Root · 129 in the Quran · 386 in 25 texts of the library
جمعone root meaning the drawing together of a thing. (root jm)
الجيم والميم والعين أصل واحد يدل على تضام الشيء
Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-lugha · English rendering AI
The family of the root
Patterns computed · our dataThe words of ج م ع that our sources attest: the root's letters in green, the added letters in gold.
44 words8 verbs4 verbal nouns7 participles3 places and instruments4 intensives and elatives8 other nouns6 plurals4 relatives and abstracts
- جَمِيعpeople, or number of men, in a state of collection
- جَمَعَhe collected
- جَمْعthe day of resurrection when all mankind will be collected together
- أَجْمَعِين—
- جَامِعcollecting
The whole family8 groups, by pattern; tap a pattern to see what it does
Verbs8جَمَعَ · اِجْتَمَعَ · أَجْمَعَ
The root as an action: the bare Form I, and the Forms made by adding letters before, inside or after the root.grammar →
Form I vowels: فَعَلَ يَفْعَلُ (a – a; the imperfect from Lane's “aor.”)
- جَمَعَhe collectedLaneForm IQurʾān ×22library ×25LaneIbn Fāris
- اِجْتَمَعَit (a thing in a scattered or dispersed state, S, and a number of men, Msb, …LaneForm VIIIQurʾān ×2library ×13Lane
- أَجْمَعَconcur; agree unanimouslyautoForm IVQurʾān ×4library ×5Lane
- جَمَّعَhe collectedLaneForm IILaneIbn Fāris
Verbal nouns4جَمْع · اِجْتِماع · تَجْمِيع
The action itself, named as a noun (maṣdar).grammar →
- جَمْعthe day of resurrection when all mankind will be collected togetherLaneForm I · Lane: inf. n.Qurʾān ×13library ×36LaneIbn Fāris
- اِجْتِماعmeeting; gatheringautoForm VIIIlibrary ×5
- تَجْمِيعForm II · Lane: inf. n.Lane
- مُجَامَعَةForm III · Lane: inf. n.Lane
Participles7جَامِع · مَجْمُوع · مُجْتَمِع
The one who does it, and the one it is done to.grammar →
- جَامِعcollectingLaneactive, Form IQurʾān ×3library ×35LaneIbn Fāris
- مَجْمُوعcollectedLanepassive, Form IQurʾān ×2library ×7Lane
- مُجْتَمِعman who has attained to his full state of manly vigour, and whose beard has …Laneactive, Form VIIIlibrary ×1Lane
- مُجْمَعaffair determined, resolved, or decided, uponLanepassive, Form IVLaneIbn Fāris
Place, time and instrument3مَجْمَع · مَجْمَعَة · مِجْمَع
Where or when it happens, and what it is done with: the m- nouns.grammar →
Intensives, qualities and the elative4جَمِيع · أَجْمَع · جَمَّاع
The quality carried far, held as a trait, or compared.grammar →
- جَمِيعpeople, or number of men, in a state of collectionLanequality (faʿīl)Qurʾān ×53library ×79Lane
- أَجْمَعcollecting, comprising, or containing, a greater, or the greatest, number or …Laneelative or colour adjective (afʿal)library ×6Lane
- جَمَّاعone who collects muchLaneintensive (faʿʿāl)LaneIbn Fāris
- جَمُوعintensive (faʿūl)Lane
Other nouns8جَمَاعَة · جُمَع · جُمَّاع
Nouns on other patterns; their meaning is learned word by word.grammar →
Plurals6أَجْمَعِين · جَوَامِع · مَجَامِع
Broken plurals rebuild the word on a new pattern; sound plurals add an ending.grammar →
- أَجْمَعِينsound plural of أَجْمَعQurʾān ×26
- جَوَامِعplural of collectingfrom the singularbroken plural of جَامِعlibrary ×3LaneIbn Fāris
- مَجَامِعbroken plural of مَجْمَعlibrary ×1Lane
- مَجْمُوعُونplural of collectedfrom the singularsound plural of مَجْمُوعQurʾān ×1
Relative and abstract4جَمْعِيَّة · اِجْتِماعِيّ · جَمْعِيّ
-iyy relates a thing to its source; -iyya makes an abstract noun.grammar →
- جَمْعِيَّةassociation; societyautoabstract noun (-iyya)library ×3
- اِجْتِماعِيّsocialautorelative adjective (-iyy)library ×2
- جَمْعِيّcollectiveautorelative adjective (-iyy)library ×1Lane
- جُمَعِيّone who fasts on Friday by himselfLanerelative adjective (-iyy)Lane
Reference
Why this shape?What each of the 26 patterns does
What each pattern does. The pattern gives a tendency, not a rule: many words have drifted into meanings of their own.
