(a), cutting off. The Arabie verb ḳaṭaʿa has been very widely used in a variety of literal and metaphorical senses; this diversity is often of interest for both religious and cultural history.

The infinitive ḳaṭʿ does not occur in the Ḳurʾān, but the finite verb occurs both in the literal and in a rather metaphorical sense: Sūra V, 42 (38): “Cut off the hands of the thief and the female thief”—the well-known prescription which has passed into fiḳh and is sometimes briefly designated as ḳaṭʿ al-liṣṣ ; Sūra VIII, 7: “and [Allah] may cut off the root of the Infidels”, i.e., extirpate them. Sūra I…