Hamza

Hamza (Arabic: همزة‎, hamzah) (ء) is a letter in the Arabic alphabet, representing the glottal stop [ʔ]. Hamza is not one of the 28 "full" letters, and owes its existence to historical inconsistencies in the standard writing system. It is derived from the Arabic letter ‘ayn. In the Phoenician and Aramaic alphabets, from which the Arabic alphabet is descended, the glottal stop was expressed by aleph (), continued by alif (  ) in the Arabic alphabet. However, alif was used to express both a glottal stop and a long vowel /aː/. To indicate that a glottal stop, and not a mere vowel, was intended, hamza was added diacritically to alif. In modern orthography, under certain circumstances, hamza may also appear on the line, as if it were a full letter, independent of an alif. In Unicode it is at the codepoint U+0621 and named 'ARABIC LETTER HAMZA'.

Etymology

Hamzah is a noun from the verb هَمَزَ hamaz-a meaning ‘to prick, goad, drive’ or ‘to provide (a letter or word) with hamzah’.

Hamzat waṣl

Hamzah bin Hussein

Prince Hamzah bin Hussein (Arabic: حمزة بن الحسين‎) (born 29 March 1980) is the son of King Hussein of Jordan and his American-born fourth wife, Queen Noor. He was named Crown Prince of Jordan in 1999, a position he held until it was rescinded in 2004 by his half-brother, King Abdullah II. Queen Noor states in her autobiography that she and King Hussein named their son after Hamza ibn ‘Abd al-Muttalib.

Official biography

Born on 29 March 1980, Prince Hamzah ibn Al Hussein claims ancestry with the Islamic Prophet Mohammad through the Hashemite family. King Abdullah II officially named him as Crown Prince of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan on 7 February 1999, a position he held until 28 November 2004.

Prince Hamzah received his elementary education in Jordan and Amman, and then attended Harrow School in England. He then joined the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, passing out as a commissioned officer in the Jordan Arab Legion in December 1999, with a number of prizes including the Sandhurst Overseas Sword, granted to the best overseas cadet and the HRH Prince Saud Abdullah Prize, presented to the cadet with the best aggregate mark in academic subjects.

Hamza (disambiguation)

Hamza may refer to:

People

Places

Other uses

See also