The pattern machinePour the root into a pattern; see whether the word exists
Choose a pattern; the root's letters pour into it. Then see whether the word exists in our sources. The machine makes shapes; only usage makes words.
- Attested: مَجْمَعَة, noun of place (with -a) (Lane, Ibn Fāris)
Place noun with -a. The place noun with the feminine -a. Sometimes it is only a variant of mafʿal; often it names the place where a thing is found in abundance (maʾsada, 'a place full of lions'). So maktab is the place of writing, and maktaba, where writings are gathered: a library, a bookshop. Our summary AI
But: maktaba is not in our classical dictionaries for k-t-b: Lane and al-Jawharī give maktab ('a school'), none gives maktaba. Its sense of 'library, bookshop' fits the pattern of abundance, but that is our reading of the pattern, not a classical entry. Many mafʿala words are single items of usage (maqbara 'cemetery'), which the grammarians call heard, not formed by rule.
The grammarians on this pattern (4)
ما يكون مفعلة لازمة لها الهاء والفتحة … وذلك إذا أردت أن تكثر الشيء بالمكان، وذلك قولك: أرض مسبعة، ومأسدة
Chapter on what is mafʿala, with the -a and the a-vowel always: that is when you mean that a thing abounds in a place, as you say 'a land of many beasts of prey (masbaʿa), of many lions (maʾsada)' AI
Sībawayh (d. c. 180/796), al-Kitāb, ed. ʿAbd al-Salām Hārūn, 3rd ed. (Cairo: al-Khānjī, 1988), 4:94 · OpenITI line 21027–21028 ↗ · on this site · OpenITI RELEASE v2025.1.9, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
و نحو المظنة و المقبرة فتحا و ضما ليس بقياس
and words like maẓinna and maqbara (with a or u) are not by rule AI
Ibn al-Ḥājib (d. 646/1249), al-Shāfiya fī ʿilm al-taṣrīf, ed. Ḥasan Aḥmad al-ʿUthmān (Mecca: al-Maktaba al-Makkiyya, 1995), 1:30 · OpenITI line 223 ↗ · on this site · OpenITI RELEASE v2025.1.9, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
- “designate the place where the object signified by the noun from which they are formed, is found in large numbers or quantities” Wright, Grammar I, §247, p. 148 ↗ · on nouns of abundance, maf'ala · 3rd ed. (Cambridge, 1896) · public domain
- “Nouns of time and place not unfrequently take the feminine form” Wright, Grammar I, §225, p. 128 ↗ · on maf'ala as a variant of maf'al · 3rd ed. (Cambridge, 1896) · public domain
About thisWhat “attested” means here; the sources
Attested means found in our data: the Quranic Arabic Corpus (lemmas, verb Forms, participles, verbal nouns, plurals), the library's words (automatic analysis), Lane's Lexicon (his headwords, the Forms he numbers, the verbal nouns and plurals he names) and Ibn Fāris's entry. Nothing is generated for this list. Meanings are Lane's first gloss in his entry, or else the analyser's gloss (“auto”). Vowelling follows the corpus, then Lane, then the analyser; verbs are given in the regular perfect. Lane's Lexicon thins out after qāf, and a few of his entries cover several roots at once: those roots show no Lane. The patterns, written with ف ع ل, are computed by us.
The dictionaries
English: AI translation AIal-Khalīl · 170Al-jamʿ (الجمع) is the verbal noun of jamaʿtu al-shayʾ (جمعت الشيء) [I gathered the thing].
al-Khalīl b. Aḥmad (d. c. 170/786), Kitāb al-ʿAyn. The first Arabic dictionary, arranged by permutations of the root letters.
