Qur’anic Root Q R Ṭ S — Qirṭās: A Writing Sheet, Written Surface, and Archery Target

1. Word Meaning and Structure

Arabic qirṭās (قِرْطَاس) denotes a sheet or surface used for writing. Early uses refer to materials such as papyrus and skin prepared for writing; the word was later also used for paper. Its plural is qarāṭīs (قَرَاطِيس), the form occurring in the Qur’an alongside singular qirṭās.

In Al-Ṣiḥāḥ, Al-Jawharī defines it as al-qirṭāsu: alladhī yuktabu fīhi (القِرْطَاسُ: الَّذِي يُكْتَبُ فِيهِ): that on which one writes.

Lisān al-ʿArab likewise defines qirṭās as a writing sheet, while recording uses involving Egyptian papyrus, a leather archery target, and certain other names.

Al-ʿAyn, Al-Ṣiḥāḥ, and Lisān al-ʿArab: writing surface and lexical branches

In the principal sense relevant to the Qur’an, qirṭās is something bearing writing on its surface. The writing might be a letter, part of a book, a document, or another text.

The qirṭās itself therefore differs from what is written on it.

Qirṭās is the surface or material carrying the writing, whereas its recorded content may be speech, a command, a report, instruction, or a book.

Both Qur’anic occurrences illustrate the distinction. Al-Anʿām 6:7 mentions kitāban fī qirṭāsin, a writing or book on a qirṭās. In Al-Anʿām 6:91, qarāṭīs refers to sheets or pages on which Moses’ Book is presented.

Is Qirṭās the Same as Modern Paper?

In contemporary Persian, kāghadh, paper, is the closest general equivalent of qirṭās. Historically, however, modern paper is only one material used to record writing.

In earlier periods people wrote on papyrus, prepared animal skin, tablets, and other suitable surfaces.

Papyrus was made from a plant growing in Egypt, particularly around the Nile. The stem’s inner material was cut into strips, laid together, and pressed into writing sheets.

Universität Hamburg: papyrus made from stem strips

Lisān al-ʿArab also connects qirṭās with Egyptian bardī, papyrus.

This account does not establish that every Arabic qirṭās was necessarily made from papyrus.

The word could also designate other writing surfaces.

“Paper” is consequently a natural, intelligible modern Persian equivalent. Historical explanation should nevertheless clarify that a qirṭās in the Qur’anic period need not have been made from the industrial paper familiar today.

2. Historical Origins and Linguistic Forms

Is Qirṭās Originally Arabic?

Qur’anic morphology indexes Q R Ṭ S as a quadriliteral entry.

This classification does not establish that the name qirṭās was originally formed from an indigenous Arabic quadriliteral verb.

Historical linguistic studies generally regard qirṭās as a loanword in Arabic.

Ancient Greek χάρτης denoted a papyrus roll or writing material. Aramaic also had forms resembling qarṭīs for a sheet, document, or writing material.

A common account traces the Greek form into Arabic through Aramaic. Arthur Jeffery likewise considers Aramaic or Syriac mediation probable, while declining to settle the exact intermediary branch.

Arthur Jeffery: Qirṭās, pp. 235 and 236

The more remote origin of the Greek form is itself debated.

In a 2017 study, Gary Rendsburg proposed a Phoenician origin for the Greek word itself. On such a hypothesis, a word entering Greek could subsequently return from that language into Aramaic and Arabic. This proposal is not a conclusion shared by all scholars.

Rendsburg: proposed Phoenician origin of χάρτης

Such a possibility need not contradict the familiar account of transmission from Aramaic into Arabic, since a word can pass between several languages in different periods.

Establishing its earliest route nevertheless requires further historical and phonological evidence.

What can be said with greater confidence is that Greek, Aramaic, and Arabic have related names for a writing sheet or roll.

One should therefore avoid inventing meanings for Q R Ṭ S such as “cutting and spreading skin” or “securing writing” and treating them as the word’s established historical root.

Qirṭās was an established Arabic writing-sheet name, regardless of whether its earlier history began in another language.

