The name “Ahmad” shines a good deal of light on the reason why some Iranians choose Arabic names. “Ahmad” is a variation or the name “Muhammad,” the Prophet who revealed the Islamic teachings. Yet one must realize that the name “Ahmad” and other Arabic names have been part of the Iranian culture for less than 40% of its long and illustrious history.
Before the Muslim Arabs brought the teachings of Muhammad to Iran (a country then called Persia) Persian families often named their sons after the Persian kings. “Cyrus” and “Khosrow” were popular boys’ names at that time. Today, some Iranians still choose to name their sons after Persian kings.
Only after a majority of the Persian population had become Muslim did Persian families begin using Arabic names. The people of Persia, however, continued to be selective. They did not use just any name in Arabic that had come from the lips of the Islam-teaching Arabs.
For example, one would, today, have great difficulty finding an Iranian child named “Omar.” In order to understand why Iranians are reluctant to name any child “Omar,” one must go back to the time when the people of Persia had their first contact with Arabs and the Islamic teachings. One must examine just how the Persians sought out more information about Islam.
The Persians sent a small party of men to the Arab countries from which the visiting Arabs had come. That small party of men discovered that Islam had two sects, Shiite and Sunni. Those sects represented the two different views concerning the proper successor to Muhammad.
The party from Persia learned that most Arabs were Sunnis; as Sunnis, they accepted Omar as the rightful successor to Muhammad. The Persians thus chose to become Shiites. As Shiites, they believed that a man named Ali was the true successor to Muhammad. As Shiites, they accepted Ali as the first in a line of 11 Imams. As Shiites, they believed that God would one day be sending to earth a 12th Imam.
Hence the schism in Islam explains the absence in present-day Iran of at least one of the many Arabic names. If one travels east into Afghanistan, one finds the reverse to be the case. There “Omar” is a name in Arabic that families do not hesitate to give to their male sons. There in Afghanistan, however, one would have great difficulty finding a small boy named “Ali.”
For many centuries the world paid slight attention to the differences between the Islamic sects. In fact, Muslims encouraged western belief that all Muslims followed the same teachings. World events have, however, dictated recognition of the fact that there are really two ways to follow Muhammad. The Islamic religion is no more unified than Christianity. Now some members of both religions strive to help with achieving greater unity throughout the world.