Vestiges of Arabic Nomencalture in Maltese Surnames

VESTIGES OF ARABIC NOMENCLATURE IN MALTESE SURNAMES The linguistic heritage The most tangible living remains of the Arab period in Malta lie in the vernacular. In fact it is now universally accepted by linguists that Maltese is derived from North African dialectal (preHilālian) Arabic.1 The Arabs brought with them a form of spoken Arabic understandably very close to the one then current in Tunisia and the Maghreb.2 In 870, the Aghlabids, who ruled over Barbary, Tripoli, and Tunisia, took Byzantine Malta by storm. Much disruption of normal life must have occurred, but it is impossible to judge its extent. According to the Maghrebin scholar al-Ḥimyarī, henceforth, the island remained an uninhabited hirba (ruin).3 In 910 the Isma‘ilite revolutionary 'Ubayd Allāh Sa’id proclaimed himself caliph and founded the Shī'ite state. By 916 he had raided the Egyptian Delta, Malta, Sardinia, Corsica, and the Balearic Islands.4 The Kalbites governed Sicily and Malta between 947 and 1050 as subsidiary rulers of the Fātimids. According to al-Ḥimyarī, after the year 1048/49, the Fātimid Muslims repeopled Malta from Sicily, and not directly from North Africa.5 It would hence be more accurate to state that their language reflected the sort of Maghrebin dialect which had evolved specifically on that island. In fact, the historical and geographical factors now decidedly point to Sicilian Arabic as the basic source of the Maltese language.6 Thousands of Maltese lexemes, normally linked to a somewhat primitive and rudimentary way of life, are of Arabic origin. The definite article, broken plurals, the diminutive form, the dual form, the comparative and superlative forms, the verbal forms, the construct state, the agglutinated pronouns, the mimated nouns, and the basic concept of triliteralism are all vestiges of Arabic morphology. However, following the expulsion of the Muslims in 1224, Malta gradually began to separate itself from the Arabic-speaking world. The replacement of Arabic as a written language first by Latin, then in the 15th century by Siculo-Italian and from the 16th century onwards by Italian, the close connection with Sicily which continued during the rule of the Knights Hospitalers of St John (1530-1798), and the influx of Romance speakers into Malta, all explain the importance which the Romance, and in particular the Siculo-Italian element, then acquired in Maltese. In the 1 2 3 The Banū Ḥilāl tribe first appeared in Ifrīqiyah in the early 13th century. Cf. The Encyclopaedia of Islam, III, Leiden, E.J. Brill, p. 385. Cf. J. AQUILINA, “A Comparative Study of Semitic Maltese”, Scientia, IX, (1942), pp. 89-96, 133-144. Al-Ḥimyarī (d. 1494) wrote his Kitāb ar-rawd al-mi‘tār, a geographical encyclopedia, in 1461; however, these dates have been disputed. The Rawd segment concerning Malta is probably derived from al-Bakrī (1020-1094) and al-Qazwīnī (ca. 1203-83). Cf. The Encyclopaedia of Islam, III, pp. 675-6. 4 5 The Muslim Diaspora: A Comprehensive Reference to the Spread of Islam in Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas, I, North Carolina & London, McFarland & Co. Inc., 1999, p. 102. It has to be said that the reliability of al-Ḥimyarī’s account has been doubted in some quarters. If the facts were to be trusted Arab effective rule in Malta would be reduced to a mere 42 years (1049-1091). Yet, for whole decades, during Norman and Swabian rule, no radical changes in the day-to-day running of affairs seemed to have occurred, as the Arabs were allowed to stay, and the disappearance of Islam from the Maltese islands was surely a long drawn out affair. The Maltese Muslims were finally expelled, probably, in ca. 1224 by emperor Frederick II. However, the decree of expulsion (which has not survived) seems to have applied to Muslims only not to ‘Arabs’ or ‘Moors’, to a religious not to an ethnic group. All this largely explains the survival of the Maltese language in the form it had taken during the centuries of Muslim hegemony, in spite of the steady entry into the islands of settlers from Europe. 6 J. BRINCAT, Malta 870-1054: Al-Ḥimyarī’s Account and Its Linguistic Implications , Malta, Said International, 1995, p. 27. Cf. also D. AGIUS, Siculo-Arabic, London, Kegan Paul, 1996. E. JENKINS, JR., 1 second half of the 20th century, subject to the all-conquering influence of English, the local tongue has been embracing new words of mainly Anglo-Saxon origin. As a result of this linguistic mixing Maltese has evolved into a separate and independent language.7 Maltese morphology remains essentially that of dialectal Arabic, somewhat modified and reduced. Foreign loan words from Siculo-Italian which encroached the language later on, merely fitted into the morphological framework already established by Arabic grammatical rules. One can retain that since then the morphology of the language has remained more conservative than the Tunisian dialect itself, but the syntax has continued to change through the influence of NeoLatin patterns of sentence construction.8 Arabic nomenclature In Arabic-Islamic usage the full name of a person is usually made up of the following elements: kunyah, ’ism, nasab, and nisba. A certain number of persons are also known by a nickname (laqab)9 or a pejorative sobriquet (nabaz) which, when the name is stated in full, comes after the nisba. From the end of the 9th century onwards, the use of an honorific title before or after the kunyah became more and more frequent with persons of high rank. 1. The kunyah is usually an honorific name compound with ’Abū (‘father of’) or ’Umm (‘mother of’): ’Abū Dāwūd, ’Abū Laylā, ’Umm Salim, ’Umm al-Hasan. 10 The kunyah may be purely metaphorical and allude to some desired quality, like ’Abū l-Faḍl meaning ‘father of merit’, or ’Abū ’l-Ḥayr meaning ‘father of goodness’. However, the kunyah, not unfrequently, may have a pejorative sense, as in ’Abū Ğahl meaning ‘father of ignorance’ and ’Abū al-‘Atahiya meaning ‘father of folly’, or point to some physical defect, as in ’Abū ’l-Baṣir meaning ‘blind person’. Sometimes the ’Abū loses its original sense completely and becomes a synonym of dū meaning ‘the man with …’, hence acquiring a descriptive function, e.g. ’Abū Liḥya (bū laḥya) means ‘bearded person’.11 By extension ’Abū can also mean ‘the master of, the holder of, the possessor of, the foremost of, the leader of, the first of’, etc. Hence, ’Abū (or Dū) ’l-Yaminayn means ‘the possessor of two right hands’, ‘the ambidextrous’. In other instances it denotes proliferation, especially obvious in the dialects, as in the North African appellative bū hamsa (‘five’). The kunyah is often applied to certain animals, e.g. ’Abū Faris (‘lion’), ’Abū Sulaymān (‘cock’), ’Umm ‘Āmir (‘hyena’); to certain plants, e.g. ’Abū Farwa (‘chestnut’); or even to all sorts of things which are in some degree personified, e.g. ’Abū Kubays, an oronym.12 7 Maltese, today, is the only Semitic language written in the Latin alphabet. It is also the only European language of Semitic origin which enjoys the status of a national language. 8 Cf. J. CREMONA, “The Survival of Arabic in Malta: The Sicilian Centuries” in The Changing Voices of Europe in Honour of Professor Glanville Price, Cardiff, 1994, pp. 281-94. 9 The Maltese word for nickname is laqam. The kunyah is usually bestowed on the eldest son of the family, but this is not a hard and fast rule. Married ladies 10 are, as a general rule, simply called after the name of their first son, e.g. ’Umm Aḥmad. However, kunyahs were often conventionalized. Cf. P. ROOCHNIK & S. AHMED, “Arabic and Muslim Family Names” in Dictionary of American Family Names, ed. P. Hanks, Oxford University Press, 2003, p. c. 11 Sicilian surname Buscemi derives < kunyah ’Abū Šāmah meaning ‘the man with a birth-mark’. 12 The Encyclopaedia of Islam, V, p. 396. 2 2. The ’ism, also called ‘alam or ’ism ‘alam, is the individual’s personal or given name. It can be of several types. Some are ancient Arab names, mostly of pre-Islamic origin, and in form of adjectives (e.g. al-Ḥasān, ‘good’, ‘handsome’), elatives (e.g. Aḥmad, ‘the most praised’), substantives (e.g. ’Asad, ‘lion’), participles (e.g. Muḥammad, ‘praiseworthy’), or verbs of uncompleted action (e.g. Yazīd, ‘he increases’). Some are used with the article (e.g. al-‘Abbās, ‘stern’, ‘austere’), but normally they are not (e.g. ‘Abbās). In general, only the names of the Prophet (Muḥammad, al-Muṣṭafā, etc.) or some of the figures of the early Islamic period (‘Umar, ‘Alī, ‘Utman, etc.) have survived from among these ancient names. Others, such as Ibrāhīm (Abraham), Isḥāq (Isaac), Mūsā (Moses), Yūsuf (Joseph), and Ismā‘īl (Ishmael), are biblical names in their Quranic forms. Then there are compound names in two main patterns: (a) ‘Abd (‘slave [of]’) followed by Allāh or one of the divine names;13 (b) Allāh preceded by a construct substantive (e.g. Hibat Allāh, ‘gift of God’). Some names are drawn from old Persian history and legend (e.g. Husraw, Ğamšid, Rustam), as well as from other sources, especially Berber (e.g. Yidder). Finally there are names based on abstract nouns, sometimes with the suffix -ī (e.g. Tawfīq, Hikmet, Fikrī).14 3. The nasab is a lineage or pedigree name, comprising a list of ancestors, each name being introduced by the patronymic element ibn (‘son of’), e.g. ibn ‘Umar.15 Arab historians quote as many generations as they feel to be necessary and sometimes go back a very long way when dealing with an eminent person or in order to avoid confusion, but the usual practice is to limit the nasab to one or two ancestors. The Arabic ibn (also known