Ṭarafah: The She-Camel’s Anatomy, Similes, and Roman Arch (Verses 17–23)

1. The she-camel: from speed to anatomy

After speed, endurance, and grazing, the poet turns to anatomy. The tail, thighs, vertebrae, chest and neck structures, and elbows are presented as connected features, contributing to a portrait of a mount capable of sustained travel.

Verses 17–23 bring together images as diverse as a bird’s wings, dried leather, lofty gates, curved bows, a water carrier’s buckets, and a Roman bridge arch. Their common purpose is form, proportion, strength, and structural integrity. A simile must be read as a comparison, not as a literal claim about the animal.

2. Verse 17: Wings as an image of the tail

كَأَنَّ جَنَاحَيْ مَضْرَحِيٍّ تَكَنَّفَا
حِفَافَيْهِ شَكًّا فِي الْعَسِيبِ بِمِسْرَدِ
It is as though the two wings of a pale vulture flank her tail, fastened along its core as if stitched with a needle.

Maḍraḥī denotes a pale kind of vulture. The focus is the hair-bearing extent on both sides of the tail. Al-ʿasīb is the tail’s central bone, while al-misrad is a stout needle or stitching implement.

The image does not claim that the she-camel possesses wings; it visualizes the way the tail’s two sides spread and appear securely attached.

3. Janāḥay, takannafā, and ḥifāfayhi

Janāḥay is dual, representing two wings. Takannafā is a dual masculine perfect verb in Form V (tafaʿʿala): the two sides surround or flank something. The verb conveys enclosure from both sides.

Ḥifāfayhi is also dual, meaning its two edges; the attached -hi refers to the tail in context. The matching dual forms establish the spatial structure of the comparison, not simply an ornamental repetition.

4. ʿAsīb, shakkan, and misrad

Al-ʿasīb is the bony core of the tail. Shakkan suggests being inserted or sewn firmly; the preposition in bi-misrad marks the implement, a stout needle.

Stitching is an image of firm attachment. It lets the reader visualize two flanking shapes joined to a central axis. The technical vocabulary therefore supports a precise spatial description rather than a generic claim of beauty.

5. Verse 18: The tail and an old water-skin

فَطَوْرًا بِهِ خَلْفَ الزَّمِيلِ وَتَارَةً
عَلَى حَشَفٍ كَالشَّنِّ ذَاوٍ مُجَدَّدِ
At times the tail moves behind the rider; at others it strikes her shrunken teats, likened to a worn, dried-out and cut leather water-skin.

Fa-ṭawran ... wa-tāratan sets up two alternating actions. First the tail moves behind the person riding; then it touches the rear of the animal.

Ḥashaf suggests a shrunken condition, while al-shann is an old, dried leather water-skin. The comparison is deliberately concrete rather than conventionally flattering: the poet observes actual bodily detail while preserving the mount’s worth as a traveler.

6. Ṭawran and tāratan: alternating actions

Ṭawran and tāratan are accusative adverbial expressions meaning “at one time” and “at another.” Their pairing creates the rhythm of repeated, changing movement.

In khalfa al-zamīl, khalfa is an adverb of place and al-zamīl is its genitive complement; zamīl denotes a companion rider. The pronoun in bihi is interpreted with reference to the tail already under discussion. Syntax thus specifies location and motion.

7. Ḥashaf and al-shann: tactile realism

Ḥashaf denotes a shrunken or shriveled state. Al-shann is an aged leather water-skin, while dhāwin indicates withering or dryness and mujaddad suggests something cut or broken in places.

For an audience familiar with desert containers, the comparison is immediately tangible. It draws on texture, wear, and shape, showing that physical description can be exact and unidealized.

8. Verse 19: Strong thighs and lofty gates

لَهَا فَخِذَانِ أُكْمِلَ النَّحْضُ فِيهِمَا
كَأَنَّهُمَا بَابَا مُنِيفٍ مُمَرَّدِ
Her two thighs are fully fleshed, as though they were the two broad, smooth gates of an imposing elevated structure.

Fakhidhān is “two thighs,” and al-naḥḍ means flesh. Ukmila al-naḥḍu fīhimā communicates full, developed flesh in both thighs.

The two bābā munīfin mumarrad are the broad smooth gates of a lofty building. Their shared qualities with the animal’s thighs are breadth, volume, and evenness. Architectural imagery thus conveys anatomical strength.

