Bibliotheca Polyglotta

▪ Given the fact that the term al-raqīm, as appearing in Q 18:9 in the context of the Qur’ānic story of the ‘People of the Cave’ (the “Seven Sleepers”), gave rise to controversial discussion among Muslim scholars, the word does not seem to have formed part of the common Ar vocabulary of the time, and it is therefore quite plausible to assume that, unless it was a misreading (as some Western scholars believe), it may well have been a borrowing from another language (some Muslim lexicographers thought it was Grk, meaning ‘writing’ or ‘inkhorn’). Those who tend to take it as a misreading, would emend the text into *DQYS ‘Decius’ (the name of the Roman emperor figuring in the Christian legend) or into *al-ruqād ‘…of the sleep’ (cf. ↗raqada). Other readings include the name of a place (village, valley, mountain?, close to modern ʕAmmān, or in the SPal desert?), or that of the dog that, according to tradition, accompanied the Seven Sleepers and is mentioned a few verses later (Q 18:17). Despite its unclear meaning, tradition nonetheless tends to derive it, as a quasi-PP I, from √RQM, similar or even identical in meaning with the kitāb marqūm ‘writing, inscription’ (mentioned in Q 83:9 and containing the genuine PP I, marqūm, not the quasi-PP of the FaʕīL pattern). DHDA, for instance, confirms that the Qur’ānic verse is the first attestation of the term, gives its meaning as ‘tablet written on’ (al-lawḥ al-maktūb fīh), thus, implicitly, likening it to the lead tablet on which, according to the Christian version of the story, the names of the Seven Sleepers were inscribed.
▪ If the word is genuine, from √RQM, and if the meaning ‘writing, inscription’ is correct, one will have to imagine a semantic development along the line *‘(to mark, make look different, distinct? >) to embroider > to variegate, weave in colour > to paint figures on a tissue, or parchment > to make incisions, write on a clay/lead tablet > inscription’. In view of the attested meanings of ↗raqama and its Sem cognates, such a development is not inconceivable.
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hist

▪ eC7 Q 18:9 ʔam ḥasibta ʔanna ʔaṣḥāba ’l-kahfi wa’l-raqīmi kānū min ʔāyāti-nā ʕaǧaban ‘Or deemest thou that the People of the Cave and the Inscription are a wonder among Our portents? (Pickthall)| Or do you consider the People of the Cave and the inscription are a wonder among Our signs? (McAuliffe)’
▪ ClassAr period (as summarized from Lane iii 1867): ‘(sky) figured\decorated with stars; book, writing; tablet of lead whereon were inscribed\engraved the names of the People of the Cave (commonly called the Seven Sleepers) and their ancestry, and their story, and their religion, and what it was from which they fled; mass of stone; stone tablet on which were insribed their names, and a which was put upon the entrance of the cave; (or) the town\village from which they came forth, (or) the mountain\valley in which was the cave; (or) their dog; receptable for ink (Ibn Durayd, with uncertainty as to its correctness); said to be of the language of the Greeks; tablet’
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cogn

▪ ↗raqama (unless a borrowing from an unknown source)
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disc

