PERIOD ARABIC NAMES AND NAMING PRACTICES

by Da'ud ibn Auda (David B. Appleton) © 2003

INTRODUCTION

The following is my "new, improved" Arabic naming practices and names lists, an update of an article with the same name which was published some years ago. The research in this list has been a little more rigorous: some names which appeared on the earlier list do not appear on this one; on the plus side, this list consists of more names in all categories of name elements than the earlier list. Careful track was kept of what specific name elements came from where in what specific sources, so that answering inquiries and double-checking the work to verify spellings, etc. will be much easier. Also expanded are the descriptions of the various name elements, and illustrations of common names forms with actual period examples of each. As a result, this updated article should be even more useful than the earlier version, in addition to being more accurate.

The following names lists consist of period (pre-1600 A.D.) Arabic names and name elements, having been selected from names of people who lived during that time. These lists are not designed to be exhaustive, only to be large enough to give a reasonably wide selection of provably period Arabic names. I have tried to avoid, as much as possible, names with other than Arabic origins, such as Persian, Mongol and Turkish (e.g., 'Umar al-Khayyami [Arabic] rather than Omar Khayyam [Persian]).

The list of feminine given names is shorter than the list of men’s given names. As is the case with many medieval societies, not many women were specifically named in period sources and references. However, many of the masculine given names can be feminized by the addition of "a" or "ah" to the end (for example, the masculine Khalid can be found feminized as Khalida(h)). Masculine cognomens ending in "i" may generally be feminized by changing the finial "i" to "iyya" or "iyyah". (Cognomens, as such term is used herein, consist primarily of laqabs and nisbas; for more on which, see below.) There are a few names which were "unisex": ‘Ulayyah bint al-Mahdi was a half-sister of Harun al-Rashid, and Abu Ishaq Ibrahim ibn Isma’il ibn Ibrahim ibn ‘Ulayyah was an Egyptian authority for hadith. As can be seen from this example, it is not always possible to tell the gender of a name from the presence of an "a" or "ah" ending. In the names lists below, where I have found both a masculine and a feminine form of a given name, such names are marked with an asterisk [*], and the respective forms are found in the masculine and feminine lists of isms (given names).

Titular names such as ‘The Sword of the Faith (Sayf al-Din) and ‘The Sword of the State’ (Sayf al-Dawla) were bestowed by the caliph on military and political leaders and were very highly valued. Thus, names consisting of "X + al-Din" (the most famous examples being "Salah al-Din" [Rectitude of the Faith], "Nur al-Din" [Light of the Faith] and "`Ala al-Din" (Aladdin)), "X + al-Dawla" (Nasir al-Dawla [Defender of the State]), "X + al-Mulk" (Nizam al-Mulk [Order of the Kingdom]) and "X + al-Islam (Sayf al-Islam [Sword of Islam]) were generally an indication of status or rank. As a consequence, such titular names are not registrable in the SCA, and they have been left out of the lists of period names.

Where I have found the translation of a byname, it follows the name entry in [brackets]. I have not done the same with isms (given names) because in Arabic, as with most other languages, once a word enters the name "pool", it quickly loses its putative "meaning" and becomes simply a name in and of itself. For example, a person would have been named Muhammad because that was the name of the founding prophet of Islam, not because it once meant "praiseworthy".

Where a given name is the Arabic form of a name also well-known in English, I have included the English form in brackets (e.g., Isma’il [Ishmael]; Yusuf [Joseph]). The English form should not be used in Arabic names; it is there only as a reference point for the reader.

Commonly used alternative transliterations for some names follow the primary entry in (parentheses).

A FEW NOTES ABOUT TRANSLITERATION

T.E. Lawrence (yes, that Lawrence), who lived among the Arabs for a number of years before and during World War I and who spoke not only standard Arabic but a number of local dialects, probably summed it up more concisely than anyone else in an answer to some queries from his publisher about inconsistent spellings of Arabic names in his manuscript Revolt in the Desert:

"Arabic names won't go into English, exactly, for their consonants are not the same as ours, and their words, like ours, vary from district to district. There are some `scientific systems' of transliteration, helpful to people who know enough Arabic not to need helping, but a wash-out for the world. I spell my names anyhow, to show what rot the systems are."