Important Forms

Qirṭās (قِرْطَاس): the familiar singular, a sheet or material on which one writes. This is the form in Al-Anʿām 6:7.

Qurṭās (قُرْطَاس): another recorded singular pronunciation, with u on the q.

Qarṭās (قَرْطَاس): an a-voweled form transmitted by some lexicographers.

Qirṭas and qarṭas (قِرْطَس و قَرْطَس): recorded shorter forms, also found in poetry.

Qarāṭīs (قَرَاطِيس): the broken plural on the faʿālīl pattern, meaning writing sheets or pages. It occurs in Al-Anʿām 6:91.

Qarṭasa (قَرْطَسَ): a quadriliteral verb whose early uses include hitting an archery target.

Yuqarṭisu (يُقَرْطِسُ): the imperfect of that verb.

Qarṭasah (قَرْطَسَة): its verbal noun.

Muqarṭisah (مُقَرْطِسَة): a description of an arrow that has hit its target.

Lisān al-ʿArab: lexical forms and sahmun muqarṭisah

Later usage also employs qirṭāsī for things associated with paper and writing supplies.

These forms show the word entering Arabic morphology after its borrowing or establishment in the language.

The Qur’an, however, uses only the singular noun and its plural. Qarṭasa and the other derivatives do not occur in its text.

3. Early Arabic Evidence and Semantic Branches

Qirṭās as a Writing Sheet

One lexical witness is a verse quoted by Abū Zayd from Makhashsh al-ʿUqaylī:

كَأَنَّ بِحَيْثُ اسْتَوْدَعَ الدَّارَ أَهْلُهَا
مَخَطَّ زَبُورٍ مِنْ دَوَاةٍ وَقَرْطَسِ

ka-anna bi-ḥaythu istawdaʿa al-dāra ahluhā / makhaṭṭa zabūrin min dawātin wa-qarṭasi

Explanatory rendering: “As though where its people left the dwelling were the trace of a writing, with inkwell and qirṭas.” The verse compares a dwelling’s remaining traces to written lines on a qirṭās.

Lisān al-ʿArab: witness transmitted by Abū Zayd from al-ʿUqaylī

Zabūr in this context denotes writing or a written text.

The comparison rests on lines and remaining traces: just as writing is visible on a qirṭās sheet, the dwelling’s remaining marks are visible on the ground.

The witness matters in several respects.

First, qirṭās appears alongside an inkwell and writing. Its writing-sheet sense is thus recorded in Arabic independently of Qur’anic commentary.

Second, qirṭās does not name the writing itself, but what carries it.

Third, the poet explains one scene through a familiar image. Qirṭās was consequently a recognizable writing implement in the language recorded by this poetry.

The surviving lexical quotation does not establish the verse’s exact date. It should not be treated as certainly pre-Islamic without independent investigation.

It attests an early writing-related use of qirṭās, rather than securely dating the word’s entry into Arabic.

Qirṭās as an Archery Target

Another use concerns the target at which an archer shoots.

Lisān al-ʿArab records qirṭās for a piece of skin erected as an archery target.

Here it serves as a surface an archer tries to hit, rather than as a writing material.

This use is connected with qarṭasa, meaning to hit the target.

Al-Ṣiḥāḥ gives ramā fa-qarṭasa (رَمَى فَقَرْطَسَ): he shot and hit the target.

The verb here is directly connected with the noun qirṭās.

The likely derivational direction is from the target’s name to the verb meaning to hit it, since qirṭās already names an identifiable surface or target.

The verb does not establish “reaching a destination” or “aiming correctly” as qirṭās’s original meaning in every use.

Neither Al-Anʿām 6:7 nor Al-Anʿām 6:91 provides a contextual reason to adopt an archery meaning.

The writing-sheet sense should therefore remain distinct from the archery-target sense.

Qirṭās as a Name Associated with Whiteness

Lexicons also record qirṭās for certain animals or people of very white coloration.

Ibn al-Aʿrābī reports it for a young she-camel and a tall, fair-skinned woman.

Dābbatun qirṭāsī describes an animal whose white coloration is unmixed with differently colored patches.