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowal-Jawharī · 393Jamaʿtu al-shayʾ al-mutafarriq fa-jtamaʿa (جمعت الشيء المتفرق فاجتمع) [I gathered the scattered thing, and it became gathered].
al-Jawharī (d. c. 393/1003), al-Ṣiḥāḥ. Admits only usage he judged sound.
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowIbn Fāris · 395The letters jīm, mīm, and ʿayn form one root indicating the coming together (taḍāmm) of a thing.
Ibn Fāris (d. 395/1004), Maqāyīs al-Lugha. Seeks each root's original sense (aṣl).
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowal-Rāghib · 502Al-jamʿ (الجمع) is the joining of a thing by bringing its parts near to one another;
al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī (d. c. 502/1108), al-Mufradāt. Quranic vocabulary, from core sense to Quranic usage.
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowLisān · 711Jamaʿa al-shayʾa ʿan tafriqatin yajmaʿuhu jamʿan (جمع الشيء عن تفرقة يجمعه جمعا), and jammaʿahu (جمعه) and ajmaʿahu (أجمعه), fa-jtamaʿa (فاجتمع) and ijdamaʿa (اجدمع) — this latter being an assimilated variant form;
Ibn Manẓūr (d. 711/1311), Lisān al-ʿArab. The great compendium of the earlier dictionaries (entry shortened).
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowLane · 1876English, synthesising the classical dictionaries.
E. W. Lane (d. 1876), An Arabic-English Lexicon. English, synthesising the classical dictionaries.
Lane, Arabic-English Lexiconread Lane's entry online ↗
Technical definitions10 · Ibn ʿArabī’s Iṣṭilāḥ, al-Jurjānī’s Taʿrīfāt
الجمع
اشارة الى حق بلا خلق.
Al-jamʿ (الجمع): a pointer/indication toward the Real (al-Ḥaqq) without [reference to] creation. AI
جمع الجمع
الاستهلاك بالكلية فى الله.
Jamʿ al-jamʿ (جمع الجمع) [the gathering of the gathering]: complete annihilation (al-istihlāk bi-l-kulliyyah) in God. AI
الاجتماع
تقارب أجسام بعضها من بعض.
Al-ijtimāʿ (الاجتماع) [combination]: the mutual proximity of bodies to one another. AI
اجتماع الساكنين على حدة
وهو جائز، وهو ما كان الأول حرف مد، أو لا يكون الثاني مدغما فيه. كدابة، وخويصة، وفي تصغير خاصة.
Ijtimāʿ al-sākinayn ʿalā ḥiddah (اجتماع الساكنين على حدة) [the combination of two quiescent letters, each separately valid]: this is permissible; it is when the first is a letter of prolongation (ḥarf madd), or the second is not assimilated into it — as in dābbah (دابة), khuwayṣah (خويصة), and in the diminutive of khāṣṣah (خاصة). AI
اجتماع الساكنين على غير حدة
وهو غير جائز، وهو ما كان على خلاف الساكنين على حدة، وهو إما ألا يكون الأول حرف مد، أو لا يكون الثاني مدغما فيه.
Ijtimāʿ al-sākinayn ʿalā ghayr ḥiddah (اجتماع الساكنين على غير حدة) [the combination of two quiescent letters not each separately valid]: this is not permissible; it is the opposite of the former case, namely when the first is not a letter of prolongation, or the second is not assimilated into it. AI
الإجماع
في اللغة العزم والاتفاق، وفي الاصطلاح: اتفاق المجتهدين في أمة محمد -عليه الصلاة والسلام- في عصر على أمر ديني.
Al-ijmāʿ (الإجماع) [consensus]: linguistically, firm resolve and agreement; and technically: the agreement of the mujtahids of the nation of Muḥammad (peace and blessings be upon him) in a given era on a matter of religion. AI
الإجماع
العزم التام على أمر من جماعة أهل الحل والعقد.
Al-ijmāʿ (الإجماع): complete and firm resolve on a matter by the people who have authority to loose and bind (ahl al-ḥall wa-l-ʿaqd). AI
الإجماع المركب
عبارة عن الاتفاق في الحكم مع الاختلاف في المأخذ، لكن يصير الحكم مختلفا فيه بفساد أحد المأخذين، مثاله: انعقاد الإجماع على انتقاض الطهارة عند وجود القيء والمس معا، لكن مأخذ الانتقاض عندنا القيء، وعند الشافعي: المس، فلو قدر عدم كون القيء ناقضا، فنحن لا نقول بالانتقاض، فلم يبق الإجماع، ولو قدر عدم كون المس ناقضا، فالشافعي لا يقول بالانتقاض، فلم يبق الإجماع أيضا.
