Abdurrahman Wahid (Gusdur)
Abdurrahman Wahid Like many Indonesian names, " Abdurrahman Wahid " does not contain a family name. The name "Wahid" is patronymic. His popular nickname Gus Dur, is derived from Gus, a common honorific for a son of kyai, from short-form of bagus ; and Dur, short-form of his name, Abdurrahman. Abdurrahman ad-Dakhil Wahid was born on the 4th day of the eighth month of the Islamic calendar in 1940 in Jombang, East Java to Abdul Wahid Hasyim and Siti Solichah. This led to a belief that he was born on 4 August; instead, using the Islamic calendar to mark his birth date meant that he was actually born on 4 Sha'aban, equivalent to 7 September 1940. He was named after Abd ar-Rahman I of the Umayyad Caliphate who brought Islam to Spain and was thus nicknamed "ad-Dakhil". His name is stylized in the traditional Arabic naming system as "Abdurrahman, son of Wahid". His family is Javanese of mixed Chinese-Arabic origins with some native blood. From his...