THE NAME TANTtJRA. 



The name of tlie modern town is given by travelers under the 

 three forms: Tantiira\ Arabic 5N«iibAJtf '-, Tartura^ Arabic iix^icj-b, 



and Tortura% Arabic, '^(>^ylcy^ . In reality these are variant forms 

 of the same name"; the letters r and n belong to the same organ and 

 are therefore, especially in borrowed words, easily interchanged. 

 The words tantur, tartur and tortiir (also tontui") all denote a 

 pointed or peaked cap, formerly worn by the Bedouin of Egypt, 

 and still in use among the dervishes of Egypt and Syria. They 

 also signify the horn of bone or metal used as part of the head-dress 

 by Maronite and Druse women in Syria\ 



Dozy derives the word from the verb ^ioyh , " gloriatus f uit " 



or "in altum sustulit, elovavit." ]jut /-^r^ does not seem to be a 

 native Arabic verb at all, and FraenkeF rightly rejects this deriva- 

 tion. It is, on the contrary, extremely probable that r^y^ is a 



denominative verb from the noun x^J^^b . In the Arabic language, 

 therefore, no derivation can be discovered for the nominal form. 

 In all probability the word is quite foreign to the language and has 



' Van de Velde, Narrat. 1:333 (1854): Wilson, Lands of the Bible, 11:249 ; 

 Wilson, Picturesque Pal, pp. 114 ff.; Guerin, Sam. 2:305 f.; S.W.P. Mem. 

 II, p. 3 ; G. A. Smith, Hist. Oeog., p. 128 ; Baedeker (4), pp. 231 f. 



- P.E.F.Q., 1887, p. 181, no. 38. Guerin writes UyA.kS . 



3 Chevalier d'Arvieux (c. 1700) in Labat, Merkwilrdige Naehrichten, part 

 II, pp. 11-13 : Buckingham, Trav. in Pal., p. 123 (1821). 



■1 Pococke, Description of the East, II, p. 57 (1745); Irby and Mangles, 

 Travels in Egypt, etc., p. 59 (1844); Muuk, Palestine, p. 59(1845)— this writer 

 says the town is called by the Arabs Ras-el-hedjl (i. e. " head of the plain "). 

 — Instead of the feminine ending s , the three names are sometimes given 

 with the masc. ^ . 



^ Dozy, Vetements, pp. 262flf., Suppl. 11:36 ; Fraenkel, Aramdische Fremd- 

 ivorter, -p. 5S ; P.E.F.Q., 1896, p. 171; S.W.P., Name Lis/s, pp. 141, 117; 

 Arabic Dictionaries. 



^ Dozy, loc. cit. 



■' Loc. cit. 