as ma‘rifa) can sometimes refer to an ancestor rather than a parent, and be used as a kind of a surname, as is the case with the famous Ibn Haldūn.16 In some cases, a person’s nasab expresses relationship with the mother, especially if the woman concerned was in some way remarkable (e.g. Ibn Fāṭima). Generally, the reference of the nasab is to the father’s ism, but sometimes it may be to his kunyah (e.g. ‘Alī ibn ’Abū ’l-Faḍl) or to his laqab (e.g. Iqbāl ibn al-Aswad, Ğamīla bint al-Nāsif).17 4. The nisba is an adjective ending in -ī, formed originally from (a) the name of the individual’s tribe, clan, sect, dynasty, school of law, or eponymous ancestor (e.g. al-Qurašī, ‘of the Qurashi tribe’; al-‘Abbāsī, ‘the Abaside’; al-Ḥusaynī, ‘the descendant of a Ḥusayn’, etc.); (b) the place of birth, origin, or residence (e.g. al-Māliṭī, ‘the Maltese’;18al-Izmirī, ‘the Smyrniot’; al-Maṣrī, ‘the Egyptian’; etc.);19 and occasionally from (c) a trade or profession (e.g. al-Ṣayrafī, ‘the 13 14 15 The ancient theophoric names made up of ‘Abd and the name of a pagan divinity (e.g. ‘Abd Manat) have disappeared with Islam. Cp. Mal. surname Abdilla (infra). The Encyclopaedia of Islam, IV, p. 179. The second name of the series is preceded by bint, ‘daughter of’, if the f.n. is that of a woman, e.g. Fāṭima bint ‘Abbās. The nasab is always a patronymic; the only notable exception to this, a matronymic, was a special case: ‘Isa ibn Maryam (Jesus the son of Mary). 16 17 Cf. The Encyclopaedia of Islam, IV, pp. 179-80; ibid., VII, pp. 967-8. ROOCHNIK & AHMED, op. cit., p. c. 18 S. CUSA, in his I diplomi greci ed arabi di Sicilia (Parte I, 1868, II, 1882), for example, mentions: ’Abū Bakr alMāliṭī, ‘Isa al-Māliṭī, ‘Omor bin al-Māliṭī and his brother ‘Uṭmān, ’Awlād (‘sons of’) al-Māliṭī, Mefriğ al-Māliṭī, Ni‘ma al-Ġawdišī and his brother ‘Alī. These names attest for the complete Arabization of the Maltese islands. 19 Such nisbas do not necessarily denote ethnicity; they might simply refer to a returning immigrant. Hence al-Hindī might have referred to a local who had just made his way back from India. The Encyclopaedia of Islam, VIII, p. 55. 3 money-changer’; al-Ḥarīrī, ‘the silk weaver’; al-Ṭaḥḥān, ‘the miller’, etc.). A man may thus have several nisbas which are normally given progressing from the general to the particular and in chronological order of residence. The specialty is often indicated at the end without the suffix –ī (e.g. al-Ḥāfiẓ, al-Mawṣil). In Arabic the nisba is always preceded by the definite article al-.20 5. The laqab can be an honorific title or a distinctive epithet (e.g. al-Rašīd, ‘the rightly ruler’; alMutawakkil, ‘he who entrusts himself to God’), usually placed after the nisba. But in its simplest form the laqab is a descriptive nickname with neutral connotations, usually referring to a physical characteristic (e.g. al-Ṭawīl, ‘the tall [one]’; al-’Aṭraš, ‘the deaf [one]’; al-Ḥamrānī, ‘the [deep] red one’; etc.),21 which follows the ism. These nicknames are felt to be less pejorative than the sobriquets (nabaz) such as al-Ḥimār (‘the ass’) and al-’Abtar (‘the childless one’).22 Names of animals and birds of prey are also common as laqabs (e.g. al-Fahd, ‘the cheetah’; al-‘Uqāb, ‘the eagle’). Hence, full Arabic names run like: ’Abū ’l-Faḍl Muṣṭāfa Ibn Hālid al-Baġdādī, or ’Abū Zayd ‘Umar Ibn Salem al-Ṣayrafī, or ’Umm al-Ḥasan Aḥmed Ibn Asad al-Rašīd. None of these components strictly speaking amounts to a surname, though as in the case of the ma‘rifa, even the laqab and the nisba are sometimes used to this effect. Kunyah surnames Kunyah nomenclature in Maltese onomastics has survived both in place-names and family names. Toponyms like Buġibba (< * ’Abū Ǧibba), Bubaqra (< ’Abū Bakr), and Buleben (< ’Abū Laban) are evident examples. Surname Buhagiar derives from ’Abūhağar; Hağar, meaning ‘stones’, ‘rocks’, is an Ar. given name.23 If in this case ’Abū stands for ‘holder’, ‘possessor’, then the composite term might refer to a thriving landlord, or to a proprietor of a stone-quarry. Psaila is probably Siculo-Arabic; either (a) < Ar. ’Abū Sala, whence contemporary Sic. top. Busala and medieval top. Rachalbusal (in which the second element is actually a Heb. given name);24 or else (b) < Ar. Abū Sayāl. The second element might be related either to sayāla meaning ‘a milky thornplant’, or to sayyāla meaning ‘flowing water’, ‘mountain current’.25 Saliba is an apocopated form of medieval Mal. surname Busalib(e), often linked with ’Abū ’l-Ṣalībī, meaning ‘crusader’, < ṣalīb meaning ‘cross’, ‘inter-section’, ‘cross-roads’.26 Alternatively the term could have simply referred to a 20 21 Cf. The Encyclopaedia of Islam, IV, p. 179; ibid., VIII, pp. 53-6. The termination -ānī is often used in an intensive or elative sense. Harmless signification of this sort was traditionally meant to avert the evil eye or the unwanted attention of jinns (genies) and other evil spirits. 22 Cf. The Encyclopaedia of Islam, IV, pp. 180-1; ibid., V, pp. 618-31. 23 Dizionario onomastico della Sicilia: Repertorio storico-etimologico di nomi di famiglia e di luogo, I-II, Palermo, Centro di Studi Filologici e Linguistici Siciliani, L’Epos Società Editrice, 1993, sub ‘Buhagiar’. Cp. Ibn Hağar al-‘Askalānī, Egyptian hadīth scholar, judge, and historian (1372-1449), The Encyclopaedia of Islam, III, p. 776. Hağar is also a cognate of the Ethiopic hağar meaning ‘town’. It is still in use today as an element in the place-names given to ruins of pre-Islamic town sites in southern Arabia. The Encyclopaedia of Islam, III, p. 29. 24 CARACAUSI, op. cit., sub ‘Busala’. 25 G. CARACAUSI, A Romance derivation is also possible, if one considers the surname to be a corrupt form of f.n. Basilia (masculine Basilio), < Lat. Basilius, ultimately < Gk. Basíleios, < basíleus meaning ‘king’, ‘royal’. Cf. G. WETTINGER, Non Arabo-Berber Influences on Malta's Medieval Nomenclature in Proceedings of the Second International Congress of Studies on Cultures of the Western Mediterranean, Algiers, S.N.E.D, 1978, p. 205. 4 Christian living in a Muslim community, the cross being the emblem of his religion. The final -a reflects the influence of Romance morphology.27 Surnames related to kunyah names with zoological connotations include: Buttigieg (< ’Abū lDağāğ(ī), comprising dağāğ [or diğāğ, duğāğ] meaning ‘chickens’, ‘domestic fowls’, hence referring to a thriving poulterer); and Ebejer (< ’Abū ’l-‘Abā’ir, comprising the pl. form of ‘abūra meaning ‘a one-year old goat or sheep’, possibly suggesting a goatherd).28 Kunyah surnames denoting proliferation include Busuttil and Busietta. Busuttil, in all probability, is a contemporary form of medieval Mal. surname Busittin, < Ar. *’Abūsittīn meaning ‘a master (or owner) of sixty (men)’.29 Busietta is perhaps a Sicilianized form of *’Abūsitta meaning ‘a master (or owner) of six (men)’.30 Otherwise the family name is perhaps an epenthetic form of Sic. surname Busetta, itself a form of Ar. ’Abū ’l-Sayyid, 31 in which case it is related to Sem. surname Said (infra). A kunyah surname which has the status of a dū is Xuereb, < Ar. ’Abū šawārib, signifying ‘a man with a moustache’, as šārib means ‘moustache’.32 Ism surnames The most obvious ’ism surname in Malta is Abdilla, which relates to Siculo-Arabic Abdella and Gk. Abdellas. All forms are derived from Ar. theophoric f.n. ‘Abdallāh, composed of the elements ‘abd meaning ‘servant, (mainly male) slave’33 + Allāh (< al-a‘lā) meaning ‘God (the Almighty)’.34 This sobriquet is compatible with the Islamic doctrine of total submission to God.35 The name is one of the many attributive titles of Muḥammad himself. This fact surely 26 27 Cf. S. FIORINI, Sicilian Connexions of Some Medieval Maltese Surnames, “Journal of Maltese Studies”, (1987-88), 17-18, p. 109. Another pointer might be top. Salibi, < Sic. salibba, < Ar. saliba(h) meaning ‘water track crossing the fields’. G. B. Gli Arabismi nelle Lingue Neolatine, I-II, Brescia, Paideia Editrice, 1972, pp. 152, 271. The surname Saliba is still extant among the Christian communities of Lebanon and Syria. The final -a might alternatively be a continuation of Aramaic suffix ā which indicates the definite article; in that case Saliba merely means ‘the cross’. PELLEGRINI, 28 “A Comparative Study in Lexical Material Relating to Nicknames and Surnames”, Journal of Maltese Studies, (1964), 2, p. 154-5; A. DE SIMONE, “Per un lessico dell'arabo di Sicilia” in Languages of the Mediterranean: Sub Strata – The Islands – Malta, ed. J.M. Brincat, Malta, The Institute of Linguistics, 1994, p. 108. Cp. Mal. għabura (pl. għebejjer). 29 AQUILINA, op.cit. (1964), p. 154. Busittin could have been the leader of 60 militiamen assigned to guard the local coasts against piratical attacks. The derivation is supported by the occurrence of the surname Butletin (‘master of thirty men’) among the Muslim serfs of 12th century Sicily, then under Norman rule. FIORINI, op.cit., p. 109. J. AQUILINA, 30 31 Cp. Mal. nickname Buħames meaning ‘father of five’. J. CASSAR PULLICINO, “Social Aspects of Maltese Nicknames”, Scientia, XXII, (1956), 2, p. 78. CARACAUSI, op. cit., sub ‘Busetta’; DE SIMONE, op. cit., p. 81. Cp. Ibn Sayyid al-Nās (d. 1334), biographer of the Prophet. The Encyclopaedia of Islam, III, p. 932. 32 “Quelques Noms Propres Maltais”, Journal of the Faculty of Arts, I, (1957), 1, p. 47; AQUILINA, op. cit. (1964), p. 156. Cp. Ibn Abī ’l-Šawārib, name of the members of a family, the Banū Abī ’l-Šawārib, which played an important role during the 9th and the beginning of the 10th centuries, and provided the Muslim empire with a succession of traditionalists, jurists, and qadis. The Encyclopaedia of Islam, III, p. 691. The al-Šawāribī were a family of Kalyūb, lower Egypt. Ibid., IV, p. 514. DESSOULAVY, op. cit., p. 47, also suggests another derivation: < Ar. šārib, šuraba meaning ‘great drinker’, possibly referring to a drunkard. 