v0.92
This document is envisaged as an aid to implementing Arab names and styles into the game 'Crusader Kings 3', its predecessor 'Crusader Kings 2', and to a lesser degree any other creative endeavour that can make use of it, such as tabletop RPGs.
The guidelines and entries here are intended to simulate the wonderfully elaborate Arabic naming system of the medieval era, which was also adapted to various degrees by many non-Arab Muslim rulers. However, although a considerable amount of research and effort has gone into reproducing names, titles, and styles extant in the pre-Ottoman Islamic world, it is heavily adapted for game purposes, is very much incomplete, and does not properly reflect how names and titles changed with time throughout the medieval era. Although I drew most of the content from my own academic notes, it is not intended as a proper reference work for historiographical purposes. I have worked with an eye on the limitations of CK3 coding and player accessibility; the errors inherent in the way that the Arabic and Islamicate world are represented by that game (especially the pseudo-feudal structure of state governance) are therefore reproduced here and simply coated with a gloss of more-or-less appropriate medieval Arabic flavour.
Furthermore, I have focused on Arab or Arabised populations. Other Islamic rulers, such as Persians, Kurds and Turks (many of whom spoke Arabic and used Arabic names and titles) will likely need additional localisation of their own. There is a fair amount of content for this purpose from various different contributors in the CK3 Community Title Project and Character Name Packs mods for CK3, for which this document was originally produced.
Tabs
1. ‘Naming Conventions for CK3’ – Providing a basic framework for how Arabic names could be constructed in Crusader Kings 3. See the Wikipedia article on Arabic names for a thorough breakdown of each particle. Unfortunately, just to complicate things even further, not all particles would historically be used in official contexts. It's understandable if some particles need to be dropped from the name bar and official titles.
2. ‘Game Concepts’ – Tooltip ‘concepts’ to help explain the different name particles.
3. ‘Cultures and Faiths’ – This tab shows the proper Arabic names of each Culture present at start date in CK3, plus some suggested cultures for implementation at start. I haven’t engaged with the Culture hybridisation system, because that would drive me insane. The tab also does a similar thing for almost all CK3’s faiths. Unfortunately, CK3’s present representation of Islam is highly inaccurate. For instance, ‘Muwalladism’ and ‘Ikhtifalism’ never existed and the leading faith should be الأثرية , al-ʾAṯarīya ('traditionalism'). As there are mods that overhaul CK3 religion much better than I can, I have only added in the original Arabic when appropriate (and I simply haven’t bothered with the ‘Ikhtifalism’ nonsense).
4. ‘Court Titles’ – Arabic titles and flavour text for the positions added in the ‘Royal Court’ DLC. Again, some fudging was necessary to make them fit. Just as an 'Antiquarian' was made up by Paradox, there is no such thing (formally, at least) as a Ḵallāq at-Tuḥaf. Similarly, a ḥaras was usually an entire organised force with a leader, as implied in the 'Secular Titles' tab - not an individual ḥāris guardsman.
5. ‘Secular Titles’ – Localisation for ranks possible in the CK3 non-religious hierarchy (including some modded ranks implemented in the Community Title Project) as of July 2022, including all cultures in the present 'Arabic' culture group, as well as several suggested and/or implemented in the Community Title Project mod. This list is likely to change should a content pack with a hierarchy tailored for Islamic styles of governance be added in the future.
6. ‘Religious Titles’ – Similar to the above, except for 'court chaplain' and 'priest' ranks in CK3. The system by which titles are assigned is difficult to figure out, hence a number of fudges that are designed to cover all bases for both landed and non-landed clerics.
7. ‘Male Isms + Kunyas’ – A list of period-appropriate Arabic male names given at birth, as well as the appropriate form of the definite article for those names that most commonly incorporated it in the era for flavour (e.g. 'al-Qāsim', the name of the Prophet Muhammad's son, rather than just 'Qāsim'), and finally the honorific 'kunya' style for each name which usually refers to the name of an Arab adult's eldest son (see link above for further explanation, although in reality it gets even more complicated than is presented in this workbook...).
8. ‘Female Isms + Kunyas’ – A list of period-appropriate Arabic female names given at birth. Kunyas referring to daughters were considerably rarer than ones referring to sons; nevertheless I have presented the correct formulas should this be desired.
9. 'Official Laqabs' – Honorific bynames adopted by a multitude of different rulers and prominent Muslims of the medieval period, and which have in more recent centuries developed into ordinary forenames used in Muslim cultures.
