A Semantic Study of the Qurʾānic Hapax Legomenon Bakkah and the Delimitation of Its Linguistic and Geographical Scope in the Qurʾān

Document Type : Research Article

Authors
Mojtaba Mohammadi Anvigh 1
Mohammad Reza Houri 2
1 Assistant Professor, Department of Quran and Hadith Sciences, Faculty of Theology and Islamic Studies, University of Ilam, Ilam, Iran
2 PhD student in Quran and Hadith Sciences, Faculty of Theology and Islamic Studies, University of Ilam, Ilam, Iran
10.30497/qhs.2026.78141
Abstract
Certain lexical items in the Qurʾān occur only once and are therefore classified as Qurʾānic hapax legomena. One of the most significant examples is the term Bakkah in Qurʾān 3:96, which appears in the context of the Qurʾānic dialogue with the People of the Book concerning the first house of worship established for humankind. In the Qurʾān, the term denotes a specific location whose precise meaning and geographical extent remain a matter of scholarly disagreement among Qurʾānic exegetes and researchers. Accordingly, this study employs a descriptive-analytical approach to examine the semantic significance of Bakkah and determine its precise geographical scope. The findings indicate that the term Bakkah possesses both linguistic and historical antecedents in the traditions of the People of the Book as well as among Muslims, and that the Qurʾān employs this familiar designation in its polemical engagement with the Jewish community. Derived from the root b-k-k, Bakkah reflects a common biliteral Semitic and Afro-Asiatic root (b-k) conveying the sense of pressing, crowding, or crushing. The widespread assumption that Bakkah and Makkah are synonymous is shown to be open to serious criticism on both linguistic and geographical grounds. Rather, the two terms denote distinct concepts and locations. The designation Bakkah, which is also mentioned in the Book of Psalms, refers specifically to the valley situated between Mount Abū Qubays and Mount Quʿayqiʿān, where the Kaʿbah stands, encompassing the area of al-Masjid al-Ḥarām. The name Bakkah is understood to derive from the intense crowding and congestion of people in this sacred precinct, a meaning that corresponds closely to the original semantic value of the root in the Afro-Asiatic languages.
Keywords
Bakkah
Makkah
al-Masjid al-Ḥarām
Kaʿbah
hapax legomenon.
Subjects
The Holy Qur’ān.    
Bible, The Holy, King James Version.
Abū ʿUbayda, Maʿmar b. al-Muthannā (1961), Majāz al-Qur’ān, Cairo: Maktabat al-Khānjī. (In Arabic)
Akbarī, Zahra; Salīmī, Sayyida Fāṭima; Rāstgū, Kubrā (2023), “Investigation and Critique of the Translations and Interpretations of the One-used Word "Ê»AbqarÄ«" in Persian Translations and Exegeses of the Holy Quran” Quran and Hadith Translation Studies, 19:1–24. (In Persian)
Ālūsī, Sayyid Maḥmūd (1995), Rūḥ al-maʿānī fī tafsīr al-Qur’ān al-ʿaẓīm, Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya. (In Arabic)
Ayyāshī, Muḥammad b. Masʿūd (1960), Tafsīr ʿAyyāshī, Tehran: al-Maṭbaʿa al-ʿIlmiyya. (In Arabic)
Azharī, Muḥammad b. Aḥmad (2000), Tahdhīb al-lugha, Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī. (In Arabic)
Azraqī, Muḥammad b. ʿAbd Allāh (1996), Akhbār Makka wa-mā jāʾa fīhā …, Beirut: Dār al-Andalus. (In Arabic)
Balkhī, Muqātil b. Sulaymān (2002), Tafsīr Muqātil, Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth. (In Arabic)
Barqī, Aḥmad b. Muḥammad (1951), al-Maḥāsin, Qom: Dār al-Kutub al-Islāmiyya. (In Arabic)
Bastī Khaṭṭābī, Ḥamd b. Muḥammad (1982), Gharīb al-ḥadīth, Damascus: Dār al-Fikr. (In Arabic)
Bayḍāwī, ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿUmar (1997), Anwār al-tanzīl…, Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī. (In Arabic)
Black, J., George, A., & Postgate, N. (2000). A Concise Dictionary of Akkadian. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.
