A metaphor hidden in an old narrative (ad-Damo ad-Dam)

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Quranic and Hadith sciences department, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Kharazmi University

Abstract

In the sources belonging to the first centuries of Islam, including narrative sources, biographies of the prophet(sireh), old Arabic lexicons and the like, a narration in the form of "A-ddam A-ddam and Al-hadm Al-hadm" has been reported, and various views have been listed about its meaning. However, what is provided in these sources is based only on data from the Arabic language and lexical justifications without a long history to support it or a linguistic analysis. The current research studies this narrative with a historical-comparative approach. therefore, in the first step, the etymology of the word " hadm" is mentioned, and in the next step, the solid connection of this narrative with its equivalents in other Semitic texts, including Judeo-Christian religious texts, ancient Arabic literature and narrative texts has been pointed out. According to the findings of the present research, the aforementioned narrative signifies that "you are of the same blood of mine and a part of my body". moreover, this narrative is based on the conceptual metaphor "the other is a part of the body", which itself relies on the fundamental metaphor "the body is the container of the soul".

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