Salām

IThe hook00:00

• As-salāmu ʿalaykum. Shalom aleichem. The two greetings are one greeting, S-L-M, and a billion people say one or the other every day without knowing they are saying the same thing.
• The sel that ends vessel — the third piece of the word this stretch of the season has been taking apart. And the thread this root pulls: Salem, Jerusalem, Solomon, Islam, Muslim, Sulaymān, solace, solid, solidarity, celestial, select, soul, soil, Saul.
• “We from the mud.” Qur’an 15:26: “We created man from ṣalṣāl, from black mud moulded”; 55:14: “He created man from ṣalṣāl like the potter’s clay.” Ṣalṣāl is S-L doubled — the sounding clay — and the soul was selected from the soil. The episode’s arc runs from the soil to the sky and back.

IIThe sound01:00

• S is the hiss at the teeth; L is the tongue laid flat along the ridge with the air flowing round it — the smoothest sound the mouth makes (Socrates in the Cratylus: lambda is the letter of what glides and is smooth). Breath, then the smooth: the whole, the settled, the calm. Rule III.
• The trades that run through it (Rule IV): S ~ Z ~ SH (salām · shalom), S = H (Latin sōl · Greek hēlios; Latin salvus · Greek holos), L = R (Sanskrit sarva, all, is the L-R trade of the same root), K = CH = S (caelum · celestial, said with an S). The Throat: teeth and ridge, the two stations nearest the front.

IIIWholeness: salām, shalom, salvus, holos, sarva01:50

• Arabic s-l-m: salām, peace; salima, to be safe, whole; sālim, sound; salīm — qalb salīm, “a sound heart” (26:89); Islām, the giving-over; Muslim; taslīm; as-Salām, one of the ninety-nine names (59:23); Sulaymān; Salmā; Salmān; Salīm; sullam, the ladder — Jacob’s ladder in Genesis 28:12 is Hebrew sullām, the same word: the way from the soil to the sky.
• Hebrew sh-l-m: shālōm, shālēm (whole), Shlomo (Solomon), Yerushalayim (the foundation of Shalem), Shulamit (the Song of Songs), Avshalom (Absalom, father of peace), shelem (the peace-offering), shillēm (to repay — the debt made whole; and English sell, Old English sellan, to give). Aramaic shlāmā — John 14:27 in Jesus’s own tongue. Akkadian šalāmu, to be whole; šulmu, well-being.
• Latin salvus (whole, safe): salute, salvation, salvage, save, safe, salubrious, Salvador; solidus (whole): solid, soldier (paid in solidi), solder, consolidate, solidarity; sōlus (the one alone): sole, solo, solitary, desolate. Greek holos (whole — holistic, catholic, holocaust): S = H. Sanskrit sarva, all — sarvam khalvidam brahma, “all this is Brahman”: L = R. Germanic whole, hale, heal, health, holy, hail — the greeting hail is be whole, which is salām again, and wassail from the last episode is the same toast.

IVLight and sky: sōl, Selēnē, caelum, celestial03:20

• Latin sōl, the sun — solar, solstice; Greek hēlios (S = H) — helium, heliotrope; Sanskrit sūrya, svar (the shining sky); Old English sōl and sunne. Greek Selēnē, the moon; selas, light. Latin caelum, the sky — celestial, ceiling, Celeste. Solace and console, from sōlārī, to comfort — the light let in.
• Latin cēlāre, to hide, and its family: cell (cella, the small room), cellar, conceal, occult, colour (the covering); Greek kalyptō, to cover — apocalypse, the un-covering; Sanskrit śālā, the hall; Germanic hall, hell, hull, hole, hollow, helmet — the covered place (S = H, K = H). Hebrew Sheʾōl, the grave — the asked-for place, the hidden hall. The sky is the roof and the cell is the room beneath it: the same root roofs both.

