Why drop the definite article in an Arabic name?

November 23, 2006 6:33 PM

Why do some media outlets refer to the Syrian leader as "Bashar Assad" instead of as "Bashar Al-Assad"?

When I lived in Syria, the definite article al was clearly part of his last name and was always used. I started noticing some media outlets dropping the definite article after a local paper here in the US "corrected" a letter to the editor i sent by dropping the 'Al'.

Is there something I'm missing? I am hoping some of the journalists or more media savvy types in here might have caught on.

posted by mulligan to Media & Arts (14 answers total)

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that it has to do with the western media's lack of knowledge about Arab culture.

You also see Ibn al-Saud referred to as Ibn Saud.
posted by Pollomacho at 7:14 PM on November 23, 2006

I suspect this is as simple as multiple ways to transliterate names from Arabic into English, none of which are definitively correct, related to Khaddafi vs. Qadafi vs. Qadaffi.

Besides which, your assumption doesn't necessarily follow. Proper names for English-speakers are not necessarily the same as in their original language. English-speakers are correct to call him Christopher Columbus, even though he called himself Cristofero Colombo (except when he called himself Cristobal Colon because of his employers). Likewise, English-speakers are correct to call the designer of Katamari Damacy Keita Takahashi even though he presumably calls himself Takahashi Keita. It might be that dropping the al- from names is a common part of shifting a name for English-speakers. Or it might be laziness.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 7:22 PM on November 23, 2006

It might be that dropping the al- from names is a common part of shifting a name for English-speakers. Or it might be laziness.

Why would we do this to al-Assad but not to all the people with names like de Silva, von Braun, d'Antoni and so forth.
posted by Pollomacho at 9:32 PM on November 23, 2006

al- means 'son of' doesn't it?

it's probably a combination of the two above answers. lack of knowledge about arab affairs, combined with multiple 'correct' english spellings of arab words.
posted by T.D. Strange at 9:34 PM on November 23, 2006

al- means 'son of' doesn't it?

No, it's a definite article. Basically, it means "the." Bashar the Assad, Ibn the Saud, etc. Any resemblance to Winnie the Pooh is coincidental.

And yes, this means algebra is "the gebra" and algorithms are "the gorithms."
posted by kindall at 9:59 PM on November 23, 2006

Al Assad means the Lion. Al gebra means the counting. A(l) dobe means the mud (as in waddle and daub).
posted by Pollomacho at 10:08 PM on November 23, 2006

Response by poster: Yes, I am familiar with the linguistic role Al plays, as I speak Arabic and my last name includes the definite article in its transliteration into English.

My experience with many other Arab families is that they keep the "al" either as al- or el-

So I'm not so sure of the claim that it is common part of converting the name to English.
posted by mulligan at 11:14 PM on November 23, 2006

Is dropping the al a sign of disrespect?
I can't find any trace of it online, but I have a vague recollection of Private Eye dropping the al from Mohamed al-Fayed's name and that they explained this by saying that the "al-" was considered to be some sort mark of distinction (or class) which al-Fayed had awarded to himself and hadn't earned. Like I say, it's a vague recollection, but if it's right it might explain something.
posted by bunglin jones at 1:13 AM on November 24, 2006

T. D. Strange al is a "the"-type prefix. Ibn means son (as in "Ibn kalb!" which means son of a dog!). Abu means father.

Here's some fun with Arabic...

al bint jamila
bint al jamila
al bin al jamila
posted by xpermanentx at 3:54 AM on November 24, 2006

bunglin jones: I have a vague recollection of Private Eye dropping the al from Mohamed al-Fayed's name and that they explained this by saying that the "al-" was considered to be some sort mark of distinction (or class) which al-Fayed had awarded to himself and hadn't earned.

I can't say I read that in Private Eye, but I do remember one of the Hamilton's saying that on an episode of When Louis Met... which I thought was kind of amusing as well.

I tried googling around for what the AP Style had to say about it, but couldn't find anything (nor could I for Chicago Style).

My guess is that it's just kind of an arbitrary thing that varies from publication to publication due to a general lack of understanding of the Arabic language.
posted by atomly at 4:48 AM on November 24, 2006

Dropping the definite article from his name isn't necessarily a lack of understanding. I lived in Syria for a while, and, in the same way we refer to our president as "Bush", they commonly refer to theirs as "Assad", without the definite article. I was told that it is because they do not want to call him "the Lion", but that sounded a lot like standard Damascene hearsay to me.

I think it is simply a precedent set by his father in dealing with the west to seem less foreign, in the same way his father changed the family name to al-Assad in order to seem a little less Alawite.
posted by bryak at 5:53 AM on November 24, 2006

My wife is from the Middle East, according to her this makes as much sense as talking about Paul Cartney.
posted by teleskiving at 6:31 AM on November 24, 2006

I tried googling around for what the AP Style had to say about it

The 2004 AP Stylebook entry for Arabic names merely says, "The articles al- or el- may be used or dropped depending on the person's preference or established usage."
posted by FelliniBlank at 6:57 AM on November 24, 2006

I don't have a reference, but I believe I have seen the NY Times refer to Al-Qaeda as "Qaeda" recently.
posted by misterbrandt at 9:28 AM on November 24, 2006