Young Writers Society

Okay, so recently I've decided to revise my story, and I've decided to use Pakistan as a base for one city/country on my map. Just generally using arabic names (checking meanings on the way), pakistani dress (chappal, shalwah kameez, etc), geography/climate and descriptions of character's appearances.

I'm also looking for nearby countries in Eastern Europe, the Middle East or India to use as bases for my research for nearby countries in my story. I'll be needing to research names, dress, culture, geography/climate, food, flora/fauna, appearances etc.

Any ideas or info that you can give me on these subjects would be greatly appreciated.

Wait ... the way you say "other middle eastern countries" after India and Pakistan seems to imply you think those two countries are in the Middle East??

Hmm ... anyway. I know what you mean though. Do you want me to ask my Pakistani friend(s)? I could get some good information for you.

babynames.com has a lot of arabic names.

Just remember, when you introduce people, it's last name before first name.
So I would be Mathers Elizabeth.
I sort of realized that about a year when I asked to speak to Malik, but he's like you mean Zulfqar XD

Fire:: Thanks, that'd be good if you could ask for me. I've got one pakistani friend and she's given me some good advice already, but obviously it's good to try getting info from more than one source. Um.. yeah.. with the whole 'middle east' thing, well, I haven't done geography for a while.. lol. I think Pakistan is in the Middle East, but you might want to correct me(?)

TBR:: I actually never knew that thing with last name before first name, so that really helps! Also, Malik sounds like a cool name. Is that a guy's name?

Well, Pakistan does kinda overlap with the Middle East, but is usually pronounced to be situated in South Asia.

PM Khayriyyah. She's Iraqi.

Malik, yes, it's a last name. Means King.
There's a lot on babynames.com as I mentioned too.

TBR:: I've found a good place for muslim prenames which looks useful 'cause it gives the meanings, and they're all in arabic. I even found the meaning for my friend's name! Do you know anywhere that has special emphasis on arabic surnames or surnames in general?

Gal:: Will do. Do you know if Khayriyyah visits regularly? I'll pm her anyways.

Fire:: My geography is bad.. ..which is annoying 'cause I'm trying to use a bit of geography for revising my story - maps, climate, etc.

Thanks for all the responses everyone! I didn't expect people to reply so quickly.

I feel your pain, there is no good links for arabic surnames on google, I was also going to use some for my middle east type city in one of my older book rewrites.

I guess I can help u out cuz I am from India and I may know a bit of my neighbouring state pakistan also.

India is very rich in her culture.
I am a 'bengali' and my mother tounge is 'bengali'.We also follow a language in India that is hindi which is common in India.India has about 24 languages.
In India women generally wear a dress called 'saree',and they also wear 'salwar kameez'.

For now its just this much,if this is helpful I'll post some more info here.




-bye

Names in India and Pakistan: they're not always Arabic. Nor are they always Hindi, or influenced by Urdu/Persian/[insert-language-here]. Religion tends to have a heavy influence in surnames (and first names, for that matter); for example, if you're born Muslim, chances are your name won't be something like "Parvati." And similarly, if you're Hindu, names like "Muhammad" or "Ahmad" don't crop up too often.

Remember: Google is your friend. A few seconds of search (just type in the right keywords!) will yield stuff like this.

I'm trying to keep names with religious meanings out of the story, as I'm not planning to go very far into religion as a theme, so using religious names might confuse readers. Any thoughts on this?


adam:: yeah.. I've been able to find prenames but still no luck with surnames.. I'll make sure I tell you if I find any though!

sayani:: wow, I guess I know who to ask if I have really specific questions!! I've gotta say, I never knew India had that many languages!! I thought it was something like 13, which is still a lot but nowhere near as many as 24!!

smaur:: thanks for link!! that looks really useful!! I've got a lot of pictures of Pakistani and Indian clothing, but I never had all these descriptions! Looks like this could be useful.

Question - when it comes to clothing, should I say "sari", "salwar kameez" etc. or would it be better to describe the clothing instead? I would just use the words but this is meant to be for a fantasy world in which certain cities are only loosely based on Pakistan/India.


Some more specific questions now..

- While an Englishman might court a lady with roses, is there an equivalent in Pakistan or India? Any flowers which symbolise love/beauty/courtship etc?

- What is the difference between clothing worn by nobility and less well-off people? Is there any difference in styles of clothing or just quality of materials / colours?


Thanks all!

~KayJuran~

Some ‘Muslim’ surnames: Zafar, Khan, Sheik, Hussain.
Some ‘Hindu’ surnames: Singh, Rai, Roy, Kapoor, Oberoi.


Umm.. well describing the clothing ‘sari’ and ‘salwar kameez’ can be a tuff job.
Cuz in India different state wear the sari in a different way, they have their own peculiar way of wearing it. To describe the dress ‘salwar kameez’ is more or less easy. Well its of to u, if u think describing would be better for the reader then u should.

- ‘While an Englishman might court a lady with roses, is there an equivalent in Pakistan or India? Any flowers which symbolise love/beauty/courtship etc?’

- No its just the same rose here.

- What is the difference between clothing worn by nobility and less well-off
people? Is there any difference in styles of clothing or just quality of materials / colours?

It just differs on the quality of materials.
And yeah to some extent well-off people tend to wear executive suits (for men) than less well-off people.

In the southern part of India men generally have a typical dress code that is they wear ‘dhoti’ and ‘kurta’ .In India dress code to some extent differs according to the states.




-Sayani.

Pakistan/India are not in the middle east. Theyare in Southern Asia.

However, if you still want Middle Eastern things, PM either myself (I am Israeli), Magicman(He's Lebanese) or Khariyyah (she's Iraqi)

Pakistan could be seen as the middle east, since Afghanistan is considered middle eastern. But india is a sub continent of Asia.