▪ Listed separately in WehrCowan1979, but seen as belonging to the same theme of ‘purity’ as ↗
faṣuḥa by Ayoub (
EALL, “faṣīḥ”). Variant vowelling (
fiṣḥ ~
faṣḥ) indicates that it is a loan.
▪ Either directly from Hbr pā̈saḥ ‘Passover’ or indirectly, via Syr peṣḥā, which seems more likely for phonological reasons. Compared to Hbr pā̈saḥ, both Syr and Ar show forms with regressive assimilation of *-s- to -ṣ- due to following emphatic -ḥ. A reading of the Jewish Pessach not being a festival of ‘passing over’ (
FSḤ) but of ‘purity’ (
FṢḤ) is probably secondary. The original relation with Ar ↗
fasaḥa would then have been forgotten, or ignored, in order to connect the feast to
faṣuḥa.
1
▪ Acc. to Lane,
2
an alternative name for the Passover, besides
fiṣḥ, is
al- ↗
fāsiḫ .
▪ However, should Ar
fiṣḥ reflect original terminology, then Pessach would be, originally, not a feast of passing over but one of (ritual?) purity. Given the fact that the sacrifice rituals point to a Nomadic tradition of spring sacrifices—as does also Passover’s Islamic counterpart, the ↗
ʕumraẗ (also called ‘smaller
ḥaǧǧ ’)—, a relation of Pessach to
FṢḤ rather than to
FSḤ should not be prematurely excluded.