0.2.8
Among the characteristic associations of the letter h are stupidity, heedlessness, and rathʾ, or lack of native wit, examples being aliha (“to be perplexed”), umiha (“to become demented”), baliha (“to be stupid”), būhah (“a stupid, inconstant, and disordered man”), tafiha (“to become stupid”), tawh (“disturbance of the mind”), dalh (“being maddened by love”), sabah (“senile dementia”), shudiha (“to become amazed and confused”) (a dialectal variant of duhisha, or formed from it by metathesis), ʿutiha (“to lose one’s mind”), ʿaliha (“to become confused and amazed”), ʿamiha (“to hesitate as though lost and confused (in an argument or on a road)”), namiha (“to become somewhat confused”), and wariha (“to become stupid”). It is the same with the rest of the letters.
0.2.9
Another oddity of the language is that certain patterns are associated with a specific meaning, examples being ijrahadda (“to hasten one’s pace when walking”) and ismaharra (“to become hard and strong”).9
0.2.10
All these things are alluded to in this book and must be quickly grasped. I have perused what Imam al-Suyūṭī10 (God show him mercy) has to say on the distinguishing characteristics of the language in his Al-Muzhir fī l-lughah (The Luminous Work on Language),11 copying from the master linguist Ibn Fāris,12 and found that it fails to deal at any length with this type of association of form and sense; even worse, it sometimes seems to provide examples of “associations” that shouldn’t be considered as such — for example, the application of the term ḥimār (“donkey”) to a dim-wit.13
0.2.11
Among other such oddities are the rare words, as when I use akhā to describe a man shivering with cold; in the Qāmūs, it states that “akhā means ‘he warmed the ends of his fingers by blowing on them’.” Further examples are ʿinqāsh for “the man who goes around the villages selling things,” ḍawṭār for “one who enters the market without capital and swindles people for gain,” dhubābah meaning “the amount outstanding on a debt,” tharmala as in tharmala l-ṭaʿām meaning “he ate messily, so that it was scattered over his beard and mouth,” yatakaẓkaẓ meaning that a person “straightens up in his seat every time he feels his belly is full.” Further examples are jalhazah (“pretending ignorance of something of which one is aware”), talaḥḥuz (“drooling from the mouth on eating a pomegranate or the like”), wadham (“a penis with its testicles”), arghāl (“orache plants”), and so on. Some such words are explained while others have been left without explanation to avoid inflating the size of the book.
0.2.12
My other concern has been to discuss the praiseworthy and blameworthy qualities of women. One such praiseworthy quality is the distance a woman may advance in knowledge and education depending on the varying circumstances to which she is subjected, as will appear in my reports on the Fāriyāqiyyah,14 for the latter, who once didn’t know the difference between a beardless boy and a clean-shaven one, or between the ocean and the Nile, has made such progress in education that she now argues with theorist and practitioner alike and provides excellent critiques of the political issues and conditions, mundane and spiritual, of the countries she has seen. If it be said that the book attributes to her rare words that are little-known either in speech or in books and which she could not have uttered, I reply that such attributions do not, in this case, have to be literal; the thought is what matters. Other praiseworthy qualities of women are their alluring ways of moving and all their various charms, no imaginable form of which have I left unmentioned in this book. Nay, I have put into it most of their thoughts and ideas as well, and everything else that has to do with them.
AN INTRODUCTION BY THE PUBLISHER OF THIS BOOK
0.3.1
To Almighty God be praise, for the blessings with which He has showered us throughout our days. To proceed: Rāfāʾīl Kaḥlā, of Damascus,15 humble seeker of the mercy of his Lord the Preserver and Protector, declares: When I perused this book entitled Leg over Leg, I found it provided a wealth of useful information through its enumeration of many synonymous and lexically associated words in a style clear and admirable, presented in a manner both fascinating and delectable. This is especially so, given that it encompasses all the names of instruments and tools that need to be known and provides a complete reckoning of all types of foods, drinks, perfumes, clothes, furniture, shoes, jewelry, and gems, the like of which is to be found in no other book in this form, while any items that may have been omitted in the relevant chapter — and they are few — have been mentioned by the author in the table enumerating synonyms.16 I also found that a further excellent feature of the book is its inclusion of prose and poetry, sermons and maqāmahs, aphorisms and philosophical critiques, conversations and idioms, double entendres and puns, and amusing dialogues and expressions, so that the reader will never grow bored perusing it, even if he reads it over and over again.
0.3.2
Among the most entertaining of the aforesaid conversations are those to be found in Chapter 9 of Book One, chapters 18 and 20 of Book Three, chapters 2, 6, and 10 of Book Four, and elsewhere, and of the idioms, those to be found in chapters 18 and 20 of Book One, in the sermon in Book Two,17 and in Chapter 5 of Book Two, as well as in many other places. The puns are almost too many to count; anyone reading the book is asked to turn the pages slowly and focus closely in order to uncover the hidden meanings conveyed through jokes and the other excellent features that have been placed within its separate chapters. Another of the book’s excellent qualities is that, when it mentions something, it says everything there is to say about it, while also taking into consideration every aspect of any similar words.
0.3.3
In sum, I would make so bold as to say that the author, having once opened the door to this strange style of writing, has as quickly shut it again and that hereafter the book will never be challenged, for it has covered all the most celebrated oddities of the language that the reader might want to know. This being the case, when I saw the abundant useful literary items and linguistic rarities that it contained and became convinced that it would appeal to scholars and people of sound taste, I asked God for proper guidance as to its printing and promotion, so that its benefits might be generally enjoyed and it might be easy to obtain.