Notes on the Vocabulary of 'Abd Allah Ansari's Tabaqat al-sufiya

Abstract

This paper proposes vocalizations and etymologies for two uncommon Persian words in 'Abd Allah Ansari's Tabaqat al-sufiya: bglwy ‘dirty’ and wgstn ‘to reveal’. The former is to be vocalized as ba-calwi, derived from *ba-carbi ‘with grease’ on the basis of the parallel Arabic adjective wadir ‘dirty with grease’ found in other early Sufi literature. The latter word traditionally vocalized wagastan, is to be vocalized wigustan (present stem wigund-) on the basis of the vocalization marks given in a manuscript of Tabagat al-sufiya, which are partly supported by an etymological analysis based on its Middle Iranian cognates.