ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2181 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2181 ************************************ 8 Feb 2001 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether is an appropriate name for a 13th century Persian woman. You wrote that your friend constructed it to mean "Sun/Moon the friendly". Here is what we have found. Unfortunately, we doubt this name is correct for 13th century Persia. We haven't found any good information about names in Persia, but the information we found about your name isn't encouraging. was the name the only daughter of the 16th-century Turkish ruler Suleiman the Magnificent [1]. You wrote that you had heard of a mosque named ; that mosque was built in 1548 and named for Suleiman's daughter [2, 3]. We do not know whether this name was used in other times and places in our period, and we found no good evidence connecting it with Persia. Turkish, Persian, and Arabic were different languages and used different names. Without further evidence, we can't recommend as good re-creation for any setting other than 16th century Turkey. Your byname is Arabic, but it isn't correctly constructed. is the plural of the Arabic word "friendly". The correct Arabic phrase for "the friendly [woman]" is . The masculine form of the byname, , was used in medieval Arabic names [4], so we believe the feminine form is a reasonable choice for an Arabic-speaking woman in your period. (In the transliterations of Arabic words in this paragraph, the dot after the 'S' is an "emphatic mark", properly written as a dot under the letter. In the system we're using, and represent different Arabic letters. The difference between their pronunciations is rather difficult to explain. If you're interested, you'll need to talk with someone who speaks Arabic.) We don't know if these two elements could have been combined at any time in our period. Many Arabic words were adopted into both Turkish and Persian [5, 6], but we do not know if was one of those words and we don't know whether these loan-words were used in Turkish or Persian personal names. If you particularly want a Persian name, then I'm afraid we're unlikely to be able to help you: We've found no useful information about medieval Persian names. On the other hand, we thought you might be interested in an Arabic name very similar to the one you chose: . is an Arabic form of that was used in the Middle Ages [4]. We hope this letter has been useful. Please write us again if any part of it has been unclear or if you have other questions. I was assisted in researching and writing this letter by Pedro de Alcazar, Adelaide de Beaumont, Talan Gwynek, Julie Stampnitzky, Sion Andreas, Da'ud ibn Auda, Miguel Antonio Santos de Borja, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Juliana de Luna, and Devora bat Shimshon. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 8 Feb 2001 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Atil, Esin, _Su"leymanname: The Illustrated History of S{u"}leyman the Magnificent_ (New York, Harry N Abrams, 1986)., pp. 21-22, 24, 29, 33, 179. [2] "U:sku:dar", _Encyclopaedia Britannica_ (WWW: britannica.com, 1999-2000). http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/3/0,5716,76473+1+74521,00.html [3] "Mihrimah Mosque" in the Wonders of the World Databank (WWW: PBS Online, 2000). http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/buildingbig/wonder/structure/mihrimah_mosque.html [4] 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). http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/daud/arabic-naming/ [5] "Turkish Language", _Encyclopaedia Britannica_ (WWW: britannica.com, 1999-2000). http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/2/0,5716,75782+1+73851,00.html [6] "Persian Language", _Encyclopaedia Britannica_ (WWW: britannica.com, 1999-2000). http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/9/0,5716,60829+1+59341,00.html