Culef

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Culef arabice salix.


Apparatus:

Culef | Chulef f


Translation:

Culef is Arabic for Latin salix {"willow"}.


Commentary:

Siggel p. 33: ﺧﻼﻑ /ḫilāf/ Salix (aegyptiaca) (ägypt.) Weide {i.e. "willow"}.

A vocalisation closer to Simon’s can be found in Karbstein, in the early XVIIth c. glossary from the Morisco community in Spain, p. 284, “11) Weide {i.e. ‘willow’} Salix L.: ﺧﻼﻑ /ḫullāf/” and he equates it with ﺻﻔﺼﺎﻑ /ṣifṣṣāf/, Classical Arabic ﺻﻔﺼﺎﻑ /ṣafṣāf “willow” and Romance ﺷﻠﺲ /šals/, cf. Old Spanish salce and Catalan salze {IPA ['salzə]} “willow”.

Avicenna in the second book of his Canon devotes a chapter to ﺧﻼﻑ /ḫilāf/: [Goehl] Liber secundus, capitulum 686, De salice (annotation: chalef). Salix quid est? Quandoque egreditur ex foliis eius, quando finduntur (annotation: finditur), gumma fortis. "What is salix {'willow'}? "When the leaves are split, a strong 'gum’ exudes from them".
This text is available online in the 1522 Lyon edition p. 124v/ p. 125r: De Salice Ca. dxlcccvi [[1]].
The original Arabic chapter can be found in Avicenna, book II, p. 273 ﺧﻼﻑ /ḫilāf/: [[2]].


Botanical identification:

The genus Salix contains many species, but Siggel identifies ﺧﻼﻑ /ḫilāf/ with Salix aegyptiaca L., "musk willow" [[3]], [[4]], a tall bush or small tree, reaching heights between 2.5 m and 10 m. The plant is not originally a native of Egypt as the botanical name given by Linnaeus wrongly suggests, but it is a native of the Caucasus area and Western Asia, especially Turkey and Iran, but the tree has been introduced to and cultivated in many areas of the Middle East, where it has played a role in folk medicine.

WilfGunther (talk) 21:20, 29 November 2015 (GMT)


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