Littoral north-eastern Arabia had a distinctive culture in Pre-Islamic Arabia. Few centuries before the advent of Islam, this region was predominantly Christian. Its people adopted Syriac as their written language. The name of this region, in Syriac, was: “ܩܲܛܪ̈ܵܝܹܐ Qăṭrāye”.
Syriac: “Qatraye” still exists in Arabic as: “Qatar/قطر”. “Qatar” now refers only to the “Qatar Peninsula”.
In this case, Qatar is a “Totum-pro-parte” toponym.
Totum pro parte is Latin for “the whole for a part”; it means: a part is referred to by mentioning the whole.
There is no consensus among scholars as to the meaning of “Qăṭrāye”.
In many cultures, shores are perceived as “lines” that either separate or connect land and sea.
Examples:
Latin “ora”: line, cable, edge, border, side and coastline or coast.
English “strand”: braid, thread, wire and shoreline or shore.
Akkadian “aḫātu”: Limit, line, a bank , a shore , a beach.
Arabic “khăṭ/خط”: line, straight path, route and seaside or coast.
The root of Qatraya is [q.t.r]
[q.t.r] is a Semitic root word, it means: line, queue, edge or side.
Examples:
Syriac: “ܩܵܛܹܪ” (qāṭīr):
– To strand / to form from strands a rope, a plait.
– To plait, to queue, to twine. [1]
ܩܛܵܪܵܐ (qṭārā) = railway-train
Arabic: “قطر” (qăṭără):
– Straight line, alignment,‘train of drops’, side, suburb.
– To drip in a straight line, to queue.
– Railway-train
Littoral north-eastern Arabia used to be called: “bĭlād ăl-khăṭ/بلاد الخط” Literally: “Line country”, but the intended meaning is: “coastline country” or “coastal territory”.
Syriac speaking people call this region: “ܩܲܛܪ̈ܵܝܹܐ/Qăṭrāyā”, which can be understood as: (ܩܵܛܹܪ/qāṭīr country).
“qăṭrā/ܩܵܛܹܪ” and “khăṭ/خط” are semantic equivalents.
Semantic equivalents: are words in two different languages that have similar or practically identical meanings. They may be cognate, but usually they are not. For example, the German equivalent of the English word “cow” is “Kuh”, which is also cognate, but the French equivalent is “vache”, which is unrelated.
Leaniti
In early European maps [2], this coast is referred to as: “Leaniti”. “Leaniti” is derived from Latin “Linea” which means: LINE.
In summation:
The Syriac “Qăṭrāyā” is derived from “ܩܵܛܹܪ/qāṭīr” which means: “Line”. The place-name “Qatar” is originally a toponymic appellative. It simply means: “Line”.
Qăṭrāyā and Qatar are derived from the same Semitic root word: [k.t.r] (= cut)
[1] — https://www.assyrianlanguages.org/sureth/dosearch.php?searchkey=38190&language=id
[2] — https://www.loc.gov/item/2021668406/
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