From: Torsten
Message: 68270
Date: 2011-12-16
>Finnish, Estonian tuhat "thousand".
> TORSTEN wrote: Also, I get the impression the Arabic has a great lexicographic tradition, but that the connection with languages it met during the phase of expansion of Islam has not been explored to the same degree.
>
> For this particular complex, I imagine an origin among the steppe peoples as designations a particular organisation of 'conscription' of cavalry-based troops and their deployment on the battlefield, and that this particular word spread with that type of cavalry organisation spreading with incursions of steppe peoples into Europe. Are there traces of something similar in Arabic?
>
> ====================================
>
>
>
> ISHINAN: The answer is definetly yes, as there are many similar traces that deserve close attention. I may add that some of them are quite baffling for the curious linguist, to say the least.
>
> But before I get into any detail. I would like to draw your attention to the fact that all the terms I am offering are from the Classical Arabic. That is to say: they existed BEFORE the Arabs burst onto the world scene under the banner of Islam.
>
> Prior the 7th century A.D., Arab presence was limited to the Arabian Peninsula, Eastern parts of Egypt (Sinai), Mesopotamia, and Greater Syria. They never ventured into the Central Asian stepps not until the 8th c. when Islam began to penetrate the region and soon became the sole faith of most of the population.
>
> The desert nomads of Arabia then could militarily match the nomads of the Steppes, and the early Arab Empire gained control over parts of Central Asia. The Arab invasion also saw Chinese influence expelled from western Central Asia. At the Battle of Talas, an Arab army decisively defeated a Tang Dynasty force and for the next several centuries, Middle Eastern influences would dominate the region.
>
> Having said this, I would like to point out that the term 'hnd' referring to hundred (as I previously alluded to) in Arabic, is closely related to the ancient Arabian penal code for settlement of a blood feud when the victim's family agreed to accept financial compensation for its loss. Often the payment of a number of camels was involved. Hence the term 'hnd' referred to a hundred camels, the penalty for slaying a chieftain.
>
> However, if you are more interested in military terms specially related to Arab cavalry, there is an interesting term for the number thousand.
>
> The term 'tww' in Classical literature refers to a rope that is twisted of a single strand. In Arabic, 'Tww' and/or 'TAq' literally signifies a "tie". it also means, in a strict military context, a thousand horses or a thousand horses. Arab cavalry is known to have used the system of knots in counting.
>
> Compare with 'thousand": O.E. þusend, from P.Gmc. *thusundi (cf. O.Fris. thusend, Du. duizend, O.H.G. dusunt, Ger. tausend, O.N. þusund, Goth. þusundi); related to words in Balto-Slavic (cf. Lith. tukstantis, O.C.S. tysashta, Pol. tysiac, Czech tisic), and probably ultimately a compound with indefinite meaning "several hundred" or "a great multitude" (with first element perhaps related to Skt. tawas "strong, force"). There was no general IE word for "thousand." Slang shortening 'thou' first recorded 1867.