Nom de Plume

Razia, 13th century Queen of Delhi, is known by many, many names. I’m getting a crash course in Arabic in my research.

Different spellings of Razia:
Raziya
Raziyya
Razziyah
Razeeya
Raddiya
Radhiya
well, you get the picture.

In Arabic, Razia and Radhiya (and their various permutations) are interchangeable, meaning “content, satisfied.”
In Aramaic, Razia(h) is the feminine form of Raziel, “raz” meaning “secret” and the “ia” part meaning “God” (Yahweh?). So “the secret of God.”

Of course, the Aramaic preceded the Arabic, but exploring the connection between the names is interesting. Content and satisfied because of being the secret of God? Or is it that basking in God’s glory should make one content and satisfied? Or perhaps, even, that the secret of God is really being content or satisfied?

In any case, Razia wasn’t either. She axed her brother to take over the throne–which her father Iltutmish (Altumish) had dictated on his deathbed. She dressed in man’s garb (who can blame her?), had, by some accounts, a torrid love affair with an Abyssinian slave and battled with the best of ‘em. There are differing accounts of her death, but they all agree she was killed.

So maybe the name itself poses certain contradictions, because of the two apparently unrelated meanings.

Then there are the honorifics:
Sultan Raziyat al-Duniya w’al [wa-al] Din Bint al-Sultan or “The Blessed of the earthly world and of the faith”
Sultan Radiyya Bint Shamas al-din or “Daughter of the Sun”
Jalalut-u’d [al]-din Radiyah (Don’t know what Jalalut means … any helpers?)
Jalalatuddin Radiyya Begum