BC names

[Geoffrey of Villehardouin]

I fancy adding some more names to some of the factions (along the lines of the Khwarezm, Byzantine and Kypchak I have already added). I am, however, uncertain about the correct form. For example in the Ghurid royal line there were a bunch of brothers called:

Sayf al-Din Suri
Fakhr al-Din Masud
Baha al-Din Sam I (who had a son called Ghiyath al-Din Muhammad)
Shihab al-Din Muhammad Kharnak
Shuja al-Din Ali
Ala al-Din Husayn
Qutb al-Din Muhammad

Their father was named Izz al-Din Husayn.

It would appear that the last part has no relation to who their father was and does not seem to be a family name either. It appears to be an Islamic alternative to their Turkish name, but what is the opinion of those more familiar with the culture? Should the entire name be used as a first name? Or was the Islamic part used as a kind of surname?

Also, would al-Din be more historically correct than ad-Din or ud-Din or perhaps compounded as Sayfuddin, Fakhruddin, Bahauddin, etc?

There were moreover names in the style Muhammad ibn Suri, which I think stands for Muhammad son of Suri. There are also other variants, such as Abu Osman Minhajuddin bin Sirajuddin (with “bin” instead of “ibn”). Are these sorts of names how they were used at the time or are they modern conventions? In other words, did people of that time who may have been Turkish in origin and occasionally culturally also partly Persian, use Arabic forms such as al-Din this and that and ibn such and such in their names?

[matmohair1]

- formally ibn and bin both mean "son of" in Arabic

* bin * is used in the middle between the name of the person and his father

example "Abdulla son of Ibrahim"

ibn * is used when the name of the person isn't mentioned but is instead referred to as the son of ...

example "son of Ibrahim"

but still, people always get mixed up between the two all the time

- regarding the Al included before a given title...

it basically means "the" or "of the" but can sometimes be read ul or u
depending on the sentence structure and grammar and phonology

example : Naser Imad Al Deen

Naser, pillars of the religion (literally : pillar of faith)

example : Ahmed saif ul Dawla

Ahmed, sword of the state

sometimes its can be written in the opposite organization to
give the title a more grand importance and appearance

Nizam al Mulk, Jawhar

Order of the Kingship, Jawhar

[Geoffrey of Villehardouin]

So al-Din means of the religion / faith, presumably referring to their alternative Arabic name. However, there are also styles such as ad-Din and ud-Din and also compounded as Burhanuddin. Where these varying according to region? Let's say compounding in Ghazni, ud-Din in Khwarezm, al-Din in the Ghorid Sultanate, etc - or do they represent different periods (perhaps modern styling) or formal vs vernacular use or something else? Also, since I have seen names such as Burhanuddin used as a first name, with the Arabic name missing, would the Arabic name, perhaps Hasan be used as a surname (so Burhanuddin Hasan) or would they use a Turkic or Persian family name as a surname - such as Burhanuddin Chagri, using perhaps the Arabic as some kind of middle name or double barreled surname such as Burhanuddin Hasan-Chagri or something?

Overall I prefer to have names as appearing in manuscripts of that period in the local language but possibly in distinct styles for different factions.

[matmohair1]

they don't necessarily vary from region to region, but rather from translator to translator

for example Burhanuddin

Arabic / persian title ...

برهان الدين

literal meaning

proof / evidence of the religion / faith

variation in English translations

Burhanuddin

Burhanideen

Burhan Al Deen

Burhan Ul Deen

burhan Idinn...etc

[Geoffrey of Villehardouin]

Thanks for the useful feedback. I seem to come across compounding more commonly in translations from Persian literature compared to proper Arabic, so I had expected there might have been some local preferences.

Taking then Qutb al-Din Muhammad from the list at the top, should a first name be Qutb or should it include the al-Din part as Qutb al-Din/Qutbuddin? And Muhammad, being perhaps a second name, could it be omitted? I would guess their family surname is probably Suri, as I understand it from the Wikipedia list of the Ghurid dynasty. The names lists allow only a first name and a surname.

Would names such as Sayfuddin Suri, Fakhruddin Suri, Qutbuddin Suri, etc, based on that list at the top, seem appropriate for the Ghurid/Ghazni Sultanates?

[matmohair1]

Qutb is an inseparable part of the title, you can write it as you wish...

Qutb al-Din/Qutbuddin : Pole of the faith / religion

Sayfuddin Suri, Fakhruddin Suri, Qutbuddin Suri, are all valid I guess...

btw, qutb = pole / sayf = sword / fakhr = Proudess

[hameem123]

no better way to explain,kudos to matmohair1

Explaining that all Islamic names have corresponding meaning to it compared to other cultures or nations or religions where their name are just randomly given without meaning most of the time.