Chahraqānī, Reżā (2019), “Etymological discussion on the origin and Meaning of the word Mecca” Lisān-i Mubīn, 11(38):23–41. (In Persian)
Darwīsh, Muḥyī al-Dīn (1995), Iʿrāb al-Qur’ān al-karīm, Beirut: Dār al-Irshād. (In Arabic)
Daylamī, Ḥasan b. Muḥammad (1991), Irshād al-qulūb, Qom: al-Sharīf al-Raḍī. (In Arabic)
Faḍl Allāh, Sayyid Muḥammad Ḥusayn (1999), Min waḥy al-Qur’ān, Beirut: Dār al-Malak. (In Arabic)
Fakhr Rāzī, Muḥammad b. ʿUmar (1999), Mafātīḥ al-ghayb, Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī. (In Arabic)
Fākihī, Muḥammad b. Isḥāq (2003), Akhbār Makka, Mecca: Maktabat al-Asadī. (In Arabic)
Farāhīdī, Khalīl b. Aḥmad (1988), Kitāb al-ʿAyn, Qom: Hijrat. (In Arabic)
Fattāl Nīshābūrī, Muḥammad b. Aḥmad (1996), Rawḍat al-wāʿiẓīn, Qom: Raḍī. (In Arabic)
Fayḍ Kāshānī, Muḥammad Ḥusayn (1986), al-Wāfī, Isfahan: Kitābkhāna-yi Amīr al-Muʾminīn. (In Arabic)
Fayḍ Kāshānī, Mullā Muḥsin (1997), al-Aṣfī, Qom: Intishārāt-i Tablīghāt-i Islāmī. (In Arabic)
Fayrūzābādī, Muḥammad b. Yaʿqūb (1995), Qāmūs al-Muḥīṭ, Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya. (In Arabic)
Gelb, I. J., Landsberger, B., Oppenheim, A. L., & Reiner, E. (1992). The Assyrian Dictionary. Chicago: The University of Chicago.
Ḥāfiẓ Barsī, Rajab b. Muḥammad (2001), Mashāriq anwār al-yaqīn, Beirut: Aʿlamī. (In Arabic)
Hawwārī, Hūd b. Muḥakkam (2005), Tafsīr kitāb Allāh al-ʿazīz, Algeria: Dār al-Baṣāʾir. (In Arabic)
Ibn Abī Ḥātim, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Muḥammad 1998), Tafsīr al-Qur’ān al-ʿaẓīm, Riyadh: Nizār Muṣṭafā al-Bāz. (In Arabic)
Ibn ʿAsākir, ʿAlī b. Ḥasan (1995), Tārīkh Madīnat Dimashq, Beirut: Dār al-Fikr. (In Arabic)
Ibn ʿĀshūr, al-Ṭāhir (n.d.), al-Taḥrīr wa-l-tanwīr, Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Tārīkh. (In Arabic)
Ibn ʿAṭiyya al-Andalusī, ʿAbd al-Ḥaqq (2001), al-Muḥarrar al-wajīz, Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya. (In Arabic)
Ibn Durayd, Muḥammad b. Ḥasan (1998), Jamharat al-lugha, Beirut: Dār al-ʿIlm lil-Malāyīn. (In Arabic)
Ibn Hāʾim, Aḥmad b. Muḥammad (2002), al-Tibyān, Beirut: Dār al-Gharb al-Islāmī. (In Arabic)
Ibn Hisham, Abd al-malik, (n.d.), Sirah al-Nabiwah, Beirut: Dar al-Marafa. (In Arabic)
Ibn Kathīr, Ismāʿīl b. ʿUmar (1998), Tafsīr al-Qur’ān al-ʿaẓīm, Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya. (In Arabic)
