عقد

What it means

عقد (aqd) means “contract, binding” and in everyday Persian almost always refers to the marriage contract. The word comes from the Arabic root ع-ق-د (ʿ-q-d), meaning “to tie, to knot, to bind.” An aghd is literally a knot, a legal and religious tying of two people. Other Arabic words from the same root carry the same image: عقیده (aqide) belief, something tied in the mind, and عقد (aqd) in classical contexts also means a string of beads. Persian inherited the word with this concrete weight intact.

Cultural context

In an Iranian wedding the aghd and the عروسی (arusi, the party) are two separate events, sometimes on the same day, often weeks or months apart. The aghd is the moment a couple becomes legally and religiously married. It happens at a سفره عقد (sofre-ye aqd), a ceremonial spread laid on the floor with mirrors, candles, honey, sugar cones (کله‌قند, kalle-qand), herbs, a Quran or a Divan-e Hafez, decorated bread, and dishes of seeds and sweets. Each item has meaning. The mirror and candles symbolize light and clarity. The honey is shared between the couple to start the marriage with sweetness. The sugar cones are rubbed together over a white cloth held above the couple’s heads, raining sugar on them.

The bride and groom sit facing the mirror. An officiant called the عاقد (aqed) reads the contract aloud and asks the bride three times if she consents. Tradition has her stay silent the first two times while female relatives joke that she is busy gathering flowers, picking rosewater, or that she has stepped out. Only on the third asking does she say بله (bale, yes), and the room erupts in cheers, sugar-cone rubbing, and ululation (کِل کشیدن, kel keshidan). The mehriye, the dowry-portion the husband legally owes, is recorded in the contract at this moment.

How to use it

• عقدشون فرداست (aqdeshun farda-st) “Their aghd is tomorrow”
• سفره عقد خیلی قشنگ بود (sofre-ye aqd kheyli qashang bud) “The aghd spread was beautiful”
• هنوز عقد نکردن (hanuz aqd nakardan) “They haven’t done the aghd yet”
• عاقد آیه رو خوند (aqed âye-ro khund) “The officiant read the verse”
• اول عقد، بعد عروسی (aval aqd, ba’d arusi) “First the aghd, then the wedding party”

Related expressions

عاقد (aqed) is the officiant. عروسی (arusi) is the wedding party that follows. نامزدی (nâmzadi) is engagement, the period before aghd. مهریه (mehriye) is the marriage portion written into the contract, a sum the husband legally owes the wife. صیغه (sighe) is a temporary contract used in some Shia traditions, mechanically similar but socially distinct. خواستگاری (khâstgâri) is the formal proposal visit, the first step that leads to aghd. شیرینی‌خوران (shirini-khorân) is the smaller “sweet-eating” gathering that often precedes the aghd to mark the engagement.

References

• Dehkhoda
• Vajehyab