Actually I’m not sure I understand this bit. All I find is metior, with the meaning of measure or distribute or traverse. Here سبر means ’to probe’, i.e. examine thoroughly, and سير is the plural of سيرة which means ’general behavior’ or ’habit’, ’custom’, and the like (also means ’biography’ quite frequently).
For Pacifica - random quotes on Arabic and Qur'an
- Thread starter Bestiola
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It’s modeled on إلى مطلع الفجر which can be found in one of the final surahs of the Qu’ran (can’t remember which one exactly sorry, I just remember this bit because it’s very frequent) = until daybreak.
مطلع = the time when something يطلع (rises). The only difference is that the Qur’an talks about الفجر (dawn) while here it is replaced by the full moon.
I thought "to measure" (take the measure of) figuratively would be close enough.
I misread that, actually. I thought it was سبر used as a cognate accusative so that سبر سبر = "he probed (by performing) the probing of..." or so.
Right, it makes sense.
So "he crossed the eastern lands to the rising of its/their full moon in the west"... Its/their full moon? The full moon of what? Of the eastern lands?
وهو الذي طاف الأرض معتبرا، وطوى الأمصار مختبرا، وباحث فرق الأمم، وسبر سير العرب والعجم، ثم ألقى عصا التسيار بهذه الحضرة العليا، لما علم أن لها مزية الفضل دون شرط ولا ثنيا
Is cum orbem terrarum circumisset perscrutans, civitates transisset inspiciens, disputationes cum hominibus diversarum nationum habuisset, mensus mores Arabum ac peregrinorum esset, baculum peregrinationis hac in altissima domo abiecit, quoniam eam virtute praeditam sine ulla condicione vel exceptione sciebat.
That’s what I’m tempted to say, but the more I see this ها everywhere in this passage, the more I wonder if this pronoun may not have another usage in CA, not indicating possession? I know for example of phrases such as وقتها and عندها and ساعتها which mean ’then, at THAT time’ (and are still in use with the same meaning in MSA and even in dialects)...
"Then, at that time" is how you idiomatically translate those expressions but literally aren't they just "at the time of it" and "with it"? where "it" = whatever event has just been mentioned.
Maybe. Or it is related to ها as a demonstrative particle, as in هاهنا هاهو هاهي etc. (and most obviously هذا = هاذا). I don’t have an Arabic grammar at hand right now unfortunately...
Some uses of ها throughout this passage did seem a bit odd to me. One of those was when it was talking about "the heavy rain of it on the porches". I guess that can make sense in a loose kind of way, though: its (the house's) rain = the rain that has some relationship with the house, the rain that falls where the house is. I thought that, for all I knew, this kind of thing might be more usual in Arabic than in the languages I'm more familiar with. Also, the whole sentence there seemed a bit uncertain; we weren't even entirely sure that the word with ها really meant "heavy rain".
Yes, and that wasn’t the only sentence with a seemingly loose ها... I don’t know of any good Arabic grammar available online though. Do you?
I'm thinking ها is probably the caliph's house again, and it could be:
Its (the house's) full moon = the full moon that rises where the house is; i.e. in the west.
Its (the house's) full moon = the full moon that (metaphorically) is the house (because the house is situated in the west where the moon rises, and it's beautiful like the full moon).
Its (the house's) full moon = the full moon that rises where the house is; i.e. in the west.
Its (the house's) full moon = the full moon that (metaphorically) is the house (because the house is situated in the west where the moon rises, and it's beautiful like the full moon).
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Your second interpretation is lovely: and he roamed the East until (the city’s) full moon rose to the West. I’m not sure if that was intended but I like it
Couldn't it also refer to المشارق? I just realized that re-reading it today.
That was my first idea.
But I'm not sure what sense it would make. Then it occurred to me that it was perhaps more likely to refer to the house.
Right sorry I had already forgotten about that. But knowing that مفعل can be a name of time as well as a name of place, it could be taken here as 'the place (from) where the full moon rises', which would mean that he travelled across the Eastern lands (all the way to the Far East) and ended up where the full moon rises in that area, namely in it's Western part, i.e. somewhere in the Middle East (I can't remember which city we are actually talking about, is it Basra?). In any event all those are East of Tangiers so pretty much all his journey was "in the Eastern lands".
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The next clause has a ها again, which, if my interpretation of the clause is right, must be referring to the caliph's residence. If it is, then the ها in the full-moon clause probably also is the caliph's residence because it would be odd to have the second ها refer to something mentioned further back after a ها referring to something else had intervened. What do you think?
The next clause:
وآثرها على الأقطار إيثار التبر على الترب
My interpretation: "and he preferred it to all countries as one perfers silver to dust."
For easy reference to the context, here's the chunk of text that those clauses are from:
The next clause:
وآثرها على الأقطار إيثار التبر على الترب
My interpretation: "and he preferred it to all countries as one perfers silver to dust."
For easy reference to the context, here's the chunk of text that those clauses are from:
وهو الذي طاف الأرض معتبرا، وطوى الأمصار مختبرا، وباحث فرق الأمم، وسبر سير العرب والعجم، ثم ألقى عصا التسيار بهذه الحضرة العليا، لما علم أن لها مزية الفضل دون شرط ولا ثنيا، وطوى المشارق إلى مطلع بدرها بالغرب، وآثرها على الأقطار إيثار التبر على الترب، اختيارا بعد طول اختبار البلاد والخلق، ورغبة اللحاق بالطائفة المثلى، التي على الحق فغمره من إحسانه الجزيل، وامتنانه الحفي الحفيل، ما أنساه الماضي بالحال، وأغناه عن طول الترحال، وحقر عنده ما كان من سواه يستعظمه، وحقق لديه ما كان من فضله يتوهمه، فنسي ما كان ألفه من جولان البلاد، وظفر بالمرعى الخصب بعد طول الإرتياد، ونفذت الإشارة الكريمة بأن يملي ما شاهده في رحلته من الأمصار، وما علق بحفظه من نوادر الأخبار، ويذكر من لقيه من ملوك الأقطار، وعلمائها الأخيار، وأوليائها الأبرار، فأملى من ذلك ما فيه نزهة الخواطر، وبهجة المسامع والنواظر، من كل غريبة أفاد باجتلائها، وعجيبة أطرف بانتحائها
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Yes I think you’re right, not only in the subsequent clause but also in the preceding ones, ها clearly refers to the Caliph’s city/residence. And it would still work because the rest of the paragraph describes how after so many adventures around the world, ibn Battuta has finally found the best place in the world and finally settled there for good, so "he travelled across the Eastern Land, all the way to the [Caliph’s residence’s] rising full moon to the West.