Al-ijmāʿ al-murakkab (الإجماع المركب) [compound consensus]: an expression for agreement in the ruling (ḥukm) together with disagreement in its basis (maʾkhadh); however, the ruling becomes disputed if one of the two bases is shown to be invalid. Example: consensus was formed that ritual purity is invalidated when both vomiting and [genital] touching occur together, but the basis for invalidation according to us is the vomiting, while according to al-Shāfiʿī it is the touching. So if it were supposed that vomiting were not invalidating, we would not hold that purity is invalidated — so the consensus would no longer stand; and if it were supposed that touching were not invalidating, al-Shāfiʿī would not hold that purity is invalidated — so likewise the consensus would no longer stand. AI
أحدية الجمع
معناه لا تنافيه الكثرة.
جامع الكلم
ما يكون لفظه قليلا ومعناه جزيلا، كقوله صلى الله عليه وسلم: "حفت الجنة بالمكاره، وحفت النار بالشهوات". وقوله صلى الله عليه وسلم: "خير الأمور أوسطها".
The same letters, turned
The same three letters in all six orders. Choose one.
ج م ع
الجيم والميم والعين أصل واحد يدل على تضام الشيء
j-m-ʿ has one root which indicates the coming together of a thing. AI
Do these six share one core meaning?
Reference
About thisal-Khalīl, Ibn Jinnī, Ibn Fāris; the counts across the dictionary
al-Khalīl (d. c. 170/786), Kitāb al-ʿAyn, as transmitted by al-Layth: a two-letter word “turns in two ways”, a three-letter word “in six ways” (masdūsa), four letters in 24, five in 120; “its used forms are written down and its unused ones dropped” (line 975 ↗). The dictionary is built on this: each chapter takes a set of letters and names which orders are used (mustaʿmal) and which unused (muhmal). The ring shows that verdict, from the chapter heading as edited (documented in the text; how much of the book is al-Khalīl's own is disputed).
A reported total. al-Suyūṭī transmits, from Ḥamza al-Iṣfahānī, that al-Khalīl put the possible forms, used and unused, of two to five letters at 12,305,412 (al-Muzhir, line 1347 ↗). It is reported, not found in the ʿAyn. It equals exactly the arrangements of 2 to 5 different letters out of 28 (756 + 19,656 + 491,400 + 11,793,600); the breakdown printed beside it is corrupt, and al-Zubaydī's count, given next, differs (6,659,400).
Ibn Jinnī (d. 392/1002), al-Khaṣāʾiṣ, names the greater derivation (al-ishtiqāq al-akbar): bind a three-letter root and its six orders to one meaning, and bring stray members back “by the subtlety of the craft and interpretation” (line 7536 ↗). He says himself that it does not hold for every root (line 167 ↗; line 7603 ↗).
Ibn Fāris (d. 395/1004) gives each root its own aṣl and treats a rearranged word as maqlūb, “turned round”, and so not a root of its own: “j-b-dh is not a root, because it is a single word, turned round” (Maqāyīs, line 6147 ↗). The ring sets his aṣl for each order side by side; whether they meet is the question.
Neighbours on the ring differ by one swap of two letters.
The critique. A source quoted by al-Suyūṭī calls the greater derivation Ibn Jinnī's innovation, “not relied on in the language” (al-Muzhir, line 6159 ↗).
The other axis. The root's letters also go into patterns that keep their order and change the frame: the patterns (awzān) and the verb Forms I–X.
Across Ibn Fāris's dictionary. Of the 2,300 possible sets of three different sound letters (no hamza, w or y), 1,021 have at least one order as an entry. How many of their six orders are entries:
- 1 of 6319
- 2 of 6218
- 3 of 6164
- 4 of 6155
- 5 of 6107
- 6 of 658
- 1 of 6148
- 2 of 6108
- 3 of 6157
- 4 of 6179
- 5 of 6111
- 6 of 643
Of the orders al-Khalīl calls used, 2,097 are entries in Ibn Fāris and 267 are not; 17 that he calls unused are entries in Ibn Fāris.
