Root · 19 in the Quran · 73 in 20 texts of the library
طلعa single sound sense denoting ẓuhūr and burūz — appearing/emerging into view. (root tl)
الطاء واللام والعين أصل واحد صحيح يدل على ظهور وبروز
Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-lugha · English rendering AI
The family of the root
Patterns computed · our dataThe words of ط ل ع that our sources attest: the root's letters in green, the added letters in gold.
40 words8 verbs8 verbal nouns6 participles2 places and instruments2 intensives and elatives9 other nouns5 plurals
- أَطْلَعَinstruct; disclose
- اِطْتَلَعَ—
- طَلَعَتَappear; rise
- مَطْلَعbeginning; rise
- طَلْع—
The whole family7 groups, by pattern; tap a pattern to see what it does
Verbs8طَلَعَتَ · أَطْلَعَ · اِطْتَلَعَ
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.”)
- طَلَعَتَappear; riseautoForm IQurʾān ×2library ×5LaneIbn Fāris
- أَطْلَعَinstruct; discloseauto · Lane: see Form IForm IVQurʾān ×1library ×22LaneIbn Fāris
- اِطْتَلَعَForm VIIIQurʾān ×7Lane
- طَالَعَthe studying, and perusing, of booksLaneForm IIIlibrary ×5Lane
Verbal nouns8طُلُوع · اِطِّلاع · تَطَلُّع
The action itself, named as a noun (maṣdar).grammar →
- طُلُوعrising; ascentautoForm I · Lane: inf. n.Qurʾān ×2library ×1Lane
- اِطِّلاعexamination; inspectionautoForm IVlibrary ×4Ibn Fāris
- تَطَلُّعendeavorautoForm Vlibrary ×2Ibn Fāris
- طِلَاعthing sufficient in quantity, or dimensions, for the filling of another thingLaneForm III · Lane: inf. n.LaneIbn Fāris
Participles6طَالِع · مُطَّلِع · مُطَّلَع
The one who does it, and the one it is done to.grammar →
- طَالِعrising, or appearing, as a starLaneactive, Form Ilibrary ×7Lane
- مُطَّلِعstrong, or powerfulLanepassive, Form IVlibrary ×2LaneIbn Fāris
- مُطَّلَعplace to which one ascendsLanepassive, Form IILaneIbn Fāris
- مُطْلِعactive, Form IVLaneIbn Fāris
Place, time and instrument2مَطْلَع · مَطْلِع
Where or when it happens, and what it is done with: the m- nouns.grammar →
Intensives, qualities and the elative2طَلَّاع · طَلُوع
The quality carried far, held as a trait, or compared.grammar →
Other nouns9طَلْع · طَلِيعَة · طَلْعَة
Nouns on other patterns; their meaning is learned word by word.grammar →
Plurals5طَوَالِع · طَلَائِع · طُلْع
Broken plurals rebuild the word on a new pattern; sound plurals add an ending.grammar →
- طَوَالِعbroken plural of طالِعlibrary ×6Lane
- طَلَائِعplural of vanguardfrom the singularbroken plural of طَلِيعَةlibrary ×1Lane
- طُلْعbroken plural of طِلَاعLaneIbn Fāris
- مَطالِعbroken plural of مَطْلَعlibrary ×2
- مُطَّلِعُونplural of strong, or powerfulfrom the singularsound plural of مُطَّلِعQurʾān ×1
Reference
Why this shape?What each of the 19 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.
Not in our sources. A possible shape, not a word we can show: the Quran, the library and Lane do not have it for this root.
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-Jawharī · 393Ṭalaʿat al-shams wa'l-kawkab (طلعت الشمس والكوكب) — "the sun and the star rose" — ṭulūʿan, maṭlaʿan, and maṭliʿan (طلوعا ومطلعا ومطلعا).
al-Jawharī (d. c. 393/1003), al-Ṣiḥāḥ. Admits only usage he judged sound.
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowIbn Fāris · 395Ṭāʾ, lām, and ʿayn is one sound root indicating appearance and emergence (ẓuhūr and burūz).
