Aenigmatic Names

Abstract

The corruption of personal names in Arabic, especially those borrowed from foreign languages (such as Greek), goes back to the specific features of its script and often results in the multiplication of historical figures and hagiographic characters. In this article, is analysed the orthography and functional features of the name of the Jewish king of Ḥimyar Yōsēf called Y(w)sf/’s’r/Yṯ’r in the South Arabian epigraphic documentation and Yūsuf Dhū Nuwās in Arab Islamic tradition. The article deals with several sobriquets and epitheta, under which he is known in Eastern Christian historiographical and hagiographical traditions and some of them have received new interpretations. The derivation of the unusual Ethiopic form of his name Ṭamnus is attested in the Chronicle of John of Nikiu. It can be identified as “Dimnos” found in the Chronography of John of Malalas (c. 491–578). The same name in the form Dīmnōn appears in the Chronicle of Ps.-Dionysius of Tel-Maḥrē (sed. 818–45). In the article it is cautiously suggested that these three similar names came into being as a result of a corruption of the Greek “δαιμων” or “demon”. The title nəgusä aḥzab, which the Jewish monarch bears in the Chronicle of John of Nikiu, proves to be very close to the original title of Yōsēf, the mlk/kl/’š‘b-n, viz. “the king of all the communities” (Arab. malik al-shu‘ūb). The author proposes an assumption that this is rare evidence of the influence of South Arabian historical tradition upon Byzantine historiography.