An Arab-Syrian Gentleman and Warrior in the Period of the Crusades

INTRODUCTION 19
although the word is 'idl, meaning "sack," and refers to the sack
in which the leopard was brought before a lord (infra, p. 141).
The lack of any system of capitalization inherent in Arabic
orthography often results in the confusion of proper and common
nouns. "Al-'Alah" (infra, pp 78, 236), the name of a place in
Northern Syria, is treated by Derenbourg as a common noun and
translated de la vitte haute; 28
qaryah kharibah, on the other hand,
which means "a village in ruins" (infra, p. 110), is treated as a
proper noun; 29
"al-§alih" (infra, p. 122), which is a proper noun,
is considered a common one and translated un saint homme. 30
Referring the pronoun to its proper antecedent is often a source
of worry in Arabic composition.
This difficulty made Derenbourg
in one instance cause the wrong man to fly off his saddle, 31 in another
to fall unconscious, 32 and in a third to cut off the leg of a patient. 33
In another case the quoted words are put in the mouth of the wrong
speaker. 34
The fact that in Arabic there is no mechanical device to indicate
the end of a direct quotation caused the discrepancy in translating
the last part of Usamah's speech to the footmen at 'Asqalan. 35
Our author knew no foreign languages but, nevertheless, used
in his work a number of Persian and Turkish words which were
evidently floating in the Arabic world of his time. Most of the
Arabic names of weapons are of Persian origin, just as in English
In one place he uses a Turkish word
they are of French origin.
jawbdn (Turkish pronunciation choban), meaning "herdsman,"
which Derenbourg 36 mistakes for a proper name of a person In
that interesting story illustrating Frankish medication, he speaks of
a woman afflicted with nishaf, which has all the earmarks of an
Arabic word (connected with a stem nashafa, "to dry up"), and
which Derenbourg 37 translates consomption but which is in reality a
Persian word meaning " imbecility " (infra, p. 162). The barjam,
which the beard of the watchman cut off by Salah-al-Din resembled,
is Persian parcham, meaning " the tail of the sea-cow " (infra, p. 189),
* Ibid , p so Cf p. 198. » Ibid , p 81.
,0 Ibid , p 93
a Cf AiUobiographie, p 63, with infra, p 92
" Cf tbid , p 142, with infra, p 173 M Cf ibid , p 142, with infra, p 175.
u Cf ibid
, p. 61, 1 22, with infra, p 89
* Cf. ibid , p. 14, with infra, p. 40. * Cf. ibid., p 105, with infra, p. 136.
17 Autobiographic, p 129.
» Texte arabe, p. 118.