Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 285

Academy of Saint Gabriel Report 285

This report is available at http://www.s-gabriel.org/285

Some of the Academy's early reports contain errors that we haven't yet corrected. Please use it with caution.

Here's the information we have on the name "Khalidah al-Sameerah."

"Khalidah" is a feminine form of the documented man's name "Khalid" [1]. Although we haven't found period examples of "Khalidah", we do have many examples of period Arabic feminine names formed in this way from masculine names, and we therefore think that "Khalidah" is plausible as a period Arabic feminine name

"al-Sameerah" does have the correct syntax for an Arabic word, although we didn't find it in any dictionaries. We have no reason to believe that it's not a real word, but you might want to find an Arabic-speaking person to make sure that it doesn't have any negative connotations--some words which mean "entertainer" or "dancer" have implications which are not necessarily desirable.

Da'ud ibn Auda, Lindorm Eriksson, Talan Gwynek, and Arval D'Espas Nord contributed to this letter.

We hope this has been helpful. If we can be of further assistance, please let us know.

In service,
Alan Fairfax
Academy of S. Gabriel

(1) Dodge, Baynard. The Fihirst of al-Nadim. Columbia University

Press: New York, 1970.