Abd al-Rahman
Abd al-Rahman or Abd ar-Rahman (Arabic: عبد الرحمن or occasionally عبد الرحمان; DMG ʿAbd ar-Raḥman) is a male Muslim given name, and in modern usage, surname. It is built from the Arabic words Abd, al- and Rahman. The name means "servant of the most merciful", ar-Rahman being one of the names of God in the Qur'an, which give rise to the Muslim theophoric names.
The letter A of the al- is unstressed, and can be transliterated by almost any vowel, often by u. Because the letter R is a sun letter, the letter l of the al- is assimilated to it. Thus although the name is written in Arabic with letters corresponding to Abd al-Rahman, the usual pronunciation corresponds to Abd ar-Rahman. Alternative transliterations include ‘Abd ar-Rahman, Abdul Rahman, Abdur Rahman, Abdur Rehman, Abdul Rehman, Abidur Rahman, and others, all subject to variant spacing and hyphenation. Certain transliterations tend to be associated with certain areas, for example, Abdirahman in Somalia, and Abderrahmane in French-speaking North Africa.
