DR. F. Abdulrahim's Urdu book “Parda Utha Doon Agar Chehra-e-Alfaz Se”( If Faces of Words are Unveiled) is a very interesting study of around 131 words of many languages. In the book's preface the author says that the book is neither a dictionary nor an academic discourse on Etymology, it is just a historical study of a few words, written for the common reader. Dr. F. Abdulrahim has taught English, Arabic literature and linguistics at the Islamic University in Madinah for more than 23 years, and has 21 books in Arabic, English and Urdu to his credit. Tracing the journey of the word ‘chess', which originated in India, he writes: In ancient India the army used to have four parts -- foot soldiers, horsemen, elephants and chariots. In Sanskrit an army was called ‘chatturang' ( chattur means four, ang means organs). When a game based on the encounter of two armies was invented, it was named chatturang. The game reached Iran and was called ‘Shatrang' which was adopted as Shatranj in Arabic. And then this Arabic word was taken by the Portuguese as xadrez, since the letter X gives the sound of ‘Sh' in Portuguese. One wonders what is the connection between the English word chess and the Arabic word Shatranj? One of the pieces of Shatranj is called “Shah”, a Persian word that along with the game's other terminology was adopted in Arabic. Since this piece is the most important one in the game, Europeans associated the game with this word itself. In German, chess is called ‘Schachspiel', the game of the king. The word ‘Shah' entered in the ancient French language as ‘esches', traveled to England and lost its first two letters on the way, leaving only “ches”, that became “ chess” later on. The author has given many examples of the transformation of Arabic and Persian words in Urdu. For example, the Arabic word “duftar” that is used for a notebook was used for “book” or “register” in ancient Arabic and Persian, but in Urdu it refers to an office. Linguists say that “duftar” was originally derived from the Greek word ‘difthera' ( leather), since people used to write on leather initially. Diphtheria, a throat disease derives its name form this Greek word too, since in this disease a leathery membrane is formed in the throat of the patient. Tracing the name of the vegetable ‘brinjal', takes us back to Sanskrit where it is called ‘watangan'. When it entered Persian, it became ‘bandanjan' and in Arabic, with a slight change it is called ‘bazenjan'. With Arabs it reached Spain and became ‘berenjena' or ‘alberenjena' and in near by Portugal it became ‘berengela'. When reached England it was simplified into ‘brinjal'. In French, German and Dutch languages it is called ‘aubergine'. Similarly, the word magazine is derived from the Arabic “makhazin”, which is the plural of Makhzan (store house ). Initially the word magazine was used for a storehouse, and later used for the place where arms and ammunition were kept. In French, it is changed to ‘magasin' (shop), in Italian ‘magazzino' and Spanish reflects its Arabic origin, ‘almacen'. The Sanskrit word ‘Khand' refers to sugar or something sweet, that entered in Persian as Kand and in Arabic it is called Qand. From Arabic it goes to French as ‘candi' and ‘candy' in English. ‘Van' is a word broke off in 19th century from the word caravan, a Persian word that means a large company of travelers or pilgrims. In the same way, the word ‘bus' is an offshoot of ‘omnibus', a Latin word that means ‘for everyone'. ‘Mob' comes from the Latin expression ‘mobile vulgus' for a group of people who do not hold an opinion for long'.