Ibn Fāris (d. 395/1004), Maqāyīs al-Lugha. Seeks each root's original sense (aṣl).
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowal-Rāghib · 502Ṭalaʿa al-shams (طلع الشمس) — "the sun rose" — ṭulūʿan and maṭlaʿan (طلوعا ومطلعا).
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 · 711Ṭalaʿat al-shams wa'l-qamar wa'l-fajr wa'l-nujūm (طلعت الشمس والقمر والفجر والنجوم) — "the sun, moon, dawn, and stars rose" — taṭluʿu (تطلع), ṭulūʿan, maṭlaʿan, and maṭliʿan (طلوعا ومطلعا ومطلعا), so it is ṭāliʿa (طالعة)
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
الطوالع
انوار التوحيد تطلع على قلوب اهل المعرفة فتطمس سائر الانوار.
المطالعة
توقيعات الحق للعارفين ابتداء وعن سؤال منهم فيما يرجع الى حوادث الكون.
الطوالع
أول ما يبدو من تجليات الأسماء الإلهية على باطن العبد، فتحسن أخلاقه وصفاته بتنوير باطنه.
المطالعة
توفيقات الحق للعارفين القائمين بحمل أعباء الخلافة ابتداء، أي من غير طلب ولا سؤال منهم أيضا.
The same letters, turned
The same three letters in all six orders. Choose one.
ط ل ع
الطاء واللام والعين أصل واحد صحيح يدل على ظهور وبروز
ṭ-l-ʿ: one sound root indicating appearance and emergence. AI
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
- طṭāʾtongue-tip, roots of the teeth · voiced, stop, velarisedSīb. · I. Jinnī
- لlāmedge of the tongue · voiced, in betweenI. 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
ط
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 ↗
ل
ومن حافة اللسان من أدناها إلى منتهى طرف اللسان، من بينها وبين ما يليها من الحنك الأعلى، مما فويق الضاحك والناب والرباعية والثنية، مخرج اللام
From the edge of the tongue, from its nearest part to the end of its tip, between it and the upper palate next to it, just above the premolar, the canine, the lateral and the central incisor, is the place of the lām. Ibn Jinnī, lines 977–978 ↗
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
ط
Level of existence: السماء السادسة · the sixth heaven
Divine Name: المحصي · the Enumerator (al-Muḥṣī)
Lunar mansion: الزبانا · al-Zubānā
Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 64680Spheres 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 2582ل
Level of existence: السماء الثالثة · the third heaven
Divine Name: القاهر · the Subduer (al-Qāhir)
Lunar mansion: العوا · al-ʿAwwā
Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 64654Spheres of its simples (ch. 2): 7 line 2576 ↗
Nature (ch. 2)
منها دون الألف فطبعها الحرارة واليبوسة
[Zāy and lām] of it, excluding alif: their nature is heat and dryness.
Ibn ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, line 2577ع
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
ط
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي إشارة إلى الشيء الذي جنسه طاهر وصاف إلى النهاية، وهو في ذاته أيضا طاهر صاف إلى النهاية.
It is an indication of the thing whose genus is pure and clear to the utmost, and which is also, in itself, pure and clear to the utmost.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي إشارة إلى الخبيث إلى النهاية عكس الأول.
It is an indication of what is foul to the utmost, the reverse of the first.
With kasra ـِ
فهي إشارة إلى الشيء الذي من طبعه السكون أو أمر بالسكون.
It is an indication of the thing whose nature is stillness, or which has been commanded to be still.
ل
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي حصول المتكلم على شيء عظيم، وتكون إشارة إلى شيء عظيم.
It is the speaker's attaining of something great, and it serves as an indication of something great.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي إشارة إلى الشيء الذي لا نهاية له.
It is an indication of the thing that has no end.
With kasra ـِ
فهي إشارة من المتكلم إلى وجود ذاته أو إلى ذاته.
It is an indication by the speaker of the existence of his self, or of his self.
