Root · 0 in the Quran · 175 in 23 texts of the library
رتبNot given in the excerpts consulted; other classical sources converge on 'to stand firm, … (root rtb)
English rendering AI
The family of the root
Patterns computed · our dataThe words of ر ت ب that our sources attest: the root's letters in green, the added letters in gold.
21 words4 verbs4 verbal nouns3 participles1 place or instrument6 other nouns3 plurals
- مَرْتَبَةlevels; degrees
- رُتْبَةsingle step of stairs or of a ladder
- مَرَاتِب—
- تَرْتِيبarrangement; organization
- رَتَّبَhe made, or rendered, constant, firm, steady, steadfast, stable, fixed, fast, …
The whole family6 groups, by pattern; tap a pattern to see what it does
Verbs4رَتَبَ · رَتَّبَ · تَرَتَّبَ
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 يَفْعُلُ (a – u; the imperfect from Lane's “aor.”)
- رَتَبَit was, or became, constant, firm, steady, steadfast, stable, fixed, fast, …LaneForm ILane
- رَتَّبَhe made, or rendered, constant, firm, steady, steadfast, stable, fixed, fast, …LaneForm IIlibrary ×3Lane
- تَرَتَّبَForm Vlibrary ×2Lane
- أَرْتَبَForm IVLane
Verbal nouns4تَرْتِيب · إِرْتَاب · رَتْب
The action itself, named as a noun (maṣdar).grammar →
- تَرْتِيبarrangement; organizationautoForm II · Lane: inf. n.library ×17Lane
- إِرْتَابForm IV · Lane: inf. n.Lane
- رَتْبForm I · Lane: inf. n.Lane
- رُتُوبForm I · Lane: inf. n.Lane
Participles3رَاتِب · مُتَرَتِّب · مُرَتَّب
The one who does it, and the one it is done to.grammar →
- رَاتِبthing constant, firm, steady, steadfast, stable, fixed, fast, settled, …Laneactive, Form ILane
- مُتَرَتِّبarranged; organizedautoactive, Form Vlibrary ×1
- مُرَتَّبorganized; arrangedautopassive, Form IVlibrary ×1
Place, time and instrument1مَرْتَبَة
Where or when it happens, and what it is done with: the m- nouns.grammar →
- مَرْتَبَةlevels; degreesautonoun of place (with -a)library ×50Lane
Other nouns6رُتْبَة · تُرْتَب · تُرْتُبَّة
Nouns on other patterns; their meaning is learned word by word.grammar →
- رُتْبَةsingle step of stairs or of a ladderLanenounlibrary ×29Lane
- تُرْتَبnounLane
- تُرْتُبَّةsuch a one took what was like a road, to tread itLanenounLane
- رَتَبthe steps of stairsLanenounLane
Plurals3مَرَاتِب · رُتَب · رَوَاتِب
Broken plurals rebuild the word on a new pattern; sound plurals add an ending.grammar →
- مَرَاتِبbroken plural of مَرْتَبَةlibrary ×26Lane
- رُتَبbroken plural of رُتْبَةlibrary ×1Lane
- رَوَاتِبbroken plural of رَاتِبLane
Reference
Why this shape?What each of the 12 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: مَرْتَبَة, noun of place (with -a), “levels; degrees” (library, Lane)
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-rutūb (الرتوب): standing erect, as a boy makes the anklebone (kaʿb) stand erect [i.e., "irtāba"], and one who is praying "yartubu," i.e., stands upright.
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 · 393Al-rutbah (الرتبة): rank/status, and likewise al-martabah (المرتبة).
al-Jawharī (d. c. 393/1003), al-Ṣiḥāḥ. Admits only usage he judged sound.
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowLisān · 711"Rataba al-shayʾu yartubu rutūban" (رتب الشيء يرتب رتوبا), and "tarattaba" (ترتب): it became fixed and did not move.
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 definitions4 · Ibn ʿArabī’s Iṣṭilāḥ, al-Jurjānī’s Taʿrīfāt
الترتيب
لغة جعل كل شيء في مرتبته، واصطلاحا: هو جعل الأشياء الكثيرة بحيث يطلق عليها اسم الواحد، ويكون لبعض أجزائه نسبة إلى البعض، بالتقدم والتأخر.
Al-tartīb (الترتيب): lexically, placing each thing in its [proper] rank. Technically: it is making multiple things such that the name "one" [single thing] may be applied to them, with some of its parts having a relation to others in terms of precedence and posteriority. AI
مرتبة الإنسان الكامل
عبارة عن جميع المراتب الإلهية والكونية، من العقول والنفوس الكلية والجزئية، ومراتب الطبيعة، إلى آخر تنزيلات الوجود، وتسمى: المرتبة العمائية أيضا؛ فهي مضاهية للمرتبة الإلهية، ولا فرق بينهما إلا بالربوبية؛ ولذلك صار خليقة لله تعالى.