10. ‘Regnal Laqabs’ – Names adopted or appended to titles by medieval Islamic monarchs and caliphs at the start of their reign (these were often also adopted by princes of the blood, but that too complicated to implement!), including their English translations for the purposes of event text.
11. ‘Regnal Laqabs (f)’ – Adapted regnal laqabs for female caliphs of hypothetical 'reformed' faiths permitted in CK3. As the concept of having a woman as Commander of the Faithful in the would be extremely heterodox in the medieval era anyway, there is no division in naming lists like male counterparts.
12. ‘In-Game Nicknames’ – All the nicknames currently in CK3, but replaced with a culturally-appropriate Arabic term. These are not straight translations from the original choices for CK3, so please take note of the tooltip translations. Most nicknames will follow the naming order indicated in the 'Naming Conventions' tab, but others can take the place of other articles or be elsewhere in the name order – this is indicated in the 'Placement in name order' column
13. ‘All Nicknames’ – An enormous master list of colourful laqabs and nisbas sourced from everywhere, with some implementation notes. (Perhaps someday we can see randomly generated courtiers appear with a profession, tribe, or city of origin picked from a pool!) Note that many nisbas do not have a female equivalent, as nisbas at the end of women's names usually referred to the origin of the forefathers mentioned in their nasab. Even more of a work in progress than the other tabs.
Explanatory Notes
1. Transliteration of Arabic words has been rendered in a slightly-adapted version of the transliteration scheme used in Hans Wehr's Arabic-English Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic (1961), as well as in 'plain text', which is a less accurate transliteration using only standard characters in the English alphabet.
2. The Arabic for each entry in most of the tabs has been included (without harakat, i.e. vowel marks), to allow for transliteration into an alternative scheme, or should implementation of some Arabic script be desired for flavour purposes.
3. In the most evident case of grammatical streamlining, the definite article ʾalif lām (ال) has been dropped from the start of most phrases, even in constructions where to do so would be grammatically incorrect. This is for the sake of simplicity, and to help integration into sentences of the main game language by preventing doubling-up of definite articles. However, I'm not completely happy with this and I'm willing to hear alternative views.
4. The poet quoted in the ‘Court Poet’ entry in ‘Court Titles’ is ʾAbū Tammām, a master of the badīʿ court panegyric style of poetry, and the lines are taken from his ode to Caliph al-Maʾmūn on the occasion of his incursion against the Byzantines.
Update Notes (v0.92)
1. Additional tabs added (indicated above as ‘New Tab’).
2. All lists rationalised to reduce repetition.
3. Grammar, transcription and character corrections for some erroneous entries, particularly with regards to a consistent use of tāʾ marbūṭa (ة) and the elision of sun letters. Instances of kāf al-mashkūla (ک) have been corrected to standard Arabic kāf (ك).
4. Added more names to ism lists. These still need considerable further expansion, and I would love contributions!
5. Missing regnal laqabs added for Abbasid list.
7. Additional nicknames tab added, nisbas and further nicknames are a work in progress.
8. ‘Maghribi’ Arabic characters have been scrapped, as it was a silly and incomplete idea.
9. Dynasties tab has been scrapped. TheGib770 has independently developed an Arabic-language dynasty system for CK3. Although some of the entries in my ‘All Nicknames’ tab could certainly be adapted as dynasty names, I am reluctant to introduce anything further in the way of a dynasty replacer, not least because making the grammar work for every relevant context in CK3 would be a painfully extended exercise with minimal impact. And I think I’ve contributed enough anyway…
10. (v 0.91) Added Mercenary and Holy Order titles.
11. (v 0.92) Updated nicknames list to include new additions by Paradox since 2022.
Permissions
All content in this document has been dug up, brushed off and added by me, Dom Tromans a.k.a. Farabi.
Please feel free to use it as you please, although in creative projects that make use of it extensively I would ask that you add me to your credit list as 'Dom Tromans'. Obviously, any content taken from the Community Title Project or Community Name Pack should be credited according to the attribution guidelines given by that project.
I am happy to advise or participate in creative projects or game mods related to Islamic history and public history, particularly on the subject of the 'Abbasid Caliphate.
For any requests, questions, suggestions or corrections, I can be contacted here on the forums or using the details in the first page of the document.
Credits
The Community Title Project and Community Name Packs contributor and implementation teams for their gargantuan efforts in localising the medieval world in CK3, and for which this workbook was originally conceived.
