Safiya Explained

Safiya, Safeia
Pronunciation:	pronounced as /ar/
Gender:	Female
Meaning:	Pure, "Sincere Friend", cielo limpido, "Wisdom"
Region:	Arab world
Language:	Arabic
Alternative Spelling:	Saffiyah, Safia, Safya, Safie, Safeia, Safieh
Variant Forms:	Safiye

Safiya (Arabic: صفية|Ṣafiyya) is an Arab name, meaning "pure."^{[1] [2]} Alternative transliterations include Saffiyah, Safiyyah, Safie, Safia, Safija, Safya, Sophie, Safiyah, Safeia, etc.

Notable bearers of the name include:

Medieval

• Safiyyah bint Abd al-Muttalib (late 560s–c. 640), Sahaba and a prominent person in Islamic history
• Safiyya bint Huyayy (c. 610–c. 670), one of the wives of the Islamic prophet Muhammad
• Safiyyah bint Abi al-As, daughter of Abu al-As ibn Umayyah
• Safiye Sultan (wife of Murad III), Ottoman Valide sultan
• Safiye Sultan (daughter of Mustafa II) (1696–1778), the daughter of Ottoman sultan Mustafa II

Modern

• Safiya Zaghloul (1876–1946), Egyptian political activist
• Safia Ahmed-jan (1941–2006), Afghan women's rights advocate and critic of the Taliban
• Safia Tarzi, Afghan fashion designer.
• Safia El Emari (born 1949), Egyptian actress
• Sfia Bouarfa (born 1950), Moroccan-Belgian politician
• Safiya Henderson-Holmes (1950–2001), African-American poet
• Safia Farkash (born 1952), Libyan wife of Muammar Gaddafi
• Safiya George, U.S. Virgin Islands nurse practitioner and academic administrator
• Safia Abdi Haase (born 1959), Somali nurse and women's rights activist
• Safia Middleton-Patel (born 2004), Welsh footballer
• Safia Minney (born 1964), British social entrepreneur and author
• Safiya Nygaard (born 1992), American YouTuber
• Safia Taleb Ali al-Suhail (born 1965) Iraqi politician
• Safia Shah (born 1966), British writer, editor and television news producer
• Safiya Hussaini (born 1967), Nigerian condemned to death for adultery, later acquitted
• Safia Abukar Hussein (born 1981), Somali sprinter
• Safiya Songhai (born 1984), American film director
• Safia Boukhima (born 1991) Algerian volleyball player
• Siti Safiyah, Malaysian ten-pin bowler
• Safiya Abdel Rahman, Egyptian active in girl guiding and scouting

Fictional characters

• Safiyah Sohail, a DC comics character
• Safie, a character Frankenstein
• Safiya fon Hasstrell, a character from Susan Dennard’s Witchlands series

See also

• Safiye, Turkish form
• Sophia (name) (unrelated Greek name)

Notes and References

1. Book: A Dictionary of Muslim Names. Salahuddin Ahmed. Hurst & Company. London. 1999.
2. Book: A Dictionary of Muslim Names. S. A. Rahman. Goodword Books. New Delhi. 2001.