9. Fakhidhān, naḥḍ, and mumarrad

Fakhidh means thigh and fakhidhān is its dual. In this line, al-naḥḍ means flesh, not the ordinary sense of rising. Munīf characterizes a lofty structure; mumarrad conveys a smooth, polished surface.

Ukmila is a passive perfect verb, with al-naḥḍu as its deputy subject. The statement is more precise than “large thighs”: the thighs have well-developed flesh and appropriate fullness.

10. The grammar of lahā fakhidhān and kaʾannahumā bābā

In lahā fakhidhān, lahā functions as the preposed predicate and fakhidhān as the delayed subject. The dual nominative ends in -ān.

In kaʾannahumā bābā, kaʾanna is an inna-type particle, -humā its subject, and bābā its predicate, nominative by the dual alif. Munīfin is the genitive second member of an iḍāfah. The paired dual nouns formally support the two-sided visual simile.

11. Verse 20: Vertebrae as a constructed structure

وَطَيِّ مَحَالٍ كَالْحَنِيِّ خُلُوفُهُ
وَأَجْرِنَةٌ لُزَّتْ بِدَأْيٍ مُنَضَّدِ
Its back is layered and fitted together like the lining of a well, with curves reminiscent of bows; the underside structures of its neck are joined to compact, firmly arranged supporting parts.

Maḥāl refers here to the vertebral segments of the back. Ṭayy evokes the fitted masonry that lines a well; al-ḥaniyy points toward curved bows.

In the second half, ajrinah refers to undersides or parts of the neck, luzzat to being firmly joined, and munaḍḍad to compact layering. The anatomy is understood as a coherent engineered structure, not an assortment of disconnected pieces.

12. Ṭayy maḥāl and al-ḥaniyy: Masonry and bows

Ṭayy al-biʾr is the fitted masonry inside a well, stabilizing its structure. Maḥāl are the back’s vertebrae, while al-ḥaniyy evokes curved bows. One image expresses a tightly connected backbone; the other expresses its organized curvature.

The important difference is between firm assembly in stonework and functional bending in bows. Together they communicate strength that still supports motion.

13. Ajrinah, luzzat, and daʾy: Firm union

Ajrinah is the plural of jirān, the underside of a camel’s neck. Luzzat is a passive perfect verb from l-z-z, “were pressed or fitted tightly together.” Daʾy refers to a supporting formation, and munaḍḍad describes something layered or closely arranged.

The order of terms moves from parts to connection to structural support. The passive verb directs attention to the firmness of the assembly rather than to a maker or agent.

14. Verse 21: Animal shelters and bows

كَأَنَّ كِنَاسَيْ ضَالَةٍ يَكْنُفَانِهَا
وَأَطْرَ قِسِيٍّ تَحْتَ صُلْبٍ مُؤَيَّدِ
It is as if two animal shelters at the base of a wild jujube tree flank her, and the curved ends of bows lie beneath a strongly supported back.

In kināsay ḍālah, kinās is the shelter a wild animal makes near the base of a tree; ḍālah is the wild jujube. Yaknufānihā means that two things flank or enclose her.

Aṭr qisiyy are the curved limbs or ends of bows, and ṣulb muʾayyad is a strong, supported back. The combined image conveys spacing, curvature, and structural solidity rather than simply the pleasantness of a tree.

15. Kinās, ḍālah, and aṭr: Desert vocabulary

Kinās is an animal shelter near a tree’s base. Ḍālah does not mean a “lost thing” here; it is the name of a wild jujube tree. Aṭr points to bent forms or curved sides, and qisiyy is a plural of qaws, “bow.”

These terms demand context-sensitive reading. Assigning the common everyday meaning “something lost” to ḍālah would undermine the entire comparison of paired shelters.

16. Yaknufānihā and ṣulb muʾayyad

Yaknufānihā is a dual masculine imperfect verb, with -hā as its object pronoun. Its dual ending indicates two flanking structures. Kināsay is dual accusative after kaʾanna.

In ṣulbin muʾayyadin, ṣulb is genitive, and muʾayyad is its agreeing adjective. Muʾayyad is a passive participle meaning strengthened or supported, an important link to the earlier masonry imagery.