So the problem is, and remains, "how do you spell `Khaddafi' (Gadhafi, Qadafi, etc., etc., etc.)?" I have seen a number of systems of transliteration, and find most of them to be adequate, if not necessarily consistent with each other. What it comes down to is that there are usually a number of ways to spell an Arabic name in Roman letters. In researching my own name, I have found Da'ud, Daud, Dawud, Daoud, Dawood, Daood and Da'oud.

However, there are some limits to the variability of transliterations of Arabic names. One cannot simply replace one vowel with another: e.g., Duad is not an acceptable transliteration of Daud. The pronunciation is too different to be a reasonable transliteration. If I may borrow a phrase from Harpy Herald: Transliteration from Arabic may be "complex, but complexity is not anarchy." Any transliteration used must be pronounced reasonably close to the Arabic original.

To help ease the problem of variant transliterations, the names in the lists are spelled according to the most commonly-used transliterations found. If there is more than one commonly used way to spell a name, the alternate(s) follow the primary spelling in parentheses. The listings are not comprehensive as far as alternative spellings; they are simply the ones most frequently seen or generally used. For simplification, most of the diacritical marks (dots or lines beneath certain letters, etc.) have been left out, as they are unavailable on typewriters and many computers and are primarily useful, as Mr. Lawrence noted, only to those who know enough Arabic not to need them.

As a note of historical interest, Arabic name have often become corrupted when used by Europeans. Examples, many from period, include: Averroes, from ibn Rushd; Avicenna from ibn Sina; Achmed from Ahmad; Amurath from al-Murad; Saladin from Salah al-Din; Nureddin from Nur al-Din; Almanzor from al-Mansur; Rhases from Razi; and Avenzoar from ibn Zuhr.

The only two "rules" that seem to be generally consistent (at least in books published since a little before WWII) in transliterating Arabic names are:

(i) "Abu al-[cognomen, whether laqab or nisba]" is frequently transliterated as "Abu'l-[cognomen]", in keeping with the actual "slur" in pronunciation; and

(ii) the Arabic "the" ("al"), when used in a cognomen is always hyphenated to the word following it, as in "Harun al-Rashid".

ARABIC NAMING PRACTICES

"Giving a name, indeed, is a poetic art; all poetry if we go to that with it, is but a giving of names." (Carlyle) The Arabic-speaking peoples are concerned not only with giving an appropriate name to someone, but with how the name sounds: do the syllables flow well? Do the various parts of the name roll mellifluously from the tongue? Is the name poetry? Do the various elements fit well each with the other? All of this is considered in the giving of names in "the language of the angels", Arabic.

Arabic name elements may be divided into five main categories, with the last category having several sub-types. Persons are named by:

1. An ism (pronounced IZM, as the final syllable in the word dogmatism), a personal, proper name given shortly after birth, usually on the third day, but sometimes on day of birth and sometimes on the seventh day after birth. Examples of such names are Muhammad [Mohammed], Musa [Moses], Ibrahim [Abraham], Ahmad. Adults are seldom called by these names; socially it is considered a slight to address or refer to an elder or parent by their ism.

2. A kunya (pronounced COON-yah), an honorific name or surname, as the father or mother of someone; e.g., abu Da'ud [the father of David], umm Salim [the mother of Salim]. It is meant as a prefix of respect or reverence. Married persons (especially married ladies) are, as a general rule, simply called by their kunya (abu or umm + the name of their first son). When using a person's full name, the kunya precedes the personal name: Abu Yusuf Hasan [the father of Joseph, Hasan], Umm Ja’far Aminah [the mother of Ja’far, Aminah].

3. By a nasab (pronounced NAH-sahb), a pedigree, as the son or daughter of someone; e.g., ibn 'Umar [the son of Omar], bint `Abbas [the daughter of Abbas]). The nasab follows the ism in usage: Hasan ibn Faraj [Hasan the son of Faraj], Sumayya bint Khubbat [Sumayya the daughter of Khubbat]. Many historical personages are more familiar to us by their nasab than by their ism: e.g., the historian ibn Khaldun, the traveler ibn Battuta, and the philosopher ibn Sina [Avicenna].