Lisān al-ʿArab: leather target, whiteness, and animal names

The white writing sheet might be imagined as motivating such names.

That explanation alone does not establish the use’s historical origin.

Arabic qirṭās could refer to materials of differing colors. Whiteness should therefore not be made a necessary, constant feature of its meaning.

The animal and human uses do not occur in the Qur’an, nor is there reason to transfer them into qarāṭīs.

Qirṭās and Later Uses

In modern Persian and Arabic, qirṭās can designate a paper sheet and sometimes paper twisted into a cone to hold small items.

Persian also uses qirṭās-bāzī for bureaucratic paperwork.

These uses show the writing-surface name extending over time to other shapes and functions.

Such later uses should not be projected into Qur’anic-era Arabic to make qirṭās mean an administrative file, packaging, or industrial paper in the verses.

The basic Qur’anic sense remains a writing sheet or material.

4. Qirṭās in Al-Anʿām 6:7: Tangible Writing

Q R Ṭ S occurs twice in the Qur’an. Its first occurrence is in Al-Anʿām 6:7.

Quranic Arabic Corpus: two nominal occurrences in Al-Anʿām

Al-Anʿām 6:7

وَلَوْ نَزَّلْنَا عَلَيْكَ كِتَابًا فِي قِرْطَاسٍ فَلَمَسُوهُ بِأَيْدِيهِمْ لَقَالَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا إِنْ هَٰذَا إِلَّا سِحْرٌ مُبِينٌ

wa-law nazzalnā ʿalayka kitāban fī qirṭāsin fa-lamasūhu bi-aydīhim la-qāla alladhīna kafarū in hādhā illā siḥrun mubīnun

Forqan’s existing Persian translation, rendered here in English:

“And if We had sent down to you a writing on paper and they had touched it with their hands, those who disbelieved would have said: This is nothing but evident magic.”

Kitāban fī Qirṭāsin: Writing and Its Surface

Qirṭāsin follows the preposition fī and is genitive.

Kitāban is accusative, identifying what would be sent down to the Prophet in the verse’s hypothetical situation.

The two nouns do not perform the same role.

Kitāb here denotes writing or written content, while qirṭās names the surface carrying that writing.

Kitāb and qirṭās should therefore not be treated as synonyms.

Writing can be on a qirṭās, but the qirṭās alone does not determine the writing’s content.

Nor does this verse establish that every Qur’anic kitāb must be an object consisting of bound paper leaves.

The verse specifically presents a hypothetical situation in which writing is offered on a material surface.

Kitāban fī qirṭāsin can naturally be translated “a writing on paper,” or, with greater historical precision, “a writing on a writing sheet.”

Fa-lamasūhu bi-aydīhim: Touching with Their Hands

After mentioning the kitāb and qirṭās, the verse says fa-lamasūhu bi-aydīhim.

The phrase explicitly mentions touching with the hands.

The hypothetical situation thus concerns more than hearing a message or seeing writing from a distance.

Even if material writing were presented and they could touch it with their hands, the deniers’ response would remain the same.

Syntactically, -hu in fa-lamasūhu can refer to kitāb or to the nearer writing object, qirṭās, since both nouns are masculine.

Either way, the principal point is clear: they encounter tangible, material writing.

Touch matters in this hypothetical situation because it adds direct bodily experience to the argument’s conditions.

Fa-lamasūhu nevertheless does not make the verse a report that such a descent actually occurred.

Wa-law nazzalnā presents a hypothetical situation and its deniers’ projected response.

The verse does not report a definite, completed event here.

Would Tangible Paper End Denial?

The verse ends by saying that even then those who disbelieved would call it evident magic.

Their opposition consequently does not arise solely from lacking a tangible object.

Al-Anʿām 6:4, Al-Anʿām 6:5, and Al-Anʿām 6:6 describe turning away from signs, denying the truth, and the fate of earlier people who disregarded the signs.

Al-Anʿām 6:8 and Al-Anʿām 6:9 also discuss the demand for an angel’s descent.

