(variously interpreted by ClassAr lexicographers as:) ‘false deity’, ‘sorcery’, ‘the devil’, ‘idol’, a name of a certain idol, said to belong to the tribe of Quraysh – BAH2008
▪ acc. to BAH2008 hapax in the Qurʔān, of either Gz or Hbr origin
▪ ec7 Q 4:51 ʔa-lam tara ʔilà ’llaḏīna ʔūtū naṣīban min-a ’l-kitābi yuʔminūna bi’l-ǧibti wa’l-ṭāġūti ‘have you considered those given a portion of the Scripture, who believe in idols and evil powers’
.
▪ Jeffery1938: »It occurs only along with the Ethiopic word ṭāġūt in the sentence “they believe in Jibt and Ṭāghūt”. The exegetes knew not what to make of it, and from their works we can gather a score of theories as to its meaning, whether idol (ṣanam), or priest (kāhin), or sorcerer (sāḥir), or sorcery (siḥr), or Satan, or what not. It was generally agreed that it was an Ar word. Bayḍ., e.g., claiming that it was a dialectal form of ǧibs, a theory that was taken up by Rāġib, Mufradāt, 83, and others.1
Some of the philologers, however, admitted that it was a foreign word (cf. Jawharī, sub voc., LA, ii, 325),2
and from al-Suyūṭī, Itq, 320, we learn that some of them even knew that it was Ethiopic. / Margoliouth in ERE, vi, 249, suggested that it was the γλυπτά of the LXX from γλύφω ‘to carve, engrave’, which is used to translate Hbr fsl in Lev. xxvi: 1. This assumes that its meaning is very much the same as Ṭāġūt, i.e. ‘idol’, and this has the weight of evidence from the Commentators in its favour. It is a little difficult, however, to see how the Grk word could come directly into Arabic without having left any trace in Syriac. It is more likely that al-Suyūṭī’s authorities were right for once, and that it is an Abyssinian word. This has been recognized by Dvořák, Fremdw, 50, and by Nöldeke, Neue Beiträge, 48, who shows that [Gz] ʔamlāk gəbt = θεός πρόσφατος [‘new, recent god], and in [Gz] gəbt we have the form we need.«3 ▪ ...
▪ ǦBR_1 ‘force, compulsion, coercion, duress; power, might; (predestined, inescapable) decree of fate’ ↗¹ǧabr. – ‘giant, gigantic, colossal, huge; tyrant, oppressor; almighty, omnipotent (God); Orion (astron.)’ ↗ǧabbār ▪ ǦBR_2 ‘to set (broken bones); to restore, bring back to normal; to help back on o.’s feet, help up’ ↗ǧabara (incl. ʕilm al-ǧabr ‘algebra’) ▪ ǦBR_3 ‘to treat with kindness, friendliness, be nice to s.o.’ ↗ǧābara ▪ ǦBR_4 ‘pride, haughtiness’ ↗ǧibriyāʔᵘ ▪ ǦBR_5 ‘(the archangel) Gabriel’ ↗Ǧibrīlᵘ Other values, now obsolete, include (BK1860, Lane ii 1865, Wahrmund1886, Hava1899):▪ †ǦBR_6 ‘man; young man, courageous (Lane) | homme, surtout fort, puissant (BK1860)’: †²ǧabr ▪ †ǦBR_7 ‘king’: †³ǧabr ▪ †ǦBR_8 ‘slave’: †⁴ǧabr ▪ †ǦBR_9 ‘aloes-wood’: †⁵ǧabr ▪ †ǦBR_10 ‘1 vanité, mensonge; 2 ce qui est en pure perte; 3 sang versé et non vengé; 4 exempt, libre ou innocent de qc (BK1860)| thing of which no account, or for which no revenge or retaliation or mulct, is taken (Lane ii 1865) | erlaubtes Blutvergießen; Krieg; frei, quit (Wahrmund1886)’: †¹ǧubār ▪ †ǦBR_11 ‘torrent’: †²ǧubār ▪ †ǦBR_12 ‘(pre-Islamic name of) Tuesday’: †³ǧubār ~ ǧibār ▪ †ǦBR_13 ‘bandage; truss; splints (pieces of wood with which bones are set)’: †ǧibāraẗ, †¹ǧabīraẗ (pl. ǧabāʔirᵘ) ▪ †ǦBR_14 ‘leather bag; portfolio’: †²ǧabīraẗ ▪ †ǦBR_15 ‘middling in wealth, talents; simple, good (man) (Hava1899) | Mensch von geringem Vermögen od. Talent (Wahrmund1886)’: †ĭnǧibārī . ▪ †ǦBR_ ‘…’: †…♦ Semantic value spectrum in ClassAr (acc. to BAH2008): ‘to set broken bones; to restore, assist; to compel, force, be impregnable; giant, tyrant, almighty’
