Linguistic and Literary Notes (8): Ayš, Ayš Šāʾ Allāh, and Iššālā: on an Arabic word occurring in Arabic and Persian texts
Document Type : pajoohesh
Author
10.22081/jap.2026.80510
Abstract
In this note, I first present evidence for the Arabic word ʾyš ‘what,’ in early Arabic and Persian texts, as well as in modern Arabic dialects, and briefly discuss its etymology. I then argue that the colloquial expression īšālā 'if God wills, I hope God wills' in spoken Persian is etymologically unrelated to the formal expression in šāʾ Allāh (“if God wills”) in Persian, but is instead the contracted form of īš šāʾ Allāh ‹ ēš šāʾ Allāh / ayš šāʾ Allāh (“whatever God wills”), an expression attested in some early Persian texts—particularly in Rumi’s Masnavī-ye Maʿnavī. Although the form īš šāʾ Allāh has not survived into modern Persian, its colloquial contracted form īš(š)ālā, has been preserved in contemporary Persian. Thus, īšālā is etymologically unrelated to the spoken form enshālā in Persian (itself a contracted form of in shāʾ Allāh) and represents a distinct lexical item. Finally, given that the form ayš/ayšin/ēš was relatively uncommon in Classical Arabic, this word, as well as the expression īš šāʾ Allāh and its contracted form īššālā in Persian, should be regarded as borrowings from para-Classical varieties of Arabic—that is, prestigious non-Classical varieties of Arabic in the medieval period—or as borrowings from earlier, non-normative Classical Arabic.
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