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Distribution: limited UNESCO/LEA/Sem.8/2 PARIS, 17 November 1961

Or1g1na_l: English


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UNITED wvrzoms EDUCATIONAL, - SCIENTIFIC AND CULTURAL

ORGANJZZATIQN

REGIONAL ON BIBLIOGRAPHY, DOCUMENTATION

AND EXCHANGE OF PUBLICATIONS

IN ARABIC-SPEAKING STATES

Entry of Arabic Names

.by

Dr. Mah'rm'1d sneniti, Director, American University at Cairo Library,

Cair-o_

A. Components of Arabic names.

,B. Treatment of names in Islamic sources. - -

C. Treatment of Arabic names in existing cataloguing codes. , D. . The

modern Arabic names. _

L E. Proposals for the entry of Arabic names.

I15. the a- prelixhigmargfl list of Arabic authors cal1ed_"Entries of Arabic Authors:

A -first list up to 1215 I-I/1800 A.D." has been, prepared, and on offset in a limited

edition.

A. Components of Arabic names. .

Arabic names have been the subject of a number of studies in the last century. The proper names and titles

were discussed by Garcin d3 Tassy in 1854.) Colebrooke studied the proper nameof the Mohammcdans in 1876.

(2 1' Barbier de Maynard treated the sobriquet in -1907. (3) Littmann rsubl-ished a comparative study of proper

names 1n_Semitic;.1angua.ges in 1948-1949.0 Shari?-discussed the components of Islamic names,_especia11y the

Persian ones, in 1959. 5) Tibbetts treated the problem his article in "The cataloguing of Arabic -books" in 1959. (6)

e , A '

Helpful as they are, most of these previous studies tend to arnalgamate

components of Islamic names, based mainly on the practice which evolved

during the later -periods of Islam 1-, periods of decline, emptiness and

confusion. In the will try to disentangle the of the old Arabic name and

trace the historical development of each one. 4

Arabic names are an integral part of Arabic culture. The way they are constructed ties them in with particular features

of the Arabic language. The sources from which the names are drawn are related to the milieu from which they emanated. The

importance attached to blood relations is evident in the inclusion of the names of forefathers in the Arabic name. On the other

hand, the culture at its oral stage required the use of the word ibn, or son of, as a tie between the name of a man am! his father.

The sQcia1 cu'17-5-m of identifying fertility and strength resulted in the use of kunya, or compound name, having or father of,


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as its first part. Blunt ard matter-of-fact openness in the bedouin, plus the tendency to identify people by physical

defects, led to yet another kind of name, the laqab. with the :i.nsroduction of Islam the offensive meaning in laqab was

deemphasized and an honorary meaning emphasized. The growing ccmplexity of the Muslim State and society eventually

bestowed on the leash various additional meanings indicating official status, etc. Finally an aitributive laqab, nisba, was

used to relate a person to his tribe, place, sect or the school of Jurisprudence he followed: s

This general overview of the nature of Arabic names and their components reveals that the Arabic name has

three components:

3. Laqab, or sobriquet, e.g. Acshi, night-blind; al-Amin, the

honest;

~ al Dawla, of me -State; el-Din, light of the faiih; al-

Baghdidi, native of Baghdad; al-Hanafi, follower of Abu Hanifa,

- the head of one of the four Muslim schools of jurisprudence,

1. or proper name: Arabic proper names pre-Islamic pe-riodwere varied and

hig111y"'i'nd" Littmann 7) traced the categories of these-names and found

that some of them were taken from names of gods worshipped by the Arabs

gt. that period or had. some religious Qalqashandi (821 H/1418 A.D. )(8)mentirns that _the Arabs in the pre-Islam1c_er;a followed their imagination

in the names they used. In:11vidna1s'were named after animals, plants, stars;

