ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1523 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1523 ************************************ 5 Apr 1999 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked for help choosing a name appropriate for an 11th century Mozarabe woman who was born in one of the Muslim kingdoms of southern Iberia and moved north into the Christian kingdoms. You asked particularly about the first name and an Arabic descriptive byname meaning "the obscure" or "the dark". You also asked our opinion of your design for your arms, "Argent, a sun sable eclipsed argent." Here is what we have found. Before we start, we need to define some notation. A colon following a vowel, like , represents a bar over it, which indicates that the vowel has a longer duration than normal. A period after a letter, , represents a dot under the letter, which is used in the transliteration of Arabic to indicate a sound with no English equivalent [1]. A comma after a letter, , represents a hook hanging from the letter, which indicates that the is pronounced as \s\. An apostrophe <'> in an Arabic name represents a glottal stop, like the sound in the middle of . is a fine Castilian given name for your period. Our references include four examples between 1082 and 1173 [2]. We believe that a mixed-language name is inappropriate for the culture you want to re-create [3]. At that time, we find that a person (or, at least, a man of the upper classes) had two names, one Arabic and one Latin (Castilian). The one used in a particular document depended on the language being used. Thus, for example, , a 10th century bishop of Elvira, was known in Arabic as . Similarly, a document from Toledo in 1115 identifies a man as having the Latin name "Domenico, son of Petro", and the Arabic name "Abu: l-H.asan ibn Ba:suh". Similarly, the priest , who was present at the siege of Cordova in the retinue of Alphonse VII, was better known as , and in 1186 was also called . Notice that there need not be any particular relationship between a man's Castilian and Arabic names [4]. Therefore, our best suggestion is that you choose an Arabic name and a Castilian name, and use the one appropriate to your current circumstances. Historically that would mean that you would have used the Arabic name when you were writing or talking in Arabic, and the Castilian name when you were writing or talking Castilian or Latin. Of course, our examples are all men's names. Women's naming practices are less well documented, but from the available evidence they appear to have been much simpler in both Muslim and Christian societies [5]. In the 11th century, a woman in any Iberian culture would probably have been known in most circumstances only by her given name. If more identification was needed, she was usually identified as her father's daughter, but might also have been named in other ways. For example, in Castilian, Sol the daughter of Pelayo might have been called , an entirely typical Castilian name for your period [6]. The same women might perhaps have been known in Arabic as "Salma daughter of Muhammed", assuming that was her father's Arabic name. We chose here because it is a documented Arabic woman's name that sounds a bit like [7], but we should note again that our evidence suggests that there need be no relation at all between your Arabic and Castilian names. A woman in Arabic culture was generally known either as her father's daughter, as in the example we've given, or as her son's mother. If had a son named , she might also have been called "Mother of Yusuf, Salma" [8]. We've seen more variety in Castilian women's names of your period, including examples of women with descriptive bynames. These tend to be more concrete than "the Obscure", but we find several with the meaning "the Dark", probably referring in most cases to hair or skin coloration. Most simply, you might call yourself "Sol the Black". We found recorded in the 13th century, and masculine examples earlier: 11th century, c.1103, 1131. Other ways to describe a person as "dark" were metaphorical: 1164 "coal-black", and 1164 "charcoal" [9]. The woman in our example, , could also have been known as or . Heraldic arms were invented in northwestern France in the mid-12th century. Since your persona is earlier than that, you obviously would not have used armory. That doesn't mean you shouldn't use arms in the