Al-Anʿām 6:7 thus belongs to a context concerning demands for signs and refusal of the truth.

Within this passage, qirṭās is the hypothetical material means of presenting writing. Even that means alone would not guarantee acceptance of the truth.

This conclusion comes from the verse’s context, rather than the lexical meaning of qirṭās.

Qirṭās itself means neither denial nor conclusive proof.

It is simply the surface carrying writing, with direct touch presented as possible in this verse.

5. Qarāṭīs in Al-Anʿām 6:91: Written Sheets and Concealed Content

Al-Anʿām 6:91

وَمَا قَدَرُوا اللَّهَ حَقَّ قَدْرِهِ إِذْ قَالُوا مَا أَنْزَلَ اللَّهُ عَلَىٰ بَشَرٍ مِنْ شَيْءٍ قُلْ مَنْ أَنْزَلَ الْكِتَابَ الَّذِي جَاءَ بِهِ مُوسَىٰ نُورًا وَهُدًى لِلنَّاسِ تَجْعَلُونَهُ قَرَاطِيسَ تُبْدُونَهَا وَتُخْفُونَ كَثِيرًا وَعُلِّمْتُمْ مَا لَمْ تَعْلَمُوا أَنْتُمْ وَلَا آبَاؤُكُمْ قُلِ اللَّهُ ثُمَّ ذَرْهُمْ فِي خَوْضِهِمْ يَلْعَبُونَ

wa-mā qadarū allāha ḥaqqa qadrihi idh qālū mā anzala allāhu ʿalā basharin min shayʾin qul man anzala al-kitāba alladhī jāʾa bihi mūsā nūran wa-hudan li-l-nāsi tajʿalūnahu qarāṭīsa tubdūnahā wa-tukhfūna kathīran wa-ʿullimtum mā lam taʿlamū antum wa-lā ābāʾukum quli allāhu thumma dharhum fī khawḍihim yalʿabūna

Forqan’s existing Persian translation, rendered here in English:

“And they did not esteem The God as He deserves when they said: The God has sent down nothing to any human being. Say: Who sent down the Book that Moses brought as light and guidance for people? You make it into sheets that you display while concealing much; and you were taught what neither you nor your fathers knew. Say: The God; then leave them playing in their idle discourse.”

The Meaning of Qarāṭīsa

Qarāṭīsa is the broken plural of qirṭās.

Here it denotes sheets or pages carrying the Book’s text.

Syntactically, qarāṭīsa follows tajʿalūnahu.

If jaʿala is understood as making or transforming, -hu is its first object and qarāṭīsa its second.

Tajʿalūnahu qarāṭīsa therefore refers to placing or presenting the Book in the form of written sheets.

The construction does not establish that the Book’s content is literally transformed into the material substance of paper.

It can mean placing the writings on multiple leaves and presenting the Book as a collection of pages.

Such an expression is natural: a book may be put into several pages or notebooks without its meaning being transformed into the physical substance of paper.

Kitāb and qarāṭīs are related but distinct here too: kitāb concerns written content, qarāṭīs the sheets on which that content is recorded or presented.

Why Does Tubdūnahā Have a Feminine Pronoun?

Tubdūnahā follows qarāṭīsa.

Its -hā pronoun refers to qarāṭīs.

An Arabic nonhuman plural can be referred to by a feminine singular pronoun.

The feminine pronoun therefore does not make qirṭās a female being or an object different from a writing sheet.

Tubdūnahā refers to displaying the sheets. Since the sheets bear writing, displaying them also involves displaying their written content.

The verse continues: wa-tukhfūna kathīran.

The phrase refers to concealing much.

No explicit noun phrase such as mina al-qarāṭīsi or mina al-kitābi follows kathīran.

Care is therefore needed in analysis.

Concealing much of the writing or Book is a possible meaning that clearly suits the verse’s context.

One should not assert without qualification that the verse necessarily describes hiding a particular number of physical leaves.

The principal censured action is displaying and concealing; contextually, its object concerns the knowledge in the Book.

Is Dividing a Book into Sheets Censured?

Writing a book on several sheets or pages is an ordinary, necessary means of recording and preserving long texts.