seasons ' etc. Their-custom wa.s__-to qhbose for their denbting strength

and?-' h valour, while for their servants and followers they chosenames

denoting optimism and softness, thus indicating the demrcation between

warriors and non-warriors. w11-,n conversion to Islam, the_Arabs changed

their naming procedure in general. Now the names of Mulgarnmad, of other

prophets, and of early arr! close followers

" of the Prophet of Islam becam the ones seleted by -the large

majority-'.? -The

prevailing rfeligious zeal supreme in this max-me:-. Names were selected because theywere religiouslyacceptable and were rejected because they were religiously refixtedf. This attitude has persisted over the

ages to th'e".e'xtent that Muslim names are highly concentrated? within a. very limited number as we

shall see presently. The logical result of sucha phenomenon -was that -the first name of man lost or almost

lest its 1nd'iv1dua;lity and its power to identify" the -bea.rer.Other names had to be added for adequate

identification. The first name became

overshadowed. d ' e ' - " V

V To illustrate this point, Q; count was made of 832 flames included

in our list

WS/1061 . 161


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TABLE 1*

Frequency of first names in a list of

832 names of Arabic authors

Aithough bur 11st_ is net yet combrehensive, it dan be considered an

adequate and represen-Laizive sample of the names of Arabic authors up to the

end of the Eighteenth century. The tentative conclusions, pending further

studies for

_verification i'esults,. may be stated as follows:

1. islam has had a far-reaghing procedure

the Arabs.

* Source: Sheniti and Fahmy. Enf-r1es,of Arabic Authors, First List up~to

WS/1061.161


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LBA/Sem. 8/2 - page 4

2. Islamic names are highly concentrated in a very small number of names.

The two names of Mulgammad and Alglrnad constimte 42% of all names.

3. For the pz-acticai neds of or-ganizing Arabic library catalogues, the

first name as entry would be most questionable.

2. Kunya.* This 1s.the part of. the Arabic name. composed of abu

(father of) or unln (mother of) followed by the name of a son or

daughter. This practice seems to have been, in a sense, an old Semitic

one. Colebrooke says: "To. address a person as the father or mother of

his or her children is more rare, but it pas

the sanction of antiquity, and the figurative use of the word 52 comes down from

Hebrew times, as Absalom, father of peace; Abner, father of light; Abiezer, (10)

father of the king; not to mention Abraham, father of nations and many others".

when we tried to trace the origin end development of this component among the

Arabs, we found a. vsery illustrative reference mentioned by Sibawaihi (d.18O l-I/796'A.D'. the" Ieaaing 'He says that among the Arabs consisted, in its origin, of two

names, a proper name and a. patronymic. The two were interchangeable in place, with

the second in place acting as adjective to the former. '

The equal importance of the proper name and the patronymic was noted

by later writers. Qalqashandi, for example, mentions that the early Arabs

paid muqh ttention to the patronymic, to the extent that they even used it

for a.nimals.U2 The patronymic was not necessarily an indication of actual

re1at1onship., It was in scme cases a. kind of prenomen. In others it was an

indication of assumed or imagined relationship expressed in the form of a.

patronymic, i.e. a socialisymbol of fertility and strength.

With the intmduction of Islam, the patronymic continued to maintain its

importance. The faithful were encouraged to use it. However, with the limitation noted

above in the number of proper names available, it was only to be expected that the

patronymice would also become more limited in number than they had previously been.

Eventually the patrorwmic came to be used as a means of showing courtesy and honour.

theearly their subJects, for instance, were regarded as high honours and were used

exclusively by the recipients. mlqmhandi also mentions that in later times, possibly

during the

pe1jioq, the.,pa.tronym1c lost its honourific -value which was taken over by

the lagab, (1 3)

3. - -Laqab.** This is-the most intricate part Arabic _It.has.passed through different stage; which

its meaning changed, new meanings were acquired along with the or entirely new ones were

superimposed. '

1. The original meaning of lagab given by Arabic dictionaries is

name which a. person hates to be called by. It usually indicates a.

physical deformity. This seemstn have been the prevailing sense of

thelword in pre-Islamic times since a dirfistive was given in the for

the Muslims not call each other by laqab. 1

1* de- Tassy: surnom; Colebrookez patronymie; de Maynard: surnom pat:-onymique;


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Sharifi: nickname} Tibbettsz surname. * -

H de Tassy: sobriquet; de Maynard: surnom; Colebr-ooke: honorary title;

Sharifi: honorary title or epithet, Tibbetts: nickname.


