Bibliotheca Polyglotta

(vn. ʔamr) 1 to order, command, bid, instruct, commission, charge, entrust (s.o. bi‑ with s.th. or to do s.th.); 2 (vn. ʔimāraẗ) to become an emir – WehrCowan1976.

conc

▪ If semantics within the Sem root √ʔMR developed along the line sketched and discussed s.v.↗√ʔMR (section CONC), namely *(? Nostr *‘morning, daylight’ × *‘to burn (intr.); to shine, be bright; dawn’ >) Sem ‘to be visible, observable; fact, issue, matter, affair > to see, take notice of s.th. (that is visible or comes into sight, a fact, an issue, etc.) > to indicate, show, demonstrate, point to s.th. (a thing, matter, case, etc.) > to say > to command’, then Ar ʔamara ‘to order, command, etc.’ and derivatives represent the most recent stage of a long semantic history. Reflexes of most other stages seem to be preserved by many other items belonging to the root that exhibits a wide range of meanings.
▪ While the values attached to ¹ʔamr all seem to build on the vb. ʔamara, the meanings ‘matter, affair, issue, etc.’ (²ʔamr) and ‘(Qur’ānic) revelation’ (³ʔamr) probably belong to earlier stages (see ↗ʔamr for the former and ↗ʔamāraẗ for the latter); cf., however, also below, section DISC.
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hist

▪ eC7 I ¹ʔamr (pl. ʔawāmirᵘ) 1 (command) Q 46:25 tudammiru kulla šayʔin bi‑ʔamri rabbihā ‘[the storm] destroys everything by the command of its Lord’; 2 (will) Q 9:48 wa‑ẓahara ʔamru ’llāhi wa‑hum kārihūna ‘and God’s will triumphed, much to their disgust’; 3 (teaching, ordinance, guidance, instruction) Q 49:9 fa‑qātilū ’llatī tabġī ḥattà tafīʔa ʔilà ʔamri ’llāhi ‘so fight the oppressive party until it returns to God’s ordinance’; 4 (system, order) Q 41:12 fa‑qaḍāhunna sabʕa samāwātin fī yawmayni wa‑ʔawḥà fī kulli samāʔin ʔamrahā ‘so He ordained them seven heavens in two days, and assigned in each heaven its order’; 5 (decision, decree) Q 9:106 wa‑ʔāḫarūna murǧawna li‑ʔamri ’llāhi ʔimmā yuʕaḏḏibuhum wa‑ʔimmā yatūbu ʕalayhim ‘And others are deferred to God’s decree, whether He chastises them or accepts their repentance’; 6 (domain, prerogative) Q 17:85 wa‑yasʔalūnaka ʕan‑i ’l‑rūḥi qul‑i ’l‑rūḥu min ʔamri rabb‑ī wa‑mā ʔūtītum min‑a ’l‑ʕilmi ʔillā qalīlan ‘And they ask you [Prophet] about the Spirit. Say: “The Spirit is [part] of the domain of my Lord,” you have only been given a little knowledge [lit., you have not been given of knowledge but a little]’; 7 (obligations, duties, tasks) Q 18:88 wa‑ʔammā man ʔāmana wa‑ʕamila ṣāliḥan fa‑lahū ǧazāʔan‑i ’l‑ḥusnà wa‑sa‑naqūlu lahū min ʔamrinā yusran ‘as for him who believed and did right, for him, as recompense, will be the ultimate reward, and We will assign to him of Our commands/tasks that which is easy [to fulfil]’; 8 (decree, verdict) Q 11:76 yā‑ʔIbrāhīmu ʔaʕriḍ ʕan hāḏā ʔinnahū qad ǧāʔa ʔamru rabbika wa‑ʔinnahum ʔātī‑him ʕaḏābun ġayru mardūdin ‘Abraham! Desist from this! Your Lord’s verdict has come about; and there is chastisement coming to them that cannot be turned back’; 9 (opinion, judgement) Q 18:82 wa‑mā faʕaltuhū ʕan ʔamrī ‘I did not do it by my own command’. – II ↗²ʔamr (pl. ʔumūr).

