Sietch
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- For a lake wave caused by an earthquake, see seiche.
A sietch is a Fremen desert settlement on the planet Arrakis in the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. In Terminology of the Imperium, the glossary of the novel Dune, Herbert provides the following definition:
SIETCH: Fremen: "Place of assembly in time of danger." Because the Fremen lived so long in peril, the term came by general usage to designate any cave warren inhabited by one of their tribal communities.
The Fremen, being the descendants of a tribe of Zensunni wanderers, used a language derived from Arabic.
[edit] Sietch Tabr
Fleeing from a Harkonnen attack in Dune, Paul Atreides and his mother Lady Jessica seek refuge with the Fremen of Sietch Tabr, who are led by Stilgar. Paul comes to lead the Fremen people in an uprising against the forces of Padishah Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV.
[edit] Apparent Etymologies
Sietch is somewhat similar to Arabic Seeq, the long narrow canyon that is the only access to the desert town of Petra. It is possible that Frank Herbert was influenced by the word for this canyon.
The word may have been taken from a real place called the Zaporizhian Sich (with a variety of alternate spellings in English, including sietch), which was a Cossack fort on Khortytsia Island in the river Dnieper, built as a defence against the Tatars (and several later invading forces); its name is Ukrainian for "to cut", and may refer to felling trees to clear the site and use their trunks to make a stockade. The Sietch was, for the Zaporozhe Cossacks a sort of home. Another Dune word of Russian Cossack origin is "kinjal" for a sort of knife or sword, from Russian kinzhal, as a variation from the considerable presence of the Arabic world in Dune.
Two names are given to all Fremen, a broad name to be known by all and a Sietch name to be known only by members of the Sietch. Paul Atreides' Fremen name was "Paul-Muad'Dib" and his Sietch name was "Usul."