33 C.L. DESSOULAVY, Other Ar. names comprising the term ‘abd include ‘Abd al-Rašīd, ‘Abd al-Salām, ‘Abd al-Raḥmān, and ‘Abd alRaḥīm. 5 augmented the popularity of the given name within the Muslim world, already attested in preIslamic Arabia. Sammut derives < Ar. f.n. Samīt meaning ‘tacit’, < samt meaning ‘silence’. Among several extremist Shī‘ite groups, al-samīt is the designation of a messenger of God who does not reveal a new law, as opposed to al-natik, a speaking prophet.36 Zammit derives < Ar. f.n. Zamīt meaning ‘stern’, ‘grave’, ‘dignified’.37 In some quarters, the surname Mamo has been tentatively explained as a shortened and Latinized form of Ar. f.n. Muḥammad (or possibly Maḥmud), which survived as a surname in Malta only until the later 15th century. The transformation can be easily explained by the taboo on Muslim names prevailing in medieval Christian Malta.38 Hili could be traced to Ar. f.n. al-Ḥīlī meaning ‘able’, ‘skilful’, ‘valorous’, ‘courageous’, < Ar. (and Mal.) ḥila meaning ‘ability’, ‘strength’.39 Bigeni is a Sic. surname < top. Bigeni, a commune in the province of Syracuse, and various other localities in Sicily, such as Bigini; Torre Biggini, commune in the province of Trapani; and Bigene, a former feudal domain (a.k.a. Casale Bigens). All names derive < Ar. f.n. Bīğanu meaning ‘withered’, ‘gaunt’.40 Surnames derived from Biblical names also prevail. Asciak/q must be the remnant form of Ar. f.n. Isḥāq (Gk. Isaak, Eng. Isaac), < Heb. Yitschak (Yishaq), a derivation of tsachak (shahaq) meaning ‘to laugh’.41 Musù (or Mousù) is sometimes linked with Ar. ism Mūsā (Eng. Moses), in 34 CARACAUSI, op. cit., sub ‘Badali’; AGIUS, op. cit., pp. 403, 421. For legal purposes, converts whose natural fathers had not embraced Islam were conventionally given, especially in the Ottoman period, the nasab (pedigree name) Ibn ‘Abd Allāh. The Encyclopaedia of Islam, IV, pp. 179-80. Another Mal. surname related to the same Ar. ’ism, albeit in a somewhat cryptic fashion, is Vadalà (< Badalà). 35 36 37 38 The same notion features in other religions as well. As a matter of fact, It. (hence Christian) surname Servadio, Heb. (hence Judaic) Ovadya, and Indian (hence Hindu) name Devdas have exactly equivalent meanings. Cp. al-Sāmit. The Encyclopaedia of Islam, VIII, p. 1046. PELLEGRINI, op. cit., p. 235, links it with surname Zambuto, itself a hypercorrect variant of Zammuto, < Ar. samūt meaning ‘silent’. Place-Names of the Maltese Islands ca. 1300-1800, Malta, PEG Ltd., 2000, sub ‘Ta’ Zammit’. Zammit is the fifth commonest surname in Malta [Census 2005]. G. WETTINGER, “The Origin of the ‘Maltese’ Surnames”, Melita Historica, XII, (1999), 4, 1999, p. 343; WETTINGER, op. cit. (2000), sub ‘Ta’ Mamo’. Mamou is the name of a nomadic tribe of Oujda, E. Morocco; the surname could hence have originated from a tribal nisba. WETTINGER has also detected Mamou as a Jewish surname in Tunisia. Otherwise it can be an It. occupational family name, < Neo-Gk. mámos, mámmos meaning ‘obstetrician’, < feminine form mammí meaning ‘midwife’. CARACAUSI, op. cit., sub ‘Mammo’. Locally the surname originated in Gozo. G. WETTINGER, 39 40 AQUILINA, op. cit. (1964), p. 155; J. AQUILINA, Maltese-English Dictionary, I-II, Malta, Midsea Books Ltd., 1987-90, sub ‘ħila’. Cp. Aḥmed Bīğan, Turkish mystic writer and educator who flourished in the middle of the 15th century. He led a very ascetic life and became so emaciated that he called himself Bīdjān meaning ‘the lifeless’. The Encyclopaedia of Islam, I, p. 1202. 41 The medieval reference to Presbitero Bartholomeo de Aschac or de Ysac (1372) seems to confirm this interpretation. S. FIORINI, Documentary Sources of Maltese History, Part II: Documents in the State Archives, Palermo, No. 1 – Cancelleria Regia 1259-1400, Malta, Malta University Press, 1999, pp. 46, 136. However, AQUILINA, op. cit. (1964), p. 154, and DESSOULAVY, op. cit., p. 44, suggest another meaning: < Ar. ‘āšiq meaning ‘lover’, ‘paramour’, ‘sweetheart’. The term ‘āšiq originally applied to popular mystical poets of dervish orders. It was later taken over by wandering poets and minstrels. The Encyclopaedia of Islam: Glossary & Index of Terms to Vol. I-IX, p. 27. Cp. ‘Āšiq Pasha, Turkish poet and mystic (1272-1333). The Encyclopaedia of Islam, I, p. 698. 6 which case it is related to Sem. surname Muxi (also extant in Malta), < Biblical Heb. f.n. Mushi, an alternative form of Moshe, itself of Egyptian origin.42 Feminine names can also be traced in the surnames Sultana, Manara, and Zahra. Sultana (as the Neo-Gk. Soultána) derives < Ar. fem. f.n. Sulṭānah meaning ‘queen’, ‘sultan's consort’.43 Alternatively it derives directly < Ar. f.n. Sulṭan, < sulṭān meaning ‘king’, ‘sovereign’, ‘royal power’; the final -a reflecting the influence of Romance morphology.44 Manara is an Ar. fem. given name meaning ‘guiding light’, evidently related to manāra meaning ‘lighthouse’, ‘minaret’.45 Zahra, on the other hand, is Ar. fem. f.n. Zah(i)ra, either (a) < zahra meaning ‘(orange) blossom’, ‘blooming flower’, and by metaphorical extension ‘beautiful (girl)’, or else (b) < zahrā, < azhar meaning ‘bright’, ‘radiant’.46 Nasab surnames No overt trace of nasab nomenclature can be detected in Maltese family names. The words bin and bint were systematically proscribed from all surnames, probably because the locals considered necessary to distance themselves from the widespread Arabic use of such words in personal nomenclature, during the re-Christianization period.47 The Arabic terms seem to have been at first replaced by the Latin de or Italian di and eventually dropped altogether. This means that ‘Maltese’ Semitic surnames do not have the equivalent of Jackson, O’Neil, Fitzpatrick, or Degiorgio, for that matter. However the surname Agius needs particular attention. Ibn al-‘Ağūz, meaning ‘son of the old woman’, is actually the epithet applied by the Arabs to the biblical prophet Ezekiel (Ar. Alīsa‘, Alyasa‘), due to his parentage.48 Admittedly, another sound conjecture, equally pointing to an Ar. origin, can be ventured. The term can be a syncopated form of surname Agegius, a Gk. form of medieval Siculo-Arabic surnames Caggegi, Chagegi, < Ar. surname Ḥaği, < Ar. ḥağğağ meaning ‘a frequent performer of the ḥağ or pilgrimage to Mecca and of the religious rites and ceremonies ordained for the occasion’.49 Otherwise nasab names have survived in local toponymy, as exemplified by Bin Għisa (< ‘Īsā), Bin Għali (< ‘Alī), and Binġemma (< Gemma, a non-Sem. name). 42 Cp. ‘Abd Allāh b. Mūsā, the conqueror of the Maghreb and Spain, executed in 720. Ibid., I, p. 50. Otherwise Muxi may be a medieval rendering (x = sc) of It. surname Musci, (a) < Neapolitan and Apulian muscio meaning ‘flaccid, flabby’; or (b) < Sic. musciu meaning ‘lethargic, slow-moving, lazy’; or (c) < Cal. musci meaning ‘rat’; or (d) < Salentine musci, musciu (Cal. and Neap. muscia) meaning ‘cat’ 43 CARACAUSI, op. cit., sub ‘Sultana’. Cp. It. surname Soldano. 44 WETTINGER, op. cit. (2000), sub ‘Ta’ Sultan’. Cp. Salīma Sulṭāna Mughal, a poetess, The Encyclopaedia of Islam, VI, p. 488; Sulṭāna bint Aḥmad al-Sudayri, ibid., supplement, p. 305. Locally the surname Sultana surely originated in Gozo. 45 Otherwise a Romance origin is equally logical: < It. mannara, dialectal form of mannaia, < Late Lat. manuaria meaning ‘axe’, ‘hatchet’, (a) a metonym for a user, maker, or seller of such tools, or (b) a byname for a menacing, sinister person. 46 47 op. cit. (1964), p. 156. Zahra was the nickname of Fāṭima, Muḥammad’s daughter. op. cit. (1999), p. 338. 48 AQUILINA, op. cit. (1964), pp. 151-2; The Encyclopaedia of Islam, I, p. 404; FIORINI, op. cit. (1987-88), p. 113. In Islamic countries bordering on or near the Mediterranean, certain days of recurrent bad weather, generally towards the end of winter, are called Ayyām al-‘Ağūz, ‘the days of the old woman’. The Encyclopaedia of Islam, I, p. 792. Cp. Mal. għaġuża meaning ‘hag’. 49 AGIUS, op. cit., p. 262. Cp. Romanian hugiu meaning ‘pilgrim’. PELLEGRINI, op. cit., p. 69. AQUILINA, WETTINGER, 7 Nisba surnames No nisba surnames related to clan, tribe, or sect affiliation can be verified, barring the possible case of Mamo (supra). Otherwise provenance and occupational nisbas are quite copious. The commonest surname in Malta is Borg. It has been identified with Ar. al-burği,50 < Ar. burğ meaning ‘cairn’, ‘a pile of stones heaped up as a memorial tomb, or land mark’, and by extension ‘bastion’, ‘tower’, ‘fortified country house’,51 in which case the term refers to someone who hailed from a borgo or a walled town.52 Common surname Caruana is usually meant to be a Latinized form of al-karawānī meaning ‘a native of or an immigrant originating from Qayrawān’.53 Qayrawān is the Moslem sacred city south of Tunis, today known as Qairwan or Kairouan.54 The final -a reflects the influence of Romance morphology. Alternatively the family name can be associated with an occupational nisba, as Siculo-Arabic caruana (also caruvana, caravana) meaning ‘a multitude of people or workers, especially of dockers or lightermen’, derives < Ar. harwā meaning ‘cortege’, ‘gathering (of people)’, probably added to the Berber suffix -ana,55 or directly < kārwān meaning ‘a caravan, composed of horses, mules, donkeys, and especially camels’, or < qayrawān meaning ‘caravan’, ‘train of people traveling together’, ultimately < Persian kārawān.56 Hence the term probably refers to a caravan man.57 Barbara is presumably derived from Ar. nisba al-barbarī meaning ‘Berber’, ‘an aboriginal inhabitant of Barbary, N. Africa’, in which case it is related to medieval Mal. surname Berberi.58 Curmi might be related to Ar. al-kurmī < Kirim (Crimea), hence denoting a native of or an immigrant originating from the Crimea’.59 However one cannot ignore the possible link with Ar. 50 51 52 Medieval nickname (and surname) il Burgi (documented in a Militia List of 1419) confirms this derivation. The Encyclopaedia of Islam, I, p. 1315; AGIUS, op. cit., p. 259. The term occurs in many European languages, albeit carrying different shades of meaning. Gk. purgos, Lat. burgos, and It. borgo denote a walled town; Old High German burg refers to a fortification, while Old Eng. burc specifically indicates the site of a prehistoric hill fort. Hence the similarity of the local surname with N. European forms (e.g. Scandinavian Borg, Berg) is not merely coincidental. Cp. Eng. surnames Burke and Burgh, Fr. surname Bourg, It. surname Borghi, and Sp. surname Burgos. 