17. Verse 22: Elbows and a water drawer’s buckets

لَهَا مِرْفَقَانِ أَفْتَلَانِ كَأَنَّهُمَا
تَمُرُّ بِسَلْمَي دَالِجٍ مُتَشَدِّدِ
Her two elbows are strong; their outward spread is likened to the two buckets held away from the sides by a powerful water drawer as he moves.

Mirfaqān aftalān describes two especially strong elbow joints. Salm is a water bucket with a particular handle; dālij is the person who draws water from a well and empties it into a trough.

As a strong carrier holds a bucket in each hand, both hang apart from his sides. The comparison draws attention to the camel’s well-spaced, powerful elbows, not to a woman named Salmā.

18. Aftalān, salmay, and dālij: Three lexical clues

Aftalān is the dual of aftal, meaning powerful or stout. Salmay here concerns two water buckets, not the female personal name Salmā. Dālij is the water drawer who transfers a bucket from well to trough, and mutashaddid emphasizes strenuous strength.

The old technical vocabulary is decisive. Without the well, buckets, and water-carrying action, the physical comparison would be misread.

19. Mirfaqān aftalān: Agreement of a dual adjective

In lahā mirfaqān aftalān, lahā is the preposed predicate and mirfaqān the delayed subject. Aftalān qualifies mirfaqān and agrees in dual number, masculine gender, and nominative case.

The dual pronoun in kaʾannahumā refers to the elbows. The corresponding pair in the comparison is two buckets; the dual syntax makes the visual analogy especially clear.

20. Verse 23: A Roman arch and sound construction

كَقَنْطَرَةِ الرُّومِيِّ أَقْسَمَ رَبُّهَا
لَتُكْتَنَفَنَّ حَتَّى تُشَادَ بِقَرْمَدِ
It is like a sturdy Roman-built arch whose owner has sworn that it will be enclosed and raised to completion with solid masonry and brickwork.

Qanṭarah is an arched bridge or substantial vaulted construction. Al-rūmiyy associates it with Roman building technique. The poet compares the arch’s well-fitted parts to the integrated strength of the animal’s body.

The words aqsama rabbuhā bring in an owner’s oath as a sign of determination to finish the work. Qarmad refers to hard building brick or related masonry material. The verse culminates the theme of durability and proportion.

21. Qanṭarah, tuktanafan(n)a, and qarmad

Qanṭarah is an arched bridge or vaulted structure; tuktanafan(n)a involves enclosing it on both sides; and qarmad refers to brick or similar hard masonry. Tushāda conveys raising or constructing solidly.

The emphatic heavy nūn in tuktanafan(n)a adds solemn insistence following aqsama, “he swore.” The grammatical emphasis matches the image of determined, complete construction.

22. Aqsama rabbuhā: An oath and its answer

Aqsama is a perfect verb, and rabbuhā is its subject; -hā refers to the arch. In la-tuktanafan(n)a, the initial lām and final heavy emphatic nūn express a strongly asserted oath.

In ḥattā tushāda, the imperfect verb after ḥattā appears in the subjunctive. The sequence is oath → firm enclosure → completed building. The poet invokes this construction process to illustrate an animal’s powerful, integrated form.

23. Comparing the wings, skin, gates, and arch

The poem compares one animal with objects whose points of similarity are quite different.

ComparisonPoint of similarity
Vulture’s wingsSpread of the tail’s two sides
Old water-skinShriveled, dry surface
Lofty gatesSize and smoothness of thighs
Roman archOverall structural integrity

The lesson is that a simile selects a specific shared feature, not a complete identity between two objects.

24. Duals and plurals: Organizing physical detail

Dual forms recur: janāḥay, ḥifāfayhi, fakhidhān, bābā, kināsay, and mirfaqān. In each case, the poet describes a pair of bodily parts through another paired shape.

Plurals such as maḥāl, ajrinah, and qisiyy describe multiple vertebrae, underside neck parts, or curved bows. Number is central to the mental picture: morphology supplies the spatial organization of the poetic image.

25. Structural power: Anatomy and poetic realism

Verse 17 describes the two-sided tail, 18 its motion and shriveled texture, 19 the fullness of thighs, 20 the back and neck framework, 21 the flanking curves, 22 the elbow spread, and 23 overall construction-like solidity.

The sequence is not only ornament. It establishes an image of a reliable desert mount through physical detail. Understanding the similes calls for vocabulary, grammar, and knowledge of familiar objects such as wells, bows, buckets, and masonry.