Attested here means found in our digital texts (Ibn Fāris, Lisān al-ʿArab, Lane, the Quranic Arabic Corpus), with w and y kept apart and hamza spellings merged; it is our data, not a classical verdict. English beside the Arabic is AI translation. Sources and grades: docs/research/root-permutations.md.
Letters & sound
- جjīmmiddle of the tongue · voiced, stopSīb. · I. Jinnī
- مmīmbetween the lips · voiced, in betweenSīb. · I. Jinnī
- عʿaynmiddle of the throat · voiced, in betweenSīb. · I. Jinnī
How each letter is made, in brief, from Sībawayh's and Ibn Jinnī's own sentences (linked); their words are under Reference.
Sharing two of its three letters (computed; kinship of form, not of meaning)
Reference
How it is madeSībawayh and Ibn Jinnī · phonetics
English throughout: AI translation of the Arabic AI
ج
ومن وسط اللسان بينه وبين وسط الحنك الأعلى مخرج الجيم والشين والياء
From the middle of the tongue, between it and the middle of the upper palate, is the place of the jīm, the shīn and the yāʾ. Sībawayh, line 26553 ↗
ومن وسط اللسان بينه وبين وسط الحنك الأعلى، مخرج الجيم والشين والياء
From the middle of the tongue, between it and the middle of the upper palate, is the place of the jīm, the shīn and the yāʾ. Ibn Jinnī, line 974 ↗
م
ومما بين الشفتين مخرج الباء، والميم، والواو
From between the two lips is the place of the bāʾ, the mīm and the wāw. Sībawayh, line 26563 ↗
ومما بين الشفتين مخرج الباء والميم والواو
From between the two lips is the place of the bāʾ, the mīm and the wāw. Ibn Jinnī, line 986 ↗
ع
ومن أوسط الحلق مخرج العين والحاء
From the middle of the throat is the place of the ʿayn and the ḥāʾ. Sībawayh, lines 26548–26549 ↗
ومن وسط الحلق مخرج العين والحاء
From the middle of the throat is the place of the ʿayn and the ḥāʾ. Ibn Jinnī, line 970 ↗
Sībawayh, al-Kitāb (ed. Hārūn) and Ibn Jinnī, Sirr ṣināʿat al-iʿrāb; OpenITI digital texts (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). Full credits on each letter's page.
In the Breath of the All-MercifulIbn ʿArabī · metaphysics
English throughout: AI translation of the Arabic AI
ج
Level of existence: الفلك الأطلس فلك البروج · the Atlas (starless) sphere, the sphere of the zodiacal signs
Divine Name: الغني · al-Ghanī, the Independent
Lunar mansion: الطرف · al-Ṭarf
Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 62085Spheres of its simples (ch. 2): 10 line 2573 ↗
Nature (ch. 2)
المرتبة العشرية فحروفها حارة يابسة
The tenfold rank: its letters are hot and dry.
Ibn ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, line 2582م
Level of existence: الإنسان · the human being
Divine Name: الجامع · al-Jāmiʿ, the Gatherer
Lunar mansion: المؤخر · al-Muʾakhkhar
Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 62119Spheres of its simples (ch. 2): 10 line 2573 ↗
Nature (ch. 2)
المرتبة العشرية فحروفها حارة يابسة
The tenfold rank: its letters are hot and dry.
Ibn ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, line 2582ع
Level of existence: الطبيعة · Nature
Divine Name: الباطن · The Inward (al-Bāṭin)
Lunar mansion: الثريا · al-Thurayyā (the Pleiades)
Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 63825Spheres of its simples (ch. 2): 9 line 2572 ↗
Meaning by vowelal-Dabbāgh · a visionary claim about a primordial “Syriac”, not historical Syriac
English throughout: AI translation of the Arabic AI
ج
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي نبوة أو ولاية إذا كان قبلها أو بعدها ما يدل على ذلك، وإلا فهي للخير الذي لا يزول أبدا.
It is prophethood or sainthood (walāya) if something before or after it indicates that. Otherwise it is for the good that never ceases.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي الخير الذي يؤكل أو ينتفع الناس منه.