cogn

▪ Zammit2002: Akk amāru ‘to see’, Ug ʔamr ‘saying, command; to be visible, to see’, Phoen ʔmr ‘to say’, Hbr ʔāmar ‘to utter, say’, lHbr maʔamär ‘word, command’, BiblAram ʔamar ‘to say, tell; command’, Syr ʔemar ‘to say, speak’, ʔamīrā ‘praefectus’, SAr ʔmr ‘to proclaim; command (of a god), oracle’, Gz ʔammara ‘monstrare, ostendere; notum facere; demonstrare’, Ar ʔmr ‘to command, order, enjoin’.
▪ DRS 1 (1994) #ʔMR‑ 1 Ar ʔamara ‘ordonner’; SAr ʔmr ‘ordonner, manifester’; Soq ʕemor, Śḥr ʕoñr, Mhr amor ‘dire’; EpigrAram ʔmr, JP ʔāmar, Syr ʔemar, Mand amar ‘dire, parler, ordonner’; Ya ʔmrh ‘ordre(?)’; Phoen Pun Moab EpigrHbr ʔmr, Hbr ʔāmar ‘dire’; Ug ʔamr ‘souhait, parole(?)’. – Akk amāru ‘voir, regarder’; Ug ʔamr ‘être visible, voir’; Ar taʔammala ‘examiner’; Gz ʔammara ‘montrer, indiquer’; təʔmərt ‘signe’; ʔəm(m)ur ‘clair, bien connu’; Tña ʔamära ‘savoir’; Te ʔammärä ‘être clair’; ʔamir ‘connaissance’; Amh ʔamro ‘raison, intelligence’; təmərt ‘signe, marque, science’. – Hbr ʔāmir ‘sommet d’arbre ou montagne’; tīmārā ‘colonne pilier’, Ar ʔamāraẗ ‘signe, indice, repère’, tāmūr(aẗ) ‘tour, tourelles’; ?Amh ʔamärä ‘être beau, plaisant, aimable’.
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disc

▪ The n. ʔamīr ‘commander; prince, emir; tribal chief’ is often regarded to derive from ʔamara. Ultimately, this may be true – but only via a concept like ʔimraẗ ‘power, influence, authority, command’, since, morphologically, ʔamīr is a FaʕīL formation and should therefore have adjectival or quasi-PP meaning. One could think of a semantic chain like: ʔamīr, lit., *‘endowed with authority’, from ¹ʔamr or ʔimraẗ ‘power, authority’, from ʔamara ‘to command’. – For other interpretations of the word, see entry ↗ʔamīr.
▪ It is not unthinkable that ²ʔamr ‘matter, affair, issue, etc.’ and ³ʔamr ‘(Qur’ānic) revelation’ both are from *‘what has been decreed, commanded’, the former in the sense of *‘command\issued word that has to be taken as a fact, or taken into account’, the second as *‘issued by God’. However, neither ClassAr dictionaries nor modern research have suggested such a relation so far.
▪ More obvious is the dependence of ↗taʔmūr ‘soul, mind, spirit’ and the n.f.pl. ^†ʔammārāt ‘passions’ on ʔamara. The latter is short for *‘the inner drives that command us to commit evil’ (cf. also the well-known term al-nafs al-ʔammāraẗ bi’l-sūʔ ‘the inner drive that incites the human being to do wrong, etc.’). The former, taʔmūr, an old taFʕūL formation, is usually explained as *‘commanding, she who commands’, »because it [sc. the soul] is that which is wont to command« (Lane i 1863). For further derivations from ‘soul’ etc., cf. entry ↗taʔmūr.
▪ The modern word ↗ĭstiʔmāraẗ (var. ĭstimāraẗ) ‘form, blank’ is either from ¹ʔamr (*‘to ask for a decree, for guidance’) or from ↗²ʔamr (< *‘to seek advice in some issue\case’).
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west

▪ (Huehnergard2011:) Engl emir, admiral ↗ʔamīr.

deriv

► ʔamara, ʔamura, u (ʔimāraẗ), vb. I, to become an emir: prob. denom. from ʔamīr.
► ʔammara, vb. II, to invest with authority, make an emir (s.o., ʕalà over): D-stem, denom. from ʔamīr.
► taʔammara, vb. V, 1 to come to power; 2a to set o.s. up as lord and master; 2b to behave like an emir; 2c to assume an imperious attitude; 2d to be imperious, domineering: Dt-stem, intr., from ¹ʔamr in the sense of ‘power, authority’.