▪ [v1] : (Kogan2011:) from protCSem *gabr ‘man / (DRS:) homme fait, dans toute sa force’ (> Ar [v6] ‘man’) < protSem *gbr ‘to be strong’. According to Huehnergard2011, *√GBR is a WSem variant (assimilated form) of protSem *√GPR ‘to be(come) strong, prevail, work’. – According to Palache1959: 18, the basic meaning of the root in Sem is *‘to rise, raise o.s.; hence also: strength; to restore; to compel, overpower > man’. – In a similar vein, Ar lexicography tends to regard [v1]/[v6] ‘strength; man’ as secondary, developed from [v2] when ‘setting broken bones’ became equated with ‘force’ and ‘power’. – According to Ehret1995#262, Ar ǧabbār ‘strong, powerful’ represents an extension in an adj. suffix *-R from a bi-consonantal “pre-Proto-Semitic” root *√GB ‘great’ < AfrAs *gâb- ‘great (esp. in size and number)’. For other extensions from the same pre-protSem root, cf. ↗√ǦBǦ (ǧabǧ ‘to recover and regain strength’, cf. [v2]) and ↗√ǦBL (ǧabl ‘numerous’). – See also below, section DISC. – For the specialized meaning ‘(predestined, inescapable) decree of fate’, see directly s.v. ↗¹ǧabr. ▪ [v2] : According to DRS, the value ‘to set (broken bones), repair, restore’ is a « notion dérivée », dependent on [v1]/†[v6] ‘power, strength; man’ (*‘to press/force broken bones together in order to set them’). In contrast, indigenous Ar lexicography would derive the latter from the former. – For Landberg1920, DaṯAr ǧabar equals ↗ǧabal ‘to form, shape, build up’. – See also below, section DISC. – For (ʕilm al-) ǧabr ‘algebra’ as a *‘restoring, repairing’, see ↗ǧabara. ▪ [v3] : ?Reflecting value †[v6] ‘man’, prominent mostly in Can, thus orig. *‘to treat as a fellow human being’, or rather simply *‘(friendly) coercion’ (i.e., from [v1]), or *‘to make it easy/comfortable for s.o.’ (from [v10])? As a support of the first option could serve ClassAr †ʔaǧbara, vb. IV, ‘to consider (s.o.) as honest’ (Hava1899), obviously a denom., thus perh. *‘to consider as a man’; on the other hand, an expression like ClassAr †ǧabara ḫāṭira-hū ‘to converse kindly with s.o’ (ibid.) literally means *‘to force/exert [mild?] coercion on s.o.’s mind’. Cf. also the ClassAr expression †fulān ǧābirᵘⁿ/mustaǧbirᵘⁿ lī ‘s.o. exerting himself much/exceedingly/to the utmost in paying frequent attention to me, taking care of me, putting my affairs into a right/proper state’ (Lane ii 1865) / Wahrmund: ‘einem (fī mit etw.) ein Vergnügen machen’. ▪ [v4] : Dependent on [v1], orig. *‘to feel powerful, think of o.s. as mighty, behave arrogantly’. Cf. also †al-mutaǧabbir ‘the lion’, nominalized PA V, prob. *‘the one boasting of his power’ (see also †[v7] ‘king’). – Pattern FiʕLiyāʔᵘ in