Sîdi Ḥámed ĕz-Zarrûq

So, I spent the better part of my day breaking my head over the before last text that is available for Aujila. I've had serious trouble translating some parts of this text, and the text type is quite radically different from most of the stories we've heard so far. This seems to be a religious legend aboud Sîdi Ḥámed ĕz-Zarrûq whom I assume is the same as Ahmad Zarruq.

I'll present my translation, apologies in advance that it won't be as satisfyingly easy to understand as previous texts, and I hope readers can help me out clear up some of the weirder pards.

Gan iwínan n-amedən ašál n-awílən

'There was a Aujilan man'

• Gan 'There is, was'
• iwínan n-amedən 'one man'
• ašál n-awílən 'village of Aujila', apparently phrase functions as an adjective in some way, I'd expect a preposition that means 'from' or maybe just n- 'off'.

márra yuġáya ksúm u yušád yəxṭíma af ammúd n Sídi Hamid az-Zarrúq

'One day he bought meat and came and visited the mosque of Sídi Ḥáməd əz-Zarrúq'

• márra 'once'
• yuġáya 'he bought'
• ksúm 'meat'
• yušád 'he came'
• yəxṭíma 'he visited'
• af ammúd n Sídi Hamid az-Zarrúq 'at the Mosque of S.Ḥ.Z.' It's interesting that the word ammúd means 'mosque', this is a, not very broadly attested, word for 'prayer' in Berber.

yufí-tən ʕə́mma mudán lʕə́ṣər

'He found them praying the afternoon prayer'

• yufí-tən 'He found them'
• ʕə́mma seems to be a particle to indicate progressive aspect < Ar. ʕamma 'to be or become general, universal, common' [Lameen:]< Arabic ʕammāl (also used in Siwi.)
• mudán 'they prayed'
• lʕə́ṣər 'the afternoon prayer' < ʕáṣr 'afternoon, afternoon prayer'

yúna ammúd-i w-ídd-əs ksúm

'He entered the mosque and (t0ok) with him the meat'

• yúna 'he entered'
• w-ídd-əs 'and with him'

iggí-t dít-a, w-əlimám sídi Ḥáməd əz-Zarrúq u baʕád ikkə́mməl yəʕádd irrə́wəḥ u šummán ksúm wa yərfíʕa

'He put it in front of him, the Imam was S.Ḥ.Z. and after he finished and he went to return home and he cooked the meat that he had brought'

• iggí-t 'he put it'
• dít-a 'in front of him' This takes a different suffix than the preposition idd-, I assume -a is related to Arabic somehow? [Lameen:] could reflect 3msh -hu, which goes to -a in some dialects. Also used with dəffər here though. [Phoenix:] That's what I thought. There seems to be completely free variation between using the Berber and Arabic suffixes in these cases. Very odd.
• w-alimám sídi Ḥáməd əz-Zarrúq'and the imam was S.Ḥ.Z.', I'd expect the copula d- here. Nowhere to be found.
• u baʕád 'and after'
• ikkə́mməl 'he finished'
• yəʕádd 'he went'
• irrə́wəḥ 'he went home'
• šummán 'to cook' 3pl.m. Is it 3pl.m. because the family is that is cooking along is automatically incorporated into the sentence without further introduction? [Lameen:] yeah, "they" is presumably the people of the house. I'm surprised it's not feminine plural, actually.
• ksúm wa yərfíʕa 'meat which he brought'

ʕala-má fəkkan-ís afíw yəlġăm a-yə́mm.

'As much as he was giving flames to it, it refused to become cooked'

• ʕala-má 'as much as', clearly an underlying Arabic form, but I couldn't find this exact phrase in Wehr.
• fəkkan-ís 3pl.m.impf. 'to give', this must be a 3pl.m. So šummán probably is as well.
• afíw 'fire'
• yəlġəm 'to refuse' 3sg.m.pf.
• a-yə́mm 'to be cooked' 3sg.m.aor.

Baʕadén yəʕádd yə́nšəd ərrəfəqá-nnəs wi ižinána nəttín-id-sín ksúm.

'Then he went to ask his companions whom he had divided the meat with'

• Baʕadén 'then'
• yə́nšəd 'he asked'
• ərrəfəqá-nnəs 'his companions' < Ar. rafīq pl. rufaqāʔ 'companion'
• wi ižinána pl. pronoun + 3sg.m.pf. 'to divide'
• nəttín-id-sín 'he-with-them'

Nan-ís: nəkkəní nəšummi-tíya u nči-tíya

'They said to him: we cooked it and we ate it'

• Nan-ís 'they said'
• nəkkəní 'we'
• nəšummi-tíya 'we cooked it'
• nči-tíya 'we ate it'

In-isín: nək ʕala-má fəkká-s afíw yəlġə́m a-yə́mm

'he said to them: I was giving it as much fire (as possible), it refused to be cooked'

• In-isín 'he said to them'
• fəkká-s 'to give' 1sg.impf. + indirect object 3sg.