53 54 Al-Kayrawānī was the sobriquet of a famous Ar. grammarian of the 5 th century of the Hegira. (1964), p. 151. AQUILINA, op. cit. AQUILINA, op. cit. (1987-90), sub ‘karwān’. The city, founded in 670 AD, owes its name to the Berber tribe Takarwān. The Aghlabid governor established his authority there in 800 AD. 55 CARACAUSI, op. cit., sub ‘Caruana’. 56 AGIUS, op. cit., p. 345. 57 Kārwān is ostensibly a word of Iranian origin, later Arabicized, whence Eng. caravan. Its early form kārbān, meaning ‘supervising work’, probably evolved in the Pahlavi period, but the more widespread meaning dates from the early Islamic period. The Encyclopaedia of Islam, IV, p. 676. A third derivation has been suggested: < Sic. caruana, carvana meaning ‘castor-oil plant’, < Ar. harwā. CARACAUSI, op. cit., sub ‘Caruana’; PELLEGRINI, op. cit., p. 188. 58 op. cit., p. 80. Ar. barbarī means ‘Nubian-speaking Muslim inhabiting the Nile Banks between the First and Third Cataracts’. The Encyclopaedia of Islam, I, p. 1028. Otherwise Barbara is an It. surname, < Imperial Lat. f.n. Barbaras, < medieval Gk. Barbára, < bárbaros meaning (a) ‘stammerer’, or (b) ‘stranger (who speaks in a foreign tongue)’. E. DE FELICE, Dizionario dei Cognomi Italiani, Milano, Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, 1978, sub ‘Bàrbaro’. The term was originally an onomatopoeic word formed in imitation of the unintelligible babbling of non-Greeks. 59 FIORINI, op. cit. (1987-88), pp. 111-2. Kurmi (or Kormi) was actually an ancient city of Lycia, Turkey; the name, of uncertain termination. Otherwise Curmi is an It. surname < top. Curma, a locality in Zaffarena; the name itself AGIUS, 8 karmī meaning ‘generous’, ‘noble’,60 or Ar. qurmiyeh meaning ‘tree trunk’61. Cutajar is usually linked with Sic. top. Cutaia, itself < Ar. quttayah, a diminutive form of qatat, qitāt meaning ‘hill top’, ‘crest’. Ar. raḥl quttayah actually means ‘village on a hilltop’.62 Saydon has been tentatively linked to top. Saida (or Sayda), the city and port in S.W. Lebanon, once the commercial capital centre of ancient Phoenicia,63 but it might be a Latinized form of Ar. name Zaydūn.64 Bugeja is supposedly derived < top. Bougie (It. Bougia), city and port of N.W. Algeria, now called Bejaia.65 Zarb is an apocopated form of Sic. surname Zarbo, < zzarbu meaning ‘barrier’, ‘boundary wall’, ultimately < Ar. zarb meaning (a) ‘cattle pen’, or (b) ‘hunter's booth’, or (c) ‘hedge’, ‘thicket’, ‘enclosure’.66 In its present state it is unclear whether the original term indicated a specific location or a mere nickname. The most conspicuous provenance nisba surname in Malta is undoubtedly Gauci. It clearly derives from al-Ġawdišī meaning ‘Gozitan’, ‘a native of Gozo’;67 it is hence a medieval Latinized transcription of Mal. Għawdxi. Occupational nisba surnames are also quite common. Farrugia relates to al-farrūğ meaning ‘poultry man’, ‘chicken keeper’, < Ar. farrūğ meaning ‘chicken’, hen’.68 The final -a, again, reflects the influence of Romance morphology.69 Calafato is actually an It. surname, which is probably < a dialectal form (involving rhotacism) of It. colma meaning ‘high water (spring)’, < Lat. culmen meaning ‘summit’. CARACAUSI, op. cit. , sub ‘Curmi’. 60 AQUILINA, op. cit. (1964), p. 154. 61 CARACAUSI, op. cit., sub ‘Curmo’; DESSOULAVY, op. cit., p. 46. 62 The final -r in the present-day form of the surname is an epithesis that does not antedate the 17th century and begins to appear only in documents from Valletta and the Three Cities. FIORINI, op. cit. (1987-88), p. 112. The suggestion that the surname Cutajar derives < obsolete Sem. Mal. ktajjar meaning ‘slightly numerous’, ‘quite abundant’, itself < kattar meaning ‘to multiply’, cannot be dismissed, either. Al-Kutayyir was a famous poet of the Omayyad period; his name is linked to Ar. katīr meaning ‘numerous’, ‘plentiful’. Cp. Ibn Kutayyir al-Ahwazi. The Encyclopaedia of Islam, VI, p. 351. 63 op. cit. (1964), p. 155. The present designation is not regarded as a direct continuation of the ancient city of Sidon, but a development of post-Crusader times. Some have suggested that the name of the city means ‘fishery’. Others contend that it is related to saidān meaning ‘copper’, ‘gold’. The Encyclopaedia of Islam, IX, p. 100. If there is a connection with Saidan, then it is related to Said (infra). 64 Cp. Abū ’l-Walid Ibn Zaydūn (1003-1070), famous Andalusian poet. The Encyclopaedia of Islam, I, p. 591; ibid., III, p. 973. Ar. f.n. Zayd means ‘increase, growth’. Second element might be: (a) Ar. elative suffix -ūn; (b) Heb. dim. or patronymic suffix -ōn; or (c) Romance augmentative suffix -un (-one). 65 AQUILINA, op. cit. (1964), p. 154. The city has long been celebrated for the manufacture of bougies (wax candles); whence It. bugia meaning ‘candlestick with a saucer-like base’. J. AQUILINA, “Linguistic Poutpourri”, The Sunday Times [of Malta], 31 August 1986. There are, at least, two alternative derivations: (a) < Sic. surname Bug(g)ea, possibly < Gk. *boukéas, probably < boukaíos meaning ‘cowherd’, ‘herdsman’, or (b) < Sic. surname Buggia, < Salentine and Sic. bbuggia meaning ‘poacher's bag’, a metonym for a poacher or for a maker of hunting bags. CARACAUSI, op. cit., sub ‘Bugea’ and ‘Buggia’. Otherwise the element Bu- (< ’Abū) might suggest a kunyah, but no conjecture to this effect has been put forward until now. 66 AQUILINA, op. cit., (1964), p. 156; CARACAUSI, op. cit., sub ‘Zarbu’. 67 AGIUS, op. cit., p. 80. 68 AQUILINA, op. cit. (1964), p. 155; CARACAUSI, op. cit., sub ‘Farrùgia’. AQUILINA, 69 Farrugia is the third commonest surname in Malta. Farrūğ is a robe similar to the kabā’, but short in the back, worn in the Prophet’s time; its application as a name element has not been, maybe justifiably, pondered. The Encyclopaedia of Islam: Glossary & Index of Terms to Vol. I-IX, p. 104. Otherwise Farrugia may be another form of Cal. and Sic. surname Farruggia, (a) < dial. ferruggia meaning ‘staff, rod, bishop’s crosier’; or (b) < It. farro, < Lat. far, Med. Lat. farru(m), a rarely cultivated kind of wheat. In the latter sense it is hence related to S. It. surname 9 itself an offshoot of medieval Gk. kalaphátis; however, it ultimately derives < Ar. al-qalfāṭ meaning ‘ship-caulker’.70 Camilleri, the second commonest surname in Malta, is linked with It. cammelliere, < medieval Lat. camelarius or medieval Gk. kamelaríos, ultimately < Ar. qamillarī meaning ‘camel driver’.71 Seychell has been linked with Ar. al-sayqāl,72 probably < sayqāl (pl. sayāqil) meaning ‘furbisher’, ‘polisher’73 Bajada (or Bajjada) has been linked with either Ar. bayyāḍ meaning ‘whitewasher’, or else bayyāḍa meaning ‘washerwoman’, or perhaps ‘cleaner of copper items’.74 Cassar is surely another occupational nisba, but various meanings have been proposed. The standard etymology of al-qaṣṣār suggests ‘a fuller or a bleacher; one who cleans, shrinks and thickens, or dyes cloth or newly shorn wool’.75 Other possible denotations are ‘stone-cutter’, ‘nattier’, ‘mat-maker’ (if derived < al-ḥaṣṣār),76 and ‘a washer of clothes and also of the dead’ (if derived < ġassāl).77 Laqab and nabaz surnames Laqab surnames conveying some sort of honorific title are Mula, Said, Chetcuti, and Sciberras. Mula might be derived < Ar. mawla (mullāh) meaning ‘lord’, ‘master’, ‘ruler’, a title of respect given by Mohammedans to religious dignitaries versed in theology and the sacred law. 78 Said Farrusi. 70 CARACAUSI, op. cit., sub ‘Calafato’; AGIUS, op. cit., p. 380. Boat and ship-builders used to caulk (fill up) the seams and joints of wooden vessels with oakum and tar to make them watertight. 71 CARACAUSI, op. cit., sub ‘Camilleri’. Cp. Sp. camellero, ‘camel rider’. Otherwise Sp. camillero means ‘stretcher bearer’. The name of the old Mal. hamlet Ħal Milleri, located between Żurrieq and Mqabba, actually means ‘(Ca)milleri's farmstead’. WETTINGER, op. cit. (2000), p. 284. Hence the surname is not an abbreviation of Ca(sal) Milleri, as has been suggested elsewhere. 72 WETTINGER, op. cit. (2000), sub ‘Ta’ Sejkel’. 73 74 Cp. Ibn al-Saykal (1302), renowned man of letters and philologist. The Encyclopaedia of Islam, VIII, p. 805. Another possible derivation might be Ar. al-Siqillī, ‘the Sicilian’. Il-Miklem Malti, I, Malta, Klabb Kotba Maltin, 1975, sub ‘bajjada’. Ar. geonym bayāḍ means ‘heath’, ‘moor’, ‘wasteland’. This derivation also explains the Sic. surname Baiada. CARACAUSI, op. cit., sub ‘Baiada’. WETTINGER, op. cit. (2000), sub ‘Il-Bajjada’, explains bajjāda as ‘whitish land, referring to the whiteness of the soil or rock’. Cp. Hanafī Kamāl al-Dīn al-Bayāḍi (d. 1687), Ottoman writer, and al-Bayāḍ, The Encyclopaedia of Islam, VI, p. 848. 