The Qur’anic Root KH R Ṭ M
Snout and projecting nose: the prominent part of the face, with extended uses concerning leadership, pride, or contempt
Qur’anic and lexical forms
الْخُرْطُومِ
(al-khurṭūmi)
Al-Qalam 68:16; genitive
خُرْطُوم
(khurṭūm)
Nose and snout; Qur’anic form
خَرَاطِيم
(kharāṭīm)
Plural and leading figures; not Qur’anic
خَرَاطِم
(kharāṭim)
Recorded plural without yāʾ; not Qur’anic
خُرْطُم
(khurṭum)
Shorter form; not Qur’anic
خَرْطَمَ ـ يُخَرْطِمُ
(kharṭama–yukharṭimu)
Striking or twisting; not Qur’anic
خَرْطَمَة
(kharṭamah)
Verbal noun; not Qur’anic
اِخْرَنْطَمَ
(ikhranṭama)
Anger and pride; not Qur’anic
مُخْرَنْطِم
(mukhranṭim)
Angry or proud; not Qur’anic
خُرْطُمَانِيّ
(khurṭumānī)
Large-nosed; not Qur’anic
مُخَرْطَم
(mukharṭam)
Pointed or elongated; not Qur’anic
خُرْطُومَان
(khurṭūmān)
Designation of two sons of Al-Khazraj; not Qur’anic
خُرْطُوم
(khurṭūm)
Wine; not the Qur’anic sense
The Arabic root KH R Ṭ M concerns the snout and projecting part of a human or animal face. In its familiar sense, «خُرْطُوم» (khurṭūm) denotes a nose or snout; «خَرَاطِيم» (kharāṭīm) is its plural.
The word has been widely used in descriptions of animals. Dictionaries apply it to an elephant’s trunk, some animals’ snouts, and a mosquito’s projecting feeding organ. In another use, «خَرَاطِيمُ الْقَوْمِ» (kharāṭīm al-qawm) denotes a group’s chiefs and leading figures.
Calling a human nose khurṭūm could also sound contemptuous in early Arabic, since the word’s animal uses evoke the image of a prominent snout.
Within this family, «خَرْطَمَهُ» (kharṭamahu) concerns striking or twisting a snout, while «اِخْرَنْطَمَ» (ikhranṭama) describes anger or pride expressed through the position of the nose.
Dictionaries also record khurṭūm for a kind of wine, especially wine that intoxicates quickly or the first juice flowing from grapes. Pre-Islamic poetry attests this usage, but its origin should not be confidently traced to the shape of an animal’s snout without evidence.
The root structure is also disputed. Ibn Fāris connects khurṭūm to triliteral KH Ṭ M, treating rāʾ as additional. Other dictionaries examine it under quadriliteral KH R Ṭ M.
The root occurs only once in the Qur’an: «الْخُرْطُومِ» (al-khurṭūmi) in Al-Qalam 68:16.
The verse announces a mark on the snout of someone described in the preceding verses through faultfinding, spreading slander, obstructing good, transgression, and denying divine verses.
Khurṭūm therefore does more in this context than name a bodily part: its selection alongside marking also contributes to an image of exposed humiliation and disgrace.
That image should nevertheless remain distinct from the root’s direct meaning. Khurṭūm means a snout or nose; marking comes from «سَنَسِمُهُ» (sanasimuhu), and moral condemnation comes from the surrounding verses.
1. Word structure and lexical forms
KH R Ṭ M consists of khāʾ, rāʾ, ṭāʾ, and mīm.
Under a quadriliteral analysis, «خَرْطَمَ» (kharṭama) follows faʿlala and khurṭūm follows fuʿlūl.
This is, however, one of two etymological approaches to the word.
Accepting Ibn Fāris’s view that rāʾ is additional would connect khurṭūm to triliteral KH Ṭ M.
The word’s historical classification and analysis of its pattern depend on that disagreement.
Principal recorded forms include:
- خُرْطُوم (khurṭūm): a nose or snout, especially the projecting part of an animal’s face; also a human nose.
- خَرَاطِيم (kharāṭīm): the plural of khurṭūm, noses or snouts; figuratively, a group’s chiefs or leading figures.
- خَرَاطِم (kharāṭim): a plural without yāʾ in some lexical records; the usual plural of khurṭūm is kharāṭīm. This should not be confused with khurāṭim, describing an older woman.