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LBA/Sem.8/2 - Page 5

with the introduction of Islam, the offensive implication of the 3913 was overshadowed

by an honorary one which we begin to find among the early followers of Thus, Abu Bakr was -

ca1t1ed' a1-Siddig, the truthfizl, and Omar was" called a.1-Faruq, the divider between right and

wrong.

Either one of the two concepts, defamation or honour, became themeaningattached to laqab by later grammarians. Through popular usage,

however, the term became so generai that al Raghib-a1-Isfahani defines

lagab as a name by which a. 'per-son is called, other than his proper name.

The diffemnce. between the two is that the literal _mea_.ning is intended

in the lyaqab while it is not intended in the proper name. (1:5) Defamation

or honour are most of' the time present in the ygg. However, there is also

sufficient evidence to show that the laqab was not _1:i_.'mited to them. The

list of laqabs prepared by Hr-bier de Maynard includes

several illustrations of persons being named after their craft or profession

and poets after words or expressions mentioned in their poetry} (15) ~

2. The rise of the Abbasids is usually taken point in history when the MuslimState zbegan to be complicated, and foreign influence, especially Persian and Turkish,

took root and pushed the simple Arabic practices to the background". s This is

clearly observed in the case of the Muslim The original Arabic treatment of the was

discussed in the previous sect-ion. with the advent of the Abbasids the lmslim laqab

acquired at least three more meanings:

i (a) Official]. lagabs: The only official laqab known to be used by

the Ruler of Faithful early Islam and.-during the Umayyad period was the

laqab, ' ' Khalifa. The Abbasid caliphs were the first to start the practice

ofwthe ruler selecting an official laqab for himelf. They also started the

practice of bestowing an official their subjects when they were appointed for

office. The general categories of official lagabs included the entourage or

executives, the administrative officers, Judges, scribes, etc. Along with a

limi-ted number of cffieial laqabs taken over from early Islam a multitude

of laqabs were invented--or borrowed from Persianl and Turkish origins. The

- got so numerous that the Diwan of Scribes had to compile lists of them for

use in official correspondence. In part, the multiplicity of laqabs was due

to the in

-ex-eaing weakness of the central government and to the fiif strong rulers in

the different parts ofrthe Ca11phate.~

ilaqab was usually a compound one. It developed into a series of adjectives

de

noting the importance of the bearer to the State, his status among other princes, his relation to the family of theProphet, his deeds in propagating Islam and enlarging its territories, etc. mere was conceivably no limit to= the

ingenuity of the official scribes in devising these compound-laqglle. we find more and more statements of this kind

in the later peribds, even disgust of the scribes

themselves. . l - e

(c) Kh1t5.b, or honozlagyiaqab related to the name: Along with the two

' previdu kinds of laggbs 0? office and status, a third kind


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appeared which cut

across all the It. seems to have been elaborated by the Diwan

of Scribes and taken over at their fancy. This name-laqab was a compound

of two words, the second being always the word din, or faith. According to

Qelqasharmdi the effort was made at first to develop SE65 system to control

these name-lggabs. Thus, a certain category of name-laqabs was reserved for

bearers of

WS/1061.161


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the sword, a seccnd for Judges and learned persons, a third group for scribes, a fourth for

the general public and merchants, a. fifth and a sixth for servants of the palace, enxmchs,

etc. The system even tried to cover non-Muslims -by substituting the nisba, or attributive

laqab, for the word din, which could later be added to the name in case the person joined