Martabat al-insān al-kāmil (مرتبة الإنسان الكامل, "the Rank of the Perfect Man"): an expression for all the divine and cosmic ranks (marātib), from the [universal] intellects and the universal and particular souls, and the ranks of nature, down to the last of the levels of manifestation of existence (tanazzulāt al-wujūd). It is also called al-martabah al-ʿamāʾiyyah (المرتبة العمائية, "the Rank of the [Primordial] Cloud"); it corresponds to the Divine Rank, and there is no difference between the two except in [respect of] lordship (rubūbiyyah); and for this reason he [the Perfect Man] became the vicegerent (khalīfah) of God, Exalted is He. AI
المرتبة الأحدية
هي ما إذا أخذت حقيقة الوجود بشرط ألا يكون معها شيء؛ فهي المرتبة المستهلكة جميع الأسماء والصفات فيها، وتسمى: جمع الجمع، وحقيقة الحقائق، والعماء أيضا.
Al-martabah al-aḥadiyyah (المرتبة الأحدية, "the Rank of Oneness"): it is [what obtains] when the reality of existence is taken on the condition that nothing accompany it; it is the rank in which all Names and Attributes are absorbed/effaced; it is also called jamʿ al-jamʿ (جمع الجمع, "the gathering of the gathering"), ḥaqīqat al-ḥaqāʾiq (حقيقة الحقائق, "the reality of realities"), and al-ʿamāʾ (العماء, "the [primordial] cloud") as well. AI
المرتبة الإلهية
ما إذا أخذت حقيقة الوجود بشرط شيء، فأما أن يؤخذ بشرط جميع الأشياء اللازمة لها، كليتها وجزئيتها، المسماة بالأسماء والصفات، فهي المرتبة الإلهية، المسماة عندهم بالواحدية، ومقام الجمع، وهذه المرتبة باعتبار الإيصال لمظاهر الأسماء، التي هي الأعيان والحقائق، إلى كمالاتها المناسبة لاستعداداتها في الخارج، تسمى: مرتبة الربوبية، وإذا أخذت بشرط كلية الأشياء تسمى: مرتبة الاسم الرحمن رب العقل الأول، المسمى بلوح القضاء، وأم الكتاب، والقلم الأعلى، وإذا أخذت بشرط أن تكون الكليات فيها جزئيات منفصلة ثابتة، من غير احتجابها عن كلياتها، فهي مرتبة الاسم الرحيم، رب النفس الكلية، المسماة بلوح القدر، وهو اللوح المحفوظ والكتاب المبين، وإذا أخذت بشرط أن تكون الصور المفصلة جزئيات متغيرة، فهي مرتبة الاسم الماحي، والمثبت، والمحيي رب النفس المنطبقة في الجسم الكلي، المسماة بلوح المحو والإثبات، وإذا أخذت بشرط أن تكون قابلة للصور النوعية الروحانية والجسمانية، فهي مرتبة الاسم القابل رب الهيولي الكلية، المشار إليها بالكتاب المسطور، والرق المنشور، وإذا أخذت بشرط الصور الحسية العينية، فهي مرتبة الاسم المصور، رب عالم الخيال المطلق والمقيد، وإذا أخذت بشرط الصور الحسية الشهادية، فهي مرتبة الاسم الظاهر المطلق، والآخر، رب عالم الملك.
Al-martabah al-ilāhiyyah (المرتبة الإلهية, "the Divine Rank"): [this obtains] when the reality of existence is taken on the condition of something. If it is taken on the condition of all the things necessarily connected to it — both universal and particular, which are named the Names and Attributes — then it is the Divine Rank, called among them [the Sufis] al-wāḥidiyyah (الواحدية, "Unicity [of Multiplicity]") and maqām al-jamʿ (مقام الجمع, "the Station of Gathering"). This rank, with regard to conveying the loci of manifestation of the Names — which are the essences (aʿyān) and realities (ḥaqāʾiq) — to the perfections suited to their receptivities in the external [world], is called martabat al-rubūbiyyah (مرتبة الربوبية, "the Rank of Lordship"). If it is taken on the condition of the universality of things, it is called martabat al-ism al-Raḥmān (مرتبة الاسم الرحمن, "the Rank of the Name 'the All-Merciful'"), Lord of the First Intellect (al-ʿaql al-awwal), named the Tablet of Decree (lawḥ al-qaḍāʾ), the Mother of the Book (umm al-kitāb), and the Supreme Pen (al-qalam al-aʿlā). And if it is taken on the condition that the universals within it be [also] fixed, separate particulars, without being veiled from their universals, then it is the Rank of the Name al-Raḥīm (اسم الرحيم, "the All-Compassionate"), Lord of the Universal Soul (al-nafs al-kulliyyah), named the Tablet of Destiny (lawḥ al-qadar), which is the Preserved Tablet (al-lawḥ al-maḥfūẓ) [entry continues] AI
The same letters, turned
The same three letters in all six orders. Choose one.
