Arabic: am.(sam)
Arabic: am.(sam) Arabic: am. This is the Arabic equivalent of or and, as in English, introduces the second part of an alternative question (e.g. Would you like tea or coffee?). However, here and in many places across the text, am exists without a contextual setup or corollary (e.g. Or coffee?). Clearly, this does not fully make sense. The translators wriggle and try to explain, but not convincingly. Sometimes by sticking with or — or by replacing or ignoring it — they stumble upon sense because the surrounding text happens to fall kindly for them. But where they are true to their dominant premises they are left often with an awkward non sequitur. My process was this: I identified all cases of am in the text, placing them in one of two categories: those which perform the standard offices of or (e.g. Would you like tea or coffee?), and those which do not, those which have no natural preceding part (e.g. Or coffee?). This latter category I call the ‘hanging am’. Upon reviewing all cases o...