Society: Many Societyfolk use arms even though their personas would not have done so. Whether you use arms or not depends on how you think about authenticity and your persona. You can find a few thoughts on this issue in an article we've posted on the web: What Do I Use for Arms if my Persona Wouldn't Have Used Arms? http://www.itd.umich.edu/~ximenez/s.gabriel/faq/nonheraldic.html The arms you described, "Argent, a sun sable eclipsed argent", use a charge that we've never seen in period heraldry. This style of eclipsed sun, with the central disk colored differently from the rays of the sun, is an SCA invention as far as we can tell. In real-world heraldry, "a sun eclipsed" simply means "a sun sable" [10, 11]. Therefore, we do not recommend this design as good re-creation of early Iberian heraldry. A more authentic approach would be to use one or more black suns. If you're interested in registering your arms, then you'll need to change the design anyway: This one conflicts with registered Society arms [12]. We can suggest one very authentic alternative: "Argent, three suns sable". This design has three black suns arranged with two side-by-side in the upper half of the field and one centered below. As far as we can tell, you could register this design in the SCA. We hope this letter has been useful. Please write us again if any part of it has been unclear or if you have other questions. I was assisted in researching and writing this letter by Pedro de Alcazar, Aryanhwy merch Catmael, Juliana de Luna, Talan Gwynek, Walraven van Nijmegen, Alan Fairfax, Rouland Carre, Zenobia Naphtali, Blaise de Cormeilles, and Hartmann Rogge. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 5 Apr 1999 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Notes and References [1] The sound of is vaguely similar to, though different from, both the \h\ in and to the sound in the Scottish . [2] Talan Gwynek, "A Glossary of the Personal Names in Diez Melcon's _Apellidos Castellano-Leoneses_", Known World Heraldic Symposium Proceedings (SCA: Chicago, 1993). [3] Reference [4] contains examples of men with mixed-language names in the 12th and 13th centuries, like 1190, but this practice appear to have resulted from the conquest of Toledo by the Christians in the 12th century, and so would not be appropriate for your period. [4] Mole/nat, Jean-Pierre, "L'Onomastique Tole/dane entre le XIIe et le XVe Sie\cle. Du Syste\me Onomastique Arabe a\ la Practique Espagnole Moderne", pp. 166-178 in Bourin, Monique, Jean-Marie-Martin, and Francois Menant, eds., _L'Anthroponymie: Document de l'Histoire Sociale des Mondes Me/diterrane/ens Me/die/vaux_, Collection de l'E/cole Franc,aise de Rome, 226 (Rome: E/cole Franc,aise de Rome, 1996). [5] Sopena, Pascual Marti/nez, ed., _Antroponimia y Sociedad_: Sistemas de identificacio/n hispano-cristianos en los siglos IX a XIII_, Historie y Sociedad no. 46 (Valladolid, Spain: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela and Universidad de Valladolid, 1995). [6] Diez Melcon, R. P. Gonzalo, _Apellidos Castellano-Leoneses: Siglos IX-XIII, ambos inclusive_ (Universidad de Granada, 1957), p.134, s.n. Pelagius. [7] Da'ud ibn Auda, "A List of Arabic Women's Names" (WWW: Academy of Saint Gabriel, 1996). http://www.us.itd.umich.edu/~ximenez/s.gabriel/docs/arabicwomen.html [8] 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). http://www.panix.com/~mittle/names/daud/arabic-naming/ [9] Kremer, Dieter. 'Bemerkungen zu den mittelalterlichen hispanischen cognomina', in _Aufsa"tze zur Portugiesischen Kulturgeschichte_, vols. 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17. Sonderdruck aus Portugiesische Forschungen der Go"rresgesellschaft. Herausgegeben von Hans Flasche (Mu"nster: Aschendorffsche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1970-1981/82), III.27. [10] Parker, James, _A Glossary of Terms used in Heraldry_ (Charles E. Tuttle, 1982), s.v. sun. [11] Guillim, John, _A Display of Heraldry_, (orig. publ. by R. Blome in London in 1679, reprinted by Falconwood Press, Albany, N.Y., n.d.), p.83. [12] The conflict is Glynn Llan-y-Rhyllwyn: Potenty gules and argent, a sun sable eclipsed argent charged with a mullet throughout sable. There is one difference for changing the field, but nothing for removing the mullet because the College of Arms treats the Society style of eclipsing as if it were a roundel placed on the sun.