Kunya (Arabic)
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A kunya (Arabic: كنية) is a honorific, widely used in place of given names through the Arab world. It is a type of epithet referring to the (typically male) bearer's first-born son.
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[edit] General use
abū (father) or umm (mother) precedes the son's name, in a genitive construction (the iđāfa). 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". This refers to his first-born son, Mazen. While 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, often the name of their father. Thus, the son of a man named George will often be known to his friends as "Abu George" until such time as he has a son.
When using a person's full name, the kunya will precede the proper name. Thus: abū māzin maħmūd, for "Mahmud, the father of Mazen". In Classical Arabic, but not in any of the spoken dialects, abū can change into the forms abā and abī (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 terrorist group Abu Sayyaf operating in Southern Philippines (Mindanao). The word sayyaf means "sword", so "Father of the Sword" signifies the group's belligerent charter.
[edit] Kunya as a nom de guerre
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 in their struggle against Israel.
For example, Yassir Arafat was known by the name Abu Ammar (abū `ammār), even though he never had a son named Ammar. Ammar was an early companion of the Prophet Muhammad, but the grammatical root `ayn-mīm-rā also revolves around activities of rebuilding, repopulating, constructing or causing an area to prosper; thus a suitable name for a man who, in his view, intended to recreate a Palestinian homeland. Another theory connects the name with Arafat's work as a construction engineer (muhandis `ammār) in Kuwait, at the time he took the name.
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).
