سفح (root sfh)

Safḥ al-jabal: its broad, reclining side; the plural is sufūḥ. Safaḥat al-ʿayn damʿahā tasfaḥu safḥan: the eye shed its tears. Safaḥa l-damʿ yasfaḥu safḥan, sufūḥan and safaḥānan. Al-Ṭirimmāḥ said: "Except the flowing of tears from every flowing eye." Safḥ al-dam is like pouring. A rajul saffāḥ is one who sheds blood. Al-musāfaḥa: staying with a woman in debauchery without a valid marriage; the son of a loose woman is called ibn al-musāfiḥa. Gabriel said: 'O Muḥammad, between you and Adam there is marriage in which there is no sifāḥ.' Al-safīḥān: two sacks made like saddlebags (khurj). He said: "She escapes when the two safīḥān sway, / with the escape of a frightened ostrich in a wide plain." Al-safīḥ is among the names of the divining arrows.

Safḥ al-jabal: its lowest part, where the water pours down; it is its reclining side. Al-Aʿshā's line: "She grazes the safḥ, then the dune, then Dhū Qār, / then the Rawḍ of al-Qaṭā, then Dhāt al-Riʾāl": it is the name of a specific place. Safaḥtu l-māʾ: I poured it out. Safaḥtu damahu: I shed his blood. Rajul saffāḥ: that is, one capable of speech. Al-Saffāḥ: the title of ʿAbd Allāh b. Muḥammad, the first caliph of the Banū l-ʿAbbās. Al-sifāḥ: fornication. You say sāfaḥahā musāfaḥatan and sifāḥan. Al-safīḥān: two sacks made like saddlebags. Al-safīḥ: an arrow of the maysir arrows, one that has no share.

The letters sīn, fāʾ and ḥāʾ (السين والفاء والحاء) are a single root indicating the pouring out of something. One says safaḥa l-dam when he spilled it, and safḥ al-dam is shedding. Al-sifāḥ (السفاح) is pouring out water without a marriage contract, so it is like something poured out and wasted. Al-Saffāḥ was a man among the chiefs of the Arabs who poured out water in a raid he made, and so was called Saffāḥ. As for safḥ al-jabal (the foot of the mountain), it belongs to the chapter of substitution, and the origin of it is ṣafḥ, which has been mentioned in its chapter. Al-safīḥ is one of the three arrows that have no share, and it departs from the root we mentioned.

Al-safḥ (السفح): the breadth of the mountain where the water pours down; it is its reclining breadth; it is also said: the safḥ is the base of the mountain; it is also said: the lowest slope; the plural is sufūḥ. Al-sufūḥ also: smooth, slippery rocks. Safaḥa l-damʿ yasfaḥuhu safḥan wa sufūḥan, fa-safaḥa: he sent it flowing; and safaḥa l-damʿ nafsuhu safaḥānan. Al-Ṭirimmāḥ said: "A bereaved woman, with no defence against injustice, / except the flowing of tears from every flowing eye." Dumūʿ sawāfiḥ, damʿ safūḥ sāfiḥ and masfūḥ. Al-safḥ for blood is like pouring. Rajul saffāḥ lil-dimāʾ: one who sheds blood. Safaḥtu damahu: I shed his blood. It is said: between them is sifāḥ, i.e. bloodshed. In the hadith of Abū Hilāl: 'He killed at the head of the water until the blood safaḥa the water'; its explanation came in the hadith: that it covered the water. Ibn al-Athīr said: this does not fit the language, because safḥ is pouring; it may be that he meant that the blood overcame the water and consumed it, like a full vessel into which something heavier than its contents is poured, so that it empties of what it holds by the amount poured into it; as if from the abundance of blood the water that was in that place poured away and the blood replaced it. Safaḥtu l-māʾ: I poured it out. Al-tasāfuḥ, al-sifāḥ and al-musāfaḥa: fornication and debauchery. In the Revelation: {chaste, not committing fornication} (غير مسافحين); the origin of that is from pouring. You say sāfaḥtuhu musāfaḥatan and sifāḥan, which is when a woman stays with a man in debauchery without a valid marriage; the son of a loose woman is called ibn al-musāfiḥa. In the hadith: 'Its beginning is sifāḥ and its end is nikāḥ', which is the woman who commits fornication with a man for a time, with a gathering between them in debauchery, and then he marries her after that; some of the Companions disliked this, and most permitted it. Al-musāfiḥa: the licentious woman. The Most High said: {chaste women, not fornicators}. Abū Isḥāq said: the musāfiḥa is the one who does not refrain from fornication; he said: fornication was called sifāḥ because it occurs without a contract, as if it were like poured-out water that nothing holds back. Another said: fornication was called sifāḥ because there is no sanctity of marriage in it and no marriage contract. Each of the two pours out his seed (manīyatahu), spilling it without a sanctity that made spilling it lawful. It is also said that it is taken from safaḥtu l-māʾ, 'I poured the water'. In the Jāhiliyya, when a man proposed to a woman he said: 'Marry me', and if he wanted fornication, he said: 'Sāfiḥīnī'. A man saffāḥ, generous, is from that, and it is also the eloquent usage. Rajul saffāḥ: one capable of speech. Al-Saffāḥ: the title of ʿAbd Allāh b. Muḥammad, the first caliph of the Banū l-ʿAbbās. He is masfūḥ al-ʿunuq, i.e. long and thick of neck. Al-safīḥ: coarse cloak. Al-safīḥān: two sacks like saddlebags placed on the camel; [entry continues]