Editing Arabic name (section)

===''{{transliteration|ar|Nasab}}''===
{{See also|Patronymic#Arabic}}
<!-- '''Note:''' in accordance with [[Wikipedia:Manual of Style (Arabic)]], the Arabic particle '''بن''' ("son of") should be transliterated '''''ibn''''' unless a [[Wikipedia:Manual of Style (Arabic)#Primary transcription|primary transcription]] requires the colloquial form '''''bin''''' (e.g. [[Osama bin Laden]]). -->

The ''nasab'' ({{Langx|ar|نسب|lit=lineage}}) is a [[patronymic]] or [[matronymic]], or a series thereof. It indicates the person's heritage by the word ''ibn'' ({{lang|ar|ابن}} "son of", colloquially ''bin'') or ''ibnat'' ("daughter of", also {{lang|ar|بنت}} ''bint'', abbreviated ''bte.'').{{Citation needed|date=December 2024}} In the 1995 book ''Name Studies'' ([[De Gruyter]]), {{Interlanguage link|Wolfdietrich Fischer|de}} wrote that, although the nasab was still common contemporarily, ''ibn'' and ''bint'' were omitted "in almost all Arab countries".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Fischer |first=Wolfdietrich |title=Namenforschung |date=1995-05-15 |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |isbn=978-3-11-011426-3 |editor-last=Eichler |editor-first=Ernst |pages=873–875 |trans-title=Name Studies |chapter=Arabische Personennamen |editor-last2=Hilty |editor-first2=Gerold |editor-last3=Löffler |editor-first3=Heinrich |editor-last4=Steger |editor-first4=Hugo |editor-last5=Zgusta |editor-first5=Ladislav |chapter-url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110114263.1.8.873/html}}</ref>

[[Ibn Khaldun]] ({{lang|ar|ابن خلدون}}) means "son of Khaldun". Khaldun is the father's personal name or, in this particular case, the name of a remote male ancestor.

[[Ammar ibn Yasir|ʿAmmār ibn Sumayya]] means "ʿAmmār son of [[Sumayyah bint Khabbat|Sumayya]]". Sumayya is the personal name of ʿAmmār's mother, the same person can also be identified by his father's personal name "ʿAmmār ibn Yasir". In later Islamic periods the nasab was an important tool in determining a child's father by means of describing paternity in a social (i.e. to whom was the mother legally married during the conception of the child), not a biological sense, because the father's biological identity can be grounds for speculation. In early Islamic contexts this function is not yet well established. This stems from a legal principle introduced by Islam regarding the legal status of children (they can only arise from marriage) and changes to waiting periods relating to divorce to establish an undisputed legal father for any child. This function only developing with Islam means that one can find many [[Companions of the Prophet]] bearing a maternal nasab, as the naming conventions reflected in their names still stem from pre-Islamic attitudes and beliefs.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Mohammadi |first=Adeel |date=2016 |title=The Ambiguity of Maternal Filiation (nasab) in Early and Medieval Islam |url=https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/hdsjournal/ambiguity-maternal-filiation-nasab-early-and-medieval-islam |journal=The Graduate Journal of Harvard Divinity School |issue=11 |pages=52–68}}</ref>

Several ''nasab'' names can follow in a chain to trace a person's ancestry backwards in time, as was important in the [[tribe|tribal]] society of medieval Arabs, both for purposes of identification and for socio-political interactions. Today, however, ''ibn'' or ''bint'' is no longer used (unless it is the official naming style in a country, region, etc.: Adnen bin Abdallah). The plural is ''{{transliteration|ar|'Abnā}}'' for males and ''{{transliteration|ar|Banāt}}'' for females. However, ''{{transliteration|ar|Banu}}'' or ''{{transliteration|ar|Bani}}'' is tribal and encompasses both sexes.