The term majāz, used both in Arabic linguistic thought and in the hermeneutics of the Qurʾān, is usually translated as ‘trope’, although its meaning is not completely congruent with the Western concept. Majāz is explained as a verbal noun of jāza ‘to go beyond something’, in the sense of a participle denoting al-kalimatu al-jāʾizatu ʾay al-mutaʿaddiyatu makānahā l-ʾaṣliyya ‘a word that goes beyond its original place [i.e. its literal meaning in the language system]’ (cf. Jurjānī, ʾAsrār 365; Mehren 1853:75). In the history of the term, a semantic specialization or narro…