Abu (nickname)

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Abu is a component of male Arabic surnames ( arab.كنية kunya ) meaning "father of". The female counterpart isUmm.

Origin and meaning

Abu is part of an Arabic name and, together with another name, forms an epithet (arab.كنية kunya ). Ab means "father" in Arabic (أب from , in the status constructus :أبو abū 'father of') and denotes the relationship to the firstborn son of a man. In Arab society, it is customary to address a man with "Abu" followed by the first name of this son from the birth of the first son (girls are less considered). This address will not be changed if this first son should die. Such names are also popular as battle names , e.g. B. Abu Ammar for Yasser Arafat . He didn't have a son named Ammar, however. His successor Mahmoud Abbas , however, has his nickname Abu Mazen because of his first son.

It can also be part of a patronymic , i. H. a name that indicates the name of the father of the name bearer by first name. This is the case , for example, with ʿAlī ibn Abī Tālib : Ali ibn Abi Talib means Ali, the son of Abu Talib , i.e. H. the father of Talib (ibn Abi Talib) who was Ali's older brother. The actual name ( ism ) of Abu Talib ("father of the seeker") was Abd Manāf.

Sometimes the preceding word "Abu" also expresses what a man can do, what he possesses or what is characteristic of him - in the view of third parties. In these cases the word is used in a figurative sense. According to tradition, the Prophet Mohammed gave the above-mentioned Ali ibn Abi Talib the name Abu Turab , "father of dust", after seeing him sleeping on the ground. Another example is Abdurajik Abubakar Janjalani (Abd al-Raziq Abu Bakr Janjalani), the namesake and founder of the terrorist organization Abu Sajaf ; his nickname from his time as a mujahideen fighter was "Abu Sajaf", which literally means "father of the swordsman". The “Abu” in the sense of “owner” is also used for everyday circumstances, such as B. a wearer of glasses: Abū n-naẓẓāra ("father of glasses") or beard wearer: Abū l-liḥya ("father of the beard").

Well-known bearer of an Abu nickname

The following list names people who are known to a large public with the surname Abu as part of their main name.

  • Abu Abbas (1948–2004), founder and leader of the Palestinian Liberation Front (PLF)
  • Abu Abdallah († 1578), third sultan of the Saadians in Morocco (1574–1576)
  • Abū ʿAmmār , nickname of Yasser Arafat
  • Abū Bakr (573–634), first of the four “rightly guided” caliphs, the successor of Muhammad
  • Abu Djihat , nickname of Max von Oppenheim , an orientalist from Cologne and founder of the news agency for the Orient
  • Abū Hanīfa (699–767), scholar of Islamic law
  • Abu Mazen (* 1935), nickname of Mahmoud Abbas, second Palestinian president
  • Abū Muslim (700–755), Persian national hero and resistance fighter
  • Abu Nidal (1937–2002), Palestinian terrorist and the founder of the Abu Nidal Organization
  • Abu Nuwas (757–815), first urban poet of Arabic literature and was court poet
  • Abu Rakwa (975–1007), leader of an uprising against the Fatimids in 1005–1006
  • Abu Salih , Armenian writer of the late 12th and early 13th centuries
  • Abū Sufyān ibn Harb († 652), leader of the Banu Umayyah in the Quraish tribe and distant relative of Mohammed
  • Abu Tahir (906-944), second leader of the Qarmatians in al-Hasa and Bahrain (923-944)
  • Abu Yahya († 1282), first sultan of the Abdalwadids in Algeria (1236–1282)
  • Abu Yazid (873-947), leader of the last great Kharijite revolt in Ifriqiya (943-947)
  • Abū Yūsuf (729–798), student of Abu Hanifa and co-founder of the Hanafi school of law in Sunni Islam
  • Nasr Hamid Abu Zaid (1943–2010), Egyptian literary scholar and one of the leading liberal theologians of Islam.

See also