Ibn Manẓūr, Muḥammad b. Mukarram (1993), Lisān al-ʿArab, Beirut: Dār Ṣādir. (In Arabic)
Ibn Mujāwir, Yūsuf b. Yaʿqūb (1996), al-Mustabṣir, Cairo: Maktaba al-Thaqāfa al-Dīniyya. (In Arabic)
Ibn Qutayba, ʿAbd Allāh b. Muslim (n.d.), Ta’wīl mushkil al-Qur’ān, Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya. (In Arabic)
Ibn Sīda, ʿAlī b. Ismāʿīl (2000), al-Muḥkam wa-l-muḥīṭ al-aʿẓam, Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya. (In Arabic)
Jawādī Āmulī, ʿAbd Allāh (2015), Tafsīr Tasnīm, Qom: Isrā. (In Persian)
Jawharī, Ismāʿīl (1956), al-Ṣiḥāḥ, Beirut: Dār al-ʿIlm lil-Malāyīn. (In Arabic)
Karīmī-Niyā, Murtazā (2014), “Hapax legomenon in the Qur’an: An Analysis of the words that occurs only once within the Text” Quranic Researches and Tradition, 47(2):247–284. (In Persian)
Kāshānī, Mullā Fatḥ Allāh (2002), Zubdat al-tafāsīr, Qom: Bonyād-i Maʿārif-i Islāmī. (In Arabic)
Kulaynī, Muḥammad b. Yaʿqūb (1987), al-Kāfī, Tehran: Dār al-Kutub al-Islāmiyya. (In Arabic)
Kurdī, Muḥammad Ṭāhir (1999), al-Tārīkh al-qawīm li-Makka, Beirut: Dār Khiḍr. (In Arabic)
Kūshā, Muḥammad ʿAlī (2023), Holy Quran Translation Guidelines, Tehran: Ney. (In Persian)
Majlisī, Muḥammad Taqī (1993), Lawaamiʿ Ṣāḥib-Qurānī, Qom: Ismāʿīliyān. (In Arabic)
Maqdisī, Muṭahhar b. Ṭāhir (n.d.), al-Badʾ wa-l-tārīkh, s.l.: Maktabat al-Thaqāfa al-Dīniyya. (In Arabic)
Maʿrifat, Muḥammad Hādī (2015), al-Tafsīr wa-l-mufassirūn, Qom: Tamhīd. (In Arabic)
Marjānī, ʿAbd Allāh (2002), Bahjat al-nufūs, Beirut: Dār al-Gharb al-Islāmī. (In Arabic)
Masʿūdī, ʿAlī b. Ḥusayn (n.d.), al-Tanbīh wa-l-ishrāf, Qom: Muʾassasa-yi Nashr. (In Arabic)
Maybudī, Aḥmad b. Muḥammad (1992), Kashf al-asrār, Tehran: Amīr Kabīr. (In Arabic)
Mufid, Muhammad ibn Muhammad, (1993), Al- Jamal and Al-Nusra for Sayyid Al-Atra in the Battle of Basra, Qom: Sheikh Mufid Congress. (In Arabic)
Naḥḥās, Aḥmad b. Muḥammad (2000), Iʿrāb al-Qur’ān, Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya. (In Arabic)
Nīshābūrī, Ḥasan b. Muḥammad (1996), Tafsīr gharāʾib al-Qur’ān, Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya. (In Arabic)
Nīshābūrī, Maḥmūd (1995), Ījāz al-bayān, Beirut: Dār al-Gharb al-Islāmī. (In Arabic)
Orel, V., & Stolbova, O. (1995). Hamito-Semitic Etymological Dictionary. Leiden: Brill.
