Al-Baqqal

Overview

Al-Baqqal (al-Baqqāl) comes from b-q-l. In Lisān al-ʿArab the baql is what the earth sprouts of green herbage, abqalat al-arḍ is for the ground to put it out, and the same root is used of a boy's first beard appearing — baqala wajhuhu. The baqqāl is the man who sells baql, that is greens and garden produce.

Baqqāl and baddāl

The lexicographers record that the seller of dry foodstuffs came to be called baqqāl in common speech, and they correct it: the proper word for him is baddāl, from badal, the exchanging of one commodity for another, because he trades in goods rather than growing them. The correction is worth keeping because it shows the name's original narrowness — a greengrocer — against the wide modern sense of a general provisioner or shopkeeper. A family called al-Baqqāl may be named from either usage; the word does not say which. It should also not be read as any name on b-q-l meaning a place of herbage, which is a different formation.

Bearing the name

An occupational or toponymic family name records what an ancestor did or where he was from, as the name was applied to him — not a lineage. It attaches to no tribe, and two families bearing it need have no connection to one another beyond the word itself.