ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 3053 http://www.s-gabriel.org/3053 ************************************ 31 Jan 2006 From: Ursula Whitcher Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked about a name appropriate for an Arab woman born prior to 1600. You were particularly interested in a given name that was similar to your modern name, , which you said was a feminine form of . You also wanted a name that indicates that you are the mother of a man named and the daughter of a man named . Before we begin, we'd like to apologize for the amount of time this letter has taken. We hope this information is still useful to you. The kunya, an honorific usually formed by attaching 'mother of' or 'father of' to the name of the eldest, usually male, child, is fairly straightforward. The Arabic equivalent of is , well-known in the Muslim world as the angel who brought the Koran to Muhammad. This is a fine masculine Arabic name, and is thus a reasonable element for a kunya. [9] The mother of a person named could be called [1]. The Arabic ism or given name equivalent to is . There do not seem to be any feminine versions of this name. Although there are a very few Arabic isms that have masculine and feminine versions, masculine Biblical and Qur'anic names do not generally have feminine forms. Happily, there are a number of feminine Arabic given names that sound somewhat similar to . These names are: Maysun Munisah [2] Mu`azzazah Munaa [3] Muzaah.imah Muznah Muzaynah [4] Musaykah [10] (The period after the in represents a small dot below that letter.) Any one of these names would be a fine choice as a given name. The English name derives from , a late Vulgar Latin variant of Latin . in turn is a borrowing of Hebrew . The variant arose because of changes in the pronunciation of Latin around the middle of the first millennium CE; it has no counterpart in Hebrew. [5] The Arabic form of Hebrew is , which is therefore the closest Arabic counterpart to . was a fairly common masculine name, [11] so it's a fine choice for an element of your nasab, the part of the name that indicates your lineage. [6] We can recommend: Umm Jibriil Maysun bint Ya'qub Umm Jibriil Munisah bint Ya'qub Umm Jibriil Mu`azzazah bint Ya'qub Umm Jibriil Munaa bint Ya'qub Umm Jibriil Muzaah.imah bint Ya'qub Umm Jibriil Muznah bint Ya'qub Umm Jibriil Muzaynah bint Ya'qub Umm Jibriil Musaykah bint Ya'qub as plausible names for an Arab woman at some point in the SCA period. You should note that although there are instances of Arab women being referred to using their kunya, ism and nasab, it is likely that on a daily basis these women would probably have been addressed using just their kunya. [7, 8] If any of these names appeal to you, please do not hesitate to contact us regarding pronunciation. If you would like to have a name appropriate for a specific time and place we may be able to advise you as to which of these names would be the most appropriate. Juliana de Luna, Arval Benicoeur, Talan Gwynek, Gunnvor Silfraharr, and Aryanhwy merch Catmael contributed to this article. For the Academy, Katherine Throckmorton and Ursula Georges 31 January 2006 References: [1] Da'ud ibn Auda. "Period Arabic Names and Naming Practices". (WWW: SCA, Inc., 2003). http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/names/arabic-naming2.htm [2] Da'ud ibn Auda, op. cit. [3] Juliana de Luna. "Jewish Women's Names in an Arab Context: Names from the Geniza at Cairo". (WWW: SCA, Inc., 2001). http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/names/geniza.html Note that these names are attested as the names of Jewish women; although the names appear to be typically Arabic, we cannot be certain that they would be appropriate for a Muslim or Christian woman. [4] Marin, Manuela. _Mujeres en al-Andalus. Reflejos histo/ricos de su actividad y categori/as sociales._ Estudios onoma/sticos-biogra/ficos de Al-Andalus, 11. Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cienti/ficas. 2000. [5] Rose, Margaret. _Baby Names for Dummies_. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley And Sons Ltd. 2005. [6] Da'ud ibn Auda "Period Arabic Names and Naming Practices" http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/names/arabic-naming2.htm [7] Roded, Ruth. _Women in Islamic Biographical Collections: from Ibn Sa`d to Who's Who_. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, Inc. 1993. Umm Hani Fakhita bint Abu T.alib 7th c Umm Ma`bad `Atika bint Khalid 7th c Umm Sharik Ghaziyya bint Jabir 7th c Umm al-Baqa' Khadija bint al-Hasan d. 1243 Umm al-`Izz Nudar bint Ahmad d. 1329 Umm Muhammad Zaynab bint 'Umar d. 1299 Umm Zaynab Fatima bint `Abbas c. 1314 Umm Muhammad Fatima bint `Abd al-Rahman al-Harraniyya d. 924 (These names use a transcription which does not note long vowels and omits the dot under the in .) [8] Da'ud ibn Auda, op. cit. [9] Dodge, Baynard, _The Fihrist of al-Nadim_ (New York: Columbia University Press, 1970), 1024 has two men named , one who died in 828/9 and another who was his grandson. [10] Smith, Antar Ibn-Stanford, _Muslim Names and Birth-Rites_ (Jackson, MI: The Qur'anic Civilization Association, Inc., 1985), p. 84, lists as the name of a woman in h.adiith. [11] Dodge, 1126.