Nan-ís: ddíwa dgíta?

'They said to him: What did you do?'

• ddíwa 'what'
• dgíta 'to do, put' 2sg.pf.

 In-isín: baʕád ušíġd uníx ammúd-i, ufíx-tən ʕə́mma mudán.

'He said to them: After I came and entered the mosque, I found them praying'

• Repetition of an earlier phrase, now in the 1sg.pf.

gíx dít-i ksúm u qqăimíx mudíx, wén-ma kəmmə́lx ʕaddíx; wa d-əlá ṣərána.

'I put the meat in front of me and I started praying, as soon as I had finished I went; That is what happened'

• gíx dít-i ksúm 'I put the meat in front of me'
• u qqăimíx mudíx 'and I started praying', notice the odd diphthong-like notation in qqăimíx.
• wén-ma 'as soon as' < Dialectal Arabic wēn 'where' < Ar. wa-ʔayna 'and where' + mā? Could not find this construction in Wehr.
• wa d-əlá ṣərána. 'that is what happened', we've seen this phrase in the previous text.

Nan-ís ərrəfəqá-nnəs ʕádd an-ís-t i-sídi Ḥamə́d ăz-Zarrúq.

'His companions said to him: go and tell it to S.Ḥ.Z.'

• No further notes needed I think.

Yəʕádd in-ís-t am-alá nan-ísa

'He went and he says it like they said to him'

• am-alá 'like'

wén-ma in-ís-t i-sídi Ḥáməd ăz-Zarrúq, in-ís:

'As soon as he said it to S.Ḥ.Z., he said to him:'

nək lukán wa ammudán də́ffər-i a-iččí-t afíw, maʕádč a-mmudə́x s-ḥíddan

'If he who would pray behind me would be eaten by fire (that is: burn in hell), I would no longer lead them in prayer.'

• This is a pretty essential part of the text and I can't make sense of it at all.
• Paradisi translates: Se colui che prega dietro di me andasse all'inferno (lett: lo mangiasse il fuoco), non pregherei più per alcuno. Which Google Translate lovingly translated as: 'If the one who prays behind me to go to hell (litt: the fire eats him), do not beg for any more.' Which is not very helpful.
• lukán 'if'
• wa ammudán də́ffər-i 'who prays behind me' with a aor.ptc. ?
• a-iččí-t afíw 'the fire will eat him'
• maʕádč 'no longer' [Lameen:] maʕádč is Arabic mā-ʕād-š. In my dialect this would be "not yet", but I think in Libya this would be "no longer"; [kato:] Interesting that your dialect has maʕádč for 'not yet', Lameen. Here, it'd be "no more, no longer", and is placed before the vb as in ELA.
• a-mmudə́x 1sg.aor. [Lameen (paraphrased):] mmud + s-  = 'lead in prayer' calque of Ar. ṣallī bi- 'to lead in prayer'.
• s-ḥíddan 'to anyone' [Lameen:] ḥiddan is of course Arabic ʔaḥad-an "anyone" - with tanwīn! My own dialect has šayən for "nothing", so the survival of tanwīn in this context is not unprecedented, but it is interesting.

In-ís: ksum-áya ġár-ək ʕádd kəffə́n-t, u ʕádd mtí-t žəbbánət

'He said to him: That meat that you have, go wrap it up, and go bury it in the cemetary.'

• ksum-áya 'that meat'
• ġár-ək 'you have' ġár on it's own seems to be almost exclusively used for possesive constructions.
• ʕádd really seems to be used a lot as a sort of Auxiliary verb here, maybe to strengthen the imperative?
• kəffə́n-t 'wrap it up' < Ar. kaffana 'to wrap s.th. up'
• mtí-t 'bury it'
• žəbbánət I'd except a preposition here af žəbbánət or žəbbánət-i but instead the sentence says: "go bury it the cemetary", this is very odd to me.

Yəʕádd yəmtí-t u yəqqím ixəbbár míddən

'He went to bury it and he started telling the people'

• yəmtí-t 'he buried it'
• yəqqím 'he started to...'
• ixabbár 'he said' impf.3sg.m. < Ar. xabbara 'id.'
• míddən 'people'

wén-ma slán-t míddən n ašál kúll ušánd ġallíyən ammudán kull də́ffər-a w-ammúd məššə́k iġəlli-ká a-yúġ míddən n ašál.

