But did you