رصاف

• رَصَف‎ (raṣaf)

From the root ر ص ف‎ (r-ṣ-f).

رِصَاف • (riṣāf) m (collective, singulative رِصَافَة‎ (riṣāfa), paucal رَصَائِف‎ (raṣāʾif))

1. sinew that is wound upon the socket of the head of an arrow to strengthen it
   • 7th century CE, Ṣaḥīḥ al-Buḵāriyy, 61:117:

     ‏يَقْرَءُونَ الْقُرْآنَ لَا يُجَاوِزُ تَرَاقِيَهُمْ، يَمْرُقُونَ مِنَ الدِّينِ كَمَا يَمْرُقُ السَّهْمُ مِنَ الرَّمِيَّةِ، يُنْظَرُ إِلَى نَصْلِهِ فَلَا يُوجَدُ فِيهِ شَيْءٌ، ثُمَّ يُنْظَرُ إِلَى رِصَافِهِ فَمَا يُوجَدُ فِيهِ شَيْءٌ، ثُمَّ يُنْظَرُ إِلَى نَضِيِّهِ ـ وَهْوَ قِدْحُهُ ـ فَلَا يُوجَدُ فِيهِ شَيْءٌ، ثُمَّ يُنْظَرُ إِلَى قُذَذِهِ فَلَا يُوجَدُ فِيهِ شَيْءٌ، قَدْ سَبَقَ الْفَرْثَ وَٱلدَّمَ.‎‎

     yaqraʾūna l-qurʾāna lā yujāwizu tarāqiyahum, yamruqūna mina d-dīni kamā yamruqu s-sahmu mina r-ramiyyati, yunẓaru ʾilā naṣlihi falā yūjadu fīhi šayʾun, ṯumma yunẓaru ʾilā riṣāfihi famā yūjadu fīhi šayʾun, ṯumma yunẓaru ʾilā naḍiyyihi - wahwa qidḥuhu - falā yūjadu fīhi šayʾun, ṯumma yunẓaru ʾilā quḏaḏihi falā yūjadu fīhi šayʾun, qad sabaqa l-farṯa wad-dama.

     They recite Qurʾān but it does not go beyond their clavicles and they will desert the creed as an arrow goes through a target’s body, so one would, on looking at the arrow’s blade, see nothing on it; then one would look at its sinew and see nothing, then one would look at its arrowshaft and see nothing, then one would look at its fletching and would see nothing, for the arrow, by its speed, has even obviated entrails and blood.

• Freytag, Georg (1833), “رصاف”, in Lexicon arabico-latinum praesertim ex Djeuharii Firuzabadiique et aliorum Arabum operibus adhibitis Golii quoque et aliorum libris confectum (in Latin), volume 2, Halle: C. A. Schwetschke, page 156
• Kazimirski, Albin de Biberstein (1860), “رصاف”, in Dictionnaire arabe-français contenant toutes les racines de la langue arabe, leurs dérivés, tant dans l’idiome vulgaire que dans l’idiome littéral, ainsi que les dialectes d’Alger et de Maroc (in French), volume 1, Paris: Maisonneuve et C^ie, page 871
• Lane, Edward William (1863), “رصاف”, in Arabic-English Lexicon, London: Williams & Norgate, page 1094