is the ordinary word for "slave" in Arabic of all periods (the usual plural in this sense is ʿabīd , although the Ḳurʾān has ʿibād : xxiv, 32), more particularly for "male slave", "female slave" being ama (pl. imāʾ ). Both words are of old Semitic stock; Biblical Hebrew uses them in the same meaning. Classical Arabic also expresses the idea of "slave", in the singular of both genders and in the collective, by the generic term raḳīḳ , which however is not found in the Ḳurʾān. On the other h…