Talk:Kunya (Arabic)

Asbl's Edits

(transfered from Asbl's talk page)
hi! i saw your edits of the kunya (arabic) article. thank's for the grammar fix, but the list of persons was actually intended for the kunya in general, and not as subsection of the previous part, since the article is not only about palestinian guerilla usage. could you please restore the list as it was? if not, there's other names that should be removed too. abu bakr the caliph didn't get the name while undercover, you know :-) best regards, Arre 04:09, 9 December 2005 (UTC)

There is no way for me to know what was the original intent of the author who wrote it. I just read the article, and thought that the list should only include names of people who are not actually parents of the children for which the get named after. Otherwise, what would be the point of the list? We already know that "Abu X" means "the father of X", so it seems silly to me to include those names in a list. In my opinion, the list should only inlude names that are an exception to the rule. What do you think? --Asbl 05:17, 9 December 2005 (UTC)

Sure, I can see why you made that assumption. But I think a) that it would be nice to have a few examples of people on Wikipedia with a kunya (and not necessarily all of them Palestinian), and b) that the article should focus on general usage of the name. The Palestinian part should not dominate the article. So I prefer the way I wrote it, but feel free to do as you wish. It's not important. (The list can't stay as it is now, though.)Arre 05:20, 9 December 2005 (UTC)

If you would like to do that, you should open up a category called "category:list of people with a kunya", and then go and put that category in all the articles of the people with a kunya. I think that would be a better way to go about it, than to put all those name in the kunya article. --Asbl 05:26, 9 December 2005 (UTC)

OK, I opened up the category for you, and added a couple of people (check out Abu Jihad and Yasser Arafat. The problem I am having is that I cannot control how the names appear, as they depend on how the names are listed in the article. For Example, Khalil al-Wazeer is simply listed as "Abu Jihad". I would prefer to list the person's name and in parenthesis the Kunya.
Have fun going through Wikipedia and finding more people to add to the category. --Asbl 17:43, 9 December 2005 (UTC)

Abu Sayyaf

By the way, I dont think Abu Sayyaf belongs in the list, but I did not remove it because it clearly does not refer to a person who has a son named "Sayyaf". I do not know what to do with it. --Asbl 05:30, 9 December 2005 (UTC)

I'll remove it from the list and note it in the text instead. Arre 20:59, 9 December 2005 (UTC)

In fact, I removed the list altogether. After removing Egyptians and caliphs and Filippino guerillas, there were only two people left anyway. Arre 21:06, 9 December 2005 (UTC)

OK, one person is Yasser Arafat (Abu Amar). Who is the other person? Why don't you add him (or is it her) to the text too? If I knew, I would have added to the text myself. --Asbl 22:06, 9 December 2005 (UTC)

Um, Abu Nidal I think. Although for what I know, he may have had a son too. There are others as well, but I don't think many are on Wikipedia. And anyway, the text makes the point clear enough Arre 22:43, 9 December 2005 (UTC)

Abu Ammar

It appears that the application of the name "Abu Ammar" to Yasser Arafat is no different than naming the group "Abu Sayyef", so I put them together.
Please Note: the way the article currently reads, the Prophet Muhammad had a companion named Abu Amar, sounds like they were a homosexual couple. I am not Muslim, so I do not know who was Abu Ammar, and I am not sure what was meant by the word "companion" when it was originally written. --Asbl 07:31, 10 December 2005 (UTC)

It is different (and I reverted). Abu Sayyaf is an organization, for one thing. The reason there's a section on the special Palestinian guerilla usage of the kunya, is that there is a special Palestinian guerilla usage of the kunya (as nom de guerre). Arafat's kunya also refer's to a name (Ammar), not an object (sword), and is thus not of the same kind as the Abu Sayyaf's. That he had no son by that name does not change that this is the basic usage of the kunya (but used the Fatah way); the Abu Sayyaf example is of another kind, in which the grammatical construction tries to bring out the inherent qualities of that object or phenomena. Arafat may have liked the connotations of the A-M-R root of the word "Ammar", but that is not the same thing as wanting to emulate the word/object itself. Also, there is no Arabic word "Ammar", just a name.

Neither the Prophet, sala 'alayhu wassalam, nor Abu Bakr, is known to have been gay. You can change that if you like. Arre 09:59, 10 December 2005 (UTC)

You lost me in you response

1. How are Abu Sayyef and Abu Amar differ? In both cases, the uses of the Kunya is metaphoric. Why is the fact that one use applies to an organization while the other to a person, have a bearing on the fact that both are used metaphorically, rather than literally? This is why I think they belong together.
2. What is "the Fatah way"?
3. What is sala 'alayhu wassalam? I assume that's Arabic for "Peace be upon him"
4. How did we get to talk about Abu Bakr? You had originally listed him in the article, and then removed him. Is his Kunya metaphoric or literal?

