ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2423 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2423 ************************************ 22 Dec 2001 From: Ursula Whitcher Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You wanted to know whether the name and a byname meaning "mother of Alexander" would be appropriate for a sixteenth-century Turkish woman. Here is what we have found. You've chosen an Arabic name; bynames that include the name of one's child are also typical Arabic usage. Turkish and Arabic were quite different languages. We have considerable information about period Arabic naming practices, but much less about Turkish naming. We do know that the Turks adopted some Arabic names and that they used Arabic naming customs in at least some circumstances. However, our knowledge is far from complete. In this letter, we'll discuss Arabic names first, and then possibilities for a Turkish name and byname. There are two Arabic women's names that could be written as . One is , which derives from a byname of the prophet Muhammad which meant "the trustworthy"; the other is , which was the name of Muhammad's mother. (In these names, the colon (:) stands for a long mark over the preceding vowel.) We think that was pronounced \ah-MEE-n@\ and was pronounced \AH-mee-n@\, where the symbol @ stands for the sound of 'a' in and . (This sound is called schwa.) We believe either of these names would be appropriate for an Arabic-speaking Muslim woman in the sixteenth-century. [1] The Arabic form of the name is . [3] We believe that although this name was always rare among Arabic speakers, it is appropriate for your period. Forms of were much more common in non-Arabic parts of the Islamic world; we'll discuss one of these forms later. The word means "mother of"; a woman named with a son called , "Iskandar son of Ibrahim", might have been called . We believe this name would have been pronounced \oom ee-SKAHN-d@r ah-MEE-n@\, where rhymes with the word . In Arabic, women often use bynames that identify them as their father's daughters. If you'd like to choose an Arabic name for your father as well, we can recommend the following article: "Arabic Naming Practices And Period Names List" http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/daud/arabic-naming/ The word means "daughter of", so a woman named whose father was named and whose son was called could have been known as , , or simply . [4] We did not find any evidence that the names and were used in Turkish in your period. However, you may be interested in the similar name , which was used in sixteenth-century Istanbul; we believe this name was pronounced \eh-mee-NEH\, where sounds like the 'e' in the word . [5] It's possible that is a Turkish borrowing of the name , or that it derives from the Turkish word , which means "secure", "certain", or "trustworthy"; we do not have enough evidence to be sure. [11] A short list of other Ottoman Turkish women's names follows. [5] If you're interested in any of these names, please write to us again and we can give you the appropriate pronunciation. (Until the twentieth century, Turkish was written in an Arabic script; to represent Ottoman Turkish names in the Roman alphabet, we need some special symbols. [14] In this list, a comma represents a cedilla or small hook under the preceding letter, as in , quotation marks represent an umlaut or pair of dots over the preceding letter, as in , and a closing parenthesis represents a small u over the preceding letter, as in . In the system of transliteration we've used here, which is based on modern Turkish, the sound of the letter 'I' depends on whether or not it is dotted. Here 'i' stands for a dotted letter 'I', and 'I' stands for the undotted letter. If you're having trouble distinguishing between 'I' and other letters, you may want to read our message in a font with serifs, such as Courier or Times New Roman.) Asul Ays,e Behiye Benefs,e Canhabibe Dervis,e (probably related to , an ecstatic Sufi mystic) Devlet Dilber Dur-cihan Emine Fatima Gu"lbahar Gu"lfem Gu"mu"s Hafza Huban Husni inanpas,a ine islah Kadem Mansure Melike Nar Nas Ira Nefise Nergis Neslihan Pas,abeg)i Rabiye S,ah-huban Sara Saruca Selc,uk Selime S,erife-Bol S,eruda Sitti Surur Tenrebile Tohin Zu"hal The Turkish form of the name Alexander is . This is a fine name for your period. [5, 6, 7] We found no evidence that bynames based on the name of a woman's son were used in sixteenth-century Turkish, though we have found an apparent eighteenth-century example. [8] However, bynames that identified a woman as her father's daughter were very common, at least in formal circumstances. These bynames were based on the Arabic form and used the Arabic word . [5, 9, 10] For example, a Turkish woman named whose father was named could have been known as ; we believe this name would have been pronounced \eh-mee-NEH bint ee-SKEN-dair\. Here is a brief list of Turkish men's names, in case you would like to choose a different name for your father: [5] Ahmed Ali Davud Hasan HIzIr ilyas isa iskender KasIm KIlavuz Kismet Mehmed Mehmi Muharrem Musa Mustafa Nasuh Nebi Sunduk Yahs,i Yunus Yusuf With some more research, we may be able to find more Turkish men's names; if you're interested in that possibility, or if you'd like to know the pronunciation of one of the names we've already found, please write to us again. The Ottoman Turks often included titles in their names. [2] We found several examples of women using the title , which means "Lady" or "Madam", as a byname. [5, 12] For instance, a woman named whose father was called might be known as or simply . [13] I 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, Arval Benicoeur, Devora bat Shimshon, Raquel Buenaventura, Talan Gwynek, Da'ud ibn Auda, Maridonna Benvenuti, Sion Andreas, Juliana de Luna, Adelaide de Beaumont, Julie Stampnitzky, and Aryanhwy merch Catmael. For the Academy, Ursula Georges 22 Dec. 2001 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ References: [1] Annemarie Schimmel, _Islamic Names_ (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1989). p. 32. [2] James Lindsay, "History 216: The Islamic World" (WWW: Colorado State University, 2001) http://www.colostate.edu/Depts/Hist/pers/lindsay/216syl.html. Dated examples of Ottoman names containing titles may be found in reference [5] below. [3] Salahuddin Ahmed, A Dictionary of Muslim Names (New York: New York University Press, c.1999). p. 83. . [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.s-gabriel.org/names/daud/arabic-naming/ [5] Yvonne J. Seng, "Invisible Women: Residents of Early Sixteenth-Century Istanbul", _Women in the Medieval Islamic World_, ed. Gavin R.G. Hambly (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998). We have compiled lists of masculine and feminine names from the official records discussed in this article; the article includes an example of . [6] Marshall G.S. Hodgson, _The Venture of Islam: Conscience and History in a World Civilization_ (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1974), vol. 2 pp. 559-560. In the fifteenth century, an Albanian man brought up by the Ottomans and known as or led a revolt. [7] "Encyclopedia of the Rulers of Egypt: The Ottomans", (WWW: State Information Service, Egypt) http://www.sis.gov.eg/rulers/html/en13.htm. An Ottoman governor named ruled Egypt from 1556-1559. [8] Farima Zarinebaf-Shahr, "Women and the Public Eye in Eighteenth-Century Istanbul" in _Women in the Medieval Islamic World_. , 1768. There is no way to tell from context whether this name is a byname identifying the woman's son, a borrowing of an Arabic byname such as as a name, or completely unrelated to the Arabic practice. [9] Leslie Pierce, "'She is trouble . . . and I will divorce her': Orality, Honor, and Representation in the Ottoman Court of 'Aintab" in _Women in the Medieval Islamic World_. [10] Lindsay. [11] _Redhouse Portable Dictionary; English - Turkish, Turkish - English_. (Istanbul: Redhouse Press, 1975), s.v. emin. Note that might itself be borrowed from Arabic. [12] H.C Hony and Fahir Iz, _The Oxford Turkish-English Dictionary_, Third Edition (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1984) s.v. hatun. [13] The Society for Creative Anachronism's College of Arms generally does not register names that imply a claim to a specific status. From our research it is not clear what status, if any, use of the title implies; however, if your main goal is to register your name with the College of Arms, you may wish to pick a different byname. [14] Hodgson, vol. 1 pp. 14-15.