“… for comic effect he also drew on neglected Arabic words, including buldah, or ‘freedom from hair of the space between the eyebrows’, and bahsala, to ‘remove one’s clothes and gamble with them’.” — Christopher de Bellaigue, The Islamic Enlightenment: The Modern Struggle between Faith and Reason (2017), writing of the Lebanese Christian Maronite novelist Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq (1805-87) (ch. 5, Vortex, pg. 167)
He Say, He Sigh, He Sow #46
by Krilling for Company in Language, Literature, Quotations and tagged Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq, Arab culture, Arab novelist, Arabic, Arabic language, Arabic literature, Arabic words, bahsala, buldah, Christopher de Bellaigue, clothes, eyebrows, gambling, hair, Lebanese Christian, Lebanon, Leg over Leg, Maronite, novel, The Islamic Enlightenment