مصحف

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Arabic

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Etymology

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Borrowed from Ge'ez መጽሐፍ (mäṣḥäf), as in Ethiopian Semitic such is the usual word for “book” and the root more generally relates to the concept of “writing”. The other words in the Arabic root ص ح ف (ṣ-ḥ-f) are from this noun.

According to the fifteenth-century scholar al-Suyūṭī in his book Al-Itqān fī ʿulūm al-Qurʾān, the early Muslims debated what to call a copy of the Qur'an following Muhammad's death. One person suggested سِفْر (sifr), which refers to a book of the Bible in Christianity and Judaism. However مُصْحَف (muṣḥaf), which al-Suyūṭī explicitly says is an Ethiopian word, was chosen to better distinguish between the Bible and the Qur'an.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /musˤ.ħaf/, /masˤ.ħaf/

Noun

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مُصْحَف or مَصْحَف (muṣḥaf or maṣḥafm (plural مَصَاحِف (maṣāḥif))

  1. volume, edition, copy, printing
  2. manuscript, codex, text
  3. a copy of the Qur'an
  4. volume, tome, book

Declension

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Descendants

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  • Hebrew: מִצְחָף (mitskháf)
  • Lishana Deni: מסחף (masḥaf, book)
  • Swahili: msahafu
  • Turkish: mushaf

References

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