- خُرْطُم (khurṭum): a shorter form used for khurṭūm in some early Arabic usages.
- خَرْطَمَ ـ يُخَرْطِمُ (kharṭama–yukharṭimu): to strike a nose or snout, or seize and twist it.
- خَرْطَمَة (kharṭamah): striking or twisting a snout.
- اِخْرَنْطَمَ (ikhranṭama): to contort the face or raise the nose in anger; also to act proudly.
- مُخْرَنْطِم (mukhranṭim): angry and proud, especially with the nose or head raised.
- خُرْطُمَانِيّ (khurṭumānī): someone with a large, prominent nose.
- مُخَرْطَم (mukharṭam): of an object, having an elongated or pointed front.
- خُرْطُومَان (khurṭūmān): a designation of Jusham and ʿAwf, the two sons of Al-Khazraj, in the reports of Al-Ṣiḥāḥ and Lisān al-ʿArab.
- خُرْطُوم (khurṭūm): in another lexical branch, wine, especially quickly intoxicating wine or the first clear juice flowing from grapes.
Modern Arabic also uses khurṭūm for a tube or hose.
Its connection with the elongated, tubular shape of an animal’s trunk is intelligible, but it is not the word’s direct historical meaning in Al-Qalam 68:16.
Only al-khurṭūmi occurs in the Qur’an.
It is a definite singular noun in the genitive, following the preposition «عَلَى» (ʿalā).
No other verb or derivative from this family occurs in the Qur’an.
2. The snout and the dispute over the root’s origin
Khurṭūm: a nose or projecting part of the face
Kitāb al-ʿAyn explains khurṭūm through «أَنْف» (anf), the nose.
It also uses the word for the projecting facial region comprising the nose and front of the mouth.
Al-Jawharī likewise offers a brief, clear definition in Al-Ṣiḥāḥ:
الْخُرْطُومُ: الْأَنْفُ
al-khurṭūmu: al-anfu
That is: “Khurṭūm means the nose.”
Lisān al-ʿArab records several explanations: the nose, its front, and a facial region associated with the jaws and mouth.
The word therefore belongs to the projecting part of the face.
A distinction is nevertheless needed between a human nose and an animal’s snout.
In Persian, bīnī is ordinarily a neutral word for the human bodily part.
Pūzah is used mainly for animals and can sound contemptuous when applied to a human.
This Persian distinction helps explain the Qur’anic word choice, since familiar Arabic uses of khurṭūm also concern animals’ snouts.
It should not, however, be claimed that Arabic never used khurṭūm for a human nose.
The dictionaries do not support such a restriction.
Al-ʿAyn, Al-Ṣiḥāḥ, Lisān al-ʿArab, and Tāj al-ʿArūs: forms and lexical meanings
An elephant’s trunk
Lisān al-ʿArab explicitly identifies the elephant’s trunk as khurṭūm.
It is the elephant’s long, flexible nose, used for smelling, grasping and moving things, and bringing water or food to the mouth.
Early Arabic recognized this characteristic organ.
Khurṭūm is nevertheless not a name exclusively for an elephant.
The same word can denote other animals’ snouts and, by comparison, a human nose.
Al-khurṭūm in Al-Qalam 68:16 should therefore not be translated as “an elephant’s trunk”: the verse mentions no elephant.
The immediate contextual referent is the nose or snout of the person concerned.
Other animals’ snouts
Lexical sources also apply khurṭūm to the snouts of certain predatory animals.
Abū al-ʿAbbās Thaʿlab distinguishes names for the front of the face across animals.
For example, certain animals have a khaṭm or khurṭūm, birds have a minqār, and other quadrupeds have terms such as mishfar and jaḥfalah.
These distinctions show that Arabic had varied names for animals’ front facial parts.
They should not all be treated as complete synonyms without considering the animal and actual usage.
A mosquito’s proboscis
Lisān al-ʿArab also mentions a mosquito’s khurṭūm.
It refers to the projecting organ used in feeding.
Biologically, however, a mosquito’s proboscis and an elephant’s trunk are not the same structure.
The shared name is intelligible through a general resemblance in form and function, rather than anatomical identity.
The Qur’an mentions «بَعُوضَة» (baʿūḍah), a mosquito, in Al-Baqarah 2:26, but KH R Ṭ M does not occur there.
