Abdullah (name)
Abdullah or Abdallah is the primary transliteration of the Arabic given name, , built from the Arabic words "ʿAbd" and Allah. The first letter "a" in "Allah" in its native pronunciation is unstressed, and is elided following another vowel; in the case of Abdu-llah this is the -u of the Classical Arabic nominative case. It is one of many Arabic theophoric names, meaning "servant of God". "God's Follower" is also a meaning of this name. Humility before God is an essential value of Islam, hence "Abdullah" is a common name among Muslims. However, the name of the  Islamic prophet Muhammad's father was Abdullah. The prophet's father died before his birth, which indicates that the name was already in use in pre-Islamic Arabia. It is also common among Mizrahi Jews, especially Iraqi Jews and Syrian Jews. The name is cognate to and has the same meaning as the Hebrew Abdiel and, more commonly, Obadiah. There were two Jewish Rabbis in Medina before Islam came; they were Abdullah ibn Salam and Abdullah ibn Shuria. Abdullah ibn Saba was a Yemenite Jew during the spread of Islam. The variant used in the Russian language is "" ("Abdulla") (cf . Fedul, which has similar origins), with "" ("Abdul") and "" ("Gabdulla") often used in Adyghe. The Spanish variant is Abdala. The Christian Arabic Bible uses the word "Allah" for God. Presently in the Middle East, the name is sometimes used by Christians, as a given or family name.