al-maʻrūf bi-: "Known As" in Arabic Names
Basil Dragonstrike
In some cultures names may have an element stating that a person is
known by another name. These are introduced by a key phrase, whether
"known as," "alias," "dictus," "dit," or something else. In Arabic,
the introductory phrase is al-maʻrūf bi-; "the (one) known
by/as". This is not common, but it is not extremely rare. I intend
in this article to show it happens often enough to be a legitimate
part of a name for SCAers, re-enactors, etc.
Quick note: bi- has a hyphen for the same reason al-
does; as a convenience for readers of the Roman alphabet. In Arabic,
both bi and al are prefixes, attached directly to
the word modified. Further, when bi is followed by a word
starting with al, the "a" of al disappears from
spoken Arabic {though not in the written form}; how this is treated
in romanized Arabic varies from one romanization method to another.
The Arabic is
المعروف ب.
Before a word starting with a vowel, it looks like
لمعروف با.
For my first example of al-maʻrūf bi-, we turn to The
Best Divisions for Knowledge of the Regions by Al-Muqaddasī,
translated by Basil Collins. Here, the author's full name is given,
in the first paragraph of the Preface, as Shams al-Dīn Abū ʻAbd
Allāh Muhammad bin Ahmad bin Abī Bakr al-Bannāʼ al-Shāmī
al-Muqaddasī al-maʻrūf bi [known as] al-Bashshārī {The lack of
dotted letters, use of "bin," and interpolation are the translator's
doing}. Although this man is usually called al-Muqaddasī by
historians, he was known as al-Bashshārī in his lifetime,
and probably for a while after. He lived in the 900's CE.
Another example is in al-Muntaqā min al-Kitāb al-Jāmiʻ li-quwan
al-adwiyah wa-al-aghdhiyan (Selections from the
Comprehensive Book on the Efficacies of Medicaments and Foodstuffs).
The name of the author is given as "Khidr ibn ʻIsá, known as (al-maʻruf
bi-) al-Khaymi". (Italics as in the original.) The description
of this book can be seen at
www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/arabic/pharmaceutics20.html. Notice that the
first time the name is given, it is followed by the Arabic form;
this allows us to be sure the name should've been romanized as Khidr
ibn ʻĪsā al-maʻrūf bi-al-Khaymī. Unfortunately, on this page
there are macrons only on the italicized
romanizations. He lived in the late 15th century CE.
We find, in Islam and Tibet--Interactions along the Musk Routes,
edited by Anna Akasoy, Charles Burnett, and Ronit Yoeli-Tlalim,
(https://books.google.com/books?id=ZfWXIfbynwYC) in a footnote on
page 92, a name given as "Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad al-Fārīsī
al-Iṣṭakhrī al-ma‘rūf bi'l-Karkhī ['known as al-Karkhī']."
(Italics and square brackets as in the original.) He died sometime
after 987 CE.
In fact, we find the phrase outside of Islamic writings. In the 13th
century CE, in Baghdād, there lived a Jewish philosopher most often
called Ibn Kammūna. The book A Jewish Philosopher of Baghdad:
ʻIzz al-Dawla ibn Kammūna (d. 683/1284) and his Writings by
Reza Pourjavady & Sabine Schmidtke covers his life. Although
these authors refer to the subject of their work as "Ibn Kammūna"
throughout, there is evidence he was known as al-maʻrūf bi-ibn
Kammūna, based on the titles of various of his works cited:
from page 20:
Sharḥ al-Talwīḥ li-l-Shaykh al-fāḍil al-muḥaqqiq ʻIzz al-Dawla
Saʻd b. Manṣūr al-maʻrūf bi-Ibn Kammūna al-Isrāʼīlī
Sharḥ al-Talwīḥāt li-l-ḥakīm al-muḥaqqiq ʻIzz al-Dawla Saʻd b.
Manṣūr al-maʻrūf bi-Ibn Kammūna al-Isrāʼīlī
Sharḥ al-Ishārāt mimmā allafahū mukammil ʻulūm al-awwalīn
wa-l-ākharīn qudwat al-muḥaqqiqīn ʻIzz al-Dawla Saʻd b. Manṣūr
b. Saʻd al-maʻrūf bi-Ibn Kammūna al-Isrāʼīlī
from page 73:
Sharḥ al-Talwīḥāt al-Suhrawardiyya Saʻd b. Manṣūr b. Saʻd al-maʻrūf
bi-Ibn Kammūna
Sharḥ al-Talwīḥāt li-l-ḥakīm al-muḥaqqiq ʻIzz al-Dawla Saʻd b.
