Why Yi-Ti uses muslim names ?

[makif130289]

Abdul, Murat, Isa ( which is Jesus ), Alim, Ismail, Yusuf etc.

Shouldn't it be more plausible to have Chinese-like ( But not actual Chinese names ) names for YI-TI. Seeing islamic names in ASoIAF universe is very strange..

 

[Ezumiyr]

Abdul comes from "Abd": servant of. Not muslim.
Murat mean "wanted", "desired", "wished". Not muslim.
Alim means "scholar". Not muslim.
Etc... A lot of these names are just Arab. Not all of them, I agree, but muslim and arab(ian) are two different things (remember that the big majority of the muslims in this world live in Indonesia and Africa and are not Arabs). And I don't find that very strange given that a lot of Westerosi names are christian (Jon, Lysa...), or directly taken from real cultures (Robert, Arya...). Generally the names and words in GRR Martin's universe are not very exotic (except for the Valyrian and all the magic features).

The problem is more with the lack of informations about the Yi Ti. Are there attested Yi Ti names in the books? Three cities: Asabhad (Persian/West-Indian like), Yin (Chinese like) and Jinqi (northern Chinese like, perhaps Manchu). Yi ti is probably a transposal of the amalgam of all these eastern cultures that made the western europeans dream (= the eastern cultures of the silk road).

 

[makif130289]

Do christian names like Samuel ( Ismail ), David, Josef ( Yusuf ) exist in Westeros ? I always thought Westerosi names were not christian names.

Yes, YI-TI names are arabic, not muslim because Islam is not a language. But using arabic names of prophets of abrahamic religions in ASoIAF is strange because english version of them are not used in Westeros. Of course Yusuf has a meaning in Arabic but it is known because it is the name of a prophet.

Would seeing Abraham in Westeros be OK ? It is exact same situation. I know there may be some lack of localization information for YI-TI. That's why i suggested to use meaningless Chinese-style names. Afterall, GRRM did the same for ASoIAF.

 

[D Toccs]

Would seeing Abraham in Westeros be OK ? It is exact same situation. I know there may be some lack of localization information for YI-TI. That's why i suggested to use meaningless Chinese-style names. Afterall, GRRM did the same for ASoIAF.

Jon, Peter, Paul, Simon, Robert . . . are these not real world Christian names that appear in Westeros?
I went through the arabic names and removed things like "Abraham" and "Mohammed" before implementing them for exactly the reasons you are saying. The arabic names were first used before the Far East expansion had been added and were used for Moraq, Asabhad, Bayasabhad, Zahbad etc, which are quite obviously arabic influenced.
It's possible that the asian name set which has been used for the Jogos Nhai and Nghai would better suit Yi Ti now, but that would mean recreating every character and family in Yi Ti, something which is understandably a low priority.