an entry in Ibn Fārislater sources onlyin none of them
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
- رrāʾtip of the tongue, near the nūn · voiced, in betweenSīb. · I. Jinnī
- تtāʾtongue-tip, roots of the teeth · voiceless, stopSīb. · I. Jinnī
- بbāʾbetween the lips · voiced, stopSīb. · 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
ر
ومن مخرج النون غير أنه أدخل في ظهر اللسان قليلا لانحرافه إلى اللام مخرج الراء
From the place of the nūn, except that it goes a little further onto the back of the tongue, because it leans towards the lām, is the place of the rāʾ. Sībawayh, lines 26557–26558 ↗
ومن مخرج النون غير أنه أدخل في ظهر اللسان قليلا، لانحرافه إلى اللام، مخرج الراء
From the place of the nūn, except that it goes a little further onto the back of the tongue, because it leans towards the lām, is the place of the rāʾ. Ibn Jinnī, lines 980–981 ↗
ت
ومما بين طرف اللسان وأصول الثنايا مخرج الطاء، والدال، والتاء
From between the tip of the tongue and the roots of the front teeth is the place of the ṭāʾ, the dāl and the tāʾ. Sībawayh, line 26559 ↗
ومما بين طرف اللسان وأصول الثنايا، مخرج الطاء والدال والتاء
From between the tip of the tongue and the roots of the front teeth is the place of the ṭāʾ, the dāl and the tāʾ. Ibn Jinnī, line 982 ↗
ب
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 ↗
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
ر
Level of existence: السماء الخامسة · the fifth heaven
Divine Name: المصور · the Form-Giver (al-Muṣawwir)
Lunar mansion: الغفر · al-Ghafr
Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 64675Spheres 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 2582ت
Spheres 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 2582ب
Level of existence: الجن · the jinn
Divine Name: اللطيف · al-Laṭīf, the Subtle
Lunar mansion: الفرع المقدم · al-Farʿ al-Muqaddam
Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 62118Spheres 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 2582Meaning by vowelal-Dabbāgh · a visionary claim about a primordial “Syriac”, not historical Syriac
English throughout: AI translation of the Arabic AI
ر
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي إشارة إلى جميع الخيرات الظاهرة والباطنة.
It is an indication of all goods, outward and inward.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي إشارة إلى الواحد في نفسه وهو ظاهر.
It is an indication of the one in itself, and it is manifest.
With kasra ـِ
فهي إشارة إلى الشيء الذي فيه الروح وليس من بني آدم، أو إشارة إلى الروح نفسها.
It is an indication of a thing that has spirit in it but is not of the children of Adam, or an indication of the spirit itself.
ت
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي اسم للخير الكثير العظيم.
It is a name for abundant, great good.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي اسم للقليل البارز.
It is a name for the small, protruding/manifest thing.
With kasra ـِ
فهي اسم لما صنع وأبرز.
It is a name for what has been made and brought forth.
ب
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي إشارة إلى الشيء الذي هو في غاية العز أو في غاية الذل.
It is an indication of the thing that is at the utmost of might or at the utmost of abasement.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي إشارة معها قبض.
It is an indication accompanied by contraction (qabḍ).
With kasra ـِ
فهي إشارة إلى ما دخل أو هو داخل على الذات.
It is an indication of what has entered, or is entering, upon the self.
Two-letter nucleus3 roots in Ibn Fāris’s chapterر ت
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 12543 ↗
- رتجالراء والتاء والجيم أصل واحد وهو يدل على إغلاق وضيقL12544
- رتخالراء والتاء والخاء ليس بشيء على أنهم يقولون رتخ العجين رتخا إذا رق وكذلك الطينL12552
- رتعالراء والتاء والعين كلمة واحدة وهي تدل على الاتساع في المأكل تقول رتع يرتع إذا أكل ما شاء ولا يكون ذلك إلا في الخصب والمراتع مواضع الرتعة وهذه المنزلةQ 1 · L12553
In the sister scriptsHebrew ר ת בSyriac ܪ ܬ ܒ
| Arabic | ر ت ب |
| Hebrew | ר ת ב |
| Syriac | ܪ ܬ ܒ |
| Ancient South Arabian (musnad) | 𐩧 𐩩 𐩨 |
| Phoenician | 𐤓 𐤕 𐤁 |
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's al-ʿAyn grounds rutūb in physical uprightness: a boy 'stands up' the kaʿb (a die used in a game), and the man at prayer 'stands erect' (yurattib);well attested
The lexicographers in chronological order, from al-Khalīl to Lane.
