No CrossRef data available.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
It is well known that proper names in the East, and especially among the Mohammadans, follow no such simple rule as that which has long prevailed in modern Europe, where the Christian name or names conferred in infancy and the family name or surnames are usually borne through life, and where it is a matter of suspicion to have an alias. In the East, on the other hand, we hear of persons gathering up in the course of their career a variety of names, and being popularly known by one or other of them at different periods, and to an extent that gives rise to perplexity. This was notably the case among the Arabs in the height of their preeminence. A person might receive a name in his infancy (usually conferred on his birth or at his circumcision), and to this might be added a patronymic, or a name expressive of his paternal or family relations. He might then receive a title expressive of his zeal for the faith, and soubriquets descriptive of his personal qualities or appearance, or the country or town in which he was born or had settled, or the religious sect to which he belonged ; and if he played a part in public life, to all these might be added, as in Europe, a title or titles of dignity; and if he had acquired a reputation as an author, he might assume some name of fancy. These various names or titles might never be united in the same individual, but the combinations are numerous and shifting. Certain rules are observed in their formation or application, but it was a matter of accident by which of these designations a person might be known to his contemporaries, or his name transmitted to modern times.
page 172 note 1 In quoting from other writers, I have, as a rule, given the transcription of Arabic proper names in Roman letters, as they appear in those works. In other cases I have endeavoured to render them phonetically, without attempting to distinguish between varieties of letters which have no counterpart in our alphabet. The systems of transcription which are current are so various, that I have thought it necessary to give, as far as possible, the names in the original, and indeed this appears indispensable in a paper which treats of Eastern names.
page 175 note 1 “II n'a jamais été présenté dans son ensemble. Je vais essayer de le faire.”
page 175 note 2 “Je vais, du reste m'occuper tour à tour, avec plus de detail, de ces différentes classes de noms dans les contrees musulmanes, où l'arabe, le persan, l'hindoustani ou le turk sont usités, c'est à dire les principales contrées de l'Orient Musulman.” The essay was re-published last year shortly before M. De Tassy's death.
page 178 note 1 “Essai sur l'histoire des Arabes.”
page 180 note 1 Notes on the Bedouins and Wahabys, vol. i. p. 97.Google Scholar
page 180 note 2 Sir W. Muir, in his Life of Mahomet, makes the following remark on the varied form in which the name of the Prophet is sometimes rendered:—“Another form is Ahmad, which having been erroneously employed as a translation of ‘The Paraclete,’ in some Arabic version of the New Testament, became a favourite term with Mahometans, especially in addressing Jews and Christians; for it was, they said, the title under which the Prophet had been in their books predicted.” I find an example of the use of two of these names, employed as synonyms, in a letter addressed to the chief of the Karmats by the Sherif Abu 'l hasan, and quoted by De Sacy in his “Exposeé de la Religion des Druses.” The passage runs as follows: “The Lord of all the sent, the Imam of all the Prophets, Ahmed and Mohammed, may the blessing of God rest on him and all his posterity!” For an example of the use of the name in its threefold form, I take the opening prayer of the khutbeh of the twelve Imams, as used by the Shiahs, published by Professor Haneberg in the second volume of the German Oriental Society. The peace of God is invoked on Ahmed, Mahmúd, Abu 'I kasim Mohammed, the chosen 
.
page 181 note 1 Sale's note to the 18th Sura.
page 184 note 1 V. Pott, Der Personennamen. Gesenius, Phœnic. Monum. Cosmo Innes, Concerning some Scotch Surnames.
page 185 note 1 Caussin de Perceval, vol. i. p. 192.Google Scholar
page 185 note 2 p. 51.
page 186 note 1 The text of the Koran referred to is in the 20th Sura. Moses is enjoined to speak mildly to Pharaoh. Upon this a tradition is engrafted, according to Mostathref, that he was to be equally mild to the sea whose assistance he craved.
page 187 note 1 My references are to M. Hermann Zotenberg's translation of the Persian manuscripts.
page 188 note 1 This was a celebrated astronomer, known to the Western world as Abumasar. Vide D'Herbelot.
page 188 note 2 Rosegarten, Ueber den vornamen oder des Kunje der Araben.
page 192 note 1 In the German essay it is rendered Bruchheilenden. It is worthy of notice that Aljabar, 
has given a name to the science of Algebra as well as to bread.
page 194 note 1 Ueber der vornamen oder die Kunje der Araben, Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes, 1837.
page 198 note 1 From the root, 
congregavit, and applied to the resurrection.
page 199 note 1 Vide D'Herbelot, under the the title Ali.
page 199 note 2 It is one of the traditions received from Ayesha that Mahomet addressed Abubekr one day in the following terms, “Thou art freed (atik) by God from the fire of hell,” and the name was applied to him ever after.—Tabari.
page 200 note 1 Abulfaraj.
page 200 note 2 The full name in Abulfeda is Himar al Jazirah, 
the ass of Mesopotamia.
page 201 note 1 This nickname is applied in a different sense in Caussin de Perceval's “Essai sur l'Histoire des Arabes.” Salama, an Arab chief of the tribe of Taghlib in Nejd, was at war with his brother, and ordered the water-skins of his horsemen to be cut open, and their contents spilt on the ground, telling them to go and drink at the fountain of Couláb, in the enemy's position. Hence he is called Saffáh, spiller of water. As, however, he subsequently offered a reward for his brother's head, which was accordingly brought to him after the battle, he was better entitled to the name in the same sense as its application to the Abbasside Khalif.—Histoire des Arabes, vol. ii. p. 298.Google Scholar
page 202 note 1 For the Lacabs of the twelve Imams, I am indebted to Haneherg's article in the second volume of the Zeitschrift of the German Oriental Society, and to Mr. Rehatsek's article in the fifth volume of the Indian Antiquary. When fully set forth, the honorary designations of these saints occupy several pages.
