Bibliotheca Polyglotta

▪ Prob. developed from a basic *‘to dream’ along the line *‘dream, to dream’ (↗ḥulm) > ‘to have wet dreams, nightly pollutions’ > ‘sexual maturity, puberty, to attain puberty’ (↗ḥulum, ↗ĭḥtalama) > ‘gentleness, clemency, patience’.
▪ Kogan2015 reconstructs protWSem *ḥlm ‘to dream’ (SED I #25ᵥ) (82 #21) and protCSem *ḥlm ‘to be mature, fat, vigorous’ (190 #25).
▪ ḥilm is a key concept of Arab-Islamic ethics, »a complex and delicate notion which includes a certain number of qualities of character or moral attitudes, ranging from serene justice and moderation to forbearance and leniency, with self-mastery and dignity of bearing standing between these extremes.«¹ It is contrasted in particular with ↗ǧahl, »the fundamental characteristic of the ↗ǧāhiliyyaẗ, and ↗safah or safāhaẗ«.² For related concepts, cf., among others, cf. ↗karam, ↗muruwwaẗ, ↗ṣabr; see also ↗ʔadab, ↗ʔaḫlāq, ↗ḍiyāfaẗ, ↗faḫr, ↗ḥamāsaẗ, ↗ʕirḍ.
▪ …

1. Ch. Pellat, art. »ḥilm«, in EI². 2. EI², Glossary.

hist

▪ eC7 ḥilm Q 52:30-2 ʔam taʔmuru-hum ʔaḥlāmu-hum bi-hāḏā ʔam hum qawmun ṭāġūna ‘does their reason really tell them to do this, or are they simply insolent people?’ – ḥalīm 1 (forbearing, patient, sensible, prudent) Q 11:75 ʔinna ʔibrāhīma la-ḥalīmun ʔawwāhun munīb ‘for Abraham was forbearing, tender-hearted and devout’; 2 (an attribute of God) Q 4:12 wa-’ḷḷāhu ʕalīmun ḥalīm ‘God is All-Knowledgeable, All-Forbearing’.

cogn

▪ DRS 9 (2010)#ḤLM–2 Ug ḥlm, Hbr *ḥālam ‘être fort (jeune animal)’, hęḥᵊlīm ‘rendre bien portant’, Syr ḥᵉlīmā ‘sain, en bonne santé’, Ar ĭḥtalama ‘arriver à l’âge de puberté’, ḥalīm ‘gras (animal)’; ? Mhr ḥəlūm ‘enfler (blessure)’; – Ar ḥaluma ‘être doux, indulgent, intelligent’, ḥilm ‘indulgence, tranquillité.
▪ Zammit2002: Ar ḥalīm ‘kind, gracious; intelligent’, Hbr ḥāmal ‘to spare; to have compassion’.

disc

▪ While DRS 9 (2010)#ḤLM assumes that ḥilm ‘gentleness, clemency, patience; reason, intelligence’ etc. is a consequence of reaching maturity in puberty (↗ḥulum), Zammit2002 connects ḥilm with the notion of ‘sparing, having compassion’ as present in Hbr ḥāmal. Should this be right, then ḥilm would ultimately be akin to ↗ḥamala ‘to bear’ (with a ḤLM↔ ḤML metathesis and overlapping).

west

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deriv

► ṣiġār al-ʔaḥlām, n.pl., simpleminded people, simple souls.

► ḥaluma, u, vb. I, to be gentle, mild-tempered: probably denominative.

► ḥalīm, pl. ḥulamāʔᵘ, adj., mild, mild-tempered, gentle; patient: quasi-PP I.

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