IN one of my columns in an Urdu-language daily, I mentioned a book 'Sarguzasht-i-Alfaaz'. Written by Ahmed Din (1866-1929), the book, probably the first of its kind in Urdu, discussed the origins of words, the interesting historical backgrounds of some names and how some of the well-known idioms and phrases came about.

When I met Mushfiq Khwaja a few days after the publication of the piece, while speaking on the column he did not seem a bit impressed. Instead he asked me which edition of the book I had referred to. When I told him it was the second one of course, published in 1969, he was not much amused. A scholar known for his meticulousness, Khwaja Sahib asked me to refer to the first edition of the book published in 1923 as the second one contained numerous calligraphic errors. He then handed me a book in English 'The study of words' which, he said, was the basis Ahmed Din built his book on. The title page announced that the book was written by 'Richard Chenevix Trench, D.D. archbishop'. It was a Xerox copy of the 29th edition published in 1914 from London. Its first edition was published in 1888. I promptly got the book photocopied and returned the original one to Khwaja Sahib.

Despite its old-fashioned prose and a style that is drab at times, 'The study of words' is indeed worth it, as it gives some interesting historical information of the English words that have been derived from Norman, Saxon, Greek and Latin words. Though Ahmed Din had before him Trench's book, he did not totally rely on it and did a lot of original work as his book gives examples of words from Arabic, Persian and Urdu instead. And his style, too, is much more succinct than the original English version.

Though there had been no dearth of books in Urdu written on the correct usage, there was no book in Urdu tracing the origins of the words. Perhaps the only exception was 'Almufrid-ul-Murakkab', a book written by Moulvi Abdul Lateef and published in 1917 from Hyderabad Deccan. Still, Ahmed Din had an edge over it since his article dealing with the origins of words (albeit inspired by Trench's book) was published in 1901 in Makhzan, a literary magazine published from Lahore. Later, on the insistence of some scholars, he decided to write a full-length book, although it could not be published earlier than 1923.

'Sarguzasht-i-Alfaaz' tells us how and why certain Urdu, Arabic and Persian words were formed. Many common words have interesting backgrounds; some metaphors are based on beautiful fables long forgotten; some phrases carry symbolic meanings. But they lost their charm and vigour and became trite because of their overuse and we have forgotten their origin. Ahmed Din thinks words are not words they are “fossilised delicate thoughts” and we can reclaim their beauty by tracing their history.

With his research Ahmed Din found the origin of many words, phrases and expressions. Here are some of them

'Barbaad' literally means 'on the wind', as 'bar' in Persian means 'on' and 'baad' means 'wind'. Now it carries the meanings 'wasted, ruined, destroyed, ravaged'. Ahmed Din writes that the expression must have been coined by someone who had been a witness to how the remains of ruins are windswept and scattered and no trace of them is left. So 'barbaad' is something or someone totally ruined and laid waste.

'Zulaikha' is derived from an Arabic word which means 'to slip'. Zulaikha was the name of the Egyptian king Potiphar's wife (Potiphar is known as Aziz-i-Misr in oriental literature) and her passion for Prophet Yousuf (AS) is proverbial. The name itself points to her 'slip'.

'Tehzeeb' in Arabic means 'to prune a date tree or to clean the dead bark from a date tree'. We now use it in the sense of 'civilisation' and, says Ahmed Din, when we prune the bad habits off ourselves, we certainly become 'civilised'.

'Sahl' in Arabic means 'smooth field'. Since it is easy to move around in a smooth field, the word became synonymous with 'easy'.

'Ajam' is an Arabic word that literally means 'someone with a speech impediment, dumb'. Since the Arabs believed that Arabic was the most eloquent of all languages, they considered other languages, especially Persian, 'ajam' or incapable of being spoken eloquently. Later, the word assumed the connotation of 'non-Arab countries' and 'ajami' came to mean 'a non-Arab'.

'Tehreer' we use it as a synonym for 'writing' or 'inscription', but in Arabic it means 'liberation' or 'setting someone free'. In olden days when a slave was liberated, he was given a written declaration that said he was free. The declaration was called 'tehreer' or liberation, hence, writing or inscription.

'Khatmal' now stands for 'bug' but 'khat' in Urdu means 'bed' and 'mal' means 'a wrestler'. Since a bug makes you wrestle and fight for comfort in bed, it is a 'bed-wrestler'.

These are a few samples and there are hundreds more like them.

The first edition of the book is now extremely hard to find. Even the second edition has long been out of print. But fortunately for book lovers, Islamabad's Poorab Academy has brought out a third edition with a good getup. The book includes an introductory article by Mushfiq Khwaja that gives biographical details about Ahmed Din, the author, and enlists his other works. Originally published elsewhere, the article carries the hallmark of Khwaja Sahib's style of research unemotional and down-to-earth.

The book carries the name of Khwaja Abdur Rahman Tariq as compiler. One wonders what he has compiled except for a one-page foreword to the book. The compiler declares that the book is the 'first and last' of its kind in Urdu, quite conveniently ignoring that a host of books in Urdu exist on the subject of word origins. For the information of interested readers, the books published on the topic include 'Tehqeeq-ul-Lughaat' by Dr Shaikh Inayatullah, 'Parda utha doon agar' by Dr F. Ejaz Raheem, 'Lafzon ki kahani lafzon ki zubani' by Khalid Ahmed (translated from English into Urdu by Sheeraz Raj), 'Lafzon ka dilchasp safar' by Dr S. A. Hashmi, 'Siyahat-i-lafzi' by Mumtaz Dahar, 'Lafzon ki anjuman mein' by Dr Syed Hamid Hussain and 'Hain kawakib kuchh' by Hussain Ameer Farhad, to name a few.

The book is a real treat for anyone interested in the origin of words.

— drraufparekh@yahoo.com