► ^BP#1667¹ʔamr, pl. ʔawāmirᵘ, n., 1a order, command, instruction (bi‑ to do s.th.); 1b ordinance, decree; 2 power, authority; 3 (gram.) imperative | ʔamr ʕālⁱⁿ, n., royal decree (formerly, Eg.); ʔamr ʕaliyy, n., decree, edict of the Bey (formerly, Tun.); ʔamr qānūnī, n., ordinance having the force of law (Tun.); al-ʔamr wa’l‑nahy, pl. al-ʔawāmir wa’l‑nawāhī (lit.: command and interdiction, i.e.) sovereign power; full power(s),supreme authority; ʔamr tawrīd, n., (delivery) order (com.); taḥtᵃ ʔamrika, expr., at your disposal, at your service.
► ʔimraẗ, n.f., power, influence, authority, command | taḥtᵃ ʔimratih, adv., under his command.
► ^BP#810ʔimāraẗ, n.f., 1 position or rank of an emir; 2 princely bearing or manners; 3 principality, emirate; 4 authority, power: vn. I of ʔamura, from ʔamīr (see below) | ʔimāraẗ al-baḥr, n.f., office or jurisdiction of an admiral, admiralty; ʔimārāt sāḥil ʕUmān, n.pl.f., Trucial Oman.
► ^BP#589ʔamīr, pl. ʔumarāʔᵘ, n., 1 commander; 2a prince, emir; 2b title of princes of a ruling house; 3 tribal chief: quasi-PP, lit. *‘endowed with power, authority’, from ¹ʔamr or ʔimraẗ ‘power, authority’. | ʔamīr ʔalāy, n., commander of a regiment (formerly, Eg.; approx.: colonel; as a naval rank, approx.: captain); ʔamīr al-ʔumarāʔ, n., approx.: major general (Tun.); ʔamīr al-biḥār, n., (Eg. 1939) approx.: admiral; kabīr ʔumarāʔ al-biḥār, n., (Eg. 1939) approx.: fleet admiral; ʔamīr al-baḥr, n., admiral (when referring to a non‑Arab officer of this rank; Eg. 1939 approx.: vice‑admiral); ʔamīr al-biḥār al-ʔaʕẓam, n., fleet admiral (when referring to a non‑Arab officer of this rank); ʔamīr al-liwāʔ, n., (Ir., since 1933) brigadier; ʔamīr liwāʔ al-ʕassaẗ, n., commandant of the Bey’s palace guard (formerly, Tun.); ʔamīr al-muʔminīn, n., Commander of the Faithful, Caliph.
► ʔamīraẗ, pl. ‑āt, n.f., princess: f. of ʔamīr.
► ʔamīrī (and mīrī), adj., government(al), state‑owned, state, public: nisba formation from ʔamīr in the sense of *‘holder of power, authority’. | ʔarḍ ʔamīrī, n., government land (Syr.); al-maṭbaʕaẗ al-ʔamīriyyaẗ, n.f., government press.
► ʔammār, adj., constantly urging, always demanding (bi‑ to do s.th.); inciting, instigating: ints. formation, quasi-PA. | al-nafs al-ʔammāraẗ bi’l-sūʔ, n.f., the baser self (of man) that incites to evil.
► taʔammur, n., 1a imperiousness, domineeringness; 1b imperious deportment, overbearing manners: vn. V.
► ĭstiʔmāraẗ (frequently written ĭstimāraẗ), n.f., form, blank: singulative of vn. X, from *‘(document/move) to ask for a decree, ¹ʔamr, or to look into a matter, ²ʔamr’ (?).
► ʔāmir, n., 1 commander; 2 lord, master; 3 orderer, purchaser, customer, client: PA I. | al-ʔāmir al-nāhī, n., absolute master, vested with unlimited authority.
► maʔmūr, 1 adj. commissioned, charged; 2 n., a commissioner; 2b civil officer, official, esp., one in executive capacity; 2c the head of a markaz and qism (Eg.): PP I. | maʔmūr al-būlīs, n., commissioner of police; maʔmūr al-taflīsaẗ, n., receiver (in bankruptcy; jur.); maʔmūr al-ḥarakaẗ, n., traffic manager (railroad); maʔmūr al-taṣfiyaẗ, n., receiver (in equity, in bankruptcy; jur.).
► maʔmūriyyaẗ, pl. ‑āt, n.f., 1 order, instruction; errand; task, assignment, mission; 2 commission; 3 commissioner’s office, administrative branch of a government agency, e.g., maʔmūriyyaẗ qaḍāʔiyyaẗ, n.f., judicial commission charged with jurisdiction in outlying communities (Eg.): nisba formation from maʔmūr.

For other values attached to the root, cf. ↗ʔamara, ↗ʔimmar, ↗ʔamāraẗ, ↗ʔamīr, ↗(ʔa)mīrī, ↗taʔmūr, ↗muʔāmaraẗ, ↗ĭstiʔmāraẗ, ↗muʔtamar, as well as, for the whole picture, ↗√ʔMR.

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