--Asbl 04:34, 11 December 2005 (UTC)

1. Arafat's kunya was not intended to be metaphoric/poetic in the same way, it was intended as a nom de guerre during his time as an underground leader of Fatah (and then it stuck). It is a normal kunya which means "father of 'Ammar", although 'Ammar - like every Arab name - has some connotations through its root ('AMR). But apart from that, the word 'Ammar has no specific meaning, as far as I know. Abu Sayyaf means "Father of the Sword", and does not imply that this organization is actually the father of someone/thing called "sword", but rather that it is the "master of the sword" or something like that.

2. This usage of the kunya started, I believe, with the early leaders of Fatah.

3. Yep :-)

4. Uh, I should have written "Abu 'Ammar", I guess. As for Abu Bakr, I assume he had a son named Bakr. Arre 01:36, 15 December 2005 (UTC)

Abou ammar:

Abou Ammar (Y.Arafat) was called cause he was civil engineer in profession (arabic: mohandis ammar).

Okay, check the page now! I've introduced that and some more. It would be good if you had a source (an internet link) for it too, so we could post that on the page. All the best, Arre 22:11, 3 February 2006 (UTC)

A civil engineer in Arabic is "mohandis madani", an architect in Arabic is "mi'mar". Ammar is irrelevant although it shares the same root with mi'mar. It is quite traditional to give certain names a kunnya based on a real person in history. Example, if a man named Mohammed did not have any children it is tradition to call him Abu Qasim or Abu Jassim (depending on local accent) because the prophet Mohammed's kunnya was Abu Al Qasim and vice versa, if his name is Qasim and he did not have any children then his kunnay is Abu Mohammed. Hence came Abu Ammar's kunnya; it is based on Ammar Ibn Yassir the known companion of Mohammed; so men named Ammar that have no children (or no male children) have an informal kunnya of Abu Yasir and men named Yasir that don't have any male children are called Abu Ammar. That's why he chose Ammar, no other reason.

other examples: Hussain (or Hassan in some areas) <-> Ali; Waleed <-> Khalid; Anas <-> Malik; Ibrahim <-> Kahlil; Nu'man <-> Munthir; and so on.

--Maha Odeh 05:44, 17 June 2007 (UTC)

by the way, I deleted the theory about the engineer thing because it is totally wrong (I'm an architect so I should know what architects are called in Arabic). But I also think the root thing is irrelevant too, if he was going to chose a name based on the meaning then why Ammar? why not Jihad (struggle) since it's closer to reality; or Muntasir (victor) as a hopeful name; or even Salam (peace) as a goal or something? All the above are proper Arabic names with a good meaning. --Maha Odeh 06:02, 17 June 2007 (UTC)

Teknonym

The article "Anthroponymy" includes the term teknonym, which according to Wiktionary is

a name for an adult derived from that of a child, especially that of the eldest child

Kunya would be an example of this, correct? — ˈzɪzɨvə (talk) 18:23, 27 April 2009 (UTC)

examples of feminine kunya

Would it be possible to add some examples of feminine kunya, from real life? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 37.135.20.229 (talk) 11:28, 24 May 2015 (UTC)

Removed examples

I've removed the following 'examples', which were added years ago by an IP editor (created as straight body text in the original edit, and later on formatted as table):

"

The following are some examples of widely used Kunya in Arab world:

Common Kunya in Arab world

Child's birth name	Kunya
Khalīd	Abū Walīd
Walīd	Abū Khalīd
Alī	Abū Hussein
Hussein	Abū Alī
Muhammad	Abū Jassim/Qassim
Yūsuf	Abū Ya'qūb
Ya'qūb	Abū Yūsuf
Khalīl	Abū Ibrahīm
Ibrahīm	Abū Khalīl

"

These are unreferenced, and almost certainly wrong (why would the kunya for Ali be Abū Hussein, and for Hussein Abū Alī, etc.?); this may have been just hoax or vandalism. I could have of course corrected the table, but I don't really think it adds much; the concept of a kunya should be fairy obvious by that stage in the article, without listing ten or so examples. If anyone wants to add this section back into the article, please explain why you feel it's needed, and why the names appear to be mismatched. Thanks, -- DoubleGrazing (talk) 13:38, 1 August 2020 (UTC)

The names are not mismatched, and I have already explained why there are like that. Let us say your name is DoubleGrazing, and your dad’s name is BigGrazing. In that case, your kunya would not be Abu DoubleGrazing, It would be Abu BigGrazing (Father of BigGrazing): this is because in the Arab world, one would usually name their firstborn after their father.

