Message of Nashib bin Bishama Al-Anbari to his people Banu Tami aSemiotic study

Abstract

This study investigates the linguistic signifiers embedded in the message of Nashib ibn Bishamah al-ʿAnbari addressed to his tribe, Banu Tamim, through a semiotic lens. The research aims to analyze seven distinct semiotic formations, classified across three levels or types, based on Charles Sanders Peirce’s triadic model of the sign: the representamen, the object, and the interpretant The study approaches and analyzes these procedural semiotic models in light of the syntagmatic dimension of the representamen, which generates an additional triadic structure nested within the original triad: the qualitative sign, the singular sign, and the conventional sign.

The analytical method adopted in this research follows a circular trajectory, wherein each semiotic model is traced through the dual triadic classification and the three levels it passes through to uncover the latent meanings behind the linguistic signifiers. The study is structured around two principal frameworks: the first is a theoretical platform that discusses the semiotic apparatus employed—namely, the Peircean model of the sign—while the second is a practical platform that applies the model to selected sign formations extracted from the message, according to the tripartite classification of the qualitative, singular, and conventional signs.

The signs of the message, as small semantic units, formed a major pivotal sign, as they all referred to the pattern and nature of ancient Arab (Bedouin) life and its dominant features. Perhaps the two most important basic terms to which the message referred are the term “migration” and the term “invasion.”