▪ See above, section CONC.
▪ Horovitz1926[=KU]: 95: »Q 18:8 heißen die Siebenschläfer ʔaṣḥāb al-kahf wa’l-raqīm. Clermont-Ganneau, Études d’archéologie orientale III: 295, wollte darin mit al-Muqaddasī die Ortschaft al-Raqīm im Ostjordanland unweit ʕAmmān sehen, wo sich eine Höhle befindet. Doch steht nichts weiter fest, als daß man in nachkoranischer Zeit den Ort – wenn es im Koran einer ist – dorthin verlegte, vgl. zur Kritik dieser Gleichsetzung auch Huber, Die Wanderlegende von den Siebenschläfern, 236ff. Eher ist vielleicht an die Bedeutung ‘Schrift’ zu denken, um so mehr als in Q 83:9 kitāb marqūm vorkommt und die bleiernen Tafeln, auf welche die Jünglinge ihre Namen schrieben, in den verschiedenen Texten ausdrücklich hervorgehoben werden (Guidi, Testi, 20, 70f. lawḥē men abrā; Cod. Sachau 321 lawḥē de abrā). Von den Deutungen, die die arabische Tradition sonst noch für al-raqīm gibt, ist die eine, derzufolge darin der Name des Q 18:17 erwähnten Hundes zu sehen sei, auch in einem dem ʔUmayya zugeschriebenen Verse zu finden (Fragment 8,2 Schulthess); er stimmt jedoch mit Q 18:8,17 so nahe überein, daß er als unecht gelten muß). Neuerdings will Torrey (A Volume of Oriental Studies Presented to E. G. Browne, 457f.) raqīm als Verlesung von dqym deuten, das seinerseits fälschlich für Syr dqys stehe, der syrischen Umschreibung des Namens Decius. Aber koranische Namensformen, die auf Verlesung beruhen, sind sonst nicht nachweisbar, und selbst wenn man grundsätzlich eine Entstehung koranischer Namen aus Verlesung für möglich halten sollte, so bliebe immer noch der Artikel unerklärt; daß Muḥammad ihn von sich aus einem fremden Eigennamen vorgesetzt hätte, stimmt ebenfalls nicht zu seiner sonstigen Gewohnheit. Auch wird im Verlauf der Erzählung von den Siebenschläfern selbst im Koran sonst kein einziger der Beteiligten mit Namen genannt.«
▪ Jeffery1938: »al-Raqīm is mentioned at the commencement of Muḥammad’s version of the story of the Seven Sleepers. The Commentators present the widest divergences as to its meaning. Some take it as a place-name, whether of a village, a valley, or a mountain. Some think it was a document, a kitāb or a lawḥ. Others consider it the name of the dog who accompanied the Sleepers; others said it meant an inkhorn, and some, as Ibn Durayd, admitted that they did not know what it meant. / Their general opinion is that it is an Ar word, a form FaʕīL from √RQM, but some, says al-Suyūṭī, Itq, 321, said that it was Grk, meaning either ‘writing’ or ‘inkhorn’ in that tongue. / The probabilities are that it is a place-name, and represents [Syr] rqm ḏgānā, otherwise known as rqm bmr brā ḏṣyn, a place in the desert country of S. Palestine,¹ very much in the same district as the Muslim geographers place al-Raqīm.² ^,³ «
▪ Paret1980 (Konk.) 310: »Vielleicht ist das Wort im Sinn von “Inschrift” gemeint, wobei an die bleiernen Tafeln zu denken wäre, auf denen nach christlicher Überlieferung die Namen der Siebenschläfer verzeichnet waren« (i.e., perh. ‘inscription’, sc. on the lead tablet on which, acc. to Christian tradition, the names of the Sleepers were inscribed)
▪ Luxenberg2000: 65-67 suggests that al-raqīm is a misreading for al-ruqād and translates accordingly: ‘Meinst du etwa, daß die Leute der Höhle und des Schlafes unter unseren Zeichen wunderlich waren?’
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1. Cf. the Targumic rqm d-gyʕā [Jastrow1903 has rᵊqam Gêʔāʰ ‘= Kadesh Barnea’, with variant spelling]. 2. Ibn Aṯīr, Chron, xi, 259; Yāqūt, Muʕǧam, ii, 804. 3. Torrey in Ajeb Nameh, 457 ff., takes [Aram] רקים rqym to be a misreading of דקיס dqys and to refer to the Emperor Decius who is so prominent in the Oriental legends of the Seven Sleepers. Such a misreading looks easy enough in the Hbr characters, but is not so obvious in Syr rqym and dqys, and as Horovitz, KU, 95, points out, it does not explain the article of the Ar word. Horovitz also notes that names are carefully avoided in the Qurʔānic story save the place-name al-Kahf, which is at least a point in favour of Raqīm being also a place-name. (Torrey’s remarks on Horovitz’s objection will be found in Foundation, 46, 47.)

west

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deriv

►raqama, u (raqm), vb. I, 1 to write: G-stem, perh. denom.; 2-3 ↗raqama; 4 ↗raqm

►mirqam, pl. marāqimᵘ, n., 1a drawing pencil, crayon; b (painter’s) brush: n.instr., from ↗¹raqama

For other values attached to the root, cf. ↗raqama and ↗raqm, as well as, for the overall picture, root entry ↗√RQM.

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