An expedition to the center (Part I)

When I was finishing my article “On verses and signs congregated around the origin”, I’ve noticed one very interesting detail in the Arabic root conveying the meaning ayat, the word used in the Qur’an to both name its verses and the signs of God: the fact that اى is formed by the first and last letters of Arabic alphabet. In my native language, the word az is formed in just the same way: that is, with the first and last letters, of Portuguese alphabet. And this apparently minute detail sparked the most curious of expeditions…

The first meaning of the word az denotes the blade, the flat cutting part of a sharpened weapon or tool. This word derived from Latin acies, a sharp edge or point (of a sword, dagger, etc), probably originating in Greek akh, point, and akhis, pointed object. From this notion of a sharp edge or point, the word came to be used to name both the army drawn up in order of battle, and, in relation to the sense or faculty of vision, sharpness of vision or sight. If you have read “On verses and signs congregated around the origin”, you’ll immediately notice that it is as tough I’m following the same track… In fact, in that article, I think that one of the things that catches the attention is the seeing how verses and signs seem to be an intrinsic part of what I would call a military complex, that was even able to embrace concepts referent to the nature of languages, as I’ve shown in the last part LINK of the previously mentioned article.
Let us go back to acies, that has one other surprise for us: the denoting the pupil of the eye. The pupil is a round, black hole in the center of the iris. Its colour originates in the lack of light in the internal part of the eye, that can only hope to receive it through the pupil, that acts as an entrance allowing light to enter. In other species, pupils are vertical slits, like in cats, whereas goats, for instance, have horizontal pupils. This difference of shape serves distinct purposes in each of the species. In the case of human beings, the round shape of our pupil is what allows both peripheral vision and concentration on a single point. It is interesting to point out that peripheral vision is a term that defines itself by opposition to central vision, which clearly denounces the greater importance given to the later. Basically, peripheral vision is the one occurring outside the central point to which eyes gaze at. This type of vision is weaker in humans when compared with other species, and this is simply because receptor cells on our retinas are located in a greater number at the center. So, basically, human eyes’ ability to focus on a central point is what sets us apart from all other species in what vision is concerned. Furthermore, this same feature is at the very base of such notions as aiming towards a goal, with aiming meaning both to direct (a weapon) toward an intended target and a purpose or intention toward which one’s efforts are directed. That such a feat is based on a specific feature of the pupil, its shape to be accurate, is not insignificant, as I will try to evidence in this article.
So, till now, and because of its derivation from acies, Portuguese word az showed us that the cutting part of weapons or tools is associated with sharp point, which was used figuratively to describe a certain type of vision: both cutting and piercing, which is rendered possible by the pupil of the eye… In the next post I will try to clarify this interconnection a bit more.

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