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 nucleus7 roots in Ibn Fāris’s chapterط ل
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 18054 ↗
- طلمالطاء واللام والميم أصل صحيح وهو ضرب الشيء ببسط الشيء المبسوط مثال ذلك الطلم وهو ضربك خبزة الملة بيدك تنفض ما عليها من الرماد وما أقرب ما بين الطلم واL18055
- طلهالطاء واللام والهاء ليس عندي بأصل يفرع منه ولا قياسه بذلك الصحيح لكنهم يقولون طله في البلاد إذا ذهب يطله طلها ويقولون الطلهة القليل من الكلام ويقال الL18061
- طلىالطاء واللام والحرف المعتل أصلان صحيحان أحدهما يدل على لطخ شيء بشيء والآخر على شيء صغير كالولد للشيءL18064
- طلخالطاء واللام والخاء ليس بشيء وذكروا فيه كلمة كأنها مقلوبةL18094
- طلسالطاء واللام والسين أصل صحيح كأنه يدل على ملاسةL18096
- طلفالطاء واللام والفاء أصل صحيح يدل على إهانة الشيء وطرحه ثم يحمل عليه فالطلف الهدر من الدماء وكل شيء لم يطلب فهو هدرL18117
- طلقالطاء واللام والقاف أصل صحيح مطرد واحد وهو يدل على التخلية والإرسالQ 23 · L18124
In the sister scriptsHebrew ט ל עSyriac ܛ ܠ ܥ
| Arabic | ط ل ع |
| Hebrew | ט ל ע |
| Syriac | ܛ ܠ ܥ |
| Ancient South Arabian (musnad) | 𐩷 𐩡 𐩲 |
| Phoenician | 𐤈 𐤋 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-Jawharī (al-Ṣiḥāḥ) fixes the core sense as ṭalaʿati l-shamsu, the sun's rising, with maṭlaʿ as both the rising itself and the place of rising, then extends it to ṭalaʿtu ʿalā l-qawm (I came upon them) versus ṭalaʿtu ʿanhum (I went out of their sight), and to iṭṭalaʿtu ʿalā bāṭini amrihi, an ifta'ala form for becoming privy to a hidden matter.well attested
The lexicographers in chronological order, from al-Khalīl to Lane.
Al-Jawharī (al-Ṣiḥāḥ) fixes the core sense as ṭalaʿati l-shamsu, the sun's rising, with maṭlaʿ as both the rising itself and the place of rising, then extends it to ṭalaʿtu ʿalā l-qawm (I came upon them) versus ṭalaʿtu ʿanhum (I went out of their sight), and to iṭṭalaʿtu ʿalā bāṭini amrihi, an ifta'ala form for becoming privy to a hidden matter. Ibn Fāris (Maqāyīs) confirms the single root-sense of ẓuhūr wa burūz, citing maṭlaʿ al-fajr, ṭalaʿa ʿalaynā fulān (he burst in upon us), aṭlaʿtuka l-amr (I disclosed the matter to you), and ṭalʿ al-nakhla, the palm's spadix, plus the idiom ṭilāʿ al-arḍ dhahaban (the earth's fill of gold, i.e. all that the earth's surface could hold). Al-Rāghib (Mufradāt) systematizes the metaphor: literal ṭulūʿ of sun, moon, and dawn is extended by istiʿāra to a person's sudden or awaited appearance (ṭalaʿa ʿalaynā, taṭallaʿtu ilā wurūdi kitābika, istaṭlaʿtu raʾyahu), keeping ẓuhūr as the constant. Ibn Manẓūr (Lisān) preserves this range and adds the grammarians' note that maṭlaʿ is anomalous among maṣdars of the fa'ala–yaf'ilu pattern taking the mafʿal form, and records the qirāʾāt dispute over the vocalization of maṭlaʿ al-fajr (fatḥ vs kasr of the lām). Lane compiles these strands, confirming ṭulūʿ, maṭlaʿ, and maṭliʿ as the standard triad of maṣdar/noun-of-place-and-time for the sun's, moon's, and a star's rising.