75 E. SERRACINO-INGLOTT, The Moroccan scholar ’Abū ‘Abd Allāh Muḥammed al-Kaṣṣār (1531/2-1604) is said to have been called alKaṣṣār (‘the fuller’) because one of his ancestors had had a fuller as his tutor. The Encyclopaedia of Islam, IV, p. 736. The work of the fuller was to scour and thicken the raw cloth by beating and trampling it in water. Cp. Eng. surnames Fuller and Walker. 76 CARACAUSI, op. cit., sub ‘Cassar’. It has to be said that another derivation has been proposed – the apocopated form of surname Càssaro, < Sic. càssaru meaning ‘main road’, ‘way (leading to a castle)’, < Ar. qaṣr meaning ‘castle’, ‘fort’, ‘palace’, ultimately from Lat. castrum. The accent on the first syllable confirms that, originally, this was a separate surname; it might have eventually merged with the former due to the orthographic similarity. Metonymically, the term might refer to a castellan, or a governor of a castle. 77 78 The latter is more known as ghāsil. The Encyclopaedia of Islam: Glossary & Index of Terms to Vol. I-IX, p. 115. Cp. Mal. Mulej, < Ar. Mawlāy meaning ‘my Lord’. FIORINI, op. cit. (1987-88), p. 106, suggests the term was also used as a given name. The title of function, dignity, profession, or rank is usually followed by another name. The Encyclopaedia of Islam, VII, p. 221. Otherwise the surname might be < It. mula, < Lat. mula meaning ‘she-mule’, or < mulo, < Neo-Gk. moulás, < Late Gk. moûlos, < Lat. mūlus meaning ‘mule’ + agent suffix -âs, referring to a mule driver. CARACAUSI, op. cit., sub ‘Mulà’. 10 might be related to Ar. sayyid meaning ‘sir’, ‘lord’, ‘master’, ‘esquire’. Originally the term meant ‘chief of an Arabian tribe’; late in Islamic times, it became a title of honour for the descendants of the Prophet through his daughter Fāṭima and his son-in-law ‘Alī.79 But an ’ism derivation is also possible, if one considers Ar. f.n. Sa'īd (e.g. one of the most successful military commanders during the early years of Islam) meaning ‘happy’, ‘blissful’, ‘prosperous’. Saidi and Saidani are N. African cognate forms, but the surname was also adopted by Sephardic Jews in the Middle Ages. Chetcuti derives perhaps < Ar. kethuda (or kathuda) meaning ‘master of the house’, ‘head of the family’, ‘headsman’, ‘chieftain’, ‘steward’, ‘tithe-officer in a town’. The term can hence also qualify as an occupational nisba.80 Sciberras (or Sceberras, Xiberras) might be derived < Ar. Šihab ar-Rās, wherein the first element is a given name meaning ‘bright star’ and the second element ras means ‘chieftain’.81 Surnames derived from nicknames are quite plentiful in Malta. Micallef, the seventh commonest surname in Malta, can be related to Ar. mukallaf, which in Muslim law denotes one who is obliged to fulfill the religious duties of Islam.82 However, most local scholars argue that the surname is a Sicilianized form of Ar. muḥallif meaning ‘judge’, agent derivative < alaf meaning ‘to swear (by God)’, in which case it would qualify as an occupational nisba.83 Theuma might be derived < Ar. al-tawm meaning ‘twin (brother)’,84 but Ar. al-tawmi also means ‘a grower or vendor of garlic’, < tūm, -a meaning ‘garlic’,85 which designates an occupational nisba. Scriha (or Sciriha, Schriha, Xriha) is related either (a) to Ar. šarīk meaning ‘friend’, ‘colleague’,86 or else (b) to Ar. šariq meaning ‘handsome lad’.87 Mintoff is a relatively recent and learned form of old surname Mintuf; it derives < Ar. mintūf meaning ‘plucked (feathers of fowl, hairs of eyebrows, etc.)’, probably referring to someone who had the habit of plucking his 79 Cf. al-Sayyid al-Ḥimyarī, Shī‘ite poet (723-789/95). The Encyclopaedia of Islam, IX, p. 115. 80 The Encyclopaedia of Islam: Glossary & Index of Terms to Vol. I-IX, p. 193. Cp. Kathudā Ibrāhīm Pasha (also known as Kathudā Pasha), governor of Egypt (active 1078-85). Ibid., I, p. 955. AQUILINA, op. cit. (1987-90), sub ‘ketket’, suggests another, albeit weaker, derivation: < Ar. katkūt meaning ‘newly hatched chicken’, perhaps a metonym for a poulterer. Cp. obsolete Mal. ketkuti meaning ‘one who calls fowls, or cackles, or laughs up one's sleeve’. 81 . Other possible derivations are (a) Ar. xa‘b al-rās meaning ‘the spur of the headland’ – AQUILINA, op. cit. (198790), sub ‘Xiberras’; (b) Ar. ḥabb al-ra's, related to Sic. cabbarasi, cabburasi, a kind of grass which grows in meadows and other humid places – CARACAUSI, op. cit., sub ‘Sciabarrà’; and (c) Ar. ashāb al-ras meaning ‘the people of the ditch (or well)’, a Quranic term, possibly alluding to infidels. The Encyclopaedia of Islam: Glossary & Index of Terms to Vol. I-IX, p. 26. 82 83 Cf. The Encyclopaedia of Islam, II, p. 79. In Egypt the term mukallafa was used to designate the land survey registers, which were prepared by a māsih and arrayed by villages. op. cit. (1964), p. 155. Ar. muhallaf, meaning ‘left behind’, should not be ignored, either. Cf. CARACAUSI, op. cit., sub ‘Micalef’. The element -callef relates to Old Sic. surnames Callef, Caleffa/i, < Ar. al-halaf meaning ‘successor’. Pellegrini, op. cit., p. 386; The Encyclopaedia of Islam, VIII, p. 900. 84 AQUILINA, Cp. Mal. nickname It-Tewmi meaning ‘the Twin’. It. surnames Toma, Tomè (diminutive forms of Tommaso), Fr. surname Thomé, and Eng. f.n. (and surname) Thomas, all derive < Aramaic byname t'ūma, also meaning ‘twin’. Lat. Thomae is the genitive case of Thomas. 85 op. cit., p. 86. This derivation has been repudiated by WETTINGER, op. cit. (1999), p. 329. The surname has also been linked with given names Thomea or Bartholomea. WETTINGER, op. cit. (1978), p. 205. 86 CARACAUSI, op. cit., sub ‘Scirica’. 87 AGIUS, Ar. al-šarqī meaning ‘the easterner’, rendering a provenance nisba, cannot be ignored, either. 11 beard.88 If originally the term was preceded by the term ’Abū, it could have had the status of a dū name, meaning ‘the man with the plucked beard.’ Fenech is surely related to Ar. fanak (< Persian fanak) meaning ‘fox’, ‘marten’, ‘furred animal’,89 whence medieval Lat. alfanegue. The laqab might refer to a fleet-footed or timid person.90 Zerafa, on the other hand, relates to Ar. zarāfah meaning ‘giraffe’, probably referring to a tall (or long-necked) person.91 If originally these names were preceded by the term ’Abū, they could be considered as other kunyahs with zoological connections. Not all nicknames have a harmless signification; some are inversely invested with pejorative connotations. Mifsud has been coupled with either (a) Ar. mafsūd (p.p. of fised) meaning ‘rotten’, ‘spoilt’, corrupt’, referring to an obnoxious person,92 or else (b) Ar. mafsūd (p.p. of fasad) meaning literally ‘bled’, figuratively referring to an ill-tempered, outspoken person.93 In other quarters, the surname has been interpreted as a personal name based on mafsūd meaning ‘lanced’, < mifsad meaning ‘lance’.94 Scerri (or Xerri) is considered to be the pl. form of Sic. surname Scerra, < sciarra meaning ‘brawl’, ‘dispute’, (a) < Ar. šarra meaning ‘evil’, ‘bad’, ‘wicked’,95 or (b) < Ar. širrī meaning ‘clandestine’, or (c) < Ar. šarrī meaning ‘bold’, ‘impetuous’. All derivations seem to refer to an ill-natured, quarrelsome person. Surname Tabone is usually linked with either (a) Sic. tabbuni meaning ‘fool’, ‘dullard’, ‘blockhead’, < Ar. ṭabūn meaning ‘vulva’, ‘female pudenda’,96 or else with (b) Sic. tabbuna, < Ar. al-ṭabūnī, < ṭabūn, ṭabūna meaning ‘dug-out hearth’, ‘small jar-shaped oven, (peasant) kiln low on the ground’,97 in which case it would qualify as an occupational nisba for a baker of bread, or perhaps for a potter. Conclusion Many names may be correctly interpreted simply by recourse to dictionaries of the older state of the contributory languages, but no proof of the authenticity of these readings is possible without a strand of documentary evidence taking the family name back to the days of surname-naming, 88 op. cit. (1987-90), sub ‘mintuf’ and ‘nitef’. The traditional Arab writer ‘Abd Allāh b. ‘Ayyāh, active in the 8 century A.D., was nicknamed al-Mentūf because he had the habit of pulling the ends of his beard while speaking. WETTINGER, op. cit. (1999), p. 343-4. Locally the surname Mintuf originated in Gozo. 89 AQUILINA, op. cit. (1964), p. 155. th AQUILINA, 90 The fennec or fennek is a small, pale orange-brown, desert fox of North Africa and Syria. The term also refers to various animals whose pelt was greatly esteemed in the luxury fur-trade, such as the ermine and sable. The Encyclopaedia of Islam, II, p. 775. Mal. fenek means ‘rabbit’. 91 Alternatively, the surname might represent (a) Ar. f.n. Zarīfa meaning ‘pretty’, ‘gracious’, ‘smart’, related to zarf meaning ‘courtesy’, ‘elegance’ – The Encyclopaedia Islam: Glossary & Index of Terms to Vol. I-IX, p. 424 or (b) a voiced form of Ar. al-ṣarrāf meaning ‘money changer’; the final -a reflecting the influence of Romance morphology. 92 93 94 AQUILINA, op. cit. (1987-90), sub ‘mifsud’. Cp. Mal. mfissed (same root) meaning ‘spoilt (child)’, ‘pampered’. Ibid., sub ‘mifsud’. Hanks (ed.), op. cit., sub ‘Mifsud’. 95 CARACAUSI, op. cit., sub ‘Sciarra’. 96 This transferred meaning is maintained in the Mal. equivalent term għoxx (vulgar). G. ROHLFS, Soprannomi siciliani, ‘Lessici siciliani’ 2, Palermo, Centro di Studi Filologici e Linguistici Siciliani, 1984, records the nickname Tabbiuni (p. 128) in Messina and the nickname Tabbuna (p. 129) in Agrigento, both meaning ‘simpleton’, ‘dunce’. 97 The Encyclopaedia of Islam: Glossary & Index of Terms to Vol. I-IX, pp. 389-90; CARACAUSI, op. cit., sub ‘Tabbone’. 