A vocabulary of landscape — a landscape of words
1467 entries
sarha
A walk or wander that leads to some kind of revelation or spiritual renovation. Kinda like walkabout. Or “not all who wander are lost.” It’s not aimless, and it’s purposefully open. Young men would go on a sarḥa into the hills, disappearing for a day, sometimes weeks. To go on a sarḥa is to move freely, at will, without restraint.
Etymology
Arabic: sarḥa), from the verb saraḥa, meaning to let cattle out to pasture early in the morning, leaving them to wander and graze at liberty. The appears in Raja Shehadeh’s Palestinian Walks, where he uses it to describe his walks through the landscape of the West Bank.