Islam. each category it was attempted consistently to assign one name-lagab to each

specific nagre. For example, a sqldier named Omar would have the name-laqab, Rukn

e1-Din (corner of the faith) while a Judge of the same name wduldbe called S1:-aj el-

Din (light? of the faith). However, such tight system could net persist. Individuals started

to reject the pre-assigned name-laqabs which became vulgarized by excessive use; They

se1e_cted"i'_1ame-1a'qabs of their own choice. the practice of having a ixame-laqab

continued and -people ofnote ~a1most-always? had a. name-Iaqab attached 1 to their

proper flames. instead of the earlier simple form of kunya and ism the characteristic

Arabic nameby now consisted of three main components: name:laqab, lmnya and i_s2, in

this order: ' -

(d) Laqab nisba, or attribhtive laqab: kind of laqafd is usually called nisbafrom the way it is constructed. Anyname can be made into an _a.ttr1bute by adding the

Arabic letter 15' in duplicate at its end. The words nisba and nasab are the terms

used in theireatises on Arabic grammar when dealing with the" details related to the

form of this adjective. when used as a part of a persbxfls name, the nisba usually

refers to a tribe or sub-tribe, to a father or grand-- father, to a country or tcwn

or village, to an office or chief, to a craft or trade and, fina_l1y, to the sect or

school of jurisprudence to which size gerson I belonged. It was not urmsuai to have

more than one nisba. A1-Nawawi '7 tells us about the at-range1nent_ of their sequence

which is 55111 the general to the speeific, as for instance" from tribe to sub-tribe,

if both are mentioned.

B. Treatment of Arabic names in Islamic sources

The Muslims had an almost complete b1b1iogra.ph:I.ca1' apparatus tcintricacies of_the Arabic names. Biographical dictionaries are numerous. Some

of them are ge_ne_r'a,1. Others cover limited periods, usually a century.

A third group treats a certain category of persons such as comnentatoi-

s on the Qor'an;poets, men of letters, gramnarians, men of wisdom,

followers of a School of jurisprudence or a Muslim sect, the blind, and

many others. Biographical dictionaries were also compiled to include men of

noteoriginating in one country or towp.

'me general nt of names in these dis,-tionaries was usually thatfi of an

alp_ha_betica1' order by the first name. In some instance the name Mugarmad

and a few others were mentioned separately before the beginning of the

alphabet proper. In some eases the general arrangement is chronological. Itis also a. common procedure to have a chapter at the end of the dictionary

specifying those who are better known by their kunya or laqab. In some cases

where the author follows the alphabetical order by firstzfzime, he starts the

entry of the name with better-known part followed by the full name.

An outstanding exception to th1s' arrangement by the first name was the method followed by Ibn

(d.438 H/1047 A.D. ), the first Arab -H15 basic source A1 Fihrist entered the names by the best known ~pe.rt,

ore shuhra, followed bit the 1111 name. " '


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LBA/Sem. 8/2 - page 7

'It should also be notedthat, along with the dictionaries arranged by the first name,

supplementary dictionaries were compiled to cover other components of the Arabic name.

Separate dictionaries for kunya. or were prepared and

The expressed aim of the compilers of the old biographical dictionaries was to be as comprehensive as possible. The

pattern was set before them by the Arabic language dictionaries, the compilations of commentaries on the Q,or'an, the textsof Hadith, the Arab legacy in poetry and history the source material of which passed by word~.of-mouth through a. chain of

individuals in the early period of Islam when everything was simple, including the names. Once the first names were adopted for

arrangement the tradition was started. However, as Arabic names became lengthy, and hard to remember and redundant to repeat

they were treated in usage and custom in a manner different from the arrangement of the sources. Arab

" authors began" to be known by a. shorter for-m, the Shuhra, or the best

known=pa.r1;

of the name, be it ism, Runya orlaqab. Arabic aifthers were, and still are, L identified and referred to by their

which is usually mentioned in the biographical dictionaries after the usual phrase "famous ae

C. Treatment of the Arabic names in existing cataloeiling codes

As yet there is no cataloguing code in Arabic. Some written

instructions for the cataloguing of Arabic books may exist, but thework is mostly done by practice. In the newer libraries, the Anglo-

American code .1908 or the ALA rules of 1949,a.re used as a guide and

adopted to sblve a particular problem.

