The Semantic Development of ʿAql (Intellect) in Arabic Literature: From the Concrete to the Abstract

Abstract

This study explores the semantic evolution of the Arabic word ʿaql (reason/intellect), originally denoting a physical concept unrelated to cognition. Although classical Arabic dictionaries address both its concrete and abstract meanings, none has traced its historical semantic development. The study presents a novel perspective on the gradual transition of ʿaql from tangible to abstract meanings, drawing on early dictionaries and contextual evidence from the pre-Islamic and Islamic periods. It is structured in three parts: contextual clues indicating semantic progression; material, sensory meanings of ʿaql and its derivatives; and abstract, intellectual meanings and their development. The findings reveal that the word initially meant "rope" or "tie," then evolved to denote "a knee condition," "restraint," and eventually "intellect." The verb ʿaqala originally meant "to tie," then "to restrain," and later came to signify rational perception and legal maturity.