VSoil and soul04:30

• Latin solum, the ground — soil, sole (of the foot), Italian suolo. English soul (Old English sāwol; Gothic saiwala). The soul is what lifts out of the body and the soil is what it lifts out of: Rule VI, and the Qur’an’s ṣalṣāl, the sounding clay, and Genesis 2:7, ʿāfār min hā-ʾadāmāh, the dust of the ground, breathed into.
• Select: Latin sēligere, to pick out — chosen from the soil. Silence, still, slumber, sleep: the peace of the settled. Salt (sal — salary, salad, sauce, sausage): what keeps whole.

VIThe same and the opposite05:10

• Rule VI, in full. Salām is peace and slay (Old English slēan) and slaughter are the strike: one skeleton. Salvus is the safe and sclavus, slave, is the taken. Sōlus is alone and solidarity is together. Sell gives away; sole keeps. Soul rises and soil stays. Sheʾōl is the pit and caelum is the vault. The root of wholeness carries its own breaking.

VIINames remember05:40

• Solomon, Sulaymān, Süleyman, Salomé (peace), Shlomo, Shulamit, Absalom, Salmā, Salmān, Salīm, Selim, Salem (the Massachusetts town, and Melchizedek’s city in Genesis 14:18), Shiloh, Saul (Shāʾūl, asked-for — sh-ʾ-l), Silas (silva, the wood), Celeste, Selene, Soleil, Salvador, Solveig, Sol.

