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(a.), active participle of Form VI of w-t-r, “that which comes successively”. It is used as a technical term in two senses: (a) In the methodologies of ḥadīt̲h̲ [ q.v., and for the term see Vol. III, 25b] and of law, the term is the counterpart of k̲h̲abar al-wāḥid [ q.v.] and denotes a Prophetic tradition (or, in general, any report) with multiple chains of transmission [see isnād ]. Concerning the requisite number of concurrent chains that would make a report mutawātir , there is no unanimity; it is supposed to be a sufficient number to preclude the po…

, the eleventh letter of the Arabic alphabet, numerical value 8. The former variant of the letter name retains the /y/ of the original letter name (as in Hebrew zayin ), while the latter has the innovative ending –āʾ , which occurred legitimately with fāʾ (Hebr. pē ) and hāʾ (Hebr. hē ) and then spread to bāʾ (Hebr. bēt̲ ), tāʾ / t̲h̲āʾ (Hebr. tāw ), ḥāʾ / k̲h̲āʾ (Hebr. ḥēt̲ ), rāʾ (Hebr. rēs̲h̲ ), ṭā / ẓāʾ (Hebr. ṭēt̲ ), ¶ and yāʾ (Hebr. yō٤̲ ), with loss of the final consonant of the original letter name. The letter is transliterated /z/ and represents a voiced sibilant ( ḥarf al-ṣafīr …

(a.), a technical term for a rhetorical figure (alternative names, all from the same root, are d̲j̲inās [very common], mud̲j̲ānasa , mud̲j̲ānas , and tad̲j̲ānus ), variously translated as paronomasia, pun, homonymy, and alliteration. The last two terms, however, do not cover all the types that have traditionally been subsumed under this heading, while “pun” has also been used to render tawriya [ q.v.], the difference being that tawriya is a one-term pun ( double entendre). A general definition of tad̲j̲nīs would be: a pair of utterances (mostly, but no…

, name of one of the legendary extinct tribes of the Arabs, al-ʿarab al-bāʾida . These tribes are genealogically directly linked up to Biblical genealogies and thus precede the split into Northern and Southern Arabs, symbolised by the eponyms “Adnān ¶ and Ḳaḥṭān. According to one of our earliest sources, Ibn al-Kalbī [ q.v.], Ṭasm’s relationship to the other tribes (in small capitals) is as follows: (see W. Caskel, Ǧamharat an-nasab , Leiden 1966, i, 40, which see also for the vocalisation of “Immīm”; and cf. Ibn Ḥabīb, Muḥabbar , ed. I. Lichtenstädter, Ḥaydarābād 1361/1942, 384; Ibn Ḥazm, Ḏ…

(a.), originally, the formal expression of the oracular pronouncement. 1. As magical utterances in pre-Islamic Arabian usage. Here, sad̲j̲ʿ was the rhythmical style practised by the Arab kāhin s [ q.v.] and kāhina s [see al-kāhina ], a style intermediate between that of the versified oracular utterances of the Sibylls and Pythians and that of the prose utterances of Apollo (see P. Amandry, La mantique apollinienne à Delphes . Essai sur le fonctionnement de l’oracle, diss. Paris 1950, 15). These utterances are "formulated in short, rhymed phrases, with rhythmical caden…