It is the good that is eaten, or from which people derive benefit.
With kasra ـِ
فهي الخير القليل الذي في الذات من نور الإيمان.
It is the small good within the self from the light of faith.
م
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي جميع المكونات.
It is all created beings.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي العزيز القليل كماء العين، ومنه قيل مومو.
It is the precious, scarce thing, like the water of the eye; from it comes the expression 'mūmū'.
With kasra ـِ
فهي نور الذات ظاهرا كما في العين، وباطنا كما في القلب.
It is the light of the self, outwardly as in the eye and inwardly as in the heart.
ع
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي اسم لقدوم أو رحيل.
It is a name for arrival or departure.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي اسم للساكن في الذات التي تقوم به.
It is a name for that which dwells in the self and by which the self subsists.
With kasra ـِ
فهي اسم لخبث الذات.
It is a name for the foulness of the self.
Two-letter nucleus8 roots in Ibn Fāris’s chapterج م
Ibn Fāris groups his roots under two-letter chapters (“the X and the Y and what makes them three”). These are the roots of this root's chapter with the core sense he gives each. Setting them side by side is our juxtaposition; he does not himself draw a shared meaning. His chapter heading, line 5851 ↗
- جمنالجيم والميم والنون ليس فيه غير الجمان وهو الدرL5852
- جمىالجيم والميم والحرف المعتل كلمة واحدة وهو الجماء وهو الشخص وربما ضمت الجيمL5855
- جمخالجيم والميم والخاء كلمة واحدة لعلها في باب الإبدال يقولون جامخت الرجل فاخرته وإنما قلنا إنها من باب الإبدال لأن الميم يجوز أن يكون منقلبة عن فاء وهو L5868
- جمدالجيم والميم والدال أصل واحد وهو جموس الشيء المائع من برد أو غيرهQ 1 · L5871
- جمزالجيم والميم والزاء أصل واحد وهو ضرب من السيرL5888
- جمسالجيم والميم والسين أصل واحد من جموس الشيءL5894
- جمشالجيم والميم والشين أصل واحد وهو جنس من الحلقL5896
- جمعالجيم والميم والعين أصل واحد يدل على تضام الشيءQ 129 · L5901
In the sister scriptsHebrew ג מ עSyriac ܓ ܡ ܥ
| Arabic | ج م ع |
| Hebrew | ג מ ע |
| Syriac | ܓ ܡ ܥ |
| Ancient South Arabian (musnad) | 𐩴 𐩣 𐩲 |
| Phoenician | 𐤂 𐤌 𐤏 |
Letter for letter, by the regular sound correspondences of the Semitic languages (Arabic keeps several sounds the others merged). This shows how the root would be spelled; whether a related word exists is a separate question, answered in the Semitic lens. Where an Arabic sibilant (s, sh) continues two older sounds, both spellings are shown.
Lenses
AIClassical lexiconAl-Khalīl gives jamʿ both as a verbal noun and as a name for a body of people.well attested
The lexicographers in chronological order, from al-Khalīl to Lane.
Al-Khalīl gives jamʿ both as a verbal noun and as a name for a body of people. He also records majmaʿ, where people gather; jamāʿa, the number of anything; rajul jamīʿ, compact in build; and al-masjid al-jāmiʿ, the mosque that gathers its people. Al-Jawharī begins from gathering what was scattered. He adds mujtamiʿ, a man at full strength (not said of women); jummāʿ, a mixed throng from various tribes; and jamʿ, date palms of no known variety. Ibn Fāris reduces the root to taḍāmm and extends it to the fist (jumʿ al-kaff), a great cooking-pot, and Jamʿ near Mecca, named for the gathering of people there. Al-Rāghib defines it as joining things by bringing their parts near one another. He glosses amr jāmiʿ (Q 24:62) as a weighty matter for which people assemble. Ibn Manẓūr and Lane stress gathering 'from here and there', and Lane cites al-Rāghib for the parts coming near together.
Draws on: al-ʿAyn · al-Ṣiḥāḥ · Maqāyīs · Mufradāt · Lisān · Lane
- Wiktionary, Arabic root j-m-ʿ ↗
- Lane, Arabic-English Lexicon, s.v. jamaʿa
Letters & soundAl-Dabbāgh's meanings give jīm as prophethood or sainthood when the context points that way, and otherwise as good that never ceases.speculative
What the theorists of sound symbolism would say of these letters. Speculative by nature.
