From the shaping of things to finely honed skill, the Arabic word for engineering is more than the sum of its parts.
Handasa, this week's word, stems from the root letters ha, noon, dal and seen, and is believed to have originated from the Persian word andazah, meaning measurement or dimension.
The term entered the Arabic language in the ninth century during the Abbasid era, when Baghdad’s Bayt Al Hikma, the historical House of Wisdom and library, became a centre of translation.
Scientific texts from Greek, Persian and Indian traditions were rendered into Arabic, and the word handasa appeared in several of these translations of mathematical theories and treatises.
These mathematical roots informed the early Arabic use of handasa, which at first referred specifically to geometry. In the ninth century, the Iraqi scholar Thabit ibn Qurra translated Euclid’s Elements and expanded the use of handasa to include spatial reasoning and architectural design. His interpretations helped define how early Islamic cities were planned, from water irrigation systems to the curvature of domes.
Handasa is now used as an umbrella term for engineering, with various branches ranging from handasa madaniyya (civil engineering) and handasa kahraba’iyya (electrical engineering) to handasa ijtima‘iyya (social engineering).
In literature and the arts, the word is often used metaphorically as a reference to precision and intricacy of craft. A well-executed event might be described as muhandasa, while a solution that feels overly calculated can be hailed, or derided, as masnu‘ bi handasa, meaning artificially engineered.
Perhaps this explains some of the affection directed towards Iraqi singer Majid Al Mohandis, whose full name is Majid Al Attabi. While his stage name, translated as “Majid the Engineer,” began as a nod to his former profession, it has come to describe the carefully calibrated pop hits he has continued to release over the past two decades.
A term that spans science and structure, concept and culture, handasa can be used to construct everything from great ideas to remarkable buildings, when shaped by ambition and precision. Like many words in the Arabic language, it has evolved beyond its standard definition to carry deeper meanings. It is a word built to last.
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