Manṣūr al-maʻrūf bi-Ibn Kammūna al-Isrāʼīlī {This is a
repeat of the second one from page 20}
from page 76:
Sharḥ al-Talwīḥāt al-Shaykh Shihāb al-Dīn al-maqtūl li-l-Shaykh
al-maʻrūf bi-Ibn Kammūna
from page 91:
Kitāb fī l-ḥikma taṣnīf al-shaykh al-fāḍil al-ʻAllāma Saʻd b.
Manṣūr al-maʻrūf bi-Ibn Kammūna
Emphases added. NB: book titles sometimes contain al-maʻrūf bi- to
indicate an alternate title; one must be careful to make sure that
(as in all the titles I cited) it is the author who is referred to.
As another non-Muslim example, note in Christian-Muslim
Relations: A Bibliographical History, Volume 2 (900-1050)
edited by David Thomas and Alex Mallett, on page 416, there's the
romanization and translation of the long title of a book. The
romanized form is Maqālat shaykhinā Abī Zakariyyā Yaḥyā ibn ʻAdī
ibn Ḥamīd ibn Zakariyyā fī tabyīn ḍalālat al-Nasṭūrī al-muʻjab
bi-kalām Abī l-Ḥusayn Aḥmad (ibn) Muḥammad al-maʻrūf bi-Ramaq
(?) al-Miṣrī fī nuṣratihi al-Nasṭūriyya wa-munāqaḍātuhu fī raddīhī
ʻalayhim mā yaʻtaqidūhu min anna l-Masīḥ jawharān {emphasis
added}. It is translated as "Treatise of our Master Abū Zakariyyā
Yaḥyā ibn ʻAdī ibn Ḥamīd ibn Zakariyyā to demonstrate the error of
the Nestorian who is pleased with the remarks made by Abū l-Ḥusayn
Aḥmad (ibn) Muḥammad, known as Ramaq (?) al-Miṣrī, defending the
Nestorians, and (Yaḥyā's) counter arguments in refutation of their
belief that Christ is two substanced" {whew!} Notice that while
there's some doubt about the name "Ramaq," there's no question about
al-maʻrūf bi- meaning "known as". Both these fellows lived, of
course, around 900-1050 CE.
To return to Muslim examples, there is a book with the ponderous
title Risālat al-ghufrān: wa-hiya al-risālah allatī katabahā Abū
al-ʻAlāʼ al-Maʻarrī ilá al-Shaykh al-muḥaddith ʻAlī ibn Manṣūr
al-Arīb al-Ḥalabī al-maʻrūf bi-Ibn al-Qāriḥ {empahis
added}, which means "The Epistle of Forgiveness: a
letter written by Abū al-ʻAlāʼ al-Maʻarrī in response to the Shaykh,
the Muḥaddith, ʻAlī ibn Manṣūr al-Arīb al-Ḥalabī known as Ibn
al-Qāriḥ." ʻAlī ibn Manṣūr al-Arīb al-Ḥalabī known as
Ibn al-Qāriḥ was a self-righteous fellow, who condemned a number of
poets and scholars. Abū al-ʻAlāʼ al-Maʻarrī refuted Ibn al-Qāriḥ,
and held him up to ridicule. The Arabic text can be seen at
https://books.google.com/books?id=yjDgAAAAMAAJ while the translation
of ʻAlī ibn Manṣūr al-Arīb al-Ḥalabī's name, including the English
phrase "known as" can be seen at
https://www.academia.edu/14721344/The_Snake_in_the_Tree_in_Abu_al-ʻAlaʼ_al_Maʻarri_s_Epistle_of_Forgiveness_Critical_Essay_and_Translation
Another one is found in A Soaring Minaret: Abu
Bakr al-Wasiti and the Rise of Baghdad Sufism, in
the end-notes to chapter one, who is mentioned first as "Aslam b.
Sahl al-Razzaz also known as Bahshal" and later as Aslam b. Sahl
al-Razzaz al-Wasiti al-Maʻruf bi-Bahshal. Thus we are, once more,
given the romanized Arabic and the English translation.
Let's do one last one, with Abū al-Saʻādāt Mubārak ibn Muḥammad
al-maʻrūf bi-ibn al-Athīr al-Jazarī, who wrote a book, a copy
of which is in Princeton library, and is viewable online, accessed
through and described in:
https://catalog.princeton.edu/catalog/5282311
Though no details of his life are available there, he is mentioned
in The Encyclopaedia of Islam, version 2, s.n. Ibn al-Athīr,
in the section on Madjd al-Dīn Abu
'l-Saʻādāt al-Mubārak (that being part of his name, which is
given in full, above). Note that while the book linked to was
published about 1883, Abū al-Saʻādāt al-Jazarī lived from 1149-1210
CE.
I hope with all these examples that I have convinced you that Arabic
nomenclature does indeed have its own "known as" name formation.