A mosquito’s possession of a proboscis therefore does not restrict Al-Qalam 68:16 to that creature.
The etymological disagreement concerning KH Ṭ M
Ibn Fāris examines khurṭūm in the section of Maqāyīs al-Lughah devoted to words of more than three consonants.
He writes:
وَالْخُرْطُومُ مَعْرُوفٌ، وَالرَّاءُ زَائِدَةٌ، وَالْأَصْلُ فِيهِ الْخَطْمُ
wa-al-khurṭūmu maʿrūfun wa-al-rāʾu zāʾidatun wa-al-aṣlu fīhi al-khaṭmu
That is: “Khurṭūm is well known; its rāʾ is additional, and its basis is khaṭm.”
The explanation has clear semantic support.
«خَطْم» (khaṭm) concerns the snout and projecting region of the nose and mouth.
«خِطَام» (khiṭām) names a restraint placed on an animal’s snout or nose.
Ibn Fāris’s account of an additional rāʾ nevertheless remains an etymological analysis.
Dictionaries such as Kitāb al-ʿAyn, Al-Ṣiḥāḥ, and Lisān al-ʿArab also record the family under its quadriliteral form, kharṭam.
The Qur’anic morphological index likewise classifies al-khurṭūmi under quadriliteral KH R Ṭ M.
The disagreement cannot therefore be ignored by omitting either approach.
The semantic relation between khaṭm and khurṭūm is clear; whether rāʾ is original or additional is a separate historical and morphological question.
3. Extended usages and early Arabic witnesses
Kharāṭīm al-qawm: a group’s chiefs and leading figures
Kitāb al-ʿAyn and Al-Ṣiḥāḥ use kharāṭīm al-qawm for a group’s chiefs and leading figures.
This differs from reference to an animal’s snout.
Ibn Fāris’s explanation connects the projecting part of the face with being in front or taking precedence.
Prominent people or a group’s leaders can accordingly be called kharāṭīm.
The image is intelligible because the nose or snout projects at the front of the face.
It does not follow that every person with a large nose is called a leader or chief in Arabic.
This usage concerns people’s precedence and social standing.
It also does not occur in the Qur’an.
Al-Qalam 68:16 concerns marking a person’s snout, rather than identifying him as a chief through khurṭūm.
A witness from Kitāb al-ʿAyn
Kitāb al-ʿAyn transmits this hemistich for the social use of kharāṭīm:
مِنَّا الْخَرَاطِيمُ وَرَأْسًا عَلْجَا
minnā al-kharāṭīmu wa-raʾsan ʿaljā
An approximate rendering of the isolated hemistich is: “From us are chiefs, and a head of strength.” Its precise syntax and vocalization remain uncertain without the full text.
Here, al-kharāṭīm concerns a group’s chiefs and leading figures.
The dictionary explains the usage in the context of prominence and social position.
The full verse’s wording and attribution to a particular poet are not securely established.
It should therefore not be presented as conclusive evidence from a particular pre-Islamic poet.
Its importance lies in the Arabic lexical tradition’s recording of kharāṭīm for leading figures.
Kitāb al-ʿAyn: the leading-figures witness and the anger expression
Kharṭamahu: striking the snout
Kitāb al-ʿAyn records «خَرْطَمْتُهُ» (kharṭamtuhu) for striking a snout, or seizing and twisting it.
Structurally, the use relates to the bodily part’s name.
Kharṭama can describe striking or twisting an animal’s snout.
The noun khurṭūm itself does not, however, mean striking.
The bodily part’s name should be distinguished from a related verb describing an action upon it.
This matters in Al-Qalam because sanasimuhu comes from another root.
The verse speaks of marking; it does not use kharṭamahu.
Ikhranṭama: anger and pride
In Lisān al-ʿArab and Al-Ṣiḥāḥ, ikhranṭama concerns anger or pride.
Some explanations describe an angry person twisting the nose and remaining silent in anger.
Another describes someone raising the nose in pride.
The usage concerns facial expression and human behavior.
Persian likewise uses raising the nose or head arrogantly as an image of pride.
Similarity between Persian and Arabic expressions alone does not establish a shared historical origin.
Nor does ikhranṭama mean that everyone raising the nose or head is necessarily arrogant.
A particular usage employs a bodily action to express a psychological condition.
