Ajam
From Wikipedia, a free encyclopedia written in simple English for easy reading.
Ajam (عجم) in Arabic means non-Arab, or non-Arabic-speaker. It was a denomination for "Iranians" in the Arabic language. Ajam is an arabicized word from Jam the name of an ancient persian king or prophet according to old story he was the king of world. To make a name arabicize it need to add an AL to the name like Al America,AL London ,but AL is pronounce in some name like Jam as "A"Jam and "L" must be deleted.
- According to The Political Language of Islam, Ajam was used as a reference to dename those whom Arabs in the Arabian peninsula viewed as 'alien' or outsiders.[1] The early use of the term included all of the peoples with whom the Arabs had contact including Persians, Greeks, Ethiopians, and the somewhat related Nabataeans. Over time the term because specialized and referred to Persians almost exclusively as an ethnic term, but varied in its usage from place to place as the early Muslim conquests led to a much wider of Arabic-speakers.
During the early age of the Caliphates, Ajam was often synonymous for barbarian (non-civilized wilds) or stranger. In some cases it was a derogatory word. In the eastern part of the Middle East, it was generally used to the Persians, while in al-Andalus it referred to speakers of Romance languages - becoming "Aljamiado" in Spanish in reference to Arabic-script writing of those languages - In East Africa and Zanzibar ajami and ajamo means Persian which came from the Persian Gulf and the cities of Shiraz and Siraf. In Turkish, the usage of the term is not used to any ethnic group, but instead appears to have evolved from the original Arabic usage for outsiders in-general and shifted into a different meaning as the term ajemi (in modern Turkish acemi) literally means clumsy, inept or novice.
The Arabic family name "Ajami" (عجمي), well-known bearers of which include Fouad Ajami, normally indicates Persian descent.
A Persian book says that this word is from the name of an ancient Persian king, Jamshid; this is possiable. In many books after the islam , for instance the Shahnameh of Ferdousi, the word is used to refer to Iranians and to the Persian language. Among Kurds, the term Ajam (Ecem in Kurdish, Pron: عجم) is used to refer to Persians and Azeris.
- look for family nam Ajam