How to say "essay, composition" in Arabic

Hebrew נ-ש-א, 'to lift, carry', may be a distant relative (Arabic ش regularly answers the שׂ of נשא), but the meanings have long parted: nashaʾa is 'to arise, come into being', and an inshāʾ is literally a 'bringing-into-being', a composition created from nothing. Hebrew's own school word, חיבור, means 'a joining-together' — a nice conceptual echo from a different angle.