12 and an ample supply of good early spellings that leave the first ‘meaning’ in doubt. Surnames have been pounded and contorted by generations of mispronunciations, mainly by meddling clerks, scribes, and priests susceptible to their idiosyncrasies. In spite of my seemingly streamlined typology, it must be emphasized that some surnames can, with equal lucidity, be allotted to a different category. Admittedly, in Arabic nomenclature itself the dividing line between isms and laqabs, and between laqabs and nisbas is quite fragile. Besides, as it transpires, some seemingly Semitic surnames, can be easily consigned a Romance, Greek, or even Germanic etymology with the same degree of reasonable judgment. This has prompted the author to omit other possible entries. In fact a handful of other surnames, such as Bencini, Bonaci, Briffa, Casha, Fiteni, Gellel, Mercieca, Muscat, and Musumeci might have a Semitic origin as well, but lack of sufficient philological evidence calls for more prudence than customary. It could be observed that almost all Maltese surnames cited in this paper are to be detected also in Sicily, which makes perfect sense, as Sicily itself bellies its fair share of Arabisms. In Girolamo Caracausi’s Dizionario Onomastico della Sicilia (1994) one encounters the vast majority of ‘Maltese’ surnames, either as they stand or else in some cognate or related form. Local surnames of Arabic stock are actually written in the Latin script; as for whole centuries, Siculo-Italian was the lingua franca of the professional ranks in Malta. Notaries, scribes, and priests, for want of an indigenous orthographic system, had no other way but to Sicilianize or Italianize the surnames they entered in wills, contracts, parish registers, and other official records. Accounts of the origins of many individual surnames, in the present state of our knowledge, contain an element of tentativeness; admittedly, some are more tentative than others. This paper contains a number of entries for which only vague conjectures could be suggested. The possibilities of error in the interpretation of surnames are innumerable, and it is necessary in every instance to trace back the name to the earliest known spellings. Some meanings (and origins) remain elusive, or inadequately explained; these stand as a challenge to future researchers. ABSTRACT The most tangible living remains of the Arab period in Malta lie in the vernacular. It is now universally accepted by linguists that Maltese is derived from North African dialectal (pre-Hilālian) Arabic. Unsurprisingly, some of the oldest Maltese surnames have Arabic roots, which clearly reflect Arabic naming practices. These surnames, in fact, reveal residues of names which originally, in medieval times, functioned as a kunyah, an ism, a nasab, a nisba, a laqab, or a nabaz. The present paper hence examines the etymology of several extant Maltese surnames, which have survived in Latinized forms, such as Abdilla, Buhagiar, Cassar, Farrugia, Fenech, Micallef, Mifsud, Mintoff, Said, Saliba, Sammut, Scerri, Sultana, Zammit, and Zerafa, within the parameters of Arabic nomenclature. MARIO CASSAR (MALTA) 13 SYMBOLS & ABBREVIATIONS * < Ar. Cf. Cp. d. Eng. f.n. Fr. Gk. Gmc hypothetical/reconstructed form (derived) from Arabic Confer Compare died English first name French Greek Germanic Heb. It. Jew. Lat. Mal. pl. p.p. Sem. Sic. Sp. top. Hebrew Italian Jewish Latin Maltese plural past participle Semitic Sicilian Spanish toponym VESTIGES OF ARAB NOMENCLATURE IN MALTESE SURNAMES Historical background In 869, the North African Aghlabids, who ruled over Barbary, Tripoli, and Tunisia, took Byzantine Malta by storm. In all probability this first assault failed, as a few months later the Arabs were besieged and ousted by the Byzantines. But, according to the Chronicle of Cambridge, on 29 August 870 the island fell again into Arab hands. Much disruption of normal life must have occurred, but it is impossible to judge its extent. According to Al-Himyarī, henceforth, the island remained an uninhabited hirba (ruin). In 910 the Isma‘ilite revolutionary 'Ubayd Allāh Sa’id proclaimed himself caliph and founded the Shī'ite state. By 916 he had raided the Egyptian Delta, Malta, Sardinia, Corsica, and the Balearic Islands. The Kalbites governed Sicily and Malta between 947 and 1050 as subsidiary rulers of the Fātimids. According to al-Himyarī, after the year 1048/49, the Fātimid Muslims repeopled Malta from Sicily to make it ‘a finer place than it was before’ and rebuilt the old Roman capital of Melita to sustain the new colony. It has to be said that the reliability of Al-Himyarī’s account has been doubted in some quarters. If the facts were to be trusted Arab effective rule in Malta would be reduced to a mere 42 years (1049-1091). 14 In 1091 Count Roger of Sicily descended upon Malta and, by employment of subterfuge, took the islands without bloodshed from the Arabs. The inhabitants promised to recognize him as their sovereign, give up their weapons, and pay an annual tribute The Norman invasion of 1091 was hence not a permanent conquest. In actual fact, for a generation or so, no radical changes in the day-to-day running of affairs seemed to have occurred. The Normans consequently reappeared in Malta in 1127, and this time they came to stay. In effect, King Roger II, the son of Count Roger, colonized the islands in the course of his conquest of all the islands between Sicily and the North African coast. Still, the connection with Latin culture apparently remained loose throughout the whole Norman period, which lasted until 1194, and it was probably only after 1220, during Swabian rule, that the islands were integrated in the Sicilian realm. Otherwise the disappearance of Islam from the Maltese islands was surely a long drawn out affair. Ibn Khaldūn dates the expulsion of the Muslims to ca. 1249. Then the emperor Frederick II sent the Maltese Muslims into exile together with those who had rebelled in Sicily. However, the decree of expulsion (which has not survived) seems to have applied to Muslims only not to ‘Arabs’ or ‘Moors’, to a religious not to an ethnic group. Hence, in all probability, all those Muslims, in Malta as in Sicily, who accepted formal baptism managed to steer clear of the ordeal. This is what the majority presumably did, especially if they had property to lose. All this largely explains the survival of the Maltese language in the form it had taken during the centuries of Muslim hegemony, in spite of the steady entry into the islands of settlers from Europe. The linguistic and onomastic heritage It is now universally accepted by linguists that Maltese is derived from North African dialectal (pre-Hilālian) Arabic. The Arabs brought with them a form of spoken Arabic understandably very close to the one then current in Tunisia and the Maghreb. Maltese, today, is the only Semitic language written in the Latin alphabet. It is also the only European language of Semitic origin, which enjoys the status of a national language. But since the Arab settlers of 1048/49 descended from Sicily, and not directly from North Africa, it would be more accurate to state that their language reflected the sort of Maghrebin dialect, which had evolved specifically on that island. In fact, the historical and geographical factors now decidedly point to Sicilian Arabic as the basic source of the Maltese language. Thousands of Maltese lexemes, normally linked to a somewhat primitive and rudimentary way of life, are of Arabic origin. The definite article, broken plurals, the diminutive form, the dual form, the comparative and superlative forms, the verbal forms, the construct state, the agglutinated pronouns, the mimated nouns, and the basic concept of triliteralism are all vestiges of Arabic morphology. However, following the expulsion of the Muslims in 1249, Malta gradually began to separate itself from the Arabic-speaking world. The replacement of Arabic as a written language first by Latin, then in the 15th century by Siculo-Italian and from the 16th century onwards by Italian, the close connection with Sicily which continued during the rule of the Knights Hospitalers of St John (1530–1798), and the influx of Romance speakers into Malta, all explain the importance which the Romance, and in particular the Siculo-Italian element, then acquired in Maltese. 