TURKS MUST ADOPT NAMES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 72, Issue 293, 10 December 1929, Page 7

TURKS MUST ADOPT NAMES

PRESENT SYSTEM INADEQUATE. CONSTANTINOPLE, Nov. 12. Like the Greeks of old, the Turk is not endowed with a family name. His solitary name is derived in the majority of cases, from the various appellatives of the Deity, and, in many further instances, from Judaic sources. The better known names of Mahmed, Ahmed, Mahmoud and Mahommed can all be traced back to the basic “Hamd” (May He Be Glorified), whilst Abdullah signifies the 4 ‘ Servant of Allah,” and Abeddine the “servitor of the Faith.” This system has been recognised as inadequate for purposes of civic and juridical identity, and a draft law is about to be laid on the table of the Grand National Assembly whereby the head of every Moslem family will be obliged to adopt a distinctive family name. It will be interesting to see how this matter will be arranged, as the Turk generally displays but little imagination in philological inventiveness: witness the nomenclature of so many Anatolian villages, hamlets and localities, where such topographical names as “Yenikeui” (the new village.), “Eskihissar” (the old castle), “Donuizderc” (pig valley), and “Karadagh” (black mountain) may each in turn be met with more than once in a single day’s march.