A poetic witness concerning anger and facial expression
Kitāb al-ʿAyn transmits this hemistich:
وَاخْرَنْطَمَتْ ثُمَّ قَالَتْ وَهِيَ بَاكِيَةٌ
wa-ikhranṭamat thumma qālat wa-hiya bākiyatun
That is: “She contorted her face in anger; then, weeping, she said…”
Ikhranṭamat describes anger and facial expression here.
The lexical transmission does not securely establish the full verse’s wording and attribution.
It can illustrate the recorded verb, but should not be attributed to a particular poet or the pre-Islamic period without further investigation.
Khurṭūm meaning wine
Dictionaries also record khurṭūm for a kind of wine.
Al-Jawharī lists it among wine’s names.
Lisān al-ʿArab records two further explanations.
One concerns wine that intoxicates quickly.
The other concerns the first clear juice flowing from grapes before they are fully pressed.
Ibn al-Aʿrābī also identifies khurṭūm with sulāf: the first, clearest juice flowing from grapes.
This differs markedly from an animal’s snout.
It is possible that the idea of something foremost or projecting helped name the first portion of wine.
Ibn Fāris proposes such a connection through precedence and projection.
That explanation does not, however, prove the wine name’s historical origin.
A pre-Islamic witness from ʿAlqamah ibn ʿAbadah
The pre-Islamic poet ʿAlqamah ibn ʿAbadah describes a drinking gathering:
قَدْ أَشْهَدُ الشَّرْبَ فِيهِمْ مِزْهَرٌ رَنِمٌ
وَالْقَوْمُ تَصْرَعُهُمْ صَهْبَاءُ خُرْطُومُ
qad ashhadu al-sharba fīhim mizharun ranimun / wa-al-qawmu taṣraʿuhum ṣahbāʾu khurṭūmu
That is: “At times I attend the drinkers, among whom a melodious instrument sounds, while potent reddish wine lays the company low.”
Khurṭūm here names or describes wine.
The subject is not an animal’s nose or snout.
Ṣahbāʾ likewise concerns the wine’s color.
Early explanations identify khurṭūm here with the first clear liquid flowing from grapes.
The witness matters because pre-Islamic poetry records khurṭūm for wine independently of the Qur’anic verse.
Dīwān of ʿAlqamah al-Faḥl: the wine witness
Wine is nevertheless not a suitable meaning in Al-Qalam 68:16.
There, the word occurs with ʿalā and a verb of marking.
The structure and context concern a facial part, rather than wine someone drinks.
A witness from Dhū al-Rummah concerning an animal’s snout
Dhū al-Rummah describes camels’ movement and the foam around their mouths:
تَنْجُو إِذَا جَعَلَتْ تَدْمَىٰ أَخِشَّتُهَا
وَاعْتَمَّ بِالزَّبَدِ الْجَعْدِ الْخَرَاطِيمُ
tanjū idhā jaʿalat tadmā akhishshatuhā / wa-iʿtamma bi-al-zabadi al-jaʿdi al-kharāṭīmu
That is: “They move swiftly when the places of their nose rings begin to bleed and their snouts are covered with dense, accumulated foam.” Akhishshah is the plural of khishāsh, a nose ring used for restraint; the image of bleeding rings concerns the places where they are fitted.
Al-kharāṭīm refers to the camels’ snouts and projecting facial parts.
Its association with akhishshah and zabad, foam, makes the actual animal anatomy clear.
The usage matters for understanding the word’s bodily meaning.
Dhū al-Rummah was, however, an Islamic-era poet. His verse is evidence of classical Arabic, rather than pre-Islamic poetry.
Al-Basīṭ: Dhū al-Rummah’s witness and the explanation of akhishshah
Together, the witnesses from ʿAlqamah and Dhū al-Rummah show Arabic using khurṭūm both for a bodily part and for a kind of wine.
The two uses should nevertheless not be mixed in every sentence.
4. The Qur’anic occurrence
Al-Qalam 68:16: marking the snout
Verse text:
سَنَسِمُهُ عَلَى الْخُرْطُومِ
sanasimuhu ʿalā al-khurṭūmi
Proposed Persian translation, rendered here in English:
“We will soon place a mark on his snout.”
Al-khurṭūmi here is the only Qur’anic occurrence of KH R Ṭ M.
It follows ʿalā and is grammatically genitive.
Sanasimuhu comes from W S M and concerns marking.
The initial sa- places the action in the future.
The verse therefore announces a mark that will be placed on the person’s snout.