VIIIThe salt tab’s words06:00

• These stand on the salt tab of The Descent for this episode, each with its dictionary line, the case to come: first, as-Salām, the Peace, who keeps His creatures safe, one of the ninety-nine names of God, and salām, peace, wholeness, from s-l-m — al-maliku l-quddūsu s-salām, the King, the Holy, the Peace (Qur’an 59:23) — which stands on the lamb tab too; inshallah, if God wills, which stands on the nose tab too; shall, the owing; solution, Latin solūtiō, the loosening, which stands on the lesson, sun and ten tabs too; shelter, the cover, and shoulder, the joint of the arm and the body, which stand on the door tab too; Celtic, Greek Keltoí, the Celts, which stands on the duck and call tabs too; salt itself (Watkins *sal-; Latin sāl, Greek háls), with the dictionary’s own salt words salary, salad and saline; ṣalāh, the prayer — and, to this show’s ear, salām and salt given to God; Selma; saliva; salient; salamander; Urdu sāl, the year; soldier; soul; Celestine and Céline; Salazar; ceiling; syllable and syllabus; celery; Islam itself, and Muslim; Salwa, the quail of the manna; Saul, the asked-for; soil; silly, once blessed; salami and salter, the dictionary’s own salt; sell and sale; pencil, the little brush, which stands on the pan and nose tabs too; peninsula and penicillin, which stand on the pan and nose tabs too; salon; seltzer; tonsil, which stands on the ten and nose tabs too; cell; basil, Basel and basilica; solitude, solidarity and solder; psalter; silica and salicylic acid; selenium; salvia, the herb sage, which stands on the shook tab too; vessel, Episode IV’s word, which stands on the water tab too; seal, the animal and the stamp, two words; zalzala, the quake, and the ninety-ninth sūra; Afzal, the most excellent, the host’s own name; Wesley, the west wood, which stands on the water tab too; Dār as-Salām, the Abode of Peace, which stands on the door tab too; diesel, the engine and the name, which stands on the daisy tab too; utensil, the tool of the house, which stands on the ten and nose tabs too; silk, the thread of the worm; console, counsel and consolidation, which stand on the gene and nose tabs too; the names Sally and Sylvester, the latter on the love tab too; sully, to stain; mā shāʾa llāh, what God has willed; Selin, the name set beside the moon; solace, the comfort, which stands on the lesson tab too; ahlan wa-sahlan, the welcome, whose sahl, the level ground, stands on the hello tab too; and, from the muse tab, muṣallā, the place of prayer, masʾala, Urdu masla, the problem, mausoleum, which stands on the lamb tab too, missile and missal; Korean seoul, the capital, the city’s own name; insulin, the hormone of the islets, which stands on the nose tab too; special and spatial, the Latin kind and the Latin space, the latter on the tell tab too; commercial, of trade; guzzle, to drink or eat greedily, Arabic ghazāl and English gazelle, the gazelle, and Urdu ghazal, the love poem, Arabic ghusl, the full washing, and Urdu ghusl-khāna, the bathroom, the name Giselle, the pledge, with Gisèle, Gisele and Gisela, the Sikh name Jasleen, heard as absorbed in praise, Arabic kasal, the sloth, and kusālā, lazily, and jostle, to push and elbow, all of which stand on the jazz tab too, and ghusl-khāna on the leg and gene tabs as well; tafṣīl, commonly tafseel, the detail, which stands on the taffy tab too; the names Salvatore and Salvador, the Saviour, which stand on the water, door and love tabs too; shoal, the shallow, and shoal, the crowd of fish, two words; should, the past of shall, which stands on the side tab too; shale, the rock that splits into thin leaves; shell, the hard case; shilajit, Sanskrit śilājatu and Urdu silājīt, the rock-lac, which stands on the leg and God tabs too; shilling, the old coin; shallow, not deep; shield, the board borne against blows; Latin solvere, to loosen, with solve, dissolve, absolve and resolve, which stand on the love tab too, solvere on the bar tab, dissolve on the daisy tab and absolve on the best tab; the names Selena and Selina; Caelia and Celia, the Roman name and the English, Caelia on the call tab too; ritual, the order of the rite, which stands on the earth, tell, call and rock tabs too; nasal, of the nose, which stands on the nose tab too; Arabic rasūl, the messenger, and risāla, the message, from arsala, to send, which stand on the rice tab too; Hebrew Yərūshālayim, Yerushalayim in its common spelling, Jerusalem in English, the city, which stands on the your and rice tabs too, and Jerusalem on the care and lamb tabs; yourself, you and no other, from your and self, which stands on the your and rice tabs too; ṣāliḥ, righteous, good, sound, ṣāliḥāt, the righteous deeds, ṣulḥ, the reconciliation, and iṣlāḥ, the setting right, from ṣ-l-ḥ, to be good, sound, right, which stand on the Allah tab too, and ṣāliḥāt on the head tab; Ṣāliḥ, in its common spellings Saleh and Salih, the prophet sent to Thamūd, which stands on the Allah tab too; castle, the fortified house of a lord, Latin castellum, the diminutive of castrum, the fort, said without its t, which stands on the kiss tab too; rehearsal, the practising before the performance, from rehearse, Old French rehercier, to harrow over again, which stands on the rūḥ, hair and rice tabs too; fayṣal, the arbiter and the sword that cuts, and the name Fayṣal, Faisal or Feisal, from f-ṣ-l, to separate, to decide, which stand on the pay tab too; Urdu and Hindi masālā, commonly masala, the spices, the ingredients ground together, from Arabic maṣāliḥ, the things needed, which stands on the muse tab too; and faṣl, commonly fasl, the parting, the separation, the decision, the chapter, the season, and in Urdu the harvest, which stands on the face tab too. The script gives each its line and says which are the dictionary’s and which are the show’s.

IXScripture and the close13:40

• Qur’an 59:23 (as-Salām), 26:89 (the sound heart), 15:26 and 55:14 (ṣalṣāl), 36:58 — salāmun qawlan min rabbin raḥīm, “Peace: a word from a merciful Lord.” Genesis 14:18 (Melchizedek, king of Salem), 28:12 (the ladder), 2:7 (the dust). Psalm 122:6 — shaʾalū shelōm Yerushālāyim, “pray for the peace of Jerusalem”: sh-ʾ-l and sh-l-m in one line. Numbers 6:26 (the blessing that ends in shalom). John 14:27. Luke 2:14.
• Close on the ladder: sullām, S-L-M, from the soil to the sky; and the soul, selected from the mud, climbing it. Salām is the whole distance.
• Next time: Hadid.

XSources14:20