'As soon as they heard this, all the people of the village came and wanted all to pray behind him, and the small mosque could not fit (litt: did not want to take) the people of the village.'

• slán-t 'they heard it'
• míddən n ašál kúll 'all the people of the village'
• ušánd 'they came'
• ġallíyən 'they wanted'
• ammudán 'to pray' 3pl.m.aor.
• kull this second kull surprises me a bit because of it's position
• də́ffər-a 'behind him'
• məššə́k 'small' m.sg.
• iġəlli-ká a-yúġ 'it did not want to take' interesting way of expressing 'They didn't fit'
• This sentence give us the impression that whatever S.Ḥ.Z said about sitting behind him is a good thing, since the whole village wants to do it now.

yəxammə́m əlfəkr-ə́nnəs sídi Ḥamə́d, illúff dbăš-ə́nnəs w-in-isín ġallíx a-ʕddaáx (sic) fḥáli.

'Sidi Ḥamə́d thought to himself (litt: he thought his thinking), packed up his stuff and he said to them: I want to go by myself.

•  yəxammə́m 'to think' 3sg.m.pf. I know this word, it's also found in Riffian and MA Berber. The x would suggest an Arabic origin, but the word itself doesn't look particuarly Arabic due to a double m. [Lameen:] from Arabic xammana 'to guess, conjecture, surmise' [Phoenix:] That's why it didn't look Arabic! Assimilation of nasals accross syllables. Cool.
• əlfəkr-ə́nnəs 'his thinking' < Ar. fikr 'thinking, cognitation, reflection'
• illúff 'to pack up' 3sg.m.pf. < Ar. laffa 'to wrap up'
• dbăš-ə́nnəs 'his stuff' < Ar. dabaš 'stuff'. This is interesting, this word is different from dbúš 'clothes'. This is odd, we had previously identified the latter word to be from dabaš. But this seems to be a different lexeme then. the shape of dbuš suggestes that it comes from an Arabic word da/ubūš, this derivation doesn't exist in classical Arabic at least. Is it the plural? Classical Arabic has ʔadbāš, but maybe one of the two Arabic dialects that influence Aujila Berber had dubūš as the plural instead?
• ġallíx 'I want'
• aʕddaáx (sic) This must be a typo for a-ʕaddə́x. 1sg.aor. 'to go'
• fḥáli 'by myself', I don't know this expression, but I assume it's from fī ḥālī 'in my condition/state'.

Nan-ís ləhál n ašál: a-nnaʕádd kull-ídd-ək

'The people of the village said to him: We will all go with you'

• ləhál n ašál 'people of the village' <  Ar. ʔahl 'relatives, folks, family; kin; people, members, followers etc.'
• a-nnaʕádd 1pl.aor. 'to go'
• kull-ídd-ək 'all-with-you' Maybe this sentence is better translated as 'we, and you, will go together'. That'show pronoun-idd-pronoun is usually translated (look back at previous texts with nəkk-ídd-ək for example), but it doesn't sound that good in English.

U škíyən ídd-əs ir a-hlə́bən ašál u baʕadén in-isín:

'And they left with him until they would leave the village and he said to them'

• U škíyən 'and they left'
• ídd-əs 'with him'
• ir 'until'
• a-hlə́bən 3pl.m.aor. of a root hlb, I can't find this, I only find Ar. haliba 'to be hairy', which is definitely not what we're looking for. Paradisi translates oltrepassrono.

ṣbərát, a-nna-kím nək d-awíl tláta marrát ílă yom əlqiyáma;

'Wait, I will tell you I will be an Aujilan three times until the Day of Judgment;'

• ṣbərát imperative 2pl.m. 'to wait' <Ar. ṣabara 'to bind, to be patient'
• a-nna-kím 'I will tell you (pl.)
• nək d-awíl 'I am an Aujilan'
• tláta marrát 'three times'
• ílă 'until', notice not Berber ir is used by Arabic ʔilā
• yom əlqiyáma < Ar. Yawm al-Qiyāma(t)

wása anzurrán s-ġar-kím a-ʕəyyə́ṭən-dîk təláta marrát; a-ušázd w-a-ffukkə́x-t

'One of you who will be suffering, will call me three times; I will come and alleviate it.'