Understanding the whole image nevertheless requires distinguishing three elements.
First, marking, conveyed by sanasimuhu.
Second, the mark’s location, expressed by ʿalā al-khurṭūmi.
Third, the image’s purpose and condemnatory significance, understood from the preceding verses.
Khurṭūm itself does not mean a mark or brand.
It names a part of the face.
Why khurṭūm rather than anf?
Anf is the familiar Arabic name for a nose.
The Qur’an nevertheless selects khurṭūm here.
This choice matters rhetorically.
Arabic used khurṭūm especially for animals’ snouts.
Applying it to a human in a condemnatory context can convey contempt.
Al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī, as quoted in Tāj al-ʿArūs, explains the naming of the person’s nose through an elephant’s trunk here as disparagement. This explanation should not be attributed to Al-Mubarrad without evidence.
Tāj al-ʿArūs: Al-Rāghib’s account of disparagement
The explanation does not mean that the verse describes a human physically becoming an animal.
Khurṭūm can present a contemptuous image of the person’s nose or snout here.
The word alone does not establish that his nose actually becomes an elephant’s trunk or another animal’s snout.
The nose, the face, and recognition
The nose is a prominent, visible part of the face.
A mark placed there can be visible to other people.
This helps explain the combination sanasimuhu ʿalā al-khurṭūmi.
Dictionaries and commentaries discuss marking the nose as an image of disgrace and humiliation.
The whole notion of recognition should nevertheless not be incorporated into khurṭūm itself.
The nose names the bodily part.
The mark is something placed upon it.
The person’s condition becoming apparent is an implication of their combination and the condemnatory context.
The relation between sanasimuhu and W S M
«وَسَمَ» (wasama) concerns placing a mark.
In early usage, marking could be done by branding an animal’s skin.
Some explanations accordingly associate wasm with a brand’s trace and a lasting mark.
The verb wasama is nevertheless not restricted to burning with fire in every use.
The central idea is placing a mark by which someone or something is recognized.
This meaning should also be retained in Al-Qalam 68:16.
“We will place a mark” is suitable in direct translation.
Reflection can discuss branding, a mark of humiliation, or exposing the person’s condition.
Khurṭūm itself does not come from W S M, however, and marking should not be included in its definition.
5. The context of condemnation and the mark’s significance
The characteristics of the person concerned
Al-Qalam 68:10, Al-Qalam 68:11, Al-Qalam 68:12, Al-Qalam 68:13, Al-Qalam 68:14, and Al-Qalam 68:15 describe someone through a collection of conduct and characteristics.
These include frequent swearing, faultfinding, slander, obstructing good, transgression, sin, and denying divine verses.
Verse 16 then states:
سَنَسِمُهُ عَلَى الْخُرْطُومِ
sanasimuhu ʿalā al-khurṭūmi
That is: “We will soon place a mark on his snout.”
Marking follows the condemnation of the person’s conduct.
This sequence shows that the verse is not discussing a bodily part independently of its owner’s behavior.
Within the image, the nose or snout is the place of a mark connected with humiliation and exposure of the person’s condition.
The condemnation nevertheless concerns the stated behavior, rather than a human nose’s natural shape.
A large nose or prominent snout should therefore not be treated as automatically indicating bad character.
Does the passage name a particular person?
Al-Qalam 68:10, Al-Qalam 68:11, Al-Qalam 68:12, Al-Qalam 68:13, Al-Qalam 68:14, Al-Qalam 68:15, and Al-Qalam 68:16 do not explicitly name the person condemned.
Exegetical and historical reports propose names as the passage’s referents.
Identifying a historical person nevertheless requires independent evidence.
Khurṭūm itself does not identify that person.
Nor would identifying a likely historical referent mean that the condemned characteristics are intelligible only in relation to him.
Faultfinding, spreading slander, and obstructing good are recognizable ethical subjects.
Nevertheless, applying the verse’s particular judgment or outcome to contemporary people requires evidence; superficial resemblance or intellectual disagreement is insufficient.
A bodily mark or manifest disgrace?
Early commentaries offer several readings of sanasimuhu ʿalā al-khurṭūmi.
Some understand a bodily mark or injury on the nose.
Others speak of a mark on the Day of Resurrection.
Still others interpret the expression as an image of the person’s conspicuous, lasting disgrace and humiliation.
