Talk:Kismet

Word Origin
"Kismet is a word, possibly derived from Turkish, Urdu or Persian, meaning fate or destiny, a predetermined course of events." The preceding quote is seemingly inaccurate because, as the article explains, the word is obviously derived from Arabic. The word shares a common construction with numerous Arabic words that entered Persian, whereby the Arabic letter "taa marbuta" (ة, knotted T) ending the word is permanently changed (unraveled) to the letter T (qismah -> qismat). Persian exerted enormous influence over Urdu (an Indic language derived from Persian), and Turkish (Ottoman Turkish relied heavily on Persian). The spelling of the English word "kismet" appears to be brought from Turkish, as Western Turkish lacks the letters/sounds to accurately reproduce "qismat", hence the q becoming k, and the a becoming e in typical Turkish fashion.

It would be more correct to say kismet is derived from Arabic through Persian and Turkish respectively. It is not feasible that Urdu played any role in the origin of the word.


 * It should perhaps be mentioned that the famous last words of Nelson as he lay dying after the battle of Trafalgar are not supposed to be Kiss me Hardy (Capt Hrdy being the next in command) but Kismet, Hardy, an acceptance of Fate ,which is much more emotional — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.98.113.13 (talk) 13:32, 17 May 2013 (UTC)

Scifi Babble
Kismet is also a planet from the game Escape Velocity: Nova, by ATMOs and released by Ambrosia Software, inc. I was reading another wiki article and came across the word, not knowing it has another meaning, and ended up on this disambiguation page. anyways, yeah. 19:33, 13 June 2008 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.183.139.51 (talk)

Kismet in Islam
Please add info you may have. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.63.84.226 (talk) 16:23, 4 May 2009 (UTC)

Kismet (or its Arabic origin "qisma") is not "a key principle in Islam". Actually, the word does not have any religious connotation, but is used informally to refer to coincidences and twists of fate--much in the same way it is used in modern English. The Islamic term for fate in Arabic is "qadar". I think this should be made clear to the reader.

^^Fate in Islam is a very complex topic, and probably should not be mentioned in this article.