Aw (father)
{{Short description|Honorific title in the Harari and Somali languages}}
Aw (sometimes spelled Au){{cite book |last1=Pankhurst |first1=Richard |title=The Conquest of Abyssinia 16th Century |date=2003 |publisher=Tsehai Publishers & Distributors |page=241 |isbn=978-0-9723172-6-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YgIwAQAAIAAJ&q=au+Conquest+of+Abyssinia+16th+Century}}{{cite book |last1=Cerulli |first1=Enrico |title=Islam yesterday and today |page=389 |url=https://drive.google.com/file/d/1g-LkxaXWZopjLCFEuWm8wnly2lh4WvFp/view}}{{cite journal |last1=Wagner |first1=Ewald |title=Eine Liste der Heiligen von Harar |journal=Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft |year=1973 |volume=123 |issue=2 |publisher=Harrassowitz Verlag |page=273 |jstor=43370590 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43370590}} is an honorific title in the Harari and Somali languages.{{cite book |last1=Adam |first1=Hussein |title=The Proceedings of the First International Congress of Somali Studies |year=1992 |publisher=Scholars press |page=157 |isbn=9780891306580 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mM8tAQAAIAAJ&q=harari+title+aw}}{{harvcoltxt|Lewis|1998|p=90}}{{cite book |last1=Lindahl |first1=Bernhard |title=Local history of Ethiopia |publisher=Nordic Africa Institute |page=14 |url=https://nai.uu.se/download/18.39fca04516faedec8b248c17/1580827183104/ORTAST05.pdf}} It commonly designates a father, respected elder or saint in Harari and Somali languages.{{cite book |last1=Ben-Dror |first1=Avishai |title=Emirate, Egyptian, Ethiopian Colonial Experiences in Late Nineteenth-Century Harar |date=23 August 2018 |publisher=Syracuse University press |page=15 |isbn=9780815654315 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p3N0DwAAQBAJ&dq=%C3%A3w+avishai&pg=PA15}}Transactions of the Somali Academy of Sciences and Arts Volume 1 page 164Encyclopedia of Africa south of the Sahara page 47 It is used widely and most commonly in the Somali territories.{{cite book|author1=IFLA Committee on Cataloguing |author2=IFLA International Office for UBC. |author3=IFLA International Programme for UBC. |author4=IFLA UBCIM Programme|title=International cataloguing: quarterly bulletin of the IFLA Committee on Cataloguing, Volume 11|year=1987|publisher=The Committee|pages=24|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4IpBAQAAIAAJ}}
Etymology
According to linguist Edward Ullendorff term '"Aw"' from Harari language is linked to the Proto-Semitic term Ab meaning father.{{cite book |last1=Ullendorff |first1=Edward |title=The Semitic languages of Ethiopia; a comparative phonology |date=1955 |publisher=Taylor's (Foreign) Press |page=104 |url=https://archive.org/details/semiticlanguages0000ulle/page/104/mode/2up?q=aw&view=theater}}{{cite book |title=Mother Tongue Journal of the Association for the Study of Language in Prehistory · Issue IX |publisher=Association for the Study of Language in Prehistory |page=157 |url=https://www.mother-tongue-journal.org/MT/mt9.pdf}} According to Giorgio Banti the term has been adopted by various Somali clans from the Harari language.{{cite book |last1=Banti |first1=Giorgio |title=Loanwords from Arabic and other Semitic Languages in Northern Somali |publisher=Oriental University of Naples |page=8 |url=https://arcadia.sba.uniroma3.it/bitstream/2307/5518/1/Strata%20in%20loanwords%20from%20Arabic%20and%20other%20Semitic%20languages%20in%20norhern%20Somali.pdf}}
History
During his research in the ancient town of Amud, the historian G.W.B. Huntingford noticed that whenever an old site had the prefix Aw in its name (such as the ruins of Awbare and Awbube),{{harvcoltxt|Lewis|1998|p=90}} it denoted the final resting place of a local saint.G.W.B. Huntingford, "The Town of Amud, Somalia", Azania, 13 (1978), p. 184
Most notably applied to the founder of Harar Aw Abadir.{{cite book |last1=Bausi |first1=Alessandro |title=Aw |publisher=Encyclopedia Aethiopica |url=https://en.sewasew.com/p/aw}} According to the southern Somali Geledi clan, the appellation Aw was common amongst them and was used “scrupulously” in interactions between the nobles and half casts.{{cite book |last1=Lattin |first1=David |title=Politics, Language, and Thought The Somali Experience |date=May 1977 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |page=195 |isbn=9780226467917 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LR8A4tEYZUAC&dq=geledi+aw+father&pg=PA195}} Sorcerers among the Arsi Oromo are known as Awan Shan which is derived from the title Aw.{{cite book |last1=Braukamper |first1=Ulrich |title=Islamic History and Culture in Southern Ethiopia |year=2002 |publisher=Lit |page=161 |isbn=9783825856717 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HGnyk8Pg9NgC&dq=awan+is+derived+from+aw+ulrich&pg=PA161}}
Notables
People with the title include:
- Aw Barkhadle, saint
- Aw Barre (Awbare), Adal era saint
- Aw Buba (Awbube), pre Ifat era saint
- Aw Abdal, saint
- Aw Ali Hamdogn, saint and scholar
- Aw Abadir (Aw Badir), saint and scholar
- Aw Umar Ziad, saint
- Aw Ansaar, saint
- Aw Hashim, saint and scholar
- Aw Seid, saint
- Aw Sofi Yahya, saint and scholar
- Aw Qutub, saint and scholar
- Aw Qurrabe Limay, saint
Further reading
- Emile Foucher, Names of Mussulmans venerated in Harrar and its Surroundings A List. Harrassowitz Verlag, 1988
References
{{Reflist}}
=Sources=
- {{cite book |last1=Lewis |first1=I. M. |title=Saints and Somalis : popular Islam in a clan-based society |date=1998 |publisher=Red Sea Press |location=Lawrenceville, N.J. |isbn=9781569021033}}
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