page 203 note 1 I am indebted to Professor Sachau for this extract from his forthcoming translation of this work. I have, for convenience, added the titles from the original work, with their meaning.
page 204 note 1 That is, perfect of the perfect, perfect of the one or unique, and unique of the perfect. Al Auhad, 
is one of the attributes of God.
page 211 note 1 This celebrated sword is said by D'Ohsson (Tableau général de l'Empire Othomane) to have passed into the hands of the descendants of Aly, and to have been finally broken in the chase. D'Ohsson says that in his time a representation of the weapon was woven on the Ottoman banners, and especially on those of the Admiralty.
page 211 note 2 “Ces princes, decoraés des titles de Cayl ou Dhou,” and, further on, “La plupart des Cayl ou Dhou se soulevèrent.”—Histoire des Arabes, vol. i. pp. 99, 114. I do not suppose that more was implied than that these princes affected this particular form, or that it was applied to them by others. The meaning of the name or title is occasionally given in this work as Dhou Chenátir, the possessor of the earrings; Dhou l'minar, in reference to the Minars, or beacons, that one of these princes raised during one of his expeditions. It is indeed clear from the following explanation given of the word adwa, 
, in Golius's Lexicon, that the plural form was used in this general sense. “Reges Arabiæ Felices Himjaritæ, quod omnes nomina haberent ubi præcederet
Dou zjádenin, 
Dou roainin.”Google Scholar
page 212 note 1 Caussin de Perceval, vol. i. p. 243.Google Scholar
page 212 note 2 Corresponding with the Uriel and Uriah of the Scriptures.
page 213 note 1 See the translation of Takwiyat ul Iman, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. XIII. p. 324, in which, among other injunctions respecting the name of God, it is even urged that devout persons should abstain from the use of names like Abdallah, Abd ur rahman, Khoda Buksh, Ala eddin, etc. The work is by Ismail Hajji Maulavi, a disciple of Sayad Ahmed.Google Scholar
page 213 note 2 This is the meaning as interpreted by Camden. According to others, it means given up to the Lord, or God-healed.
page 214 note 1 Vuller, Lex. Pers-Lat, Etymologicum.
page 215 note 1 In the inscription on a mosque of the Moghul emperors, Shah Jehan is called Sahib Kuran Sani, Sahib Kuran the Second, and possibly it was borne by one of his immediate predecessors.—Prinsep's Useful Tables, p. 46.
page 218 note 1 The word kermat, 
is rendered in Freytag's dictionary, “Contraxit passus in incessu.” Abulfeda gives a different derivation, and says that he was so called from the red colour of his eyes.—Annals, vol. ii. p. 267.Google Scholar
page 218 note 2 The word Ilderim claims consanguinity with Ilduz or Yildiz, 
, a star, the name of one of the Patan Sultans of Hindustan (Pathan, Thomas's Kings of Dehli, p. 25).Google Scholar This, again, is traced by Prichard to the Mongolian Aldar and the Mandchü Elder, which mean shine, splendour.
page 218 note 3 M. de Tassy is in error in supposing that he was a butcher by trade, and that he retained the name of his former occupation when he rose to power. His history is well known, and will be found in detail in the “Biographie Universelle.” He was a Bosnian, and entered public life as the slave of the celebrated Aly Bey. Jezzar, whose real name was Ahmed, took a pride in the revolting name by which he was popularly known.
page 219 note 1 Since the above was in type I hare met with another Koort, the proper name of the person—a Mamluk Bey, who withstood Selim I. on his invasion of Egypt, was so called. The account of his interview with the conqueror, and his death, are graphically described in Von Hammer's history.
page 220 note 1 For examples of names derived from places, whether in the form of an adjective or of a substantive, and drawn from all parts of Europe, I refer the reader to Pott's Die personennamen.
page 222 note 1 History of the Imáms and Seyyids of 'Omán, translated by the Rev. G. P. Badger.
page 223 note 1 Medinat essalám, 
is the name under which this city is described on coins.
page 227 note 1 In the Lexicon of Golius the word 
is rendered liber et salvus fuit evasitve 
becomes a place of safety or asylum, and 
deliverance.
page 228 note 1 De Sacy (Anthologie Grammaticale Arabe, p. 189) says that the name was borne by several poets, and that it means buffoon, referring to several authorities in support of his view. In the Lexicon of Golius it is interpreted in the two senses referred to by Caussin de Perceval, and it is also said to be applied to the Hyæna.
page 229 note 1 Very full biographical notices of these three poets by Caussin de Perceval appeared in the thirteenth and fourteenth volumes of the Nouveau Journal Asiatique. These authors were, during the first two centuries of Islam, esteemed as the writers who had made the nearest approach to the simple nervous style which distinguished the ancient poetry of the Arabs. These biographies give an interesting account of the position which poets enjoyed at the courts of the Khalifs, and in Arab society. They also describe the ferment which was caused by their pungent satire, and the conflicts in which they engaged. On the question of their names the information is precise and minute, and agrees with that of Ibn Khallikan. Farasdak, whose proper name was Hammam, 
, also bore the Kunyat, Abu Ferás, 
father of the tearer, one of those applied to the lion; the poet had no son of that name. Caussin de Perceval suggests that it was applied to him in allusion to the force of his genius. Jerir, besides a name of family, had his name of relation from Bussora, where he resided, El Basri.
page 232 note 1 Hátif, literally, crying; Hátif-alghaib 
voice of the invisible. Professor Ethé informs me that Hátif by itself has in Persian poetry the technical meaning of heavenly voice (inspiration from above). Persian poets therefore appeal usually in the introductory chapters of their Mathnawis to the Hátif to suggest an appropriate title.