There is no lexical reason to make qirṭās or qarāṭīs intrinsically mean distortion or corruption.

Here too, censure emerges from the combination of actions: presenting the Book as sheets, displaying them, and concealing much of its content.

Tajʿalūnahu qarāṭīsa alone therefore cannot establish that every division of a book into separate pages or notebooks is wrong.

Nor does the phrase alone prove that its addressees physically tore apart the original book copy or altered its text.

Altering a text, copying it, dividing it into pages, displaying some writings, and concealing others are different actions.

Some may accompany one another, but all cannot be extracted from qarāṭīs alone.

The verse itself explicitly describes displaying and concealing.

Any inference about faithfully transmitting knowledge should therefore rest on the full sentence and context, rather than on treating a sheet or paper as inherently a means of distortion.

Who Is Addressed?

The verse begins by reporting people who said The God had sent down nothing to any human being.

It then asks about the Book Moses brought.

Mentioning Moses’ Book matters: the claim denying every descent to a human being is challenged through a Book identified as coming from The God.

In the familiar reading used in this study, tajʿalūnahu, tubdūnahā, and tukhfūna address the second person directly.

Another reading begins these verbs with y, using the third person: yajʿalūnahu, yubdūnahā, and yukhfūna.

The difference matters when identifying the sentence’s direct addressee.

In the second-person reading, the words directly address a group possessing or associated with Moses’ Book.

In the third-person reading, the words can report another group’s conduct.

Identifying the exact addressees throughout the verse consequently requires examining the reading and full context.

Al-Ṭabarī: second- and third-person readings and differing addressee accounts

Neither reading changes the meaning of qarāṭīs.

It still refers to writing sheets or pages.

Nor does the verse establish without further evidence that every member of a religious community throughout history knowingly conceals the Book.

Judgment of particular conduct should remain distinct from generalizing it to every member of a group.

Connection with Adjacent Verses

Al-Anʿām 6:89 mentions people given the Book, judgment, and prophethood.

Al-Anʿām 6:90 commands following their guidance; Al-Anʿām 6:91 turns to denial of revelation’s descent and to Moses’ Book.

Al-Anʿām 6:92 then presents the Qur’an as a blessed Book confirming what came before it.

The continuity places revelation, guidance, and the human relationship with the divine Book at the center of the discussion.

In this context, qarāṭīs concerns the material form of recording and presenting the Book.

The principal issue, however, is the relationship between guidance’s content and how people deal with it.

A book can be written on many sheets while remaining a means of guidance.

The problem arises when its content is selectively displayed or concealed, denying its audience proper access to the truth.

This conclusion follows from the whole sentence, rather than qirṭās’s lexical meaning alone.

6. Distinguishing Qirṭās from Kitāb, Ṣaḥīfah, Waraq, and Raqq

Qirṭās and Kitāb

Kitāb belongs to K T B.

In the Qur’an, kitāb can refer to writing, a text, a command, a record, or a collection with definite content.

Qirṭās, by comparison, is the surface or material that can carry writing.

Al-Anʿām 6:7 expresses the distinction in kitāban fī qirṭāsin itself.

Not every qirṭās is necessarily a kitāb, nor does every Qur’anic use of kitāb necessarily refer to a material qirṭās.

Study of K T B

Qirṭās and Ṣaḥīfah

Arabic ṣaḥīfah concerns a page or sheet bearing writing.

Lexicons sometimes explain qirṭās directly through ṣaḥīfah.

The proximity is clear; in some sentences the words may denote the same object.

Ṣaḥīfah nevertheless belongs to another family with independent Qur’anic uses, including ṣuḥufi ibrāhīma wa-mūsā in Al-Aʿlā 87:19.

Overlap in the sheet sense alone should not make the words’ derivational histories or all their uses identical.

Study of Ṣ Ḥ F

Qirṭās and Waraq

Arabic waraq can concern tree leaves, sheets, and, in some uses, silver.

Contemporary Persian also uses barg and varaq for a writing page.

In that respect, varaq can suitably translate qirṭās.

