Arabic Personal Names

`On The Day Of Qayamat You Will Be Called By Your Names And The Names Of Your Fathers. Therefore Keep Good Names.'-The Prophet The Complete Book Of Muslim And Parsi Names Is A Practical Guide For Choosing The Perfect Name For Your Child. The Result Of Several Years Of Research, It Is An Erudite And Thorough Compilation Of Approximately 30,000 Names Taken From Ten Languages. With The Actual And The Construed Meanings And The History Or Mythology Associated With The Name Given Against Each Entry, This Is A Precise And Invaluable Sourcebook For Scholars And Lay Readers Alike.

Out of the extremely rich Arab heritage comes this volume of more than 700 first names with meanings, historic origins and famous bearers of the name, ranging from names with religious connotations such as Abdulhamid 'Servant of the Praised' to modern names like Basma Smile.

The resurgence and revitalisation of Muslim culture have created a growing interest in the study of Muslim names. Throughout the world, Muslims share similar names, be they in the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent, South East Asia or new migrants.

This book is a volume in the Penn Press Anniversary Collection. To mark its 125th anniversary in 2015, the University of Pennsylvania Press rereleased more than 1,100 titles from Penn Press's distinguished backlist from 1899-1999 that had fallen out of print. Spanning an entire century, the Anniversary Collection offers peer-reviewed scholarship in a wide range of subject areas.

In the Arab world, people belong to kinship groups (lineages and tribes). Many lineages are named after animals, birds, and plants. Why? This survey evaluates five old explanations – “totemism,” “emulation of predatory animals,” “ancestor eponymy,” “nicknaming,” and “Bedouin proximity to nature.” It suggests a new hypothesis: Bedouin tribes use animal names to obscure their internal cleavages. Such tribes wax and wane as they attract and lose allies and clients; they include “attached” elements as well as actual kin. To prevent outsiders from spotting “attached” groups, Bedouin tribes scatter non-human names across their segments, making it difficult to link any segment with a human ancestor. Young’s argument contributes to theories of tribal organization, Arab identity, onomastics, and Near Eastern kinship.

This book builds on Suleiman's earlier research on the link among the Arabic language, identity and conflict, which he explored at some length in 'The Arabic Language and National Identity' and 'A War of Words'. The present study builds on his interest in the symbolic realms of signification, and Suleiman approaches the Arabic language as a marker of identity and as a factor in sociopolitical conflict in society.