accordance with ↗kibriyāʔᵘ ‘pride, arrogance’? – For other historically attested synonymous forms, see directly s.v. ↗ǧibriyāʔᵘ. ▪ [v5] : According to Jeffrey1938 via Aram (ChrPal, Syr) ultimately from Hbr Gaḇrīʔēl ‘my strength / strong one is God’, explained by Huehnergard2011 as composed of gaḇrî ‘my strong one’, from gaḇr‑, presuffixal form of geḇer ‘strong one, man’ (cf. †[v6]), from gāḇar ‘to be strong’ (see [v1]), and Hbr ʔēl ‘god’, cf. Ar ↗allāh, ʔLH. ▪ †[v6] ²ǧabr ‘(young, courageous) man | homme, surtout fort, puissant’ (Lane|BK); cf. also DaṯAr ǧuburraẗ ‘naturel de l’homme’ (Landberg1920): value apparently only scarcely attested in Ar,1
, but the most prominent value in the Hbr Aram context. – Either via protCSem *gabr ‘man’ (Kogan2011) / ‘homme fait, dans toute sa force’ (DRS) or directly from protSem *gbr ‘to be strong’ (see [v1]). – In Aram, successors of protAram *gabr-2
became the main exponent of the value ‘man’, gradually replacing successors of protCSem *ʔinš- ‘man’ (> Ar ↗√ʔNS, ↗nās, ↗ʔinsān, etc.). 3 ▪ †[v7] ³ǧabr ‘king’: for Lane ii 1865 »of uncertain derivation«, but prob. simply specialized use of †[v6] ²ǧabr ‘man’ (which may depend on [v1] or [v2]). Or it is *‘the one boasting of power’ (see [v4]), similar to †al-mutaǧabbir ‘the lion’. ▪ †[v8] ⁴ǧabr ‘slave, servant’: Lane ii 1865 remarks that †[v7] ‘king’ and †[v8] ‘slave, servant’ seem to be »two contrary significations« of ǧabr; however, given the basic notion of *‘strength, strong man’, both can be interpreted as specialized use of the latter, i.e, [v1]/†[v6]. – Kogan2015: 382 #6 thinks the value may be due to acquaintance with Gz gabr ‘slave’. Thus, [v7] ‘king’ may be an intrinsic, inner-Ar development, while [v8] ‘slave’ could be an Ethiopism. ▪ †[v9] ⁵ǧabr ‘aloes-wood’: etymology obscure. – See below, †[v13], and section DISC. ▪ †[v10] ¹ǧubār ‘1 vanité, mensonge; 2 ce qui est en pure perte; 3 sang versé et non vengé; 4 exempt, libre ou innocent de quelque chose (BK1860)| thing of which no account, or for which no revenge or retaliation or mulct, is taken (Lane ii 1865) | erlaubtes Blutvergießen; Krieg; frei, quit (Wahrmund1886)’; to this complex one prob. has to add DaṯAr ǧabar ‘qui ne paie pas d’impôts/l’octroi’, ǧabar (sens du Sud:) ‘être exempt d’impôt, ne pas être assujetti à l’octroi’, ǧabbar ‘exempter de payer la dime/l’octroi’ (Landberg1920) (with cognates in Gz gəbr, Amh Te Gur gəbər, Tña Har gəbri ‘taxes’, etc., see section COGN). – Ultimately, all these values seem to be based on [v2], with a hypothetical semantic development *‘to set (broken bones), restore, repair > help to recover | raffermir, consolider > …’. Cf., e.g., Ar †ǧabbara ‘reverdir (se dit d’une plante foulée ou mangée en partie); reprendre les forces, renaître, recouvrer la santé, être rétabli (se dit d’un malade)’, and even more general, ‘rétablir ses affaires, redevenir riche après avoir été dans la misère; relever qn, le remettre dans l’aisance, le remettre à flot; faire du bien à qn’, †ĭǧtabara ‘s’enrichir et recouvrer l’ancienne aisance, le bien-être’ (BK1860). In short, ¹ǧubār seems to be based on a development along the line *‘to set (broken bones) > repair > help to recover > do s.th. good to s.o., exempt/relieve s.o. from s.th.’