Bibliotheca Polyglotta

▪ Etymology uncertain. Related to the idea of ‘connecting, binding together, encompassing’ expressed in the root ↗ʕMM and otherwise represented in ↗ʕamm ‘paternal uncle’ (< WSem *‘kinsman, grandfather, ancestor’), CSem *ʕamm ‘kinsfolk, member of the clan/family, i.e., those united, connected, related’) and (denom. vb. I) ↗ʕamma ‘to be(come) general, universal, common, prevalent, comprehensive, all-embracing, to spread; to comprise, include, embrace, encompass, pervade, extend, stretch, be spread, be diffused, be prevailing’? – See below, section DISC, for further discussion.
▪ »The ʕimāmaẗ or turban has been worn by the Arabs since pre-Islamic times. […] The ʕimāmaẗ of Dj̲āhilī and early Islamic times was probably not the composite headgear of the mediaeval and modern periods consisting of one or two caps (↗ṭaqiyyaẗ or ↗ʕaraqiyyaẗ and/or ↗qalansuwaẗ, kulāh, or ↗ṭarbūš) and a winding cloth, but merely any strip of fabric wound around the head. G. Jacob has suggested that the later turban is a synthesis of Arab and Persian styles (Altarabisches Beduinenleben, Berlin 1897: 237). In the early ʔummaẗ, the ʕimāmaẗ certainly did not have any of the significance it was later to have as a “badge of Islam” (sīmā al-Islām) and a “divider between unbelief and belief” (ḥāǧizaẗ bayn al-kufr wa’l-ʔīmān). Nor was it yet—in the words of a proverb still heard in Morocco, at least—the “crowns of the Arabs” (tīǧān al-ʕarab). The many ḥadīth s which provide detailed descriptions of the Prophet’s ʕimāmaẗ are clearly anachronistic. For later generations, Muḥammad was “the wearer of the turban” (ṣāḥib al-ʕimāmaẗ), and like many of the accoutrements associated with a hero of epic proportions, his turban had a name—al-siḥāb or “the cloud”. According to a Shīʕī tradition, he willed it to ʕAlī. This ḥadīth may have been circulated in order to counteract any prestige accruing to the Umayyad and ʕAbbāsid caliphs by their possession of the Prophet’s ↗burdaẗ. One of the few reliable facts we know about the ʕimāmaẗ in early Islamic times is that it is one of the garments specifically forbidden to a person in a state of ↗ʔiḥrām. The ʕimāmaẗ must have consisted of a very long strip of fabric as in later periods, since there are reports of its being used for bandaging (e.g. Bukhārī, Ṣaḥīḥ, lxiv, 16, 2)« – art. “Libās – I.” (Y.K. Stillmann), in EI².

hist

▪ In ClassAr, fig. use abounds: note particularly ʕammama ‘to attire s.o. with a ʕimāmaẗ ’, hence also ‘to make s.o. a chief, or lord’. – Cf. also ĭʕtammat il-ʔākāmᵘ bi’l-nabāt ‘the hills became crowned with plants, or herbage’; taʕammamat bi-hā ruʔūsᵘ ’l-ǧibāl ‘the heads of the mountains became crowned with its light [referring to the sun, when its light has fallen upon the heads of the mountains and become to them like the turban]’; ĭʕtamma ’l-labanᵘ ‘the milk frothed [as though its froth were likened to a turban]’; ĭʕtamma ’l-nabatᵘ ‘the plant, or herbage, became of its full height, and blossomed, became luxuriant, or abundant and dense’ (like ĭġtamma)]; ĭʕtamma ’l-šābbᵘ ‘the youth, or youg man, became tall’.

cogn

▪ No direct cognates identifiable so far.
▪ If akin to ‘to encompass, comprise, cover, be common, general, etc.’, cf. ↗ʕamma.
▪ If related to ‘to veil, cover, conceal, be dark, dim’, cf. ↗ġamma.

disc

▪ The idea, put forward in BDB1906, that Hbr ʕam, ʕām ‘people’ prob. originally meant *‘those united, connected, related’, lets one think whether this “binding together” might be somehow related to the binding together of a ‘turban’, Ar ʕimāmaẗ. But neither this word nor a vb. *ʕmm ‘to bind together’ is attested throughout Sem, except in the fig. sense of ‘to encompass, comprise, cover’, and this rarely outside Ar. Is ʕimāmaẗ an Ar spezialisation then, developed from the idea of ‘kinship’ and ‘belonging together’ (*‘uniting’ the hair, or the piece of cloth)? For another possibility see below.
▪ Given that Ar ʕimāmaẗ ‘turban’ stands rather isolated within Sem *ʕMM, should one perh. put it together with WSem *ĠMM ~ ĠMY/W ‘to be dark, dim’, a root that in Ar usually has preserved initial *ġ- (cf. Ar ↗ġamma ‘to cover, veil, conceal’, ↗ġamām ‘clouds’, ʔaġammᵘ ‘covered with dense hair’), but in Can and Aram has undergone the regular sound shift *ġ > ʕ : Ug ʕmm (D pass.) ‘to be covered, veiled, darkened’, Hbr ʕāmam ‘to darken, dim’, JudAram ʕᵃmam ‘to be(come) dim, dark(ened)? Semantically, the ‘turban’ as *‘(head) cover, (kind of) veil’ would be quite plausible. But would it be justifiable also from a phonological point of view? Should initial *ġ- have been preserved in some places, but undergone an irregular shift *ġ- > ʕ- in ʕimāmaẗ ? Rather unlikely. ʕimāmaẗ would then have to be a loan from Hbr or Aram. But these langs have nothing that would fit. Syr ʕᵃmamtā ‘a mitre’ (PayneSmith) is said to be a loan from Ar…

west

–

deriv

► ʕammama, vb. II, 1 ↗ʕamma; 2 to attire with a turban: D-stem, denom., applicative.
► taʕammama, vb. V, to put on or wear a turban: tD-stem, denom., refl. of caus., applic.
► ĭʕtamma, vb. VIII, = V: Gt-stem, denom., applic.
► ʕimmaẗ, n.f., turban: originally the way to wear a turban
. ► muʕammam, adj., wearing a turban, turbaned: PP II.

For other values attached to the same root, cf. ↗ʕamm, ↗ʕamma, ↗ʕāmmiyyaẗ, and, for the whole picture, ↗ʕMː (ʕMM).

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