This isn’t a debate on Iraq or anything like that… I just would like to know why this guy has so many names in his name? And what does the name structure represent? Family name carry overs? Is Sheik Jamal his sir name? What do the middle names represent, and which part is his last name?
Ha! It just looks like a lot of names. Let’s break it down:
Sheik–this is an honorific. It can be a name, but in this case it isn’t.
Jamal-al-Din–this is one name.
Abdul-Karim–this is also one name
al-Dabban–you guessed it, one name.
To expand on that:
Jamal-al-Din is his first name, analogous to Bob or Norbert or Sebastian.
Abdul-Karim --I’m not 100% sure how the naming traditions work there, but my best guess is that this is what we consider a last name or possibly this is his father’s first name incorporated into his name.
al-Dabban --again, I’m not 100% sure but I guess this one shows his tribal affiliation.
Warning - I don’t speak Arabic and this is just an educated speculation. Generally what bluethree said, with the caveat that the middle structure could be a couple of things depending on context. So…
Sheikh = honorific title ( i.e. “chief” )
Jamal al-Din = a compound first name ( means, I think, roughly, “beauty of religion” )
Abd-al-Karim = probably a descriptive name, perhaps taken on when he became a mufti ( means “servant of the generous one” ). al-Karim is one of the 899 names of Allah and the addition of the “servant” prefix with those indicates a descriptive name adopted by a religious figure
al-Dabban = almost certainly his family name ( might also be identical to a clan or tribe affiliation, but this is variable - depend when it was acquired and under what auspices, sometimes they derive from place names of trades as in western names - i.e. the equivalent of “Underhill” or “Smith” ).
- Tamerlane
Er…99 names.