Qisas

[Benjamin Barrett]

Ini an AP story by Nasser Karimi in today's Seattle Times, the word "qisas" is defined. The article says:

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If no agreement is reached, then "qisas," or eye-for-an-eye retribution, is enforced.
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The word does not appear in the online OED.

Wiktionary has the word only as an Azeri translation of "revenge" though Wikipedia has a short article.

Although the Wikipedia article has a supposed citation from 2009 from the "Phillie Metro," I can't find (without looking too hard) that publication. It appears this story may be the first mainstream use.

The article "Pakistan: Women's Commission Recommends Qisas Law Be Amended" cites a publication date of April 1, 2004.

The abstract "Pakistan: new forms of cruel and degrading punishment" is dated March 1, 1991: "This circular deals with the new forms of punishment recently introduced in Pakistan under the Qisas and Diyat Ordinance. " The source article has the term 34 times.

An earlier article "Divine Law or Man-Made Law? Egypt and the Application of the Shari'a" by Rudolph Peters is dated August 1988. Google provides the quote "They have been published in Mashnxat qawartin al-qisas ws-l-diye wa-l-hudud al-shartiyya." The shortened link is http://bit.ly/oE6uAO, though JSTOR access is required to see the article, which I don't have.

This seems like a handy word for describing this ancient tradition.

Benjamin Barrett
Seattle, WA

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