ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 3151 http://www.s-gabriel.org/3151 ************************************ 10 Aug 2006 From: Aryanhwy merch Catmael Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel! You wanted to know if is an appropriate name for a woman living in Iraq or Iran between 1150 and 1250. You also were interested in a name with no more than three parts (an ism, a nasab, and a laqab), with one being 'daughter of Rahim', and another perhaps . Here is what we have found. Even though Iran and Iraq were not ruled by Arabic-speaking people in your time period, the area around Baghdad always had a substantial Arabic population. We're not sure how reasonable an Arabic-language name would be in Iran during this period, when the area which makes up modern-day Iran was Persia (where the people naturally used Persian names.) is more properly transliterated . is a feminine form of the masculine name . However, we were not able to find any evidence for either or before modern times. [1] If you'd like to consider a name which sounds similar, we can recommend , , , and . [5,6] (Here the period represents a dot underneath the previous letter. You also asked about . This isn't quite correct. is one of the names of Allah [7], and these names were often used in devotional given names. A feminine devotional given name is constructed by changing to and adding in front, so the correct form based on is . [8] As we said in our earlier correspondence with you, we don't recommend a byname meaning 'daughter of Rahim', as we've only found the element in the compound masculine name <`Abd al-Rah.iim>. [2] A byname such as 'daughter of `Abd al-Rah.iim' is a fine choice for your byname. In sum, we believe that a name such as or is a fine choice for an Arabic-speaking woman living in Iraq during your period. If you are interested in pronunciations of any of these names, please write us again. We hope that this letter has been useful to you and that you won't hesitate to write us again if any part was unclear or if you have further questions. Research and commentary on this letter was provided by Adelaide de Beaumont, Juliana de Luna, Ursula Georges, Talan Gwynek, and Juetta Copin. For the Academy, -Aryanhwy merch Catmael, 10 August 2006 -- References: [1] With the exception of [3] which lists as a masculine given name, none of our standard references for Arabic names list either or . [3,4,5,6,8] [2] This is a more accurate transliteration of the name found as <`Abd al-Rahim> in Da'ud ibn Auda, "Period Arabic Names and Naming Practices," (WWW: SCA.org, 2003) http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/names/arabic-naming2.htm [3] Ahmed, Salahuddin, _A Dictionary of Muslim Names_ (New York: New York University Press, c.1999). [4] Schimmel, Annemarie, _Islamic Names_ (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1989). [5] Mari/n, Manuela, _Mujeres en al-Andalus. Reflejos histo/ricos de su actividad y categori/as sociales._ Estudios nnoma/sticos-biogra/ficos de Al-Andalus, 11. (Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cienti/ficas, 2000). [6] Da'ud ibn Auda, op. cit. [7] Mustapha al-Muhaddith ibn al-Saqaat, "The One Hundred Most Beautiful Names of God" (, ed. Arval Benicoeur and Avelina of the Bridge (WWW: Academy of Saint Gabriel, 1999, revised 2001). http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/mustapha/cnamesofgod.html [8] Juliana de Luna, "Andalusian Names: Arabs in Spain" (WWW: Academy of Saint Gabriel, 2001). http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/juliana/andalusia/