رصاف

• رَصَف (raṣaf)

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

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 وَهُوَ قِدْحُهُ ـ فَلَا يُوجَدُ فِيهِ شَيْءٌ، ثُمَّ يُنْظَرُ إِلَى قُذَذِهِ فَلَا يُوجَدُ فِيهِ شَيْءٌ، قَدْ سَبَقَ الْفَرْثَ وَٱلدَّمَ.

     yaqraʔūna l-qurʔāna lā yujāwizu tarāqiya-hum, yamruqūna mina d-dīni kamā yamruqu s-sahmu mina r-ramiyyati, yunẓaru ʔilā naṣli-hī fa-lā yūjadu fī-hi šayʔun, ṯumma yunẓaru ʔilā riṣāfi-hī fa-mā yūjadu fī-hi šayʔun, ṯumma yunẓaru ʔilā naḍiyyi-hī - wa-huwa qidḥu-hū - fa-lā yūjadu fī-hi šayʔun, ṯumma yunẓaru ʔilā quḏaḏi-hī fa-lā yūjadu fī-hi šayʔun, qad sabaqa l-farṯa wa-d-dama.

     They recite the 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