Desert · الصحراء
Dunes and oases, caravans and tents, the gazelle, the falcon and the mirage.
الكثبانُ والواحات، والقوافلُ والخيام، والغزالُ والصقرُ والسراب.
- سَرَاب (sarāb) — mirage
- وَاحَة (wāḥah) — oasis
- صَحْرَاء (ṣaḥrāʾ) — desert
- كَثِيب (kathīb) — sand dune
- قَافِلَة (qāfilah) — caravan
- خَيْمَة (khaymah) — tent
- أَطْلَال (aṭlāl) — the traces of an abandoned encampment — the ruins where classical poems begin
- غَزَال (ghazāl) — gazelle
- صَقْر (ṣaqr) — falcon
- نَخْلَة (nakhlah) — date palm
- رَحَّالَة (raḥḥālah) — great traveler, explorer
- ضَيْف (ḍayf) — guest
- قَهْوَة (qahwah) — coffee
- رَمْل (raml) — sand
- نَاقَة (nāqah) — she-camel
- بَعِير (baʿīr) — camel
- هَوْدَج (hawdaj) — howdah, a covered litter carried on a camel
- بَادِيَة (bādiyah) — the open desert, the steppe
- بَدَوِيّ (badawī) — Bedouin, desert dweller
- وَادِي (wādī) — valley; a stream bed that fills only after rain
- سَمُوم (samūm) — a scorching, dusty desert wind
- نَجْد (najd) — highland, upland
- فَلَاة (falāh) — wilderness, a wide waterless plain
- قَفْر (qafr) — a barren, empty land
- مَهَاة (mahāh) — oryx, the wild desert antelope
- تَمْر (tamr) — dried dates
- بِئْر (biʾr) — well
- غَدِير (ghadīr) — a pool left behind by rain or a stream
- صَخْر (ṣakhr) — rock
- عَقْرَب (ʿaqrab) — scorpion
- ضَبّ (ḍabb) — the spiny-tailed desert lizard
- ذِئْب (dhiʾb) — wolf
- حُدَاء (ḥudāʾ) — the camel driver’s song, sung to keep the camels walking
- رَبْع (rabʿ) — an abode, a spring campsite
- رَحِيل (raḥīl) — departure, setting out
- هَجِير (hajīr) — the fierce heat of midday
- قِرًى (qirā) — the hospitality given to a guest
- دَلِيل (dalīl) — a guide
- سَيْل (sayl) — torrent, flash flood
- مُعَلَّقَة (muʿallaqah) — one of the celebrated pre-Islamic odes known as the Muʿallaqāt
- غُول (ghūl) — ghoul, a demon of desert folklore
- شَيْخ (shaykh) — old man, elder
- صَبَّار (ṣabbār) — cactus, especially the prickly pear
- سِدْر (sidr) — lote tree, a thorny jujube of dry lands
- طَلْح (ṭalḥ) — acacia, a thorny tree of the desert
- طُوب (ṭūb) — bricks
- أَرَاك (arāk) — the arak tree, whose twigs serve as toothbrushes
- كَمْأَة (kamʾah) — desert truffles
- جَمَل (jamal) — camel; strictly, the male