Meanings of the Term ‘Shahīd’ from the Jāhilīyah Poetry to the Qur’ānic Text

Abstract

Semantics examines topics and phenomena such as semantic change and the factors leading to these changes, among others. Scholars of semantics conduct diacronic studies observing the semantic change of a word within a certain period of time. Such a change sheds light on the transformation of the intellectual world of the people using this word. Thus, semantic studies are significant for social sciences and often conducted within an interdisciplinary framework. A certain word turns into a term in a process during which it takes up new meanings in particular fields besides its dictionary meaning. The words in the religious terminology of Islam have gained new theological meanings within the religious literature of Muslims and become part and parcel of this new Weltanschauung. Though among all its meanings, a particular meaning of a pre-Islamic word usually became an Islamic term after the advent of Islam, it is hard to say that they underwent no changes as these Arabic words entered into a new climate of opinion and were tinged by this climate. A religious nomenclature has gradually shaped within the Islamic worldview, a process in which the Qur'ān has played a major role. In this study, I work out a semantic examination in a specific period of the word "shahīd" which comprises creedal, military, legal, and political meanings. I seek to clarify which meanings of "shahīd" had already existed before the advent of Islam and which others were gradually incremented to it during the revelation of the Qur'ān and in the exegeses of the Qur'ān. To observe the semantic change of an Islamic term, the term should be examined throughout at least two main periods of time, and in this study these periods are the Jāhilīyah period and the period after  Bu makale, 6. Uluslararası Çin'den Adriyatik'e Sosyal Bilimler Kongresi Sempozyumu'nda sözlü olarak sunulan ve tam metin olarak basılmayan "Şehit Teriminin Kur'anî Bağlamdaki Anlamsal Çağrışımları" adlı tebliğin içeriği geliştirilerek ve kısmen değiştirilerek üretilmiş hâlidir./This article is the improved version of the paper titled "The Semantic Connotations of the Term Shahîd in the Qur'an" presented at the 6th International Conference on Social Sciences, China to Adriatic. İntihal Taraması/Plagiarism Detection: Bu makale intihal taramasından geçirildi/This paper was checked for plagiarism Geliş/