Bibliotheca Polyglotta

1 to write, pen, write down, put down in writing, note down, inscribe, enter, record, book, register, (ʕanhu from s.o.’s dictation). – 2 to compose, draw up, indite, draft. – 3 to bequeath, make over by will (s.th. li‑ to s.o.). – 4 to give written orders (bi‑ to do sth.). – 5 to prescribe (s.th. ʕalà to s.o.). – 6 to foreordain, destine (s.th. li‑ or ʕalà to s.o.; of God) – WehrCowan1979.

conc

▪ The traditional view, based on Jeffery’s analysis, sees the notion of ‘writing’ as a borrowing from Aram, perhaps (or probably) with kitāb ‘scripture’ as the primary borrowing from which all other related items derive.
▪ Within Sem, the meaning ‘to write’ of the root KTB seems to be WSem (Huehnergard) or, more specifically, a NW Sem invention. (It is found also in SSem—a fact that lets Pennacchio think it may be ComSem—but the SSem forms are with all probability loans from Ar.)
▪ Where the NW Sem value ‘to write’ had its origin is still unclear. While there have been attempts to derive it from ‘to draw together, bring together, conjoin’ (a meaning preserved in ClassAr), without however fully convincing explanations as to the semantic relation between both, Huehnergard2011 and before him Nöldeke1909, hold that it developed from an earlier meaning ‘to prick, cut’ (cf. ↗KTB).
▪ Should that be the case, this would be a nice bridge to yet another suggestion, which connects Ar kataba ‘to write’ with (by metathesis) Akk takāpu ‘to prick, puncture, perforate; to sew; to cut a cuneiform sign’.
▪ One could think of katībaẗ ‘squadron’ as derived from ‘to write’ (< ‘conscription’, or ‘to inscribe o.s. in an (army-) list of recipients of stipends and maintenance’), but this is generally rejected, see ↗katībaẗ.
▪ v2 through v6 are later specialisations and fig. use, developed from v1.

hist

lC6 ‘to write’ already in pre-Islamic poetry (Polosin1995).
▪ eC7 Of frequent occurrence in the Q, always meaning ‘to write’. – »Besides the verb we should note the derived forms in the Qurʔān – kitāb a ‘book, writing’ (pl. kutub), kātib ‘one who writes’, maktūb ‘written, ĭktataba ‘to cause to be written’, and kātaba ‘to write a contract of manumission’.« (Jeffery1938)

cogn

▪ DRS 10 (2012)#KTB: Ug ktb, Phn ktb, Hbr kātab, oEmpAram Palm Nab *ktb, JP kᵉtab.¹
▪ Apart from a possible derivation from kataba in the extinct meaning of ^†‘to draw together, bring together, conjoin’, Rolland2014 mentions Akk takāpu ‘piquer, percer, perforer; coudre; imprimer un signe cunéiforme’ as “probable cognate, if not ancestor” of Ar kataba in the sense of ‘to write’. Cf. also CAD, s.v. tikpu ‘dot, spot’: tikip santakki ‘cuneiform writing’.

1. The authors also list Mhr Ḥrs ketōb, Śḥ ktob ‘écrire’, Gz kətāb ‘écriture, écrit; amulette écrite’, Te kätba ‘écrire, vacciner, écrire des amulettes’, Amh kättäbä ‘écrire une amulette, vacciner’. But the SSem forms are probably from Ar, as e.g. Kerr2014 (n.25) holds: The word »is not documented in Sab and Qat. Gz kataba in this sense with derivations like kətāb ‘book’ (< *kitāb !) etc. are borrowed from Ar.«

disc

▪ Jeffery1938: »The word appears to be a NSem development and found only as a borrowed term in SSem. Hbr kāṯaḇ, Aram kṯaḇ, Syr kṯaḇ, Nab ktb, and Phoen ktb all mean ‘to write’, and with them Buhl compares Ar kataba ‘to draw or sew together’.¹ – The borrowing was doubtless from Aram,² and Fraenkel, Fremdw, 249, thinks that the borrowed word was kitāb, which like Eth [Gz] kətāb came from Aram ktbʔ, Syr kətābā, and that then the verb and other forms developed from this. The borrowing may have taken place at al-Ḥīra, whence the art of writing spread among the Arabs,³ but as both nominal and verbal forms are common in Nab (cf. RES, ii, 464; iii, 443), it may have been an early borrowing from NArabia.«
▪ EALL (Retsö, »Aramaic/Syriac Loanwords«⁴ ): Ar katab‑ ‘to write’ loaned from synonymous Syr kᵉṯaḇ.
▪ Pennacchio2014 contends Jeffery’s view and holds that, given the wide distribution of the meaning ‘to write’ in Sem and its development in Ar, it may be Common Sem. In any case, if it is a borrowing it is pre-Islamic.
▪ If not from Aram but from Akk, (Mesopotamian cuneiform) ‘writing’ would originally have been addressed as the ‘dots, spots’ with which a clay tablet was ‘sprinkled’ (like, e.g., a skin of a leopard). The metathesis that we would have to assume in this case (Akk tkp > Ar ktb) is unproblematic since it is a common phenomenon (found already in Akk itself).

