Hagel

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Hagel arabice perdix liber de doctrina arabica.


Apparatus:

ara. {= arabica} B | greca (greca f; greca ms. e) AC ef


Translation:

Hagel is Arabic for Latin perdix {"partridge"} according to the liber de doctrina arabica.


Commentary:

Although 4 witnesses state that the source for Hagel is the liber de doctrina greca, witness B must be right in saying that it is the doctrina arabica, unless Simon had a Greek to Arabic glossary at hand. The confusion might have arisen because Latin perdix {"partridge"} is in fact loaned from Greek πέρδιξ /pérdix/.

Simon's often quoted source, the Liber de doctrina arabica, has so far not been identified, but cf, what must be a similar glossary/dictionary - Vocabulista - (ed. Schiaparelli) [[1]]: p. 85: ﺣﺠﻠﺔ /ḥağala/ Perdix; p.517: PERDIX ﺣﺠﻠﺔ /ḥağala/, ﺣﺠﻞ /ḥağal/

Cf. Wehr: ﺣﺠﻞ /ḥağal/ "partridge, mountain partridge, mountain quail"; Siggel p.28: ﺣﺠﻞ /ḥağal/ Perdix, Rebhuhn {i.e. partridge"}.


Ornithological remarks:

Wehr's translations "mountain partridge" and "mountain quail" are confusing because the names are synonyms that are usually applied to a North American quail species Oreortyx pictus Douglas. Another "mountain partridge" or better "mountain bamboo partridge", Bambusicola fytchii Anderson, is native to Bangladesh, China, India, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam.

Arabic ﺣﺠﻞ /ḥağal/ refers mostly to species of the genus Alectoris q.v. [[2]] of which several species occur in parts of Europe, Asia and North Africa. Perdix perdix L., the "grey partridge" of Europe, does not naturally occur in the Arabic speaking countries.

The most likely ﺣﺠﻞ /ḥağal/ species are:

"rock partridge" - Alectoris graeca Meisner with a distribution over South western Asia and South Eastern Europe [[3]];

"chukar partridge" or "chukar" - Alectoris chukar Gray [[4]];

"Barbary partridge" - Alectoris barbara Bonnaterre [[5]].

See also: Perdix

WilfGunther 17:26, 7 July 2014 (BST)


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