The treatnint of the entry in Ar;ab libraries at. present may be summarized in

thefollowing points: / -

(a) The main entry by author is not followed. Becks; insflbead, are entered by tit-.1e__and__by author. author

entry is by the first name. (National Library

(b) Th main entry by a.uthor.- The author by the fir-

_st name. of National Library, Cairo; Alexandria University

L1brary).~ '' -(c) The min entry by aufhor. The author entry by the or the best known

part of the name. (National Library, Beirut; Damascus five:-sity Library;

Baghdad University Library; American Univei-ity Library, Beirut; Cairo Univefsity L

LibrarY)

" ' The same hesitant position of the Arab libraries between entry by

the. first

u Tti diffiulty encounle1;-ecuiyin the identification, selection

and arrangemnt

of the components of -Arabic names._ca.nnot be overcome by trying an automatic

solution such as using the first mme mentioned, or the first part of'the name.

Sufficient knowledge of the Arabic (script and familiarity with Arabic sources and

cu_ltu;-e cannot be sixbstituted by a rule of thumb. - -

WS/1061.161


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2. Amalgamation of Eastern, Oriehtal or Middle Eastern names,

including Arabic, Turkish and Persian, to be treated: in one manner

regardless pf the linguistic, cultural and historical differences

which have bearing on the form of. name and

entry.

3. The choic of 1900 as a. demarcation line betweeh old and modern names is arbitrary

and bad no -historical justification. Historians usually start the modern era with

Napoleon's expedition to Egypt in 1798.

Rule 64 of the ALA, 1949, for example, says: Enter Arabic,

Per-s1an and Turkish writers, up to about living in I-lumannedan

eountzfies and writing

with the patronymic (the latter preceded by the word Q99, Le. son of; in rare cases akhul

Le. brother of) as well as with the surmme and nickname usually derived from place of

birth or residence (nishba), occupation, physical peculiarity etc. V W7 1 .

To comment only on the entry we find the rule complicating the simple: the given name folloyrs the father's mme

after the word (son of). The word akhu in this context, which is part of the genealogy, is out of place and misleading. The theword "patronymic" is inaccurate. The word "surname" appears in the rule with no explanation. The example indicates that it is

used for the kuga. The original term should have been used and explained. Analogies interacted to simplify things soften confuse

them and nuke them more complicated. Then the rule mentions "n1:1cr1aine". for the laqab but does not give the Arabic word

although it gives a. number of its meanings and singles out one of them to'be identified with the Arabic equivalent. The example

following has no relation to the different meanings given for the nickname. A1-ximi is attributed to the tribe Kinder, not to a.

place of birth or residence, _occupa.t1on, or physical peculiarities. Finally, the references are autornatically prepared from all

parts of the name.

A reference from Abu.Umar is absurd, a kunya is no reference, and certainly no one would look under

Abu_Umar fer a1-Kindi. e

D. The modern Arabic names

I Our discussion up till now has dealt with Arabic names in mediaeval Islam. In this section an attempt willbe made to give some general observations on Arabic names in modern times - a. term generally used to cover

both the Nineteenth and Twentieth centuries. Mediaeval Islam, though highly dominated by the Arabic

language and Islam, has assimilated various foreign cultures, especially the Greek, Roman, Indian, Persian

and Turkish cultures through translation and faceto-face relations. The Persian and Turkish influences were

especially present in State affairs, administration, customs and ways of life. In Arabic names the culture

contactvns nainly apparent the laqab. The Muslim legacy ms continued to be the main-spring in modern

times. However; it has been supplemented in different degrees in the different modern Arab countries, by the

influences of the Ottomans and by what is generally known as the Western culture. At the

