Abstract
The Muslim concept of the heart as an instrument of understanding is evident in the teachings of the Koran (the Holy Book of Muslims). The heart in present-day T. Arabic, however, is almost exclusively the seat of emotions and cultural values, but hardly ever the instrument of thought and understanding, which are relegated to the 3aql 'intellect'. Compared to other parts of the body, the heart is one of the most productive source domains for cultural conceptualizations in present-day T. Arabic. It is a CONTAINER for emotions, people, and objects that can enter it and leave it (IN-OUT schema). It is also capable of movement as in UPDOWN (fear, panic, and worry), and WIDE-NARROW (worry, anxiety) image schemas. The heart provides metaphoric conceptualizations for love and sadness, and is also involved in conceptualizations of cultural values such as compassion, cruelty, courage, encouragement, generosity, hard work, kindness, laziness, meanness, (in) tolerance, conscience, remembrance, and so forth. The metonymic model of the heart's Idealized Cognitive Model describes the HEART FOR PERSON metonym, where the heart stands for the person. Compared to the conceptualizations of the heart in English, the heart in present-day T. Arabic is fairly restricted in scope. Indeed, while the heart in English describes a wider range of emotions, mental faculties, and cultural conceptualizations - equating this organ with the mind, thinking, understanding, etc. - in present-day T. Arabic the qalb 'heart' is largely dissociated from the mind, thinking, and understanding.