Qummī, ʿAlī b. Jaʿfar (1984), Tafsīr al-Qummī, Qom: Dār al-Kitāb. (In Arabic)
Qurṭubī, Muḥammad b. Aḥmad (1985), al-Jāmiʿ li-aḥkām al-Qur’ān, Tehran: Nāṣir Khusraw. (In Arabic)
Rāghib Iṣfahānī, Ḥusayn b. Muḥammad (1992), Mufradāt alfāẓ al-Qur’ān, Beirut: Dār al-Qalam. (In Arabic)
Rastegār, Aṣghar (2022), ʿAhd-i ʿAtīq, Tehran: Negah. (In Persian)
Sabzavārī Najafī, Muḥammad b. Ḥabīb Allāh (1999), Irshād al-adhhān, Beirut: Dār al-Taʿāruf. (In Arabic)
Sadeghi Tehrani, Mohammad, (1986), Al-Furqan fi Tafsir al-Quran bi- al-Quran, Qom: Islamic Culture Publications. (In Arabic)
Ṣadūq, Muḥammad b. ʿAlī (1983), al-Khiṣāl, Qom: Jāmiʿa-yi Mudarrisīn. (In Arabic)
Ṣadūq, Muḥammad b. ʿAlī (1997), al-Amālī, Tehran: Kitābchī. (In Arabic)
Ṣadūq, Muḥammad b. ʿAlī (2006), ʿIlal al-sharāyiʿ, Qom: Dāvarī. (In Arabic)
Ṣāfī, Maḥmūd (1997), al-Jadwal fī iʿrāb al-Qur’ān, Beirut: Dār al-Rashīd. (In Arabic)
Ṣāḥib b. ʿAbbād, Ismāʿīl (1993), al-Muḥīṭ fī al-lugha, Beirut: ʿĀlam al-Kutub. (In Arabic)
Ṣāliḥī Shāmī, Muḥammad b. Yūsuf (1994), Subul al-hudā, Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya. (In Arabic)
Samīn Ḥalabī, Aḥmad b. Yūsuf (1993), al-Durr al-maṣūn, Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya. (In Arabic)
Sharīf, Aḥmad b. Ibrāhīm (n.d.), Makka wa-Madīna, s.l.: Dār al-Fikr al-ʿArabī. (In Arabic)
Shubbar, Sayyid ʿAbd Allāh (1987), al-Jawhar al-thamīn, Kuwait: Maktabat al-Alfayn. (In Arabic)
Suyūṭī, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān (1984), al-Durr al-manthūr, Qom: Kitābkhāna-yi Marʿashī. (In Arabic)
Ṭabarī, Muḥammad b. Jarīr (1967), Tārīkh al-umam wa-l-mulūk, Beirut: Dār al-Turāth. (In Arabic)
Ṭabarī, Muḥammad b. Jarīr (1992), Jāmiʿ al-bayān, Beirut: Dār al-Maʿrifa. (In Arabic)
Ṭabāṭabāʾī, Sayyid Muḥammad Ḥusayn (1996), al-Mīzān, Qom: Jāmiʿa-yi Mudarrisīn. (In Arabic)
Ṭayyib, Sayyid ʿAbd al-Ḥusayn (1999), Aṭyab al-bayān, Tehran: Islām. (In Arabic)
Thaʿlabī, Aḥmad b. Ibrāhīm al-Nīshābūrī (2001), al-Kashf wa-l-bayān ʿan tafsīr al-Qurʾān, Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī. (In Arabic)
Ṭurayḥī, Fakhr al-Dīn (1996), Majmaʿ al-baḥrayn, Tehran: Murtazavī. (In Arabic)
Ṭūsī, Muḥammad b. Ḥasan (1987), Tahdhīb al-aḥkām, Tehran: Dār al-Kutub al-Islāmiyya. (In Arabic)
Ṭūsī, Muḥammad b. Ḥasan (n.d.), al-Tibyān, Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth. (In Arabic)
Wāḥidī Nīshābūrī, ʿAlī b. Aḥmad (1991), Asbāb nuzūl al-Qur’ān, Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya. (In Arabic)
Yaqut Hamawi, Shahab al-Din, (1995), Mujam al-buldan, Beirut: Dar Sadir. (In Arabic)
Zamakhsharī, Maḥmūd b. ʿUmar (1979), Asās al-balāgha, Beirut: Dār Ṣādir. (In Arabic)
Zamakhsharī, Maḥmūd b. ʿUmar (1996), al-Fāʾiq fī gharīb al-ḥadīth, Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya. (In Arabic)
Zamakhsharī, Maḥmūd b. ʿUmar (2007), Muqaddimat al-adab, Tehran: Muʾassasa-yi Muṭālaʿāt-i Islāmī, Dānishgāh-i Tihrān. (In Arabic)
Zammit, M. R. (2002). A Comparative Lexical Study of Quranic Arabic. Leiden: Brill. (In Arabic)