ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2547
http://www.s-gabriel.org/2547
************************************

11 Jun 2002
From:  (Josh Mittleman)


Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel!

You asked whether <Umm Ka'im Zakiyah al-Talibiyah bint Badr al-Jandar
al-Bursa> is an appropriate name for an Arabic woman in the 13th to 16th
centuries.  You explained that you wanted to present yourself as a woman in
Bursa earning her living as a seamstress or tailor, daughter of Badr and
mother of Ka'im; and that you derived <al-Talibiyah> from a man known in
the Society as <Thalabi> and that you believe the result means "the seeker
of knowledge".  You noted that <Zakiyah> is one of the names of
Fatimah and that you've been told it appears in the Qu'ran.

<Zakiyah> is an Arabic word for "chaste".  Fatimah is described in Muslim
tradition as <al-Zakiyah> "the chaste" [4].  We have not found evidence
that <Zakiyah> was used as a given name in our period.  We wouldn't be
surprised to find it, but we can't recommend it as the best re-creation.
It would be better to choose a name actually found in period sources; you
can find some possibilities in references [1] and [2].

<Ka'im> and <Badr> are Arabic masculine given names used in the Middle Ages
[1].  They are fine choices for your son's and father's names.

We have not been able to support <al-Talabiyah> as an Arabic phrase or to
verify your translation "seeker of knowledge".  We have found a similar
byname, <al-Ta'labi>, used by a man in medieval Andalusia [2].  We aren't
sure what it means; it might be based on the word that we would
transliterate <Tha'labii> "fox-like".  There was an 11th century Arabic man
who used the byname <al-Tha'labii> [7, 8].

The city of Bursa, in northwestern Turkey, was ruled by the Crusaders and
later the Byzantines from 1096 to 1326.  It was then captured by the Turks
and became their capital until it was sacked by Timur in 1402 [3].  The
byname <al-Bursa> isn't correct; it should use the adjective form of the
place name.  A man from Bursa could have been known as <al-Bursi>, and a
woman as <al-Bursiyya> [5].  However, such a byname was usually used for
someone who had moved away from her home, not someone still living in that
place. 

As far as we can tell, <al-jandar> does not mean "the tailor".  We found a
word, best transliterated as <jandaar>, that means "laundry-man".  The only
word we found for "tailor, clothesmaker" is <khayyaat.> [6].  The feminine
byname based on this word is <al-Khayyaat.ah>.  The dot after the 't'
indicates that it is an emphatic consonant, pronounced differently from a
regular <t>.  If you are interested in using this byname, we'll explain as
best we can.

Overall, your name is rather more complex than we would expect for a woman
in your culture.  Men's names were often quite complex, but women's names
were generally simpler.  Some of the more complex women's names that we've
found are [9]:

  Umm al-Baqa' Khadija bint al-Hasan (d. 1243)
  Khadija bint Muhammad al-Bayluni (d. 1523)
  Amat al-Rahman bint 'Abd al-Haqq ibn Galib (12th C)

The apostrophe in the first name represents an Arabic letter that is
pronounced as a glottal stop.  A glottal stop is the sound in the middle of
<unh-unh>.  The first example identifies the woman as her son's mother <Umm
al-Baqa'>, by her given name <Khadija>, and as her father's daughter <bint
al-Hasan>. The second includes her father's name and nickname.  In the last
example, <Amat al-Rahman> is a single unit, the woman's given name.  The
rest of her name includes her father's and grandfather's names.

We doubt that a period Arabic woman's name would be more complicated than
these examples, and we recommend that you construct your name on a similar
pattern.  For example, if you choose the given name <Zaynab>, then you
might use <Umm Ka'im Zaynab bint Badr>.  Adding your father's byname is
probably reasonable, so you might expand this to <Umm Ka'im Zaynab bint
Badr al-Bursi>.  If you want a byname to describe you, then you should
place it directly after your given name, e.g. <Umm Ka'im Zaynab
al-Bursiyya>.  Once you choose a particular combination, we'll be happy to
provide a correct pronunciation.


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 Sion Andreas, Adelaide de Beaumont,
and Julie Stampnitzky.

For the Academy,


  Arval Benicoeur
  11 Jun 2002


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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).
http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/daud/arabic-naming/</b

[2] Juliana de Luna, "Andalusian Names: Arabs in Spain" (WWW:
J. Mittleman, 2001).
http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/juliana/andalusia/

[3] "Bursa" in The Columbia Encyclopedia (WWW: bartleby.com, 2001)
http://www.bartleby.com/65/bu/Bursa.html

[4] "Hazrat Fatima Zahra" (WWW: Emam Reza Network, accessed 28 May 2002).
http://www.emamreza.net/eng/services/occasions/fatimah1.htm

[5] Cf. <al-Andalusi> and <al-Andalusiyya> in the list of locative
bynames in ref. [2].

[6] Wehr, Hans, _A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic_, edited by
J. Milton Cowan, 3rd ed. (Ithaca, NY: Spoken Language Services, Inc.,
1976).  The word <jandara> means "he did laundry".  By standard Arabic
grammar, one can create the professional term <jandaar>.

[7] Wehr s.v. tha'labii.

[8] The Library of Congress' online name authority file includes the 11th
century name <Abuu Ish.aaq Ahhmad ibn Mah.muud ibn Ibraahiim
al-Niisaabuurii, al-mullaqab bi-al-Tha'labii wa-bi-al-Tha'libii>.

[9] Roded, Ruth, _Women in Islamic Biographical Collections: From Ibn Sa'd
to 'Who's Who'_ (Boulder Col., Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1994).