Arab-American Faces and Voices: The Origins of an Immigrant Community

NOTES

NOTES 1. Historical Background 1. Anwar G. Chejne, The Arabic Language: Its Role in History (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1969), 25. See also Roger Allen, World Book Encyclopedia , 2001, ‘‘Arabic language’’ and ‘‘Arabic literature,’’ 583–84; Howard R. Turner, ‘‘The First Language of Islam,’’ in Science in Medieval Islam: An Illustrated Introduction (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1999, paperback), 15; Bernard Comrie, ed., The World’s Major Languages (New York: Oxford University Press,1987), 666–73. Chejne, The Arabic Language: Arabic belongs to the Semitic group of languages. . . . The permanent home of the Semitic languages is in a contiguous area that includes the Fertile Crescent, the Arabian Peninsula, and Ethiopia. Within this area scholars have described three main geographical distributions of the Semitic languages . . . . Northwest Semitic comes from the area of Syria-Palestine where many dialects appeared . . . The Southwest Semitic group is included in the areas of Arabia and Ethiopia. 2. Regarding the early arrivals, consensus among those interviewed for this study supports the theory that Arabs settled in Worcester around 1880 and earlier. As a result of my research, I do not claim to pinpoint a specific date, name, or address of the earliest Arab who settled in Worcester as my investigation encountered many dead ends and inadequate data. There are several reasons why this information is not known. (a) Multiple-return migration. Frequently, immigrants who migrated during the years1880 to1915 made a few return trips to their homelands before they decided to settle permanently in America. Most did not come because of political or religious persecution. Because of the lack of adequate data it was impossible to determine which was a first or a subsequent migration. Records neither tabulated how often any one person arrived in or departed from the United States nor did they distinguish newcomers who contemplated permanent settlement from those who were sojourners. Additionally, some lived elsewhere in America before they permanently settled in New England. Author Thomas J. Archdeacon, as an example, stated in Table V-4, ‘‘Percentage of Males and Remigration Rates of Major Ethnic Groups,’’ 1929, that Ethnic Group Syrian, Male was 69.5 percent and their Remigration Rate was 23.1 percent. Becoming American: An Ethnic History (New York: Free Press, 1983), 139. Source: Derived from data in Imre Ferenczi, International Migrations, vol. 1, Statistics (New 222 Notes 223 York: National Bureau of Economics Research, 1929), tables 10, 15, and 19 in the section on the United States. (b) Transliteration from Arabic to English. Incorrect transliteration and anglicization of many names occurred in federal, state, and local public records. For example, Salim Rachid became ‘‘Rochette’’ in Worcester House Directory, 1896 (Worcester, Mass.: Drew Allis Company), 294, and ‘‘Roshed’’ in Bureau of the Census , Twelfth Census of the United States, Schedule No. 1: Population, 1900 (Washington , D.C.: Bureau of the Census), sheet 103B. Elias M. Bacela became ‘‘Pazila’’ in Worcester House Directory, 1900, 325. Badaway Abodeely appears as ‘‘Abudela’’ in Grantee Index, Worcester County Registry of Deeds, Book 1841, 1906, 569. John Kaneb is ‘‘John Kump’’ in Twelfth Census of the United States, 1900, sheet 7A. Anthony Massad is ‘‘Anton Masad’’ in Worcester House Directory, 1900, 325, and ‘‘Massatt’’ in Twelfth Census of the United States, 1900, sheet 82B. (c) Patronymic and family name. As was the general custom worldwide, most Arab names consisted of a first name that was the child’s given name and a second name that was the father’s first name. Identification with patrilineality, the father’s line of descent, was a basic ascribed relationship for both sons and daughters, and even though daughters might move to their husband’s family when they married, they were still regarded as members of their father’s line and were known by their father’s name. It was common on marriage certificates that the bride’s first name was followed by her father’s first name. For example, Mary Asaffe was the daughter of Asaffe George from the family of Aboassaly. Some American-born children changed their second name to their family name in place of the father’s first name. (d) Naming the newborn. It was customary to name a newborn after a deceased relative or friend, regardless of geography, and that added to the confusion. (e) Listing of early immigrants. The following listing identifies several early immigrants who may have migrated about 1880 or earlier. The names were randomly chosen based on mid-nineteenth-century birth dates that were engraved...