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Kunya (Arabic)
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A kunya or Kunyat is an honorific widely used in place of given names through the Arab world and the medieval Muslim world. It is a component of an Arabic name, a type of epithet referring to the bearer's first-born son or daughter.
bu (father) or umm (mother) precedes the son's name, in a genitive (idafa) construction. (The English equivalent would be to call someone whose eldest son is named John "Father of John".
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A kunya or Kunyat is an honorific widely used in place of given names through the Arab world and the medieval Muslim world. It is a component of an Arabic name, a type of epithet referring to the bearer's first-born son or daughter.
General use
Abu (father) or umm (mother) precedes the son's name, in a genitive (idafa) construction. (The English equivalent would be to call someone whose eldest son is named John "Father of John". Use of the kunya normally signifies some closeness between the speaker and the person so addressed, but is more polite than use of the first name. The kunya is also frequently used with reference to politicians and other celebrities to indicate respect.
For example, Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian President, is often referred to as "Abu Mazen", including by the Israeli media, which almost exclusively uses this name. This refers to his first-born son, Mazen. Although Mazen died in 2002, Abbas still retains the name. His wife is accordingly called "Umm Mazen".
Men who do not yet have a child are often nevertheless addressed by a made-up kunya. Most often the name chosen comes from a popular name in history, the man choosing his own kunya, although sometimes it would be the name of their father. The kunya may also be totally made up, although less often.
When using a person's full name, the kunya will precede the proper name. Thus: abu Mazin Mahmud, for "Mahmud, the father of Mazen". In Classical Arabic, but not in any of the spoken dialects, abu can change into the forms aba and abi (accusative and genitive, respectively), depending on the position of the kunya in the sentence.
The kunya is also sometimes used metaphorically rather than literally. A modern example would be the Moro Islamist group Abu Sayyaf operating in Southern Philippines (Mindanao). The word sayyaf means "swordsmith", so "Father of the Swordsmith" signifies the group's belligerent charter.
When westernized, the words abu and abu'l are sometimes perceived as an independent part of the full name, similar to a given name. For example, professor Abul Hussam is commonly referred to as Hussam, as if under an assumption that "Hussam" is a family name. See more on westernization of Arabic naming practices and names.
A special practice evolved among Palestinian leaders, originally in the Fatah faction (of which Abbas is part), to use real or fictional kunyas as noms de guerre.
For example, Yasser Arafat was known by the name Abu Ammar (abu `ammar), even though he never had a son named Ammar; it was based on Ammar ibn Yasir, a companion of Muhammad and a prominent figure in Arab history.
This usage of the kunya has gained currency outside of the Palestinian movement, and is now often used by Arab guerrillas and clandestine operators. Examples of this include the Lebanese leaders Abu Anis (used by George Hawi during the Lebanese Civil War) and Abu Arz (Etienne Saqr).
See also
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