Path: kudonet.com!news.scruz.net!noos.hooked.net!www.nntp.primenet.com!nntp.primenet.com!hunter.premier.net!news.algonet.se!news.maxwell.syr.edu!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!newsfeed.internetmci.com!news.xnet.com!ottoman.xnet.com!user From: ottoman@xnet.com (bill walsh) Newsgroups: alt.horror.cthulhu Subject: Re: Abdul Alhazred Date: Fri, 21 Mar 1997 10:46:57 -0600 Organization: XNet - Chicagoland's Regional ISP (630) 983-6064 Lines: 77 Message-ID: References: <33316F35.797D@soho.ios.com> <19970321025101.VAA10363@ladder01.news.aol.com> <33322F03.74AD@soho.ios.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: ottoman.xnet.com In article <33322F03.74AD@soho.ios.com>, Fever wrote: > The full name on this book was Abu'l al-Hariri, so the first name Abu'l > does not have the problem associated with Abd: it could have been > converted to Abdul without removing the al- from the beggining of the > last name. Let me repeat: Abu'l is not a legitimate Arabic name. If the museum labeled someone's name thusly, they are in error. bill walsh ottoman@xnet.com P.S. In case myoriginal post didn't make it (it's not up here this morning), I'll reproduce it below. In article <33316F35.797D@soho.ios.com>, Fever wrote: > I was recently at a museum exibit that had some old arabic books. (No, > al-Azif wasn't one of them!) One of the authors was named "Abu'l > al-Hariri". It seems to me that if that book was taken to the west and > translated, the author might have been listed in the translation as > Abdul Alhariri. Could it be that the Mad Arab was named "Abu'l > al-Hazred"? AAAAAAAGGHHH! Ok, let's go over this again. 'abd is Arabic for "slave." It is often used in combinatory form with the ninety-nine names of God (or the various names of the Prophet) to create given names for believers. E.g., 'Abd-al-Rahman, Slave-of-the-Most-Beneficent, or 'Abd-al-Rahim, Slave-of-the-Most-Merciful. Because of the vagaries of transliteration between (cursive) Arabic and English, and the underlying syntax of Arabic, the above names can sometimes be represented as 'Abd-ur-Rahim or 'Abd-ur-Rahman. Various permutations of these appear from time to time (e.g., 'Abdurrahim). Nevertheless, the correct, accepted, scholarly form is 'Abd-al-[name of God or Prophet]. It is in this context that I must emphasize the ingenuity of William Hamblin's theory that the underlying word under "Hazred" is "Azrad," an unusual elative variant on the verb "zarada," meaning to devour or strangle. The name 'Abd-al-Azrad, Slave-of-the-Great-Devourer, might well have been adopted by an insane Cthulhu cultist. It is, of course, blasphemous to Islam, but that, presumably wouldn't have bothered *him.* A qadi's sentence means nothing when you're getting devoured by an invisible monster in the market of Damascus. Anyway, one does occasionally come across a man who divides his name "Abdul Rahim" or something, but they're usually from the farther reaches of the Dar-al-Islam (Pakistan, Indonesia), and consequently ignorant of the Arabic grammar involved. This would *not* apply to an eighth-century Damascene Arab. Ok, now for the above. Abu-, Umm-, Bint- and Ibn-, are other inseparable elements in Arabic nomenclature. They mean "Father (of)", "Mother (of)", "Daughter (of)", and "Son (of)," respectively. (We'll leave aside Dhu-, Sabt-, et al., for the moment) The author you saw was undoubtedly named Abu-l-Hariri (variant spelling: Abu'l-Hariri) or Abu-l-[something] al-Hariri. As for whether the Mad Arab would be named Abu-l-Hazred, "father of Hazred," it's unlikely, since Hazred isn't an Arabic given name. (Oh, and the apostrophe in Abu'l- represents the missing 'a' in al- (the definite article, "the"), not an omitted consonant, or one of the two consonants represented by curved quotes [hamza, a glottal stop, and 'ayn, a pharyngeal fricative, the first letter in 'Abd]. Consequently, the Abu-l-[x] formula is much less ambiguous than Abu'l-.) And let me just add again: Mr. Hamblin's suggestion is *so much* cooler. So, the lesson: 'Abd-, Abu-, Ibn-, etc. are INSEPARABLE elements that must be treated as prefixes. Hyphens are the preferred form of attaching them. And, until someone comes up with something better, 'Abd-al-Azrad is the Mad Arab for me. (And Chaosium, I think.) (And, of course, as has been repeatedly pointed out, "Abdul Alhazred" is grammatically impossible.) Where are you, William Hamblin?! bill