Abu Who?
First you need to understand the meaning of abu, which can be “the father of” [appropriate for Father’s Day] or “the guy with” depending on what follows.
For example, Abu Hamza could mean “Leo’s Dad” or “the guy who has a lion” or “the guy with the virtues of a lion”. Abu Ayyub could mean “Job’s Dad” or “the guy with the patience of Job”.
There might be a lot of kids named Leo, but I suspect that the popularity of Abu Hamza among thugs in the Islamic world is an attempt to paint themselves as tough. In the West we name people “the Lion-Hearted”, “Coeur de Lion”, or “Corleone”
When the US identifies the new leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, they are using kuniyat, nicknames. The guy is either “a lion-hearted migrant” [Abu Hamza al Muhajir] or “a patient Egyptian” [Abu Ayyub al Masri].
June 18, 2006 4 Comments