   Nasabs may be extended for several generations, as may be noted in some of the examples set forth below. However, the vast majority of nasabs found in period sources are only one or two generations long. It is uncommon to find a nasab which extends three generations back (considering the father of the individual as the first generation), and there are a very few examples which extend to four generations, such as Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Ja’far ibn al-Haddad.

   When the parent in a nasab is referred to by his kunya, the word abu becomes abi, e.g., Muhammad’s son-in-law was ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib, ‘Ali the son of Abu Talib, or ‘Ali, the son of the father of Talib.

4. A laqab (pronounced LAH-kahb), a combination of words into a byname or epithet, usually religious, relating to nature, a descriptive, or of some admirable quality the person had (or would like to have); e.g., al-Rashid [the Rightly-guided], al-Fadl [the Prominent]. Laqabs follow the ism: Harun al-Rashid [Aaron the Rightly-guided].

   One particular form of laqab is formed on the pattern of `Abd [servant of] plus one of the 99 names of Allah; e.g., ‘Abd Allah (`Abdullah) [the servant of God], `Abd al-Aziz [servant of the Almighty], `Abd al-Rahman [servant of the Merciful]. These laqabs are used as, and in the place of, an ism: ‘Abd al-Mun’im ibn Idris ibn Sinan. The feminine form of this type of laqab is Amat al-X, for example, Amat Allah (Amatullah), (female) servant of Allah.

   Sometimes what appear to be regularly-formed laqabs are found used instead of, or in the place of, an ism, e.g., al-Dahhak ibn ‘Ajlan, Abu Talib al-Mufaddal ibn Salamah. (Such laqabs might also be found used in the "normal" fashion for a laqab: Muhammad ibn Ya’la al-Dabbi al-Mufaddal.) I have not yet found a general rule by which laqabs are used in the place of an ism; the only reliable guide for proper usage right now is to look at actual period examples. Where I have found laqabs used as isms as well as "normal" laqabs, they are marked in the names lists with a plus sign [+] and are found listed in both the list of laqabs/nisbas used as isms and the list of laqabs/nisbas.

   Some names are found both as an ism and in a laqab form: Rashid and al-Rashid, Hasan and al-Hasan, Anbar and al-Anbar, Fadl and al-Fadl. (These and other examples are marked in the names lists with a carat [^].) This is not, however, a general rule; not all isms may be modified in this way and used as laqabs. Again, the only reliable guide for proper usage is to look at period examples.

5. A nisba (pronounced NISS-bah), a byname. Nisbas follow the ism or, if the name contains a nasab (of however many generations), generally follow the nasab. The three primary types of nisba are:

   1. Occupational, derived from an person's trade or profession; e.g., Muhammad al-Hallaj [Muhammad, the dresser of cotton].
   2. Of descent, derived from the name of a person’s tribe of birth or family lineage: Mughirah al-Ju'fi [Mughirah of the tribe of Ju'fi]; Yusuf al-Ayyubi [Joseph the Ayyubid, Joseph of the family line of Ayyub].
   3. Geographical, derived from the place of residence or birth: Yaqub al-Dimashqi [Jacob of Damascus]. As is the case with nasabs, some persons in history are known to us primarily by their nisba: Muhammad ibn Isma’il al-Bukhari, the author of an early collection of hadith (sayings of the Prophet Muhammad) is better known from his place of birth, Bukhara, simply as al-Bukhari.

All of these various name elements can be, and often were, as you may have already noticed in some of the examples above, combined in the name of a single individual, sometimes to an almost excessive degree (though usually only on more formal occasions).

How did Arabic naming conventions work in actual practice? The following are historical examples of common forms, from very simple to the more complex. As a general rule, women’s names tended to use the less complex forms; however, this may be as much the result of a limited sample as it is of period practice. I have included women’s names found in the examples below.

Yusuf ibn Ayyub

ism son of ism [one generation nasab]

Yazid ibn Abi Hakim

ism son of the father of Hakim [one generation nasab where the father’s name is a kunya]

Ayyub al-Sakhtiyani [masculine]

Mariyah al-Qibtiyah [feminine]

ism + nisba

Abu Muhammad Wahb

kunya [the father of Muhammad] + ism

Umm Ja'far Zubaydah

kunya [the mother of Ja’far] + ism

Ahmad ibn Sa’id al-Bahili

ism son of ism [one generation nasab] + nisba