This document is envisaged as an aid to implementing Arab names and styles into the game 'Crusader Kings 3', its predecessor 'Crusader Kings 2', and to a lesser degree any other creative endeavour that can make use of it, such as tabletop RPGs.
The guidelines and entries here are intended to simulate the wonderfully elaborate Arabic naming system of the medieval era, which was also adapted to various degrees by many non-Arab Muslim rulers. However, although a considerable amount of research and effort has gone into reproducing names, titles, and styles extant in the pre-Ottoman Islamic world, it is heavily adapted for game purposes, is very much incomplete, and does not properly reflect how names and titles changed with time throughout the medieval era. Although I drew most of the content from my own academic notes, it is not intended as a proper reference work for historiographical purposes. I have worked with an eye on the limitations of CK3 coding and player accessibility; the errors inherent in the way that the Arabic and Islamicate world are represented by that game (especially the pseudo-feudal structure of state governance) are therefore reproduced here and simply coated with a gloss of more-or-less appropriate medieval Arabic flavour.
Furthermore, I have focused on Arab or Arabised populations. Other Islamic rulers, such as Persians, Kurds and Turks (many of whom spoke Arabic and used Arabic names and titles) will likely need additional localisation of their own. There is a fair amount of content for this purpose from various different contributors in the CK3 Community Title Project and Character Name Packs mods for CK3, for which this document was originally produced.
Tabs
1. ‘Naming Conventions for CK3’ – Providing a basic framework for how Arabic names could be constructed in Crusader Kings 3. See the Wikipedia article on Arabic names for a thorough breakdown of each particle. Unfortunately, just to complicate things even further, not all particles would historically be used in official contexts. It's understandable if some particles need to be dropped from the name bar and official titles.
2. ‘Game Concepts’ – Tooltip ‘concepts’ to help explain the different name particles.
3. ‘Cultures and Faiths’ – This tab shows the proper Arabic names of each Culture present at start date in CK3, plus some suggested cultures for implementation at start. I haven’t engaged with the Culture hybridisation system, because that would drive me insane. The tab also does a similar thing for almost all CK3’s faiths. Unfortunately, CK3’s present representation of Islam is highly inaccurate. For instance, ‘Muwalladism’ and ‘Ikhtifalism’ never existed and the leading faith should be الأثرية , al-ʾAṯarīya ('traditionalism'). As there are mods that overhaul CK3 religion much better than I can, I have only added in the original Arabic when appropriate (and I simply haven’t bothered with the ‘Ikhtifalism’ nonsense).
4. ‘Court Titles’ – Arabic titles and flavour text for the positions added in the ‘Royal Court’ DLC. Again, some fudging was necessary to make them fit. Just as an 'Antiquarian' was made up by Paradox, there is no such thing (formally, at least) as a Ḵallāq at-Tuḥaf. Similarly, a ḥaras was usually an entire organised force with a leader, as implied in the 'Secular Titles' tab - not an individual ḥāris guardsman.
5. ‘Secular Titles’ – Localisation for ranks possible in the CK3 non-religious hierarchy (including some modded ranks implemented in the Community Title Project) as of July 2022, including all cultures in the present 'Arabic' culture group, as well as several suggested and/or implemented in the Community Title Project mod. This list is likely to change should a content pack with a hierarchy tailored for Islamic styles of governance be added in the future.
6. ‘Religious Titles’ – Similar to the above, except for 'court chaplain' and 'priest' ranks in CK3. The system by which titles are assigned is difficult to figure out, hence a number of fudges that are designed to cover all bases for both landed and non-landed clerics.
7. ‘Male Isms + Kunyas’ – A list of period-appropriate Arabic male names given at birth, as well as the appropriate form of the definite article for those names that most commonly incorporated it in the era for flavour (e.g. 'al-Qāsim', the name of the Prophet Muhammad's son, rather than just 'Qāsim'), and finally the honorific 'kunya' style for each name which usually refers to the name of an Arab adult's eldest son (see link above for further explanation, although in reality it gets even more complicated than is presented in this workbook...).
8. ‘Female Isms + Kunyas’ – A list of period-appropriate Arabic female names given at birth. Kunyas referring to daughters were considerably rarer than ones referring to sons; nevertheless I have presented the correct formulas should this be desired.
9. 'Official Laqabs' – Honorific bynames adopted by a multitude of different rulers and prominent Muslims of the medieval period, and which have in more recent centuries developed into ordinary forenames used in Muslim cultures.
