Fatima and Fatima

[PoliSciProf]

There have been many posts about the apparitions at Fatima but there doesn’t seem to be any regarding on the interesting stories about the origin of the Portuguese town’s name. There are several stories that the town was named Fatima after a convert from Islam to Christianity. Several of these are certainly fanciful but the brute fact is that the town was (and is) Fatima. Fatima was the name of Mohammed’s daughter and it remains a popular name among Muslims today. Indeed, I think that Fatima is venerated (I think this the proper term) by pious Muslims today. My questions for CAFers: (1) can anyone shed some light on the historical naming of the town Fatima? (2) More importantly, what is the significance of the apparitions of the Blessed Virgin at a town strongly linked to Islam through its name? Surely this cannot be a coincidence. Your comments and thoughts are welcomed.

 

[zab]

There have been many posts about the apparitions at Fatima but there doesn’t seem to be any regarding on the interesting stories about the origin of the Portuguese town’s name. There are several stories that the town was named Fatima after a convert from Islam to Christianity. Several of these are certainly fanciful but the brute fact is that the town was (and is) Fatima. Fatima was the name of Mohammed’s daughter and it remains a popular name among Muslims today. Indeed, I think that Fatima is venerated (I think this the proper term) by pious Muslims today. My questions for CAFers: (1) can anyone shed some light on the historical naming of the town Fatima? (2) More importantly, what is the significance of the apparitions of the Blessed Virgin at a town strongly linked to Islam through its name? Surely this cannot be a coincidence. Your comments and thoughts are welcomed.

John M. Haffert, a founder of the World Apostolate of Fatima, wrote a little booklet on this topic. You can read it here: The Hand of Fatima johnhaffert.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/The-Hand-of-Fatima.pdf

 

[amrin]

Portugal is a very old country, keeping that in mind, most of the places in Portugal were named by the owners of the lands many centuries ago, may them be counts or kings. For example, the place where I lived most of my life was named by a king called D. Dinis I (the first). If you are looking for “facts” or paperwork telling why the land was called A or B, you will probably not find it, you might find old documents naming the place and that’s about it. The only thing that survived were the stories told from generation to generation about how the land was named that way.

The local story / fable about the naming of Fatima is the following.

There was a local moorish princess called Fátima, that after being captured by the Christian Army following the Reconquer that started in the VIII century, was given in marriage to a count of what is today known as Ourém.
After accepting christianity, she received the baptismal name of Oriana (Oureana in the old portuguese) in 1158.
Fátima is located in the heart of the Aire mountain range, and to this place the count named it Lands of Fatima, in memory of the ancestors, and to the county / municipality he named Oriana (later renamed Ourém).

For question number two, I’m not the right person to answer

 

[otjm]

Somewhat off topic, but while you are at it, Google Zeitun.