Thread by @seyyedreza

In Arabic, church is كنيسة (kenisa) and synagogue is کنیس (kenis).

In Persian, church is کلیسا (kelisa) and synagogue is کنیسه (kenisa).

A quick thread on why Middle Eastern languages have similar sounding words for church and synagogue - and how they link up to our own:

It looks like these are all the same root word, with an L inexplicably finding its way in at some point.

But actually there are two different roots here.

One is Aramaic and one is Greek, and they both made their way into Middle Eastern languages.

Kenis/a comes from the Aramaic root K-N-S, meaning "to gather".

This is the same root as in modern Hebrew - Knesset (parliament), Knesiya (church), Bet Knesset (synagogue).

This is where کنیس and کنیسه come from.

In Akkadian, the root meant originally to "bow before a lord."

The second root here is Greek: Ekklesia, i.e. Eκκλησία - which entered Arabic/Persian/Turkish as "kelisa."

Kelisa shares a root with the words for church in many languages: Église in French, Iglesia, in Spanish, Chiesa in Italian.

The origin is the Greek καλέω, "I call"

These Aramaic and Greek words expanded out across the world through the langugaes Arabic and Persian came in contact with.

In Swahili, church is "kenisa", while in Turkish it's kilise.

Long story short: languages and etymology are a fascinating way to explore the connections between peoples and cultures!

Adding some color to this thread with a picture of a church in Tehran!

And the door of an Iranian synagogue in Tehran’s old city, with “Kenise” written out #Iran

A tile in Esfahan’s bazaar reading “Menorah” in Hebrew, beside Bismillah in Arabic to the side.

Menorah is based on a root shared in both Arabic and Hebrew: Nur, meaning light.

In Arabic, for ex, Manawrah means lit up or full of light.