10. ‘Regnal Laqabs’ – Names adopted or appended to titles by medieval Islamic monarchs and caliphs at the start of their reign (these were often also adopted by princes of the blood, but that too complicated to implement!), including their English translations for the purposes of event text.
11. ‘Regnal Laqabs (f)’ – Adapted regnal laqabs for female caliphs of hypothetical 'reformed' faiths permitted in CK3. As the concept of having a woman as Commander of the Faithful in the would be extremely heterodox in the medieval era anyway, there is no division in naming lists like male counterparts.
12. ‘In-Game Nicknames’ – All the nicknames currently in CK3, but replaced with a culturally-appropriate Arabic term. These are not straight translations from the original choices for CK3, so please take note of the tooltip translations. Most nicknames will follow the naming order indicated in the 'Naming Conventions' tab, but others can take the place of other articles or be elsewhere in the name order – this is indicated in the 'Placement in name order' column
13. ‘All Nicknames’ – An enormous master list of colourful laqabs and nisbas sourced from everywhere, with some implementation notes. (Perhaps someday we can see randomly generated courtiers appear with a profession, tribe, or city of origin picked from a pool!) Note that many nisbas do not have a female equivalent, as nisbas at the end of women's names usually referred to the origin of the forefathers mentioned in their nasab. Even more of a work in progress than the other tabs.
Explanatory Notes
1. Transliteration of Arabic words has been rendered in a slightly-adapted version of the transliteration scheme used in Hans Wehr's Arabic-English Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic (1961), as well as in 'plain text', which is a less accurate transliteration using only standard characters in the English alphabet.
2. The Arabic for each entry in most of the tabs has been included (without harakat, i.e. vowel marks), to allow for transliteration into an alternative scheme, or should implementation of some Arabic script be desired for flavour purposes.
3. In the most evident case of grammatical streamlining, the definite article ʾalif lām (ال) has been dropped from the start of most phrases, even in constructions where to do so would be grammatically incorrect. This is for the sake of simplicity, and to help integration into sentences of the main game language by preventing doubling-up of definite articles. However, I'm not completely happy with this and I'm willing to hear alternative views.
4. The poet quoted in the ‘Court Poet’ entry in ‘Court Titles’ is ʾAbū Tammām, a master of the badīʿ court panegyric style of poetry, and the lines are taken from his ode to Caliph al-Maʾmūn on the occasion of his incursion against the Byzantines.
Update Notes (v0.92)
1. Additional tabs added (indicated above as ‘New Tab’).
2. All lists rationalised to reduce repetition.
3. Grammar, transcription and character corrections for some erroneous entries, particularly with regards to a consistent use of tāʾ marbūṭa (ة) and the elision of sun letters. Instances of kāf al-mashkūla (ک) have been corrected to standard Arabic kāf (ك).
4. Added more names to ism lists. These still need considerable further expansion, and I would love contributions!
5. Missing regnal laqabs added for Abbasid list.
7. Additional nicknames tab added, nisbas and further nicknames are a work in progress.
8. ‘Maghribi’ Arabic characters have been scrapped, as it was a silly and incomplete idea.
9. Dynasties tab has been scrapped. TheGib770 has independently developed an Arabic-language dynasty system for CK3. Although some of the entries in my ‘All Nicknames’ tab could certainly be adapted as dynasty names, I am reluctant to introduce anything further in the way of a dynasty replacer, not least because making the grammar work for every relevant context in CK3 would be a painfully extended exercise with minimal impact. And I think I’ve contributed enough anyway…
10. (v 0.91) Added Mercenary and Holy Order titles.
11. (v 0.92) Updated nicknames list to include new additions by Paradox since 2022.
Permissions
All content in this document has been dug up, brushed off and added by me, Dom Tromans a.k.a. Farabi.
Please feel free to use it as you please, although in creative projects that make use of it extensively I would ask that you add me to your credit list as 'Dom Tromans'. Obviously, any content taken from the Community Title Project or Community Name Pack should be credited according to the attribution guidelines given by that project.
I am happy to advise or participate in creative projects or game mods related to Islamic history and public history, particularly on the subject of the 'Abbasid Caliphate.
For any requests, questions, suggestions or corrections, I can be contacted here on the forums or using the details in the first page of the document.
Credits
The Community Title Project and Community Name Packs contributor and implementation teams for their gargantuan efforts in localising the medieval world in CK3, and for which this workbook was originally conceived.
Last edited:
- 7
- 5
- 1
.png){kind=avatar}