from Aram zākutā ‘innocence, justification, merit, meritorious deed’, from zᵊkā ‘to be innocent, be worth, give alms’, from Can zᵊkā or Akk zakû ‘to be(come) pure, innocent’.

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