Al-Khalīl's al-ʿAyn grounds rutūb in physical uprightness: a boy 'stands up' the kaʿb (a die used in a game), and the man at prayer 'stands erect' (yurattib); from this image al-rutab denotes raised ground formed like steps, rutba is a single step among such steps, and martaba is a rank or station with kings; he also records marātib as mountain and desert waymarks where watchers are posted, and the idiom mā fī ʿayshihi rataba, 'his life runs without hardship.' Al-Jawharī keeps this field — rutba/martaba as rank, martaba glossed by al-Aṣmaʿī as marqaba, a mountain lookout — and adds amr rātib, 'a fixed, constant matter,' plus the verbal image rataba rutūb al-kaʿb, 'it stood as firm as the die stands.' Ibn Manẓūr consolidates: rataba/tarattaba means 'it became fixed and stopped moving,' cited in the ḥadīth describing Luqmān ibn ʿĀd standing as firm as a thrown die (a figure for mettle and sharpness of spirit), and in the report that Ibn al-Zubayr prayed unmoved amid catapult-stones, 'like a steady die.' Lane's entry matches exactly: rataba, inf. n. rutūb, 'to be constant, firm, steady, stable, fixed, motionless,' applied specifically to a die and to a person standing erect. Ibn Fāris's own chapter-text for this root is not preserved in the excerpts consulted, so this arc rests on al-Khalīl, al-Jawharī, Ibn Manẓūr, and Lane alone.
Draws on: al-ʿAyn · al-Ṣiḥāḥ · Lisān al-ʿArab · Lane
- al-Khalīl, Kitāb al-ʿAyn
- al-Jawharī, al-Ṣiḥāḥ
- Ibn Manẓūr, Lisān al-ʿArab
- Lane, Arabic-English Lexicon
Letters & soundAl-Dabbāgh reads r as 'an indication of all goods, outward and inward' and t as 'a name for abundant, great good,' while the akbarī correspondence-table leaves t unglossed and assigns b to 'the jinn';speculative
What the theorists of sound symbolism would say of these letters. Speculative by nature.
Al-Dabbāgh reads r as 'an indication of all goods, outward and inward' and t as 'a name for abundant, great good,' while the akbarī correspondence-table leaves t unglossed and assigns b to 'the jinn'; al-Dabbāgh reads b as marking 'the utmost of might or the utmost of abasement.' Strung together, rataba's letters would move from comprehensive good (r) through intensified good (t) to a final polarity of extremity (b), loosely mirroring rutba's own semantic range from lofty martaba, a king's station, down to a mere step in a staircase. This is speculative: no historical-linguistic evidence supports fixed semantic content for individual Arabic consonants, and the correspondence should be treated as, at best, a later mnemonic or mystical gloss.
Draws on: Ibn ʿArabī letter-correspondence table · al-Dabbāgh
- al-Dabbāgh, letter-meanings tradition
Root structureIbn Fāris's ر-ت chapter places rataba between two neighbors of markedly different valence: ratija, 'closing and narrowing' (ghalq wa-ḍīq), and rataʿa, 'expansiveness in eating,' said of an animal grazing freely (whence marātiʿ, pasture-grounds).plausible
The two-letter nucleus (Ibn Fāris's own chapters) and the permutations of the letters (Ibn Jinnī).
Ibn Fāris's ر-ت chapter places rataba between two neighbors of markedly different valence: ratija, 'closing and narrowing' (ghalq wa-ḍīq), and rataʿa, 'expansiveness in eating,' said of an animal grazing freely (whence marātiʿ, pasture-grounds). Rataba's sense of fixed, upright standing sits between these poles — neither shut in nor let loose, but settled in place. Among the six permutations of the same three letters, ribat (ر-ب-ت) is treated by Ibn Fāris not as an independent root but as a substitution-variant (bāb al-ibdāl) of rataba, used for patting or steadying — a plausible semantic cousin of 'making firm.' The remaining permutations (turāb/tarab, tibr/tabāb, birt, batr) range across dust, equality-of-age, destruction, unrefined ore, and cutting; whether Ibn Jinnī's greater-derivation method could find a buried common sense of 'a thing settling to its fixed residue' across all six is speculative juxtaposition only, not an established result.