This list then depicts famous father/sons. For example, Ali, the fourth Caliph, was the father of Hussein; therefore his kunya is Abu Hussein (literally, Father of Hussein). Then Hussein’s kunya would in turn be Abu Ali (Father of Ali). Same goes for Jacob and Joseph who are prophets in the Bible and the Quran: Yusuf is known as Abu Yaqub (Father of Jacob). Abu Yagub (talk) 07:33, 4 August 2020 (UTC)

I believe that this list helps people understand the culture behind naming in the Arab world. Also, recently I read an article about a young boy named Abu Walid in Iraq, and immediately before his real name was revealed, I knew his name was Khalid. So I think this table can act as a helpful source for non-Arabs for identifying a person’s real name from their kunya. Abu Yagub (talk) 07:43, 4 August 2020 (UTC)

Abul

Is Abul a kunya or simply a given name?

• All pages with titles beginning with Abul
• All pages with titles beginning with Abu l
• All pages with titles beginning with Abu al

- Altenmann >talk 05:49, 5 August 2024 (UTC)

Abu is son?

The article say so a person named Isaac received "abu Ibrahim" (son of Abraham). How can that be? --Altenmann >talk 00:49, 26 August 2024 (UTC)

P.S. I see the explanation in talk above. But his must be explained in the article, not in chat. --Altenmann >talk 00:53, 26 August 2024 (UTC)

The article says, currently, In some cases the word abu is construed beyond the traditional sense of "father," so a person named Isaac received "abu Ibrahim" (son of Abraham) and one named Moses received "abu Imran" (son of Amram).. You're welcome to suggest clearer language, because it is clearly confusing some readers.GordonGlottal (talk) 03:48, 26 August 2024 (UTC)

I am welcome to suggest that the text is confusing. And you as an expert (I think) must fix it. The phrasing "abu Ibrahim" (son of Abraham) looks exactly like the translation of "abu" as "son". The phrase "abu is construed beyond the traditional sense" is a non-explanation. What the heck is "beyond"? Please dont remove the tag until he satisfactory text is found. If you cannot fix it, leave it to someone who can. --Altenmann >talk 17:32, 26 August 2024 (UTC)

Medieval Arabic kunyas (especially Jewish ones) do not use abu strictly in the sense of "father" and are usually not personal. Instead, kunyas are a linear extension of the personal name, and abu is serves as a linguistic marker which indicates that the phrase is a kunya (instead of an ism or etc.).

Each personal name had a corresponding kunya. These kunyas do not relate in any way to the actual names of an individual's family members. If a man is named Musa, he is called "Abu Imran Musa" or, less commonly, "Abu Harun Musa". If he is named Ibrahim, he is called "Abu Ishaq Ibrahim". Those particular kunyas are explained by biblical genealogy, but note that abu can link Biblical father to son (Abu Imran), or Biblical son to father (Abu Ishaq), or Biblical brother to brother (Abu Harun). Other traditional kunyas are not as easily explained: for example, men named Jonah were called "Abu Walid".

The word abu in these kunyas is a marker only. Abu went from meaning "father of" to meaning "this phrase is of the type which commonly expresses a paternal relationship". Son-father kunyas are one type which evince this abstraction, but another is quality-based, "Abu Al-Afiya" or "Abu al-Barakat" or "Abu al-Fadhl". Yet another relates the subject to an event: Abu Bakr, Abu al-Qirba, etc. We find generally that medieval Arabic speakers had abstract kunyas. Similarly, in English, many modern surnames take the form [profession]+son or [quality]+son. This is because the patronymic suffix lost its initial meaning ("son of") and became instead a suffix which indicated a surname ("this phrase is of the type which commonly expresses a filial relationship"). In both Arabic kunyas and English surnames, the original pattern continues to etymologically explain a large number of names even though the etymology is not relevant to the use case, so "Johnson" may be accurately parsed as [son of]+[John] and "Abu Ishaq" as [father of]+[Isaac], but the actual meanings are "member of the Johnson family" and "person named Abraham". Others were formed using the abstracted markers, so "Goodson" is rooted not in [son of]+[Good] but rather [Good]+[last name suffix], and "Abu Harun" is not [father of]+[Aaron] but [kunya prefix]+[relationship of Aaron to—]. Of course this isn't restricted to English and Arabic. We find surnames like "Ben Gurion" in Modern Hebrew which were originally patronymics along with surnames like "Bar Ilan" (=Berlin) which use the patronymic only to signal the character of the word, that it is a last name. GordonGlottal (talk) 14:41, 27 August 2024 (UTC)

This is what must be in the article, not in the talk psge. I am not the only onre who misunterstood the text. Pleas write a more detailed explanation and dont revert until the issue is resolved. In one sentence it says " by the use of abū (father) " and the next sentrence says abu Ishaq is "son of" This is very confusing. --Altenmann >talk 15:57, 27 August 2024 (UTC)

In addition, in "Those named Abraham received "abu Ishaq" - who the heck is Ishaq? He is not mentioned in the article? The fact that everything is clear in your brain does not mean that I can get into your head, and I should not, to understand the text. --Altenmann >talk 16:03, 27 August 2024 (UTC)