. With the latter, this value comes close to [v3]. ▪ †[v11] ²ǧubār ‘torrent’: connected to [v1] ‘force, power’, as *‘the powerful one’? Cf. also yawm ǧabr al-baḥr, name for a local holiday of Cairo, orig. *‘day of “forcing”, i.e., channeling the water (of the Nile) (into the now-abandoned ↗ḫalīǧ, or City Canal)’. Thus, the meaning †‘torrent’ could also be *‘water masses forced into a narrow bed’. ▪ †[v12] ³ǧubār ~ ǧibār ‘(pre-Islamic name of) Tuesday’: original attestation apparently only in a single verse which Fischer1896 thought was a »distichon memoriale« made by a little gifted poet for his students to help them memorize the names of the pre-Islamic weekdays.4
In contrast, Rotter1993 is convinced that †³ǧubār can be equated with Mars, the Roman god of war, and that therefore the name for the weekday is identical with Lat Martis dies (> Fr mardi, It martedi etc.).[(»Der veneris dies im vorislamischen Mekka, eine neue Deutung des Namens „Europa” und eine Erklärung für kobar = Venus«, Der Islam 70 (1993): 112-32, here 120.)] If this is correct, the “martial” name is related to [v1]/†[v6] ‘strength, power; man’. ▪ †[v13] ǧibāraẗ ~ ¹ǧabīraẗ ‘bandage; truss; splints (pieces of wood with which bones are set)’ (Hava1899), ‘poignet; bracelet, ornement du poignet’ (BK1860): The basic value here is prob. ‘splints’, which evidently belongs to [v2] ‘to set (broken bones)’, hence also ‘truss’ (*structure made of several splints) and ‘wrap, bandage’ (with which the splints are fixed to broken bones), hence also ‘bracelet’ (*“wrapping”) around the wrist > ‘wrist’. – Does also (DRS #GBR-4) Akk gub/pr- ‘needle, pin’ belong here? ▪ †[v14] ²ǧabīraẗ ‘leather bag; portfolio’: cf. Amh gäbär ‘board or piece of leather or cloth used as a cover for a book’ (DRS #GBR-3). – According to Hava1899, ²ǧabīraẗ here stands for †ǧafīraẗ ‘id. (?)’; cf. †ǧafīr ‘kind of quiver (for arrows etc.)’ (Lane ii 1865). ▪ †[v15] ĭnǧibārī ‘middling in wealth, talents; simple, good (man) (Hava1899) | Mensch von geringem Vermögen od. Talent (Wahrmund1886)’: marked as »modern sense/use« in Wahrmund1886, explained as »for ranǧ-bar« by Hava1899; if the latter etymology is valid, the adj. would be a “naturalized” borrowing from Pers, meaning ‘working/toiling person, worker, toiler, drudge; proletarian’ (Steingass1892 has still ‘artificer, mechanic’). ▪ …
▪ [gnrl] Most values attached to the root can be explained as belonging to the complex [v1]/[v2]/[v6]. For the time being, it seems impossible to disentangle these three main notions and decide with certainty which of them may have been the “most original” one. Evidently interrelated, [v6] ‘man’ and [v1] ‘strength, power, force’ and prevalent in Sem and have to be regarded as the source of derivation for the larger part of the GBR/ǦBR vocabulary, while [v2] ‘to set (broken bones), restore, repair’ seems to be an Ar peculiarity. Given the Sem evidence, it is prob. safe to reject the