"Reeds"
grow abundantly in all the continents of the world. They are found growing
against banks of rivers, estuaries, marshes and wetlands.
In antiquity ancient
people in the Near East wove
"reeds" into mats, plaited it
for ropes, pared it to make musical flutes, bundled it together to form
light rafts perfect for fishing in the marshes, and roofed their mud houses
with it. In Ancient Egypt, selected reed stalks were craftily pared to
be used as calligraphic pens, while papyrus reeds were pressed and woven
into a suitable medium on which to write. The creation of this technique
was largely responsible for the explosion of literacy in ancient Egypt.
Because of its proliferation
and importance, the papyrus reed was one of the symbols of Upper
Egypt and its form was recreated in the shapes of pillars in several hypostyle
halls. At least one important locality in Egypt was named after the
Ancient Egyptian term for reeds. Today the term still refers to
a well known province (muhafazah) in Egypt and as well designates
a vital waterway.
The very same Ancient
Egyptian term for "Reed" happened to be found diffused in
the following ancient languages in the Near East and Europe, Akkadian,
Assyrian/Babylonian, Ugaritic, Hebrew/Aramaic, Old
Arabic, Greek, and Latin.
At the end of Antiquity
the Greeks used the term to refer to their laws.
At the close of the
Medieval times the term for
"reed" was used to refer to a new horrific
weapon that effectively changed the face of history, and ushered the world
into the modern Ages.
Amazingly this 7000
years old Ancient Egyptian term for "reed" managed to survive without
alteration in many current Modern languages such as English, French,
Spanish, Italian, and of course in our Modern Arabic.
Can you name this
mysterious term which has survived in so many languages, referring to so
many different applications?
Please Email your
answers to:
The winners of
the first Riddle will be announced next Saturday Ramadan 9th (October
23).
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