1. Vide Fleischer in ZDMG, xxvii, 427, n. From this we have katībaẗ ‘squadron’. 2. BDB, 507; D. H. Müller, WZKM, i, 29; Horovitz, KU, 67; Fischer, Glossar, 112; Künstlinger in Rocznik Orjentalistyczny, iv, 238 ff. 3. Vide Krenkow in EI, ii, 1044. 4. following Jeffrey 1938.

west

–

deriv

► kataba kitābahū, vb. I, to draw up the marriage contract for s.o., marry s.o. (li‑ to): Given the fact that the vn. used in this connection is katb rather than kitābaẗ, the drawing up of a marriage contract may originally have had less to do with signing a written document but with bringing two people together (the older/other meaning of kataba, preserved in ClassAr, cf. ↗katībaẗ.)
► kutiba, vb. I pass., to be fated, be foreordained, be destined (li‑ to s.o.) | kutiba ʕalà nafsihī ʔan, vb. I pass., to be firmly resolved to…, make it one’s duty to…

► kattaba, vb. II, to make write: caus.; to form or deploy in squadrons (troops): denom. from ↗katībaẗ.
► kātaba, vb. III, to keep up a correspondence, exchange letters, correspond (‑hū with s.o.): assoc.
► ʔaktaba, vb. IV, to dictate, make (s.o.) write (s.th.): caus.
► takātaba, vb. VI, to write to each other, exchange letters, keep up a correspondence: recipr.
► ĭnkataba, vb. VII, to subscribe: *‘to write o.’s name (into a list), or denom. from ↗katībaẗ ?
► ĭktataba, vb. VIII, to write (s.th.); to copy (s.th.), make a copy (of s.th.): autobenefactive; to enter one’s name; to subscribe (li‑ for); to contribute, subscribe (bi‑ money li‑ to); to be entered, be recorded, be registered: from kataba or denom. from ↗katībaẗ ?
► ĭstaktaba, vb. X, to ask (s.o.) to write (s.th.); to dictate (s.th. to s.o.), make (s.o.) write (s.th.); to have a copy made (by s.o.): requestative.

► ^BP#196kitāb, pl. kutub, n., piece of writing, record, paper; letter, note, message; document, deed; contract (esp. marriage contract); book; al-kitāb, n.def., the Koran; the Bible: a loan from Aram/Syr? See DISC above. | ʔahl al-kitāb, n., the people of the Book, the adherents of a revealed religion, the kitabis, i.e., Christians and Jews; kitāb al-zawāǧ, n., marriage contract; kitāb al-ṭalāq, n., bill of divorce; kitāb taʕlīmī, n., textbook; kitāb al-ĭʕtimād credentials (dipl.); dār al-kitāb, n.f., library
► kutubī, pl. ‑iyyaẗ, n., bookseller, bookdealer: nsb-adj from kutub, pl. of kitāb.
► kitābḫānaẗ and kutubḫānaẗ, n.f., library; bookstore: composed of Ar kitāb ‘book’ + Pers ḫāne ‘house’.
► kuttāb, pl. katātībᵘ, n., kuttab, Koran school (lowest elementary school): ?
► kutayyib, pl. ‑āt, n., booklet: dimin. of kitāb.
► ^BP#966kitābaẗ, n.f., (act or practice of) writing; art of writing, penmanship; system of writing, script: lexicalized vn. I; inscription; writing, legend; placard, poster; piece of writing, record, paper: resultative; secretariat; written amulet, charm; pl. kitābāt, writings, essays; kitābatan, adv., in writing.
► kitābī, adj., written, in writing; clerical; literary; scriptural, relating to the revealed Scriptures (Koran, Bible); kitabi, adherent of a revealed religion; the written part (of an examination): nsb-adj from kitāb.
► ^BP#2711katībaẗ, pl. katāʔibᵘ, n., 1 squadron, brigade; battalion (Eg., Syr., Jord., mil.); corps; (Eg.) name of Islamic youth groups: from ‘to write’ or and earlier offspring? See separate entry ↗katībaẗ. – 2 (piece of) writing, record, paper, document; written amulet: pseudo-PP.f.
► katāʔibī, adj., pertaining to the Phalange Party (Leb.): nsb-adj from katāʔibᵘ, pl. of ↗katībaẗ (1), see above.
► ^BP#565maktab, pl. makātibᵘ, n., office; bureau; business office; study; school, elementary school; department, agency, office; desk: n.loc.
► maktabī, adj., office (in compounds) : nsb-adj from maktab, see above.
► ^BP#1830maktabaẗ, pl. ‑āt, makātibᵘ, n., library; bookstore; (writing) desk; literature: n.loc.
► miktāb, n., typewriter: n.instr.
► mukātabaẗ, n.f., exchange of letters, correspondence: vn. III.
► ĭktitāb, n., enrollment, registration, entering (of one’s name); — (pl. ‑āt) subscription; contribution (of funds): vn. VIII.
► ĭstiktāb, n.,dictation: vn. X.
► ĭstiktābī, adj.: nsb-adj from ĭstiktāb, see above | ʔālaẗ ĭstiktābiyyaẗ, n., dictaphone.
► ^BP#719kātib, pl. ‑ūn, kuttāb, katabaẗ, n., writer; scribe, scrivener; secretary; clerk typist; office worker, clerical employee; clerk, registrar, actuary, court clerk; notary; writer, author: nominalized lexicalized PA I.
► kātibaẗ, pl. ‑āt, woman secretary; authoress, writer: nominalized lexicalized PA I.f.
► ^BP#1835maktūb, adj., written, written down, recorded; fated, foreordained, destined (li‑ or ʕalà to s.o.); n., s.th. written, writing; — (pl. makātībᵘ) a writing, message, note; letter : PP I.
► mukātib, n., correspondent; (newspaper) reporter: nominalized lexicalized PA III.
► muktatib, n., subscriber: nominalized lexicalized PA VIII.

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