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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Mis(.)rayim

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  • From: Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu>
  • To: Uri Hurwitz <uhurwitz AT yahoo.com>
  • Cc: b-hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Mis(.)rayim
  • Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2007 03:20:00 -0400

Uri,

You are right---who knows. I am only suggesting an obvious possibility. Look at the map and you will see that Egypt is indeed just two narrow and long strips of land along the Nile. It is not clear to me why my etymology should be more "far fetched" than yours. It appears to me that the name of a country (in the ancient sense of the word, not in the modern geopolitical sense as drawn on a map), who knows how old, is likelier to be derived from a permanent and apparent geographical feature of the terrain rather than from a transient political system. Isn't the ancient Egyptian symbol for a foreign country a wavy landscape? I really do not know why the present Arabic name of Egypt---originally the land of the Copts = Egopts, is MISR.

Isaac Fried, Boston University

On Mar 21, 2007, at 8:27 PM, Uri Hurwitz wrote:

Isaac Fried if at math.bu.edu
Wed Mar 21 17:46:56 EST 2007
Previous message: [b-hebrew] Kush - and Mis(.)rayim
Dear Isaac,

The fact of the two Egypts was well recgonized by the ancient Egyptian
themselves, and marked in various ways.

As for your suggestion, do you mean the green, culivated strips on the shores of the Nile? A bit far fetched, - but who knows? And besides, how does one explain the Arabic name, identical to the Heb., but in the singular.


Uri,

Or in reference to the two narrow (CARIM) strips along the Nile.

Isaac Fried, Boston University

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