Ludina Sallam May 1, 2020:

Thank you for taking the time to volunteer such an informative and interesting explanation of the word! I appreciate very much having learned something and gained understanding.

Fuad Yahya May 1, 2020:

Your understanding of حزب is basically correct. The word can be traced to pre-Islamic times, when political parties in the modern sense did not exist. It was used in the sense of affiliation, whether tribal, confessional, or ideational. The word gained greater currency in the aftermath of a battle known as الأحزاب, which, in that context, meant coalition of disparate groups whose sole unifying factor was the crushing of the nascent Muslim state in Medina.

The word appears 20 times in 17 verses in 13 suras in the Quran, in singular, dual, and plural forms. The meaning generally hovers around the concept of "faction."

The word حزب did not acquire the standard meaning of "political party" until relatively recent times, with the rise of modern political parties in the Middle East. The National Party of Mostafa Kamel in Egypt, for instance, was established in 1907. Today, the word is used almost exclusively in that sense. We typically understand it as such, unless the context connotes something else.

Ludina Sallam May 1, 2020:

I don't agree with using "agglomeration."

Ludina Sallam May 1, 2020:

Thank you for your response. I guess that is what they mean then. I guess I was not sure, not being a native Arabic speaker, whether حزبي would tend to lean very much to the meaning political, I wondered whether it could also just mean something like factional, or group-based, or partitioned, or something along those lines. It is a lack of certainty on my part, about the meaning of حزبي , being a native English speaker.

Fuad Yahya May 1, 2020:

@Ludina Thanks for your input. I read the text again to double-check. It seems pretty clear to me that their point is precisely party-affiliated cliques:

تكتلات حزبية بين أفراد الجنسية الواحدة

"Party-based cliques among members of the same nationality."

In other words, within a group of employees of one and the same national origin, you will find cliques that are not just political in the generic sense, but party-based cliques. That is how I read it. Do you read it differently?

Incidentally, I am familiar with the situation they describe. I used to supervise a group of translators from different nationalities, and whenever a political problem erupted in the country of origin of some translators, the political fault lines begin to show and reflect on the operation of our unit. At the dining hall, for example, the Communists would sit at one table, while the Social Democrats would sit at another, and so on. Please let me know if I am missing something.

Ludina Sallam May 1, 2020:

I like the use of the word "cliques" very much, but I am not sure that I would use the word "oarties." I don't know why they used that word in the source. Maybe in Arabic it can mean something other than a political party, but here in English it sounds to me like it implies politics, whereas they are actually talking about nationalities.

Good greetings to all and Happy Ramadan!

adel almergawy (asker) Apr 30, 2020:

words can't express my gratitude Mr Fuad.

Fuad Yahya Apr 30, 2020:

@Adel An agglomeration is either a process or a thing. If the reference is to a process, then it is a process of collecting into a mass. If it is a thing, then it is a collection, usually of disparate things, like a heap of old furniture or a pile of junk. It can also be used in reference to closely situated population areas, like Cairo, Giza, and New Cairo, or clusters of heavenly objects, like stars and galaxies.

A clique is a totally different thing. It is a circle or group of people who share interests, views, or purposes that set them apart from the larger group. When I was growing up, we called it شلة. A clique can form on the basis of political views, economic class, religious affiliation, ethnicity, etc.