Draws on: Ibn Fāris nucleus siblings · permutations table · Ibn Jinnī, greater derivation
- Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-Lugha, chapter ر-ت and permutations of ر-ت-ب
- Ibn Jinnī, al-Khaṣāʾiṣ, chapter on al-ishtiqāq al-akbar (link not verified)
Semitic kin & loanwordsNo confident Semitic cognate for ر-ت-ب itself has been identified.plausible
Cognates in the sister languages, and whether the word was borrowed.
No confident Semitic cognate for ر-ت-ب itself has been identified. It should not be confused with the phonetically similar but etymologically distinct root ر-ط-ب (raṭaba, 'moist, fresh'), which does have recognized cognates such as Hebrew rāṭōḇ. Given the absence of attested cognates in Hebrew, Aramaic, Akkadian, Geʿez, or South Arabian, there is no basis for treating رتب as a loanword; it is best taken as an inner-Arabic triliteral development.
Draws on: comparative Semitic lexica
Philosophy & kalāmMartaba/rutba became a standard technical term in falsafa and kalām for a hierarchical degree or rank, used for instance for the ordered levels of intelligible causes in the Avicennan emanation scheme, and for degrees of certainty, generality, or modal status of a proposition in logical and theological discussion.plausible
The word as a technical term in falsafa and theology.
Martaba/rutba became a standard technical term in falsafa and kalām for a hierarchical degree or rank, used for instance for the ordered levels of intelligible causes in the Avicennan emanation scheme, and for degrees of certainty, generality, or modal status of a proposition in logical and theological discussion. The term supplies a vocabulary for graded hierarchy without committing to a spatial or temporal ordering, which is why it recurs across metaphysics (degrees of being), epistemology (degrees of certainty), and law (degrees of obligation).
Draws on: Avicennan emanation scheme · kalām logic
- Avicenna, al-Shifāʾ, Ilāhiyyāt
Akbarian readingIn Faṣṣ Ādam, Ibn ʿArabī uses rutba as an achieved ontological station rather than a mere social rank: the human constitution, by containing what is found in the divine Names' images, 'attains the rank of comprehensiveness and gathering' (ḥāzat rutbat al-iḥāṭa wa-al-jamʿ) through this existence.well attested
The word in Ibn ʿArabī's text and terminology.
In Faṣṣ Ādam, Ibn ʿArabī uses rutba as an achieved ontological station rather than a mere social rank: the human constitution, by containing what is found in the divine Names' images, 'attains the rank of comprehensiveness and gathering' (ḥāzat rutbat al-iḥāṭa wa-al-jamʿ) through this existence. He then identifies Adam's own rutba with exactly that totality (al-majmūʿ) which entitled him to the vicegerency, saying one has already learned 'the constitution of his rutba, which is the totality by which he merited the khilāfa.' A third passage speaks of God clarifying the marātib, the relative ranks, of what is contained in the two 'grasps' — the world in one, Adam and his progeny in the other. Across these occurrences rutba names not a fixed social hierarchy but the specific ontological station that comprehensiveness (jamʿiyya) confers, so that the term functions almost as a synonym for the human being's unique standing as locus of all-comprehension.
Draws on: Faṣṣ Ādam excerpts
- Ibn ʿArabī, Fuṣūṣ al-Ḥikam, Faṣṣ Ādam
Illuminationist readingSuhrawardī organizes reality as a graded hierarchy of pure lights (al-anwār al-qāhira), and regularly uses martaba/marātib for the rank or intensity-level a given light occupies relative to the Light of Lights (Nūr al-Anwār) — the technical vocabulary underlying his doctrine of tashkīk, the systematic gradation of light by more-and-less rather than by genus and difference.plausible
The word in Suhrawardī's philosophy of light.
Suhrawardī organizes reality as a graded hierarchy of pure lights (al-anwār al-qāhira), and regularly uses martaba/marātib for the rank or intensity-level a given light occupies relative to the Light of Lights (Nūr al-Anwār) — the technical vocabulary underlying his doctrine of tashkīk, the systematic gradation of light by more-and-less rather than by genus and difference. In this scheme rutba names a purely intensive station, a degree of luminosity or priority, rather than a spatial or social position, which is a distinctive Ishrāqī extension of the word's ordinary sense of 'fixed step, rank.' This reading draws on Suhrawardī's general doctrine rather than on any excerpt supplied here and should be checked against the primary text.
Draws on: Suhrawardī, Ḥikmat al-Ishrāq
- Suhrawardī, Ḥikmat al-Ishrāq
Reference