Learn Arabic › B2 › زَنْجِيّ
زَنْجِيّ
Black African (adjective, historically 'of the Zanj') /zanˈdʒijː/
adjectiveB2#3182 most common
Also: Negro (dated), of or relating to the Zanj people/region
Example sentences
هٰذَا رَجُلٌ زَنْجِيٌّ.
This is a Black man.
كَانَتْ أُمُّهُ زَنْجِيَّةً مِنَ السَّاحِلِ الشَّرْقِيِّ لِأَفْرِيقِيَا.
His mother was a Black woman from the East African coast.
سُمِّيَتْ جَزِيرَةُ زَنْجِبَار نِسْبَةً إِلَى السُّكَّانِ الزَّنْجِيِّينَ الَّذِينَ عَاشُوا عَلَى سَاحِلِهَا.
The island of Zanzibar was named after the Black inhabitants who lived on its coast.
قَادَ عَلِيُّ بْنُ مُحَمَّدٍ ثَوْرَةَ الزَّنْجِيِّينَ الْمَشْهُورَةَ فِي الْبَصْرَةِ فِي الْقَرْنِ التَّاسِعِ.
Ali ibn Muhammad led the famous Zanj rebellion in Basra in the ninth century.
يَرَى بَعْضُ الْبَاحِثِينَ أَنَّ كَلِمَةَ زَنْجِيّ أَصْبَحَتْ قَدِيمَةَ الطِّرَازِ وَقَدْ تُعَدُّ مُهِينَةً فِي الِاسْتِعْمَالِ الْمُعَاصِرِ.
Some researchers hold that the word 'zanji' has become old-fashioned and may be considered offensive in contemporary usage.
فِي كُتُبِ الْجُغْرَافِيَا الْعَرَبِيَّةِ الْقَدِيمَةِ، وُصِفَتْ بِلَادُ الزَّنْجِ بِأَنَّهَا مَوْطِنُ التُّجَّارِ الزَّنْجِيِّينَ الَّذِينَ سَيْطَرُوا عَلَى تِجَارَةِ الْعَاجِ وَالذَّهَبِ عَلَى طُولِ السَّاحِلِ الْأَفْرِيقِيِّ الشَّرْقِيِّ.
In old Arabic geography books, the land of the Zanj was described as the homeland of the Black merchants who controlled the ivory and gold trade along the East African coast.
Declension
| Case | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | زَنْجِيٌّ | زَنْجِيُّونَ |
| Genitive | زَنْجِيٍّ | زَنْجِيِّينَ |
| Accusative | زَنْجِيًّا | زَنْجِيِّينَ |
| Vocative | يَا زَنْجِيُّ | يَا زَنْجِيُّونَ |
Word family
زَنْجthe Zanj (historical East African region/people)
زُنُوجBlack Africans (plural)
زَنْجِيَّةa Black African woman
زَنْجِبَارZanzibar
Etymology
The adjective زَنْجِيّ is built from زَنْج (Zanj), the old Arabic name for the East African coast and its Bantu-speaking inhabitants, plus the nisba suffix -iyy, meaning 'of or belonging to.' Medieval Arabic geographers used bilad al-Zanj, 'the land of the Zanj,' for the coast that traders reached by dhow from the Gulf and southern Arabia. The name Zanzibar itself comes from Zanj plus bar, 'coast,' so it literally means 'coast of the Zanj.' Persian sources used a closely related term for the same region, and it likely passed between the two languages through shared Indian Ocean trade.
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