These readings differ in their details.
They nevertheless all relate to marking a visible part of the face.
The reading concerning a bodily mark
Some exegetical reports connect the verse with a wound on the person’s nose during a historical battle.
This reading understands marking as a bodily trace remaining on the face.
Accepting it as the historical referent nevertheless requires sound evidence concerning the person, event, and connection with the verse.
The verse itself gives no battle name, weapon, or date.
Sanasimuhu should therefore not become “We will cut his nose with a sword” in direct translation.
That wording adds details beyond the verse’s words.
The reading concerning the Day of Resurrection
Some commentaries connect marking the snout with a mark of humiliation in the afterlife.
They sometimes mention a darkened face or a sign by which the person is recognized.
Al-Qalam 68:16 itself does not, however, specify the marking’s exact time.
Sa- expresses futurity but does not by itself determine whether the event occurs in this world or the next.
Its time and manner therefore require independent evidence.
The reading concerning disgrace and exposure of conduct
After reporting different views in Jāmiʿ al-Bayān, Al-Ṭabarī prefers a reading emphasizing exposure of the person’s condition and faults.
Just as a mark on the nose is visible rather than hidden, the person’s condition becomes clear and recognizable. Al-Ṭabarī also allows this disgrace to accompany a sword wound and glosses sanasimuhu through branding; his preference should therefore not be presented as excluding every bodily mark.
Al-Ṭabarī: exposure of the person’s condition and possible coexistence with a bodily mark
The reading fits the context condemning conduct.
The preceding verses describe morally objectionable actions.
In verse 16, marking the snout can portray disgrace and exposure of that condition.
The interpretation should nevertheless not remove khurṭūm’s bodily meaning from the translation.
The Qur’an itself employs the image of snout and mark.
Translation should preserve that image; reflection can explain its message and function.
A witness from Jarīr concerning marking and humiliation
In one of his satires, Jarīr says:
لَمَّا وَضَعْتُ عَلَى الْفَرَزْدَقِ مِيسَمِي
وَعَلَى الْبَعِيثِ جَدَعْتُ أَنْفَ الْأَخْطَلِ
lammā waḍaʿtu ʿalā al-farazdaqi mīsamī / wa-ʿalā al-baʿīthi jadaʿtu anfa al-akhṭali
That is: “When I placed my brand on Al-Farazdaq and on Al-Baʿīth, I cut off Al-Akhṭal’s nose.” In the satirical context, branding and cutting the nose portray injury to the rivals’ reputations.
The poet uses marking and cutting the nose to describe disgracing his rivals.
This need not mean that Jarīr actually used a branding iron on their bodies or cut off Al-Akhṭal’s nose.
The expressions belong to satire and damage to social standing.
They show that Arabic can use facial marking and cutting the nose to portray humiliation and disgrace.
Jarīr was, however, an Umayyad-era poet, rather than a pre-Islamic one.
The verse therefore witnesses classical Arabic and its rhetorical usage, rather than directly establishing a pre-Qur’anic date for every detail of this image.
Al-Basīṭ: Jarīr’s witness in its satirical context
The poem’s meaning should also not replace the Qur’anic verse’s direct meaning.
7. Questions of interpretation and semantic development
Does Qur’anic khurṭūm mean an elephant’s trunk?
An elephant’s trunk is lexically among the word’s most familiar referents.
The verse nevertheless concerns a human person.
“Snout” or “nose” is therefore more appropriate in translation.
The contemptuous naming does not establish that the person will turn into an elephant or another animal.
Does marking necessarily mean branding with fire?
Early Arabic wasm can involve branding.
Its central concern, however, is marking.
Al-Qalam 68:16 does not specify the instrument or exact manner of marking.
“We will place a mark” is therefore closer to the wording than “We will brand him with a red-hot iron.”
The latter may express an exegetical possibility but should not replace direct translation without explanation.
Does the verse necessarily concern a bodily mark?
Its image is bodily: a mark on the snout.
Its function can nevertheless be condemnation and disgrace.
Arabic can also use injury to the nose or branding the face as an image of humiliation and exposed faults.
Without further evidence, neither an exclusively bodily nor an exclusively rhetorical reading can be made conclusive.
Direct translation should preserve the image.
Does the verse authorize marking people’s faces?
No.
It announces an action The God will carry out concerning the condemned person.
It is not a command to believers to brand or wound other people’s faces.