• wása longer form of wa
• a-nzurrán ptc.aor. 'to suffer', I can't find this word anywhere. But should mean 'to suffer'
• s-ġar-kím 'from amongst you (pl.)
• a-ʕəyyə́ṭən-dîk 'they will call me'
• təláta marrát 'three times'
• a-ušá-zd 'and 'I will come for him'. A lot of assimilations have made this word incredibly unclear. It is like this: a- aorist particle uš 'to come' -a- 1sg. ending losing it's -x because the following 3sg.m. indirect object suffix -ís which in turn loses its i due to the a in the previous ending, and assimilates the s in voicing to z for the following -d direction particle.
• w-a-ffukkə́x-t 'and I will alleviate him' < Ar. fakka 'to seperate, disjoin, disconnect'

Undú ušiġd-ká, a-nmḥásəb nək ídd-əs yom əlqiyáma

'And if I don't you, I and him will be held responsible (on) the Day of Judgment'

• ušiġd-ká 'I don't come' 1pl.m.pf.-negative
• a-nmḥásəb 'to be held responsible' 1pl.aor. This would mean it's from Ar. ḥāsiba 'to hold responsible' which probably took the meaning 'to be responsible for s.th.' in Aujila. [Lameen:] The m- must be a passive formation here.

Nək wa d-əlá slíxa s-ar míddən lə́wwəl kəddímən ḥəkkán-dík af sídi Ḥáməd əz-Zarrúq.

'This is what I heard once from old people, who used to tell me about S.Ḥ.Z.'

• wa d-əlá slíxa 'what I heard'
• s-ar míddən 'from people'
• lə́wwəl 'first' < al-ʔawwal 'first', I don't really understand the meaning of this word in this context. [Lameen:] in Siwi this means "once, formerly" as well as "first", which would work here.
• kəddímən 'old' m.pl adj. This is a very odd form, this is clearly from Ar. qadīm 'old'. Why does it have k for q?
• ḥəkkán-dík 'they have told me' < ḥakā 'to tell'. Surprising that it has a kk, there's no reason why that geminate arises here. [Lameen:] the geminate suggests rather "they used to tell me" (imperfective.)" [Phoenix:] Imperfective can have a habitual meaning.

[Lameen:] The point of the story is the idea that God has granted Sidi Hamed the privilege that anyone whom he's led in prayer will be spared the Fire (of Hell) - even a piece of meat he's "led in prayer" can't be burned. On top of that, before leaving he agrees to intercede for any Awjili in trouble. Such ideas of intercession would now be seen as unacceptable by most Muslims (the last sentence suggests they were already starting to be seen that way), but they're fairly representative of the attitude people used to have towards saints in many regions.

Comments

[Lameen]

ʕámma < Arabic ʕammāl (also used in Siwi.)

ʕáṣr = afternoon prayer in Arabic too, actually.

I assume -a is related to Arabic somehow?: could reflect 3msh -hu, which goes to -a in some dialects. Also used with dəffər here though.

šummán etc.: yeah, "they" is presumably the people of the house. I'm surprised it's not feminine plural, actually.

baʕád: "after", not "later".

nək lukán wa ammudán də́ffər-i a-iččí-t afíw, maʕádč a-mmudáx s-ḥíddan: If he who prays behind me were eaten by fire, I would no longer lead anyone in prayer.

maʕádč is Arabic mā-ʕād-š. In my dialect this would be "not yet", but I think in Libya this would be "no longer"; perhaps Adam can comment?

In Arabic, ṣallī bi- is "lead in prayer". I assume this is a calque, though Paradisi translates it as "pray for".

ḥiddan is of course Arabic 'aħad-an "anyone" - with tanwīn! My own dialect has šayən for "nothing", so the survival of tanwīn in this context is not unprecedented, but it is interesting.

yəxammə́m: from Arabic xammana.

Undú ušiġd-ká, a-nmḥásəb nək ídd-əs yom əlqiyáma
If I don't come, we will be held accountable, I and him, on the Day of Judgement. The m- must be a passive formation here.

ḥakkán-dík 'they have told me': the geminate suggests rather "they used to tell me" (imperfective.)

[kato]

The Ar. dialects which influenced Awjili are getting more interesting...

-a of dít-a could be as Lameen suggests 3.m.sg. -a (-u or -hu etc. in other dialects), as ELA has -a, e.g. ELA gǝdem-a "in front of him".

Interesting that your dialect has maʕádč for 'not yet', Lameen. Here, it'd be "no more, no longer", and is placed before the vb as in ELA.

Some studies of Cyrenaican bedouin by Mitchell noted a few tanwīns here and there, but mostly in proverbs and idiomatic expression, not such much in free speech, if I recall correctly.

tăláta marrát : this must be Awjili not having /th/, rather than the loaning dialect (which I'd expect to have preserved /th/) ?

