Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Ishnian" <ishinan AT comcast.net>]



John Leake wrote: In Aramaic, of course, mdīnā has the dual meaning of 'district' and 'city', while Arabic seems to have initially borrowed it more narrowly to mean a 'citadel' or 'walled city district'; it alternatively means a miSr, or 'capital', at least in former Sasanian territory where it perhaps signifies the shahrestān (provincial capital) of a district (shahr), what in New Persian becomes itself a shahr. Or so I gather. Interestingly, shahrestān is itself spelled מדינא in Middle Persian's Aramaizing orthography.

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Ishinan : What is YOUR Arabic source which refers 'madiynah' as a narrowly to mean a 'citadel' or 'walled city district'? 

Besides, the term 'Misr' has nothing to do with any former Sasanian territory.

 

As it stands the term 'Misr' has a Semitic origin in the Old Canaanite Ugaritic language and is also in found in AfroAsiatic (A.E.) probably a loan word from Semitic source.

 

First occurence: The term 'MiS.r' is found on the Ugaritic Clay tablets this provides the first evidence of the use of the term _MiS.r_. Within the mythology of the Ancient Near East, the Ugaritic deities are said to dwell in encampments .. these "encampments" are referred to as territories or strongholds. Hence, the deities were said to possess their own dwelling and their own territory which they called [mS.r). Source: Ugaritic Letters 49 KTU 1.3:V.7ff. Note that the encampment in this passage is [mSr). J.C. de Moor, Contributions to the Ugaritic Lexicon (1979) 

 

In B. Hebrew it cognates with the term "M'tsurah" (Metsoo-raw) referring to a mound, a rampart (for protection) or a fenced city, (M'tsowr has also the sense of a limit). Mtsuwrah (fenced) see 2 Chr 11:10, 2 Chr 11:23, 2 Chr 12:4, 2 Chr 14:6, 2 Chr 21:3.

In Ancient Egyptian "ms.r" (with a corrupted spelling in Wallis Budge's as 'Metcher' vol. I, p. 338) refers to a walled district, a name given to Egypt in respect of its double walls; See Spiegelberg in Recueil de travaux relatifs à la PHILOLOGIE ET A L'ARCHÉOLOGIE ÉGYPTIENNES et ASSYRIENES 21, 41.

 

In Arabic: _MSR_ meant a limit, or boundary between two lands. It also referred to a city or a town (see Arabic definitions below) .

The concordance in meanings, as well as the exact spelling survived unchanged from Ugaritic to Hebrew and Arabic attests to unbroken continuity.

Sorry, your suggestion for a Sassanian origin is incorrect. The same applies to Madiynah,. BTW. what is your exact reference for 'madiynah'. You are alluding its use in Middle Farsiy? Date and source?  I hope you are not referring to texts about Zoroastrian which date from the 9th to the 11th century.

Ishinan Ishibashi

وقال الليث: المِصْر في كلام العرب كل كُورة تقام فيها الحُدود ويقسم فيها الفيءُ  (*)

والمصر الحاجز بين الشيئين

كالماصِرِ، والحَدُّ بينَ الأَرْضَيْنِ، والوِعاءُ، والكُورَةُ،

، مَصَّر الأَمصارَ منها البصرة والكوفة. الجوهري: فلان مَصَّرَ الأَمْصارَ كما يقال مَدّن المُدُنَ