Waraq does not always mean qirṭās: a tree leaf or silver sheet is not necessarily a writing surface.

The general leaf or sheet sense should therefore remain distinct from qirṭās’s specific writing use.

Qirṭās and Raqq

In writing-related use, raqq names thin skin prepared for writing.

Al-Ṭūr 52:2 and Al-Ṭūr 52:3 mention kitābin masṭūrin fī raqqin manshūrin, a book inscribed on an unrolled parchment.

The relationship between writing and its surface resembles that in Al-Anʿām 6:7.

Raqq identifies a more specific writing material, whereas qirṭās in broader usage can designate sheets of different materials.

The words consequently overlap in some referents without being exact synonyms.

Qirṭās and Lawḥ

Lawḥ denotes a board or tablet that can be used for writing.

The Qur’an uses alwāḥ for Moses’ tablets.

A lawḥ may be made of hard material, whereas familiar qirṭās usage more often concerns portable writing surfaces such as papyrus or skin.

This difference does not mean the Qur’an precisely specifies the material of every lawḥ and every qirṭās.

Qirṭās and Ṭūmār

Historically, ṭūmār refers to a scroll or rolled writing.

A qirṭās can be part of a scroll or its material, but qirṭās itself need not mean a rolled writing.

Neither Qur’anic occurrence of qirṭās or qarāṭīs specifies exactly how the writings were rolled, folded, or bound.

It is therefore preferable to retain the general equivalent “page,” “writing sheet,” or, in fluent prose, “paper.”

7. Conclusions and Translation Proposals

Arabic qirṭās denotes a sheet or material bearing recorded writing.

Early sources use the word for Egyptian papyrus, skin prepared for writing, and other writing sheets.

In another use, qirṭās can name a surface erected as an archery target. Qarṭasa, to hit the target, is connected with that use and was probably formed from the target’s name.

Lexicons record certain whiteness-related and animal-naming uses too. Without evidence, these should not all be derived from one supposedly certain original image.

Historically, qirṭās is very likely a loanword connected with Greek and Aramaic writing-sheet and roll terms.

This history is compatible with the word’s acceptance into Arabic and the formation of Arabic verbs and derivatives from it.

The family occurs twice in the Qur’an, in two Al-Anʿām verses.

In Al-Anʿām 6:7, qirṭāsin denotes a surface carrying writing that could even be touched by hand.

In Al-Anʿām 6:91, qarāṭīsa denotes sheets or pages on which Moses’ Book is presented; the verse concerns displaying and concealing parts of it.

Both occurrences have a clear material meaning, although their contextual functions differ.

In the first verse, qirṭās is the means of presenting tangible writing.

In the second, qarāṭīs are the means of recording and presenting the Book; selective treatment of its content is what receives censure.

Brief root meaning: A writing sheet or page; a surface bearing recorded writing, such as papyrus, prepared skin, or paper. In another use, qirṭās also names an archery surface or target.

Qur’anic forms and proposed translations:

Qirṭāsin — Al-Anʿām 6:7: a tangible sheet or paper carrying writing. Proposed Persian translation: kāghadh, “paper.”

Qarāṭīsa — Al-Anʿām 6:91: written sheets or pages presenting the Book. Proposed Persian translations: barg-hā, “sheets,” or ṣafḥah-hā-yi nivishtārī, “writing pages.”

Modern Persian kāghadh and barg can convey the two Qur’anic forms well, provided historical explanation does not restrict these sheets to modern paper.

The principal finding is that qirṭās names the carrier of writing, rather than the truth or content of the writing itself.

A truth may be recorded on a qirṭās and accepted or denied. A book may likewise be written on numerous leaves, with its bearers displaying or concealing some of it.

In none of these cases does qirṭās itself mean faith, denial, distortion, or concealment.

Those actions and judgments concern people and how they deal with writing.

Both verses employ a familiar means of recording writing. One concerns refusing truth even when writing is tangible; the other concerns displaying and concealing the Book’s content.

Understanding the word accurately therefore requires a clear distinction between the writing surface, the writing’s content, and human treatment of that content.