Draws on: sihah · Ibn Fāris · mufradat · lisan · Lane
- al-Jawharī, al-Ṣiḥāḥ, s.v. ṭ-l-ʿ
- Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-Lugha, s.v. ṭ-l-ʿ
- al-Rāghib, al-Mufradāt, s.v. ṭ-l-ʿ
- Ibn Manẓūr, Lisān al-ʿArab, s.v. ṭ-l-ʿ
- Lane, Arabic-English Lexicon, s.v. ṭ-l-ʿ
Letters & soundAl-Dabbāgh reads ṭāʾ as indicating a thing pure and clear to the utmost in both genus and self, lām as the speaker's attaining of something great, and ʿayn as a name for arrival or departure — a sequence that, read together, could be heard as 'a pure and great thing arrives/departs', apt for the sudden clarity of something rising into view.speculative
What the theorists of sound symbolism would say of these letters. Speculative by nature.
Al-Dabbāgh reads ṭāʾ as indicating a thing pure and clear to the utmost in both genus and self, lām as the speaker's attaining of something great, and ʿayn as a name for arrival or departure — a sequence that, read together, could be heard as 'a pure and great thing arrives/departs', apt for the sudden clarity of something rising into view. Ibn ʿArabī's correspondence of letters to the heavens assigns ṭāʾ to the sixth heaven, lām to the third, and ʿayn to Nature (al-Ṭabīʿa) itself, so that the very letters of ṭalaʿa trace a descent from higher heavens into the natural order where appearance occurs. This is offered as suggestive letter-symbolism only; mainstream historical linguistics finds no causal link between individual Arabic letters and the meanings of the roots that contain them, and treats such readings as a hermeneutic overlay rather than an etymological account.
Draws on: dabbagh_fatha · akbari198
- Ibn ʿArabī, letters and the seven heavens (Futūḥāt, correspondences)
- al-Dabbāgh, letter-meanings (fatḥa series)
Root structureIbn Fāris groups ṭ-l with siblings such as ṭ-l-m (striking a flat thing against a flat thing), ṭ-l-y (smearing, or something small like an offspring), ṭ-l-s (smoothness), ṭ-l-f (discarding/dishonoring, as of blood), and ṭ-l-q (release, letting go) — a family loosely oriented around surfaces, release, and emergence, into which ṭalaʿa's ẓuhūr wa burūz fits without strain.uncertain
The two-letter nucleus (Ibn Fāris's own chapters) and the permutations of the letters (Ibn Jinnī).
Ibn Fāris groups ṭ-l with siblings such as ṭ-l-m (striking a flat thing against a flat thing), ṭ-l-y (smearing, or something small like an offspring), ṭ-l-s (smoothness), ṭ-l-f (discarding/dishonoring, as of blood), and ṭ-l-q (release, letting go) — a family loosely oriented around surfaces, release, and emergence, into which ṭalaʿa's ẓuhūr wa burūz fits without strain. Among the six permutations of ṭ-l-ʿ, only ṭalaʿa (19 Quranic occurrences) and laʿaṭ (a term for a colour-marking) are glossed with content; ʿaṭala (2 occurrences, sense of khulūw wa farāgh, emptiness/vacancy) is attested with the opposite valence — presence-through-emergence versus absence-through-vacancy. Ibn Jinnī's greater derivation (al-ishtiqāq al-akbar) would invite one to juxtapose ṭalaʿa (something coming into view) against ʿaṭala (something left standing empty, as an uncalled-for camel or an unvisited well) as a possible semantic mirror-pair sharing the letters ṭ/ʿ and ʿ/ṭ — this is a juxtaposition only, not an asserted derivation.
Draws on: maqayis nucleus siblings · permutations table
- Wiktionary Arabic root appendix ط ل ع ↗
- Ibn Jinnī, al-Khaṣāʾiṣ, chapter on al-ishtiqāq al-akbar (link not verified)
Semitic kin & loanwordsNo confident cognate for ṭ-l-ʿ in this sense (rising, emergence) is established in Hebrew, Aramaic/Syriac, Akkadian, Geʿez, or the Old South Arabian corpus with the data available;uncertain
Cognates in the sister languages, and whether the word was borrowed.
