ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2237
http://www.s-gabriel.org/2237
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17 Feb 2001
From: Judith Phillips 

Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel!

You asked us to help construct a name appropriate for an Arabic woman 
living between 1200 and 1550 and expressed an interest in the given names 
<Semeeyah>, <Salamah>, and <Salimah> and the byname <al-Khansa>. Here is 
the information we found.

<Semeeyah> is an alternative transliteration of <Semeeah>, a fine Arabic 
feminine given name for your period. <Salamah> is also a well attested 
name. Either would be an excellent choice for your persona.[1]

<Salimah> is a bit problematic. <Salimah> is a feminine form of the 
attested masculine name <Salim>. [1] The feminine form <Salimah> may have 
been used in our period, but it may also not have come into use until 
modern times.  We found a few examples of similar pairs of masculine and 
feminine names, such as <Harith> and <Harithah>,  <Lu'lu'> and <Lu'lu'ah>, 
and <Nadr> and <Nadrah>.[1] <Salimah> could be constructed as an extension 
of this pattern.  We did not find any evidence that <Salimah> was used in 
period, but our sources are not comprehensive. Nevertheless, we cannot 
recommend the name as the best possible historical recreation.

Your byname <al-Khansa> is not quite correct. The original Arabic is better 
transliterated <al-Khansaa'>. The apostrophe at the end represents  the 
Arabic letter <hamza>, which is pronounced as a glottal stop (like the 
sound in the middle of <uh-oh>). The name <al-Khansaa'> is a descriptive 
byname or lakab meaning "pug-nosed"; it is most famously the nickname of 
the 7th century Arab poet T.umaadir bint 'Amr ibn al-Haarith ibn Ash-Sharid 
[2]. (<T.> represents the letter <t> with a dot beneath it, which indicates 
an emphatic consonant.) We think it is plausible that this name was still 
used in your period.

In summary, either <Semeeah al-Khansaa'> or <Salamah al-Khansaa'> would be 
a fine name for your period. <Salimah al-Khansaa'> is possible, but we 
cannot recommend it.

We hope that this letter has been useful to you. Please contact us again if 
any part of it has been unclear or if you have any further questions. I was 
assisted in writing this letter by Arval Benicoeur, Sion Andreas, Aryanhwy 
merch Catmael, Talan Gwynek, Da'ud ibn Auda, Adelaide de Beaumont, and 
Juliana de Luna.

For the Academy,

Adeliza de Saviniaco
17 February 2001

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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)
[URL:http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/daud/arabic-naming/]

[2] "Khansa', al-", Encyclopaedia Britannica (WWW: Britannica.com, 
1999-2000, accessed 24 Jan 2001)