Al-Dabbāgh's meanings give jīm as prophethood or sainthood when the context points that way, and otherwise as good that never ceases. Mīm is all created beings, and ʿayn is a name for arrival or departure. Read together, they could be made to say that created things are brought in and gathered, which matches the Akbarian use of jamʿ. No Breath data from Ibn ʿArabī is supplied for these letters. Mainstream linguistics treats such readings as suggestive at most.
Draws on: al-Dabbāgh (al-Ibrīz)
- Aḥmad b. al-Mubārak, al-Ibrīz (sayings of al-Dabbāgh), chapter on the letters
Root structureTwo of Ibn Fāris's j-m roots sit close to taḍāmm: j-m-d, the congealing of a liquid, and j-m-s, setting hard.uncertain
The two-letter nucleus (Ibn Fāris's own chapters) and the permutations of the letters (Ibn Jinnī).
Two of Ibn Fāris's j-m roots sit close to taḍāmm: j-m-d, the congealing of a liquid, and j-m-s, setting hard. Beside them stand jumān (pearls), jumāʾ (a person's figure), a kind of gait (j-m-z) and shaving (j-m-sh). The permutations disperse. Ibn Fāris gives j-ʿ-m as old age and greed for food, m-ʿ-j as turning and speed, ʿ-m-j as twisting, and ʿ-j-m as silence, hardness and biting. Ibn Jinnī's greater derivation does not find a common thread here.
Draws on: Maqāyīs siblings · permutations
- Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs, s.vv. j-m-d, j-m-s, ʿ-j-m, ʿ-m-j, m-ʿ-j
Semitic kin & loanwordsNo confident cognate of j-m-ʿ is established in Hebrew, Aramaic/Syriac, Akkadian or Geʿez.uncertain
Cognates in the sister languages, and whether the word was borrowed.
No confident cognate of j-m-ʿ is established in Hebrew, Aramaic/Syriac, Akkadian or Geʿez. Those languages express gathering with other roots, such as Hebrew ʾ-s-p and q-b-ṣ and Geʿez g-b-ʾ. The word is native Arabic, not a loan.
Draws on: no confident cognate
Quranic exegesisMost of the 129 occurrences are the adverbs jamīʿan and ajmaʿūn, which mark totality.plausible
How the classical exegetes read the word in the Quran.
Most of the 129 occurrences are the adverbs jamīʿan and ajmaʿūn, which mark totality. An example is Q 2:29, 'He created for you all that is in the earth', which al-Rāzī uses for the principle that things are permitted by default. In Q 75:9, the joining of the sun and moon, the commentators relay several views, including a shared loss of light and a shared rising at the end of time. Yawm al-jamʿ (Q 42:7, 64:9) is read as the Day of Resurrection, when the first and last are gathered. Q 34:26, 'our Lord will gather us together, then judge between us', joins gathering to judgement.
Akbarian readingFaṣṣ Ādam turns on comprehensiveness.well attested
The word in Ibn ʿArabī's text and terminology.
Faṣṣ Ādam turns on comprehensiveness. God willed to see the entities of His names, or His own entity, in a comprehensive being (kawn jāmiʿ) that confines the whole affair. The human constitution holds the divine comprehensiveness (al-jamʿiyya al-ilāhiyya) that makes it fit for every high rank. Adam is 'the distinguishing, comprehensive word' by whose existence the world subsists. All the names in the divine forms appear in this constitution, which thereby gains the rank of encompassment and gathering (iḥāṭa wa-jamʿ). In his Iṣṭilāḥ, jamʿ is 'a pointer to the Real without creation', and jamʿ al-jamʿ is total consumption (istihlāk) in God. This follows the Sufi pairing of jamʿ with farq.
Draws on: Fuṣūṣ, Faṣṣ Ādam · Iṣṭilāḥ al-ṣūfiyya
- Ibn ʿArabī, Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam, Faṣṣ Ādam
- Ibn ʿArabī, Iṣṭilāḥ al-ṣūfiyya, s.vv. al-jamʿ, jamʿ al-jamʿ
Reference