ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1971 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1971 ************************************ From: "Sara L Friedemann" 31 Mar 2000 Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You wanted to know if the name , also spelled or , would have been used by an Arabic, Persian, or Turkish lady living between 1000 and 1600. You also asked for suggestions of bynames that would indicate the occupation of a dressmaker or seamstress. Here is the information we have found. derives from the Arabic "to be pure"; it was the name of one of the Prophet's wives. [1,3,6] There are a number of reasonable transliterations of this name: in one source, the name is found as , in another, . [4,5] (The <:> represents a horizontal line over the previous vowel; the line indicates that the vowel is pronounced longer than otherwise.) We have little information about period Turkish and Persian naming practices, though we do know that the Turks and the Persians adopted some Arabic names after they converted to Islam. It is reasonable that a common Arabic name could also have been used by a Turkish or Persian lady, but we can't guarantee that was one of those names. We recommend that you consider an Arabic persona if you wish to use the name . We can suggest a couple of bynames used by Arabic women in the 10th to 13th centuries that are similar in meaning to what you wanted [2]: al-khayya:ta dressmaker al-raqqa:ma embroiderer al-'aqqa:da lacemaker While we have no specific examples of these bynames being used later in your period, we believe that they are still reasonable choices for an Arabic lady. We hope that this letter has been useful to you, and that you will not hesitate to write again if any part was unclear or if you have further questions. Research and commentary on this letter was provided by Juliana de Luna, Raquel Buenaventura, Talan Gwynek, Arval Benicoeur, Amant le Marinier, Antonio Miguel de Santos Borja. For the Academy, ~Aryanhwy merch Catmael, 31Mar00 --------------------------------------- References: [1] Da'ud ibn Auda, "Arabic Naming Practices and Names List," _Compleat Anachronist_ #51, "The Islamic World" (Milpitas: SCA, Inc, Autumn 1990; WWW: J. Mittleman, 1998) [URL:http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/daud/arabic-naming/] [2] Goitien, Solomon D, _A Mediterranean Society: The Jewish Communities of the Arab World as Portrayed in the Documents of the Cairo Geniza: Volume III: The Family_ (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978). [3] Schimmel, Annemarie, _Islamic Names_ (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1989). p. 63 [4] Hamid, Azieza, _The Book of Muslim Names_ (London: MELS, 1985). p. 19 [5] Ibn-Stanford Ibn-Edward Ibn-George Smith, Antar (or Smith, Antar Ibn-Stanford), _Muslim Names and Birth-Rites_, (Jackson, Mich.: The Qur'anic Civilization Association, Inc., 1985). p. 82 [6] Arabic has two different sounds, represented by two different letters in Arabic script. When Arabic is written in Roman letters, one of these letters is transcribed as a plain , the other as an with a dot under it. We've used to stand for this second letter. The two letters are pronounced somewhat differently in Arabic, but the difference is not easily described; the ordinary English sound of is a reasonable approximation to either. If you want to try for more accuracy, we can only recommend that you find someone who speaks Arabic.