derivation, maintained by ClassAr lexicographers, of ‘strength, power, force’ from [v2] ‘to set (broken bones)’. Should we assume an inverse dependence then, i.e., regard ‘to set (broken bones), restore, repair’ as developed from ‘strength, power, force’? Not inconceivable, as the setting of bones is a kind of “forcing” the broken ends back into their place with the help of a splint etc., cf. [v13]. Nevertheless, this looks a bit far-fetched as it would imply that, for the speaker, the element of ‘strength, force’ is the main aspect in setting broken bones. Therefore, as a personal hypothesis, I would prefer to interpret [v2] ǧabara ‘to set (broken bones)’ as a variant of ↗ǧabala ‘to form, shape, build up’, i.e., as a “reshaping” rather than a “forcing” (into previous shape), perh. originating from SArabia. An argument in favour of this view is the semantic identity of ǧabar and ǧabal ‘to form, shape, build up’ in DaṯAr (Landberg1920), and perh. also the fact that, outside Ar, the notion of [v10] ‘relief, ease, exemption (from due taxes etc.)’, which seems to be related to [v2] in the sense of ‘restore, repair, help up again’, is common in EthSem only. – If this is valid, one may assume two lines of development, both originating from a pre-protSem 2-rad. root nucleus *GB with the general meaning ‘to amass, bring together, pile up’ (cf. Ehret1995: *GB ‘great’): (1) > *GBR ‘height, eminence, greatness’ (cf. Palache1956: *‘to rise, raise o.s.’) > ‘power, strength’ (Ehret1995: *‘strong, powerful’) > ‘man’; and (2) > *GBL ‘to assemble, bring/put together, (re)collect, (re)unite; to plait; (pile up >) multitude; mountain’ > (in SArabia?, with liquid L > R) Ar *ǦBR ‘to (re)shape, bring into form (again), repair, restore, set (broken bones)’ > ‘to help recover’ > ‘to relieve, exempt (from paying blood-money, taxes, etc.)’. ▪ [v1]/[v2]/[v6] : In their comments, the authors of DRS mention that, « [d]ans plusieurs langues, le nom de la femme (ou de la «Dame») se tire par suffixation de la désinence du fém. à une forme de *gabr-. - Amh connaît une forme de cette rac. développée en GBRR : gäbärrärä ‘roidir, devenir raide’. - De la notion dérivée ‘restaurer, réparer’, Ar a tiré un nom métaphorique du ‘pain’: (ʔabū) ǧābir, dont il faut peut-être rapprocher Te Tña gäbbara ‘plat à pétrir’; Amh mägbärya ‘vase dans lequel on prend la pâte pour faire le pain’. – […] Comp. GBB, GBʕ et v. s. GB. » ▪ †[v6] ²ǧabr ‘man’: Kogan2015: 382 #6: »protAram *gabr- ‘man’ has transparent cognates in Hbr gäbär and Ar ǧabr and, therefore, must be traced back to protCSem – fn: Or even protWSem if Gz gabr ‘slave’ (cf. [v8]) is thought to be related4
– *gabr- ‘man’. ▪ †[v8] ⁴ǧabr ‘slave’: see fn. to DISC of [v6], and above, section CONC. ▪ †[v9] ⁵ǧabr: According to Lane ii 1865, the value ‘aloes-wood’ is explained in the Qāmūs as signifying ʕūd ‘wood (in general, as well as aloes-wood in particular)’ while the Tāǧ interprets it as …allaḏī yuǧbarᵘ bih ‘wood with which one sets bones’, see [v2]. Lane thinks that yuǧbarᵘ is a mistranscription for yuǧammarᵘ ‘…with which one fumigates’. ▪ …