Food Sources: Earth, Water, and Air - Food Culture and Health in Pre-Modern Islamic Societies - page 73

hundred thousand, and as in almost all
other languages, Arabic ichthyonomy is
abundant in its scale. Thus, for the Red
Sea, the Arabian Gulf and the Indian
Ocean, the orientalist G. Oman, of Naples,
has assembled, in a recent and remarkable
study, close on eleven hundred names of
fishes. For his part, Prof. A. Salonen, of
Helsinki, has contributed about a thou-
sand names drawn from Sumero-Akka-
dian. The author of this article, for his
part, has gathered, for the western Medi-
terranean basin (Egypt, Libya and the
Ma ∞ rib), approximately twelve hundred
terms. In this rich terminology, numer-
ous appellations are formed from the
nouns samak or ūt or nūn combined with
a qualificative or a nominal complement.
Within the range of the latter, this study
will be limited to mentioning only those
which evoke a Biblical or historical per-
sonage, authentic or legendary, in associa-
tion with fishes or other aquatic creatures.
First to be mentioned in this context is
Jonah, Yūnus, known as āib al-ūt “the
man of the fish” (urān, XXXVII, 142;
LXVIII, 48) and, with the same meaning,
u 'l-Nūn (urān, XXI, 87), who is said
to have been swallowed by some kind of
shark and not by a whale, the latter, with
its filters, being capable of absorbing only
plankton. Subsequently to be found are
the ūt Mūsā or samak Mūsā “the fish of
Moses”, the ūt Mūsā wa-Yū ª a “the fish
of Moses and of Joshua” and the ūt Sīdnā
Sulaymān “the fish of our master Solomon”;
these three names are given to the com-
mon sole ( Solea vulgaris ). The sulān Ibrāhīm
“the sultan Abraham” is the name given
to the red mullet ( Mullus barbatus ). The Ibn
Yaūb “the son of Jacob” is the common
sargo ( Diplodus sargus ). The samakat al-Is-
kandar “the fish of Alexander the Great” is
the hammer-head shark ( Sphyrna zygaena ).
With the ūt Sulaymān , this is not a refer-
ence to the person but a phonetic adap-

tation of the Latin salmo for the common
salmon ( Salmo salar ). Among the origins of
the formation of Arabic names of fishes,
the first to be noted are those which
are drawn directly from Greco-Roman
nomenclature, such as: baramis , the bream,
from Abramis brama; usbūr , the sparid fish,
from Sparus; urū , the trout, from Trutta;
bulbīs , the barbel, from Barbus; balamīda ,
the pelamid, from Pelamys , also called
būnīt , the bonito; tūn, ūn, tunn , the tunny
fish, from Thynnus; tunus , the tench, from
Tinca; analīs , the eel, from Anquilla; arrang,
ranga, ranka , the herring, from Clupea haren-
gus; rāya, ra ¡ a , the ray, from Raia; sur ∞ ūs ,
the common sargo, from Sargus vulgaris ;
sardīn , the sardine, from Clupea sardina ;
isfirnī, safarna, safarnāya , the spet or bar-
racuda, from Sphyraena; isumrī , the mack-
erel, from Scomber; sillawr , the sheat fish,
from Silurus; salmūn, umūn , the salmon,
from Salmo; ∞ ādus , the cod, from Gadus;
lu , the burbot, from Lota lota; lāis, lūis ,
the Nile perch, from Lates nilotica; lafūt ,
the lophot, from Lophotes; līmanda , the dab,
from Limanda . Numerous appellations are
also encountered formed from the name
of a terrestrial creature joined to the
complement— bar “of the sea”, such as:
sabu bar “beast of the sea” for the sea
wolf ( Anarhichas lupus ); faras bar “horse of
the sea” for the bellows fish ( Centriscus );
unfu £ at bar “hedgehog of the sea” for
the sea-urchin ( Diodon ). Similarly, many
terms are composed of abū “father of . . .”
or umm “mother of . . .”, with the comple-
ment of a noun marking a characteristic
of the fish concerned. The following are
examples: abū arn “father of the horn”
for the unicorn fish ( Naseus unicornis ); abū
miraa “father of the hammer” for the
hammer-head shark ( Sphyrna zygaena ); abū
sayf “father of the sword” for the swordfish
( Xiphias gladius ); abū undū “father of the
chest” for the coffer fish ( Ostracion nasus );
abū minar “father of the beak” for the