[Lameen]

Also, lə́wwəl 'first': in Siwi this means "once, formerly" as well as "first", which would work here.

tăláta marrát: since Awjili doesn't have /θ/, it's hard to say one way or the other what the loaning dialect's phonology was like, but since Egyptian Arabic makes θ > t, it's not impossible that the relevant q-dialect did too.

The point of the story is the idea that God has granted Sidi Hamed the privilege that anyone whom he's led in prayer will be spared the Fire (of Hell) - even a piece of meat he's "led in prayer" can't be burned. On top of that, before leaving he agrees to intercede for any Awjili in trouble. Such ideas of intercession would now be seen as unacceptable by most Muslims (the last sentence suggests they were already starting to be seen that way), but they're fairly representative of the attitude people used to have towards saints in many regions.

[PhoeniX]

"ʕámma < Arabic ʕammāl (also used in Siwi.)"

Is this also used as a marker of progressive aspect in the Arabic dialects in the region? I tried looking for it in Owen's book on ELA without success.

Also, I find the derivation ʕammāl a bit striking, is this a classical formation? I can't seem to find something like it in Wehr. ʕamal 'work' is the closest I find.

I understand that it's an adverb in Siwi.

The similar form and use do seem to suggest that the origin of ʕámma is from ʕammāl, but it does make you wonder where the l ran off to in Aujila.

"maʕádč is Arabic mā-ʕād-š"
You're a life saver!

I'm still trying to understand how this word is built up though.

mā- is negative particle, and I assume -š is from Classical Arabic šaiʔ 'thing', but what is ʕād?

"Undú ušiġd-ká, a-nmḥásəb nək ídd-əs yom əlqiyáma
If I don't come, we will be held accountable, I and him, on the Day of Judgement. The m- must be a passive formation here."

Do you reckon that this is the m- of the passive participle in Arabic muḥāsab employed as a verb, or do you think this is the Berber prefix m- which somehow takes on a passive meaning through a middle meaning that it can express?

"ḥakkán-dík 'they have told me': the geminate suggests rather "they used to tell me" (imperfective.)"

Ah, of course. Good catch.

"Also, lə́wwəl 'first': in Siwi this means "once, formerly" as well as "first", which would work here."

It works if you translated it as "This is what I once heard from old people..."

But its position in between the noun and its adjective throws me off.

"Such ideas of intercession would now be seen as unacceptable by most Muslims"

This is considered unacceptable because you shouldn't be praying to saints but to Allah instead?

[Glen Gordon]

Phoenix: "mā- is negative particle, and I assume -š is from Classical Arabic šaiʔ 'thing', but what is ʕād?"

Google tells me that ʕād can mean 'again' on its own and has a durative connotation. "Not further thing"? Hmm, doesn't quite have a ring to it. Is it possible -š has a different etymology or is there a more natural English equivalent to explain the three morphemes? Adverbial marker maybe?

[kato]

Well, mā- and -š are simply the negative verbal circumfix that ELA uses, e.g. nimšī "I go" v. mā-nimšī-š "I don't go" and etc.

-š I believe must be derived from CA šay'. ‘ād is the 3.m.sg.pf. form of the verb, but only occurs in this sense in this (negative) form.

[Lameen]

ʕammāl: not a very Classical formation, but widely used in Arabic dialects; source of Syrian and oasis Egyptian ʕam-.

"This is considered unacceptable because you shouldn't be praying to saints but to Allah instead?" - basically.

Reflexes of m- often acquire a passive meaning in Berber.

[kato]

Something else: ir a-hlə́bən ašál 'until they would leave the village', the only Ar. antecedent of hlǝ́bǝn I can think of would be hǝrǝb 'to flee, escape, etc.' Even though r assimilates to l in many words, it also changes to l spontaneously. I don't think there would be any motivation for that change here, though, but it's a random possibility.

[Muhned]

Hello

could you tell us how did you knew that 'dabaš' is an Arabic word?

thank you

[Muhned]

Hello

hlə́bən/3pl.m in twillult (zuara dialect) mean's "to spread in a huge amount in a random way', and it is the origin of the word 'halba' in Libyan/Arabic dialect.

[PhoeniX]

Hey there,

Yes I knew that dabaš was an Arabic word, although perhaps not at the time of writing this blogpost, but in my dictionary in my book it is there.

As for hləbən, I always expect it was Arabic, but had never actually found it before! Thanks!

I think you're correct that it is related to the Libyan Arabic halba. The meaning 'to spread in a huge amount in a random way' does not quite work in this story as the person who is moving away seems to do it with quite a lot of directed determination.