North-African path · level 2 · Ḥāshiyat al-Bājūrī ʿalā al-Sullam · Lesson 11 of 18

Conversion

Propositions · al-ʿaks al-mustawī · p. 81

العَكْسُ المُسْتَوِي

Draft · awaiting review

Our own lessons with quotations from the print of Cairo 1324/1906 · translation by The Mantiqi, draft

About this text

Ḥāshiyat al-Bājūrī ʿalā al-Sullam حاشِيَةُ الباجُورِيِّ عَلَى السُّلَّمِ

Ibrāhīm al-Bājūrī (d. 1276/1860)

Text: Arabic: passages quoted in the lessons, transcribed by The Mantiqi from this print (the whole text is not reproduced): Ḥāshiyat al-Bājūrī ʿalā matn al-Sullam, with al-Anbābī's taqrīr in the margin, al-Maṭbaʿa al-Azhariyya al-Miṣriyya (2nd printing), Cairo 1324/1906, pp. 26–112 (passages) View the scan
Lessons follow: The lessons are The Mantiqi's own explanations of the Sullam, verse by verse, following Ibrāhīm al-Bājūrī; his words are quoted where they matter most.
Translation: The Mantiqi's own; a draft.
Review: Draft, awaiting review by Ustadh Muhammad Yusuf.

In Ibrāhīm al-Bājūrī's words

Need another language? “Google Translate” opens a passage in Google's machine translation — handy for a first idea, but not checked by us. Or copy the text into a translator of your choice.

Quoted from the Arabic of Ḥāshiyat al-Bājūrī ʿalā matn al-Sullam, with al-Anbābī's taqrīr in the margin, Cairo 1324/1906

وَاعْلَمْ أَنَّ العَكْسَ لُغَةً مُطْلَقُ التَّبْدِيلِ وَالقَلْبِ، بِأَنْ يُجْعَلَ السّابِقُ لاحِقًا وَاللّاحِقُ سابِقًا … الأَوَّلُ عَكْسٌ مُسْتَوٍ، وَيُقالُ لَهُ عَكْسٌ مُسْتَقِيمٌ، لِاسْتِواءِ طَرَفَيْهِ وَاسْتِقامَتِهِما بِسَبَبِ سَلامَةِ كُلٍّ مِنْهُما مِنَ التَّبْدِيلِ بِالنَّقِيضِ، وَهٰذا هُوَ الَّذِي اقْتَصَرَ عَلَيْهِ المُصَنِّفُ.

Know that conversion (ʿaks) in the language is simply exchanging and turning round: making what comes first come last and what comes last come first … The first kind is simple conversion (ʿaks mustawī), also called straight conversion, because its two sides stay level and straight, neither being replaced by its contradictory; and this is the only kind the author treats.

Google Translate ↗p. 81

The lesson

The Sullam treats : exchanging the and of a , keeping its quality and its truth. Al-Bājūrī begins with the word: in the language ʿaks is any exchanging or turning round, making what comes first come last.

In the technical sense it is used in two ways: for the one arrives at, and for the act of exchanging. And it is of three kinds: , also called “straight” conversion, because both sides stay as they were, neither replaced by its ; with agreement; and contraposition with disagreement. The poem treats only the first.

The rules are those of the Sullam: the as a universal negative, the as a , and the not at all. So “every human is an animal” converts as “some animal is human”, not “every animal is human”, because the may be more general than the .

Terms

العَكْسُ المُسْتَوِي al-ʿaks al-mustawī: simple conversion
عَكْسُ النَّقِيضِ ʿaks al-naqīḍ: contraposition: exchanging the contradictories of the two sides
الكَيْفُ al-kayf: quality: affirmative or negative

Examples

كُلُّ إِنْسانٍ حَيَوانٌ ← بَعْضُ الحَيَوانِ إِنْسانٌ
“every human is an animal” converts as “some animal is human”

Test yourself

3 questions on this lesson. With 6 out of 10 or more (two stars) the next lesson opens.

Question 1
Why is simple conversion also called “straight” (mustaqīm)?
Question 2
Which kinds of conversion does the Sullam treat, according to al-Bājūrī?
Question 3
“Every human is an animal” converts as…

Next lesson: The syllogism

Continue →