No confident cognate for ṭ-l-ʿ in this sense (rising, emergence) is established in Hebrew, Aramaic/Syriac, Akkadian, Geʿez, or the Old South Arabian corpus with the data available; the common Semitic terms for the sun's rising use different roots (e.g. Hebrew and Aramaic z-r-ḥ/dnḥ, Akkadian (w)aṣû). This should be stated plainly as an absence rather than a probable independent Arabic innovation with no known family; it may simply reflect the limits of the present survey rather than genuine isolation.
Draws on: comparative Semitic survey
Quranic exegesisOn maṭliʿ al-shams in the Dhū l-Qarnayn narrative (18:90), al-Ṭabarī reports the reports that he reached a people over whom the sun rose with no shelter (sitr) between them and it, while al-Rāzī raises and answers the objection that a literal 'place where the sun rises' seems geographically naive, favoring a reading tied to the horizon as experienced by that people rather than a cosmological terminus.well attested
How the classical exegetes read the word in the Quran.
On maṭliʿ al-shams in the Dhū l-Qarnayn narrative (18:90), al-Ṭabarī reports the reports that he reached a people over whom the sun rose with no shelter (sitr) between them and it, while al-Rāzī raises and answers the objection that a literal 'place where the sun rises' seems geographically naive, favoring a reading tied to the horizon as experienced by that people rather than a cosmological terminus. On the Companions of the Cave (18:17-18), the exegetes take tazāwur al-shams ʿinda l-ṭulūʿ (the sun's swerving at its rising) as one of the Qurʾān's signs of divine solicitude for the sleepers, sheltering them from direct sun without a compass adjustment on their part. On ḥattā maṭlaʿi l-fajr (97:5), al-Rāghib notes the grammarians' dispute over fatḥ/kasr of the lām (maṣdar vs noun of place/time) and the exegetes read the verse as marking the temporal extent of the peace (salām) of Laylat al-Qadr, ending precisely at the appearance of dawn. On hal antum muṭṭaliʿūn (37:54-55), al-Zamakhsharī reads iṭṭilāʿ as the People of Paradise looking down and over into Hell, extending the root's sense of 'coming into view from above' to an eschatological vista.
Draws on: 18:17 · 18:18 · 18:90 · 97:5 · 37:54-55
Akbarian readingIbn ʿArabī defines al-ṭawāliʿ as the lights of tawḥīd that rise (taṭluʿu) upon the hearts of the gnostics and efface all other lights, and al-muṭālaʿa as the Real's disclosures (tawqīʿāt) to the gnostics, given either spontaneously or in answer to their question, concerning the events of the cosmos — in both cases ṭulūʿ names an unveiling that comes upon the heart from beyond it, echoing the root's basic sense of something appearing over/upon a recipient.well attested
The word in Ibn ʿArabī's text and terminology.
Ibn ʿArabī defines al-ṭawāliʿ as the lights of tawḥīd that rise (taṭluʿu) upon the hearts of the gnostics and efface all other lights, and al-muṭālaʿa as the Real's disclosures (tawqīʿāt) to the gnostics, given either spontaneously or in answer to their question, concerning the events of the cosmos — in both cases ṭulūʿ names an unveiling that comes upon the heart from beyond it, echoing the root's basic sense of something appearing over/upon a recipient. In Faṣṣ Ādam, God 'aṭlaʿahu' — disclosed to Adam what He had deposited within him — placing that disclosed content into two grasps (qabḍatayn), one holding the cosmos and the other holding Adam and his progeny, and Ibn ʿArabī reports that God likewise 'aṭlaʿanī' in his own inmost secret (sirrī) upon what was deposited in this 'greatest father-imām'. The causative aṭlaʿa thus names, in Akbarian usage, the specifically unearned bestowal of unveiled knowledge from the Real to the receptive heart.
Draws on: ibnArabiDefinitions · inFassAdam
- Ibn ʿArabī, Iṣṭilāḥāt, s.v. al-ṭawāliʿ / al-muṭālaʿa
- Ibn ʿArabī, Fuṣūṣ al-Ḥikam, Faṣṣ Ādam
Reference