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| GUYANESE
MUSLIM NAMES Guyanese Muslim names derive from the three most dominant cultures that have impacted heavily on the Islamic World: Arabic, Persian (Iran) and Turkic (Central Asia). The majority of Guyanese Muslims have roots in some of these civilizations, which explains this phenomenon. The majority of Guyanese Muslim's ancestors are from South Asia. South Asia borders Iran and Afghanistan to the West and Central Asia (Turkic) to the north and northwest. The fact that the Arabs, the Afghans, the Persians and the Turks assimilated in Hindustan (India), contributed to the make up of Islamic names in that country. Some often refer to these names as Urdu, but what are Urdu names? There are no such things as Urdu names. Urdu names come from three languages Arabic, Persian and Turkic. Urdu is mixture of Arabic, Persian, Turkic and indigenous Indian languages. Hence, Guyanese Muslims whose forefathers migrated from Hindustan to Guyana, have Muslim names from the Arabic, Persian and Turkic languages that are part of the Urdu language. During the Mughal era in Hindustan the emperors had the suffix Uddin attached to their names, and it was a popular trend in Hindustan. For example names such as Zahiruddin, Kamaluddin, Nasseruddin, or Shahabuddin were common. Indentureship records have many Muslim males and females with Persian names such as Shamshad, Naushad, Kurshid, Zaibunissa, Mehrunissa, and Khudabaskh among others. Bacchus is a corrupted version of Baksh. Many girls were given the title Bibi. Bibi is Persian for lady and in Guyana it was a popular trend. This may still be the case today. So it's not strange to find many girls in Guyana with the name Bibi Khadijah, Bibi Haniffa, or Bibi Rashida. Also a common trend of adding the UN (suffix) to names making them female was common. This was evident after studying the passenger list of Muslims who came to Guyana from Hindustan. Also this is the case of Suriname as well. This was a tradition that came from the Uttar Pardeshi Muslims who migrated to Guyana. Wazirun, Ameerun, Radhidun, Nazirun, etch were common names during the early history of Guyanese Muslims. Common among Guyanese girls today are names such as Nazmoon, Azimoon, Naimoon, Zaimoon etch. These latter female names ending with the suffix moon have been corrupted. The moon should have been UN like in Wazirun, Khatimun, Rashidun, Bashirun, Nazimun, Azimun, Naimun, Zaimun, etch. These names are definitely Arabic and Persian in origin but over time may have become corrupted due to the third and fourth generations being born outside of South Asia and not familiar with the Urdu language. |
