Sayyid

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For the Lost character, please see Sayid Jarrah

Sayyid (سيد) (plural Saadah) is an honorific title often given to males accepted as descendants of the Islamic prophet Muhammad through his grandsons, Hassan and Husayn, who were the sons of his daughter Fatima Zahra and his cousin and son-in-law Ali ibn Abi Talib.

Daughters of male sayyids are given the titles Sayyida, Alawiyah, Syarifah or Sharifah. Children of sayyidas are not considered sayyids. Sayyids must be able to demonstrate descent through males alone, without female links.

Contents 1 Other words sometimes confused with sayyid 2 Other Uses 3 Transliteration 4 Other Titles for Sayyids 5 Indication of descent 6 Ibn Battutah on the usage of Sayyid in India 7 See also 8 References

[edit] Other words sometimes confused with sayyid

The term should not be confused with the popular name "Sa'id" or "Saeed", which is an Arabic and Persian word meaning "happy". There is also the possibility of confusion between "shahid", or martyr in Arabic, and "sayyid", if one or more of the speakers in a conversation is not a native Arabic speaker. Some African languages do not distinguish between "s" and "sh" sounds.

[edit] Other Uses

The word means literally "master" ; the closest English equivalent would be "sir" or "lord". In the Arab world itself, the word is still used as a substitute for "Mister", as in Sayyid John Smith. The same concept is expressed by the word sidi (from the Arabic word 'sayyidi') in the Moroccan dialect of Arabic.

Some Muslims also use the term sayyid for the descendants of Abu Talib, uncle of Muhammad, by his other sons: Jafar, Aqeel and Talib.

Alevis use seyyid (Turkish) as an honorific before the names of their saints.

Dawoodi Bohras use the title syyedina for their Da'i al-Mutlaq (spiritual leader of the Bohra community) although they are not the descendants of Fatima.

El Cid , the name given to a famous Spanish knight of the 11th century C.E., is derived from Al-Sayyid (as-sayyid), meaning lord.

[edit] Transliteration

Language	Transliteration	Areas spoken
Arabic	Sayyid, Sayyed, Sayid	Arab world
Persian, Iranian based	Sayyed, Sayed, Seyyed, Seyed	Iran, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, and Central Asia
Turkish, Turkic based	Seyed, Seyit, Seyyid, Seyyed	Turkey, Azerbaijan and Central Asia
Urdu, Punjabi, Sindhi, Bengali, Gujarati, Malay	Syed, Saiyad, Saiyed	South and South East Asia
Other	Siyyid

People chose different Romanised (Latinized) transliterations based on the language with which they are familiar, not necessarily on the place where they are living. For example there are Muslim immigrants from many different countries living in London, UK. Immigrants from Yemen may use the transliteration "sayyid" whilst immigrants of Pakistani or Indian origin may use "syed".

[edit] Other Titles for Sayyids

Language	Title	Areas spoken
Arabic	Sharif, Habib	Arab world
Urdu, Punjabi, Sindhi, Bengali, Malay	Mir, Shah	South and South East Asia
Gujarati	Sayedna.Syedna. Sayednah	Northwest India, Sindh

Other Arabic honorific terms include sheikh and sharif. The line of Hassani sayyids who ruled Mecca, Medina, Iraq and now rule in Jordan, the Hashemites, bore the title 'sharif'. Primarily Sunnis in the Arab world reserve 'sharif' for descendants of Hassan while 'sayyid' is used for descendants of Husayn. However ever since the post-Hashemite era began, the term 'sayyid' has been used to denote descendants from both Hassan and Husayn. Arab Shiites use the term 'sayyid' and 'habib' to denote descendants from both Hassan and Husayn.

[edit] Indication of descent

Sayyids often include the following titles in their names to indicate the figure from whom they trace their descent. If they are descended from more than one notable ancestor or Shi'a imam, they will use the title of the ancestor from whom they are most directly descended.

Ancestor	Arabic Title	Arabic Last Name	Persian Title
Ali ibn Abu Talib	Allawi2	Allawi2 or Alawi3	Alavi2 علوى
Hasan ibn Ali	al-Hashimi or al-Hassani	al-Hashimi or al-Hassani	Hashemi, Hassani, or Tabatabai حسنى
Husayn ibn Ali	al-Hussaini	al-Hussaini1	Hosseini حسينى
Ali ibn Husayn Zayn al Abidin	al-Abidi	al-Abidi	Abedi عابدى
Zayd ibn Ali ash-Shahid	az-Zaidi	al-Zaidi	Zaidi زيدي
Muhammad al-Baqir	al-Baqiri	al-Baqiri	Baqeri باقرى
Jafar as-Sadiq	al-Ja'fari	al-Ja'fari	Jafari or Jafri جعفرى
Musa al-Kazim	al-Mousawi	al-Mousawi	Mousavi or Kazemi موسوى / كاظمى
Ali ar-Rida	ar-Ridawi	al-Ridawi or al-Radawi	Rezavi or Rizvi or Rizavi رضوى
Muhammad at-Taqi	at-Taqawi	al-Taqawi	Taqavi تقوى
Ali al-Hadi	an-Naqawi	al-Naqawi	Naqavi نقوى

NOTE: (For non-Arabic speakers) When transliterating Arabic words into English there are two approaches.

• 1. The user may transliterate the word letter for letter, e.g. "الزيدي" becomes "a-l-z-ai-d-i".

• 2. The user transliterate the pronunciation of the word, e.g. "الزيدي" becomes "a-zz-ai-d-i". This is because in Arabic grammar, some consonants (n, r, s, sh, t and z) cancel the l (ل) from the word "the" al (ال) . When the user sees the prefixes an, ar, as, ash, at, az, etc... this means the word is the transliteration of the pronunciation.

• An i, wi (Arabic), or vi (Persian) ending could perhaps be translated by the English suffixes ite or ian. The suffix transforms a personal name, or a place name, into the name of a group of people connected by lineage or place of birth. Hence Ahmad al-Hashimi could be translated as Ahmad of the lineage of Hassan and Ahmad al-Harrani as Ahmad from the city of Harran. For further explanation, see Arabic names.

¹Also, El-Husseini, Husseini, and Hussaini.

²Those who use the term sayyid for all descendants of Ali ibn Abi Talib regard Allawis or Alavis as sayyids. However Allawis are not descendants of Muhammad, as they are descended from the children of Ali and the women he married after the death of Fatima Zahra, such as Umm Baneen. Those who limit the term sayyid to descendants of Muhammad through Fatima Zahra, will not consider Allawis/Alavis to be sayyids.

³This transliteration is usually reserved for Alawi sect.

[edit] Ibn Battutah on the usage of Sayyid in India

Ibn Battutah had the following to say on the usage of the Sayyid in India " Then one of the officers said to me in Arabic , What do you say , ya sayyadi ?( the people of that country never address an Arab except by the title of Sayyid , and it is by this title that the Sultan himself adresses , out of respect for the Arabs .)" ^[1]

It is indicative that the title sayyid was used loosely for all Arabs and therefore it may be prudent to assume that the usage of the title of Sayyid in the Indian subcontinent does not necessarily indicate lineage from the Prophet .

[edit] See also

• Tabataba'i
• aristocracy

[edit] References