Sanasimuhu alone provides no general authorization to humiliate opponents or impose bodily punishment on them.
Applying this outcome to particular people also requires independent evidence.
Does khurṭūm mean a hose today?
Modern Arabic also uses khurṭūm for a flexible tube or hose.
This is comparable to the elongated, tubular shape of an animal’s trunk.
The modern hose meaning should nevertheless not be transferred to Al-Qalam 68:16.
The verse concerns marking a projecting part of the face, rather than a tube or water conduit.
Does the wine meaning connect the verse with wine?
Early Arabic also records khurṭūm for wine.
Al-Qalam 68:16, however, mentions neither drinking nor wine within the expression itself.
The context likewise concerns objectionable conduct and marking the person.
Al-Durr al-Maṣūn reports a reading from Al-Naḍr ibn Shumayl concerning wine and punishment for drinking it, while treating that reading as remote from the apparent wording. Its existence should be acknowledged, but a dictionary’s recording of wine does not make that sense preferable to snout or nose here.
An uncommon meaning should not replace one better suited to a verse’s structure and context merely because a dictionary records it.
8. Translation proposals for Forqan
For al-khurṭūmi in Al-Qalam 68:16, the most suitable equivalent is “snout.”
“Nose” is lexically valid, but the Persian bīnī may not fully convey the contemptuous tone of khurṭūm in this setting.
Persian khorṭūm mainly evokes an elephant’s trunk and might suggest a particular bodily transformation.
Pūzah, “snout,” is close to the projecting facial region and can also convey condemnation when applied to a human.
Forqan’s existing Persian translation is therefore suitable:
سَنَسِمُهُ عَلَى الْخُرْطُومِ
sanasimuhu ʿalā al-khurṭūmi
“We will soon place a mark on his snout.”
The rendering retains three main elements:
The future action, marking, and the snout as its location.
Reflection can explain that selecting khurṭūm rather than the ordinary name for a nose can convey contempt and disgrace within this condemnatory context.
That explanation should nevertheless not replace “snout” in direct translation.
Among non-Qur’anic forms, bodily kharāṭīm means snouts; in its social use it means a group’s chiefs or leading figures.
Kharṭamahu means striking or twisting someone’s snout.
Depending on context, ikhranṭama can be rendered “he contorted his face in anger” or “he raised his nose arrogantly.”
A Forqan word box should retain two separate fields.
Brief root meaning: “Snout and projecting nose; the prominent front of a human or animal face.”
Meaning in Al-Qalam 68:16: “The condemned person’s snout; the location of a mark associated in context with humiliation and exposure of his condition.”
The etymological account should also record Ibn Fāris’s view that rāʾ is additional and the word relates to KH Ṭ M.
This disagreement does not decisively change the direct translation of khurṭūm as “snout,” but matters for careful study of the lexical family.
9. Conclusion
The Arabic root KH R Ṭ M concerns the snout and projecting nose.
Khurṭūm denotes human and animal noses or snouts, including an elephant’s trunk, certain animals’ snouts, and a mosquito’s projecting organ.
In another use, kharāṭīm al-qawm denotes a group’s chiefs and leading figures.
Pre-Islamic poetry also uses khurṭūm for a kind of wine.
This range shows that the word is not confined to a bodily part’s name; each use must nevertheless be understood in context.
Concerning the root structure, Ibn Fāris considers rāʾ additional and connects the word to KH Ṭ M.
Dictionaries and the Qur’anic morphological index also examine khurṭūm within quadriliteral KH R Ṭ M.
The root occurs only once in the Qur’an: al-khurṭūmi in Al-Qalam 68:16.
The verse concerns marking the snout of someone described through objectionable conduct in the preceding verses.
Using khurṭūm rather than the usual name for a nose creates a contemptuous image in this context.
Marking a visible facial part can also strengthen the image of disgrace and recognition.
Khurṭūm itself nevertheless does not mean disgrace or a brand.
The direct meaning of al-khurṭūmi in Al-Qalam 68:16 is the person’s snout or nose; humiliation and exposure of his condition are understood from marking together with the condemnatory context.
“We will soon place a mark on his snout” is therefore a suitable rendering faithful to the wording for Forqan.
It preserves the Arabic image and leaves the mark’s nature, timing, and possible bodily or rhetorical character for a separate reflection, without adding unestablished details to the root’s meaning.