15 Some of the oldest Maltese surnames have Arabic roots. The number of local Semitic surnames is only around fifty to sixty, but ironically most of them are borne by a significant aggregate of families in Malta and Gozo, whereas many of the more modern Romance and European surnames, though far more numerous, are borne each by a smaller number of families, in some cases by just a handful. It has to be pointed out that not all Maltese surnames of Semitic origin date back to medieval times. Some, like Bonaci, Busietta, Musù, and Saydon, in all probability reached the island during the period of the Knights. Others still, like the Sicilian surname Forace, only surfaced in the 19th century. It is clear that there was a sustained effort during the Late Middle Ages to move away from the more obvious Arabic and Muslim names. Some surnames, such as Harabi, Razul, Xara, Maxta, and Buras disappeared almost completely by the time the Knights appropriated the Maltese Islands. Others, so to speak, survived in disguised forms. For instance, family names like Caruana, Farrugia, Saliba, and possibly Sultana acquired the final -a to comply with Romance morphological patterns. Arabic nomenclature and Maltese surnames In Arabic-Islamic usage the full name of a person is usually made up of the following elements: kunyah, ism, nasab, and nisba. A certain number of persons are also known by a nickname (lakab) or a pejorative sobriquet (nabaz) which, when the name is stated in full, comes after the nisba. From the end of the 9th century onwards, the use of an honorific title before or after the kunyah became more and more frequent with persons of high rank. 1. Kunyah surnames The kunyah is usually an honorific name compound with Abū (‘father of’) or Umm (‘mother of’): Abū Laylā, Umm Salim. The kunyah may be purely metaphorical and allude to some desired quality, like Abū l-Fadl meaning ‘father of merit’. However, the kunyah, not unfrequently, may have a pejorative sense, as Abū al-Atahiya meaning ‘father of folly’, or point to some physical defect, as in Abū ’l-Basir meaning ‘father of the blind man. Sometimes the Abū loses its original sense completely and becomes a synonym of dhū meaning ‘the man with …’, hence acquiring a descriptive function, e.g. Abū Lihya (bū lahya) means ‘bearded person’. By extension Abū can also mean ‘the master of, the holder of, the possessor of, the foremost of, the leader of, the first of’, etc. Hence, Abū ’l-Yaminayn means ‘the possessor of two right hands, the ambidextrous’. In other instances it denotes proliferation, especially obvious in the dialects, as in the North African appellative bū khamsa (‘five’). The kunyah is often applied to certain animals, e.g. Abū Faris (‘lion’), Umm ‘Āmir (‘hyena’); to certain plants, e.g. Abū Farwa (‘chestnut’); or even to all sorts of things which are in some degree personified, e.g. Abū Kubays, an oronym. Kunyah nomenclature in Maltese onomastics has survived both in place-names and family names. Toponyms like Buġibba (< *Abū Djibba), Bubaqra (< Abū Bakr), and Buleben (< Abū Labān) are evident examples. Surname Buhagiar derives from Abūhadjar; Hadjar, meaning ‘stones, rocks’, being an Ar. given name. But if in this case Abū stands for ‘holder, possessor’, then the composite term might refer to a thriving landlord, or to a proprietor of a stone-quarry. Saliba is an apocopated form of medieval Mal. surname Busalib(e), often linked with Abū ’l-Salībī, meaning ‘crusader’, < salīb meaning ‘cross, inter-section, cross-roads’. Alternatively the term could have simply referred to a Christian living in a Muslim community, the cross being the emblem of his religion. 16 Surnames related to kunyah names with zoological connotations include: Buttigieg (< Abū lDadjādj(ī), comprising dadjādj meaning ‘chickens, domestic fowls’, hence referring to a thriving poulterer); Ebejer (< Abū ’l-‘Abā’ir, comprising the pl. form of ‘abūra meaning ‘a one-year old goat or sheep’, possibly suggesting a goatherd); Bonaci and Bencini (presumably both < Abū ’lNadjā, comprising nadjā meaning ‘sheep’). Bonaci can also be an Italianized form of Ar. Abū Nadjī meaning ‘father of Nadji’, itself meaning ‘safe’. Otherwise non-Semitic derivations can also be ascribed to these latter two surnames. Kunyah surnames denoting proliferation include Busuttil and Busietta. Busuttil, in all probability, is a contemporary form of medieval Mal. surname Busittin, < Ar. *Abūsittin meaning ‘a master (or owner) of sixty (men)’. Busietta is perhaps a Sicilianized form of *Abūsitta meaning ‘a master (or owner) of six (men)’. Otherwise the family name is perhaps an epenthetic form of Sic. surname Busetta, itself a form of Ar. Abū ’l-Sayyid, in which case it is related to Sem. surname Said . A kunyah surname, which has the status of a dhū, is Xuereb, < Abū shawārib, signifying ‘a man with a moustache’, as shārib means ‘moustache’. 2. Ism surnames The ism, also called ‘alam or ism ‘alam, is the individual’s personal or given name (e.g. Hasān, Ahmad, Muhammad, Yazīd, etc.). Some are used with the article (e.g. al-‘Abbās, ‘stern, austere’), but normally they are not (e.g. ‘Abbās). In general, only the names of the Prophet (Muhammad, al-Mustafa, etc.) or some of the figures of the early Islamic period (‘Umar, ‘Alī, ‘Uthman, etc.) have survived from among these ancient names. Others, such as Ibrāhīm (Abraham), Ishak (Isaac), Mūsā (Moses), and Yūsuf (Joseph), are biblical names in their Koranic forms. Then there are compound names in two main patterns: (a) ‘Abd (‘slave [of]’) followed by Allāh or one of the divine names; (b) Allāh preceded by a construct substantive (e.g. Hibat Allāh, ‘gift of God’). The most obvious ism surname in Malta is Abdilla, which relates to Siculo Arabic Abdella. All forms are derived from Ar. theophoric f.n. ‘Abdallāh, composed of the elements ‘abd meaning ‘servant, slave’+ Allāh meaning ‘God (the Almighty)’. This sobriquet is compatible with the Islamic doctrine of total submission to God. The name is one of the many attributive titles of Muhammad himself. Sammut derives < Ar. f.n. Samīt meaning ‘tacit’, < samt meaning ‘silence’. Among several extremist Shī‘ite groups, al-samīt is the designation of a messenger of God who does not reveal a new law, as opposed to al-natik, a speaking prophet. Zammit, the fifth commonest surname in Malta, derives < Ar. f.n. Zamīt meaning ‘stern, grave, dignified’. In some quarters, the surname Mamo has been tentatively explained as a shortened and Latinized form of Ar. f.n. Muhammad (or possibly Mahmud), which survived as a surname in Malta only until the later 15 th century. The transformation can be easily explained by the taboo on Muslim names prevailing in medieval Christian Malta. Otherwise Mamou is the name of a nomadic Moroccan tribe; the surname could hence have originated from a tribal nisba. Surnames derived from Biblical names also prevail. Asciak/q must be the remnant form of Ar. f.n. Ishak (Eng. Isaac), < Heb. Yishaq, Musù (or Mousù) is sometimes linked with Ar. ism Mūsā (Eng. Moses), in which case it is related to Sem. surname Muxi (also extant in Malta), < Biblical Heb. f.n. Mushi, an alternative form of Moshe, itself of Egyptian origin. Feminine names can also be traced in the surnames Sultana, Manara, and Zahra. Sultana derives < Ar. fem. f.n. Sultānah meaning ‘queen, sultan's consort’. Alternatively it derives 17 directly < Ar. f.n. Sultan, < sultān meaning ‘king, sovereign, royal power’. Manara is an Ar. fem. given name meaning ‘guiding light’, evidently related to manāra meaning ‘lighthouse, minaret’. Zahra, on the other hand, is Ar. fem. f.n. Zahra, either (a) < zahra meaning ‘(orange) blossom, blooming flower’, and by metaphorical extension ‘beautiful (girl), or else (b) < zahrā, < azhar meaning ‘bright, radiant’. 3. Nasab surnames The nasab is a lineage or pedigree name, comprising a list of ancestors, each name being introduced by the patronymic element ibn (‘son of’), e.g. ibn ‘Umar. Arab historians quote as many generations as they feel to be necessary and sometimes go back a very long way when dealing with an eminent person or in order to avoid confusion, but the usual practice is to limit the nasab to one or two ancestors. The Arabic ibn (also known as ma‘rifa) can sometimes refer to an ancestor rather than a parent, and be used as a kind of a surname, as is the case with the famous Ibn Khaldūn. No overt trace of nasab nomenclature can be detected in Maltese family names. The words bin and bint were systematically proscribed from all surnames, probably because the locals considered necessary to distance themselves from the widespread Arabic use of such words in personal nomenclature, during the re-Christianization period. The Arabic terms seem to have been at first replaced by the Latin de or Italian di and eventually dropped altogether. However the surname Agius needs particular attention. Ibn al-‘Adjūz, meaning ‘son of the old woman’, is actually the epithet applied by the Arabs to the biblical prophet Ezekiel (Ar. Alīsa’), due to his parentage. Ar. f.n. ‘adjūz, in actual fact, means ‘old, emaciated man’. Otherwise nasab names have survived in local toponymy, as exemplified by Bin Għisa (< ‘Isa), Bin Għali (< ‘Alī), and Binġemma (< Gemma). 4. Nisba surnames The nisba is an adjective often ending in -ī, formed originally from (a) the name of the individual’s tribe, clan, sect, dynasty, school of law, or eponymous ancestor (e.g. al-Kurashī, ‘of the Kurashi tribe’; al-Husaynī, ‘the descendant of a Husayn’, etc.); (b) the place of birth, origin, or residence (e.g. al-Masrī, ‘the Egyptian’; al-Rumī, ‘the Byzantine [of Asia Minor]; al-Mālitī, ‘the Maltese’; etc.); and occasionally from (c) a trade or profession (e.g. al-Harīrī, ‘the silk weaver’; al-Hallādj, ‘the cotton dresser’; etc.). A man may thus have several nisbas, which are normally given progressing from the general to the particular and in chronological order of residence In Arabic the nisba is always preceded by the definite article al-. No nisba surnames related to clan, tribe, or sect affiliation can be verified, barring the possible case of Mamo. Otherwise provenance nisbas are quite copious. The commonest surname in Malta is Borg. It has been identified with Ar. al-burdji, < Ar. burdj meaning ‘cairn, a pile of stones’, and by extension ‘bastion, tower, fortified country house’, in which case the term refers to someone who hailed from a borgo or a walled town. Common surname Caruana is usually meant to be a Latinized form of al-karawānī meaning ‘a native of or an immigrant originating from Qayrawān’. Qayrawān is the Moslem sacred city south of Tunis, today known as Qairwan or Kairouan. Alternatively the family name can be associated with an occupational nisba, as Siculo-Arabic caruana (also caruvana, caravana) meaning ‘a multitude of people or workers, especially of dockers or lightermen’, derives < Ar. harwā meaning ‘cortege, gathering (of people)’, probably added to the Berber suffix –ana, or directly < kārwān meaning ‘a caravan, composed of horses, mules, donkeys, and especially 18 camels’, or < qayrawān meaning ‘caravan, train of people traveling together’, ultimately < Persian kārawān. Hence the term probably refers to a caravan man. Barbara is presumably derived from Ar. nisba al-barbarī meaning ‘Berber’, an aboriginal inhabitant of Barbary, N. Africa, in which case it is related to medieval Mal. surname Berberi. Curmi might be related to Ar. al-kurmi, < Kirim (Crimea), hence denoting a native of or an immigrant originating from the Crimea’. However one cannot ignore the possible link with Ar. karmi or karim meaning ‘generous, noble’, or Ar. qurmiyah meaning ‘tree trunk’. Cutajar is usually linked with Sic. top. Cutaia, itself < Ar. quttayah, a dim. form of qatat, qitāt meaning ‘hill top, crest’. Ar. rahl quttayah actually means ‘village on a hilltop’. Saydon has been tentatively linked to top. Saida (or Sayda), the city and port in S.W. Lebanon, once the commercial capital centre of ancient Phoenicia, but it might be a Latinized form of Ar. name Zaydun. Bugeja is supposedly derived < top. Bougie city and port of N.W. Algeria, now called Bejaia. Zarb is an apocopated form of Sic. surname Zarbo, < zzarbu meaning ‘barrier, boundary wall’, ultimately < Ar. zarb meaning ‘cattle pen, enclosure, hedge’. In its present state it is unclear whether the original term indicated a specific location or a mere nickname. The most conspicuous provenance nisba surname in Malta is undoubtedly Gauci. It clearly derives from al-gawdisī meaning ‘Gozitan, a native of Gozo’; it is hence a medieval Latinized transcription of Mal. Għawdxi. Occupational nisba surnames are also quite common. Camilleri, the second commonest surname in Malta, is linked with It. cammelliere, < medieval Lat. camelarius or medieval Gk. kamelarios, ultimately < Ar. qamillarī meaning ‘camel driver’. Farrugia, the fourth commonest surname in Malta, relates to al-farrūdj meaning ‘poultry man, chicken keeper’, < Ar. farrūdj meaning ‘chicken, hen’. Cassar is surely another occupational nisba, but various meanings have been proposed. The standard etymology of al-kassār suggests ‘a fuller or a bleacher; one who cleans, shrinks and thickens, or dyes cloth or newly shorn wool’. Yet there are other possible meanings; if derived < al-hassār, it suggests a ‘nattier, mat-maker’, or if derived < ghassāl, it denotes a ‘washer of clothes and also of the dead’. 5. Laqab and nabaz surnames The lakab can be an honorific title or a distinctive epithet (e.g. al-Rashid, ‘the rightly ruler’), usually placed after the nisba. But in its simplest form the laqab is a descriptive nickname with neutral connotations, usually referring to a physical characteristic (e.g. al-Tawil, ‘the tall [one]’), which follows the ism. These nicknames are felt to be less pejorative than the sobriquets (nabaz) such as al-Himar (‘the ass’) The names of animals and birds of prey are, in fact, also common as lakabs (e.g. al-Fahd, ‘the cheetah’; al-‘Uqāb, ‘the eagle’). Laqab surnames conveying some sort of honorific title are Mula, Said, Chetcuti, and Sciberras. Mula might be derived < Ar. maula (mullāh) meaning ‘lord, master, ruler’, a title of respect given by Mohammedans to religious dignitaries versed in theology and the sacred law. Said might be related to Ar. sayyid meaning ‘sir, lord, master, esquire’. Originally the term meant ‘chief of an Arabian tribe’; late in Islamic times, it became a title of honour for the descendants of the Prophet through his daughter Fātima and his son-in-law ‘Alī. But an ism derivation is also possible, if one considers Ar. f.n. Sa'īd meaning ‘happy, blissful, prosperous’. Saidi and Saidani are N. African cognate forms, but the surname was also adopted by Sephardic Jews in the Middle Ages. Chetcuti derives perhaps < Ar. ketkhuda (or katkhuda) meaning ‘master of the house, head of the family, headsman, chieftain, steward, tithe-officer in a town’. The term can hence 19 also qualify as an occupational nisba. Sciberras might be derived < Ar. Shihab er-Ras, wherein the first element is a given name meaning ‘bright star’ and the second element ras means ‘chieftain’. Surnames derived from nicknames are quite plentiful in Malta. Meli can be identified with Ar. melī meaning ‘wealthy, prosperous’, although other non-Semitic interpretations are again possible. Micallef, the seventh commonest surname in Malta, can be related to Ar. mukallaf, which in Muslim law denotes one who is obliged to fulfill the religious duties of Islam. However, most local scholars argue that the surname is a Sicilianized form of Ar. muhallif meaning ‘judge’, agent derivative < alaf meaning ‘to swear (by God)’, in which case it would qualify as an occupational nisba. Theuma might be derived < Ar. al-tawm meaning ‘twin (brother)’, but Ar. al-tawmi also means ‘a grower or vendor of garlic’, < tūm, -a meaning ‘garlic’, which designates an occupational nisba. Mintoff is a relatively recent and learned form of old surname Mintuf; it derives < Ar. mintūf meaning ‘plucked (feathers of fowl, hairs of eyebrows, etc.)’, probably referring to someone who had the habit of plucking his beard. If originally the term was preceded by the term Abū, it could have had the status of a dhū name, meaning ‘the man with the plucked beard.’ Fenech is surely related to Ar. fanak (< Persian fanak) meaning ‘fox, marten, furred animal’, whence medieval Lat. alfanegue. The laqab might refer to a fleet-footed or timid person. Zerafa, on the other hand, relates to Ar. zarāfah meaning ‘giraffe’, probably referring to a tall (or longnecked) person. If originally these names were preceded by the term Abū, they could be considered as other kunyahs with zoological connections. Not all nicknames have a harmless signification; some are inversely invested with pejorative connotations. Mifsud has been coupled with (a) Ar. mafsūd (p.p. of fised) meaning ‘rotten, spoilt, corrupt’, referring to an obnoxious person, or else (b) Ar. mafsūd (p.p. of fasad) meaning literally ‘bled’, figuratively referring to an ill-tempered, outspoken person. In other quarters, the surname has been interpreted as a personal name based on mafsūd meaning ‘lanced’, < mifsad meaning ‘lance’. Scerri is considered to be the pl. form of Sic. surname Scerra, < sciarra meaning ‘brawl, dispute’, (a) < Ar. sharra meaning ‘evil, bad, wicked’, or (b) < Ar. sharrī meaning ‘bold, impetuous’. All derivations seem to refer to an ill-natured, quarrelsome person. Surname Tabone is usually linked with either (a) Sic. tabbuni meaning ‘fool, dullard, blockhead’, < Ar. tabun meaning ‘vulva, female pudenda’, or else with (b) Sic. tabbuna, < Ar. at-tabuni, < tabun, tabuna meaning ‘dug-out hearth, small jar-shaped oven, (peasant) kiln low on the ground’, in which case it would qualify as an occupational nisba for a baker of bread, or perhaps for a potter. Conclusion Many names may be correctly interpreted simply by recourse to dictionaries of the older state of the contributory languages, but no proof of the authenticity of these readings is possible without a strand of documentary evidence taking the family name back to the days of surname-naming, and an ample supply of good early spellings that leave the first ‘meaning’ in doubt. Surnames have been pounded and contorted by generations of mispronunciations, mainly by meddling clerks, scribes, and priests susceptible to their idiosyncrasies. In spite of my seemingly streamlined typology, it must be emphasized that some surnames can, with equal lucidity, be allotted to a different category. Admittedly, in Arabic nomenclature itself the dividing line between isms and lakabs, and between lakabs and nisbas is quite fragile. Besides, as it transpires, some seemingly Semitic surnames, can be easily consigned a Romance, Greek, or even Germanic etymology with the same degree of reasonable judgment. This has 20 prompted the author to omit other possible entries. In fact a handful of other surnames, such as Attard, Borda, Casha, Fiteni, Gellel, Mercieca, Muscat Musumeci, and Tellus might have a Semitic origin as well, but lack of sufficient philological evidence calls for more prudence than customary. It could be observed that almost all Maltese surnames cited in this paper are to be detected also in Sicily, which makes perfect sense, as Sicily itself bellies its fair share of Arabisms. In Girolamo Caracausi’s Dizionario Onomastico della Sicilia (1994) one encounters the vast majority of ‘Maltese’ surnames, either as they stand or else in some cognate or related form. Local surnames of Arabic stock, except for a few exceptions (like Xerri and Xiberras) are actually written in the Latin script, as for whole centuries Siculo-Italian was the lingua franca of the professional ranks in Malta. Notaries, scribes, and priests, for want of an indigenous orthographic system, had no other way but to Sicilianize or Italianize the surnames they entered in wills, contracts, parish registers, and other official records. Accounts of the origins of many individual surnames, in the present state of our knowledge, contain an element of tentativeness; admittedly, some are more tentative than others. This paper contains a number of entries for which only vague conjectures could be suggested. The possibilities of error in the interpretation of surnames are innumerable, and it is necessary in every instance to trace back the name to the earliest known spellings. Some meanings (and origins) remain elusive, or inadequately explained; these stand as a challenge to future researchers. 21