Through the Screen · Dune · 3 min
The words Dune borrowed
Mahdi, Lisān al-Ghayb, Muad'Dib, Usul, jihad: Dune's vocabulary comes from Arabic. Here is what the words mean to the people who use them.
Through the Screen · The words Dune borrowed
Mahdi
“The guided one.” In Islam, a figure many Muslims expect near the end of time. In Dune, Paul is a manufactured messiah built from propaganda: not the Mahdi of Islam.
Lisān al-Ghayb
“The tongue of the Unseen.” Al-ghayb is what only God knows; the Qur'an says “with Him are the keys of the unseen” (6:59).
Muad'Dib
From muʾaddib, “one who teaches”, “one who trains in good manners”. Adab means courtesy and culture.
Usul
“Principles, foundations”, as in uṣūl al-fiqh, the principles of Islamic law.
Jihad
In Dune, a galaxy-wide holy war. In Arabic, jihād means striving: ethical effort, and in some cases legitimate defence. Sufi teachers speak of the greatest jihad as the struggle with one's own self, jihād al-nafs.
Shai-Hulud
Often explained as Arabic shayʾ khulūd, “thing of eternity”. Lovely, but not confirmed. We say so.
Sources: Juan Cole, Informed Comment, 10 March 2024; Haris Durrani, “The Muslimness of Dune”, Tor.com, 18 October 2021. On the live site each word will be spoken by a Muslim speaker.
