فدى

• IPA^(key): /fa.daː/

فَدَى • (fadā) I (non-past يَفْدِي (yafdī), verbal noun فَدًى (fadan) or فِدًى (fidan) or فِداء (fidāʔ)) (transitive)

1. to free (someone) from captivity or from danger by paying a sum of money or by giving away something to buy him back; to ransom (someone)
   • 9th–10th century CE, al-Ṭabarī, جامع البيان في تأويل القرآن [The Compilation of Qur'anic Interpretations]:

     تُحَيِّي بِالسَّلَامَةِ أُمُّ عَمْرٍو * وَهَلْ لَكِ بَعْدَ رَهْطِكِ مِنْ سَلَامِ
     ذَرِينِي أَصْطَبِحُ بِكْرًا فَإِنِّي * رَأَيْتُ الْمَوْتَ نَقَّبَ عَنْ هِشَامِ
     وَوَدَّ بَنُو الْمُغِيرَةِ لَوْ فَدَوْهُ * بِأَلْفٍ مِنْ رِجَالٍ أَوْ سَوَامِ

     tuḥayyī bi-s-salāmati ʔummu ʕamrin * wahal laki baʕda rahṭiki min salāmī
     ḏarīnī ʔaṣṭabiḥu bikran faʔinnī * raʔaytu l-mawta naqqaba ʕan hišāmī
     wawadda banū l-muḡīrati law fadawhu * biʔalfin min rijālin ʔaw sawāmī

     ʾUmm Amr wishes us well!
     Have you, without your kin, ever been well?
     Let me drink, for I have seen Death
     Rooting about, hunting Hišām.
     The clansmen of Muḡīrah wish
     They could have ransomed him
     For even a thousand head
     Of grazers or of men.

   • 11th–12th century CE, Ibn Zuhr, (Please provide the book title or journal name):

     يَا غُصْنَ نَقَا مُكَلَّلًا بِٱلذَّهَبِ – أَفْدِيكَ مِنَ ٱلرَّدَى بِأُمِّي وَأَبِي

     yā ḡuṣna naqā mukallalan bi-ḏ-ḏahabi – ʔafdīka mina r-radā biʔummī waʔabī

     Oh gold-wreathed sand dune branch – I would ransom you from death with my mother and father!