WS/1061.161


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LEA/Sem.8/2 - Page 9

cross-roads where the Ax-abs stand today the characteristics of Arabic names

may be summarized in the fcllowing points:

1. The tendency, previously observed in mediaeval Arabic names in the presnt study,

to use the proper names of Muhammad and his early followers still persists. Other

Muslim names which seem to be highly favoured are the ones compounded with 'abd

(slave) and one of the Muslim 99 names of God, e.g. a1-I;Iak:'Lm, slave of Abd slave

of the__a.ble. Names of Muslim saints and heroes, e.g. Marghini, Senfisi, Khilid and

are also pbpular. Some Turkish names, especially short ones ending with e.g. Hikmat,

Ezzat or e.g. H11mi;, Fahmi, were widely used a few decades ago and are still in use.

At present, however, there seems to be a. tendency towards the revival of classical

Arabic names and the selection of distinctive, nice-sounding names, especially in the

city and for

women.

2. The nasab (genealogy), the part--of the old Arabic name which gives the

chain of for-efaihers, has - by and large - disappeared from modern Arabic

names. This

phenornenon may be acccuntedion. by -the ve-rba.1- culture -giving way to

recorded culture, the breakdown of the tribal system in general, changes in

social values and,

finally, continuous migration to urban centres with their mixed populations.

How

ever, the traditional ggsajg is still observed in some Arab countries,

especially in Tunisia. and Morocco where the word ibn is now replaced by

hen. "

3. Khitab and kunya have completely disappeared and are no longer mentztaned as two

pi-57'Eons1stent1y preceding the given name. If they even appear in a modern Arapigname, they are bound to be an gig or given name. The kunya, however, may still be

observed in popular usage as a form of _add_re_ss, especially in

ll. Different kinds of laqab and laqab nisba continue to be attached to

modern Arabic names frequently and consistently in all the Ar-ab countries.

The laek of legislation requiring the individual to adopt and maintain a

leads to the existing difficulty in the control of modern Arabic names.

However, whena is not offensive it is usually kept by its bearer, and a large

proportion of modern Arabic names a. distinguishing laqab or nisba. This

phenomenon can be easily observed in almost all the Arab Egypt as the only

tion. The family law issued in 1960 in Egypt any, however, be a step towards

the organization of names in this country.In order to examine, to a limited extent, the above-mentioned observations,

an explanatory statistical study of modern Arabic names was made. An adequately

comprehensive list was prepared, including the names of contemporary Egyptian authors

whose adult and general trade books were published in 1960 and deposited at -the

National Library in Cairo. The were analysed in drder to discover:

(1 Thaextent of oncentr'at1oz'1'iri th of fizlsf namesrxi the

mot fre_quent1y-repeated first name. Table 2 shows that the two


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names ofwxhammad and Ahmad are still the most frequently-_-used

first names, Almost half of all the

(2) The extent to which the lqciaitg and nisbg the same list of

contemporary

WS/1061 . 161


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(3) The group of names which did not have a. lagb or nisba was then analysed

to find out the frequency-distribution of the E5 when it occurs at the end

of the name, and so is the name of a father or grandfather. Table 4 shows

that the highest frequency of the being the last part of the name is only 12

compared to the 137 which is the highest frequency of a. first name. e

These tentative findings seem to point out that the entry of mode;-.-n_ nam-as by the last part of the name, be it a a nisba

or even an ism, may, for the practical needs of the library catalogue, be easier to control thifi the highly repetitious and shifty first

name,

Frequency of first names in a group of 669 names

V of contemporary Eg__yptia:1 authors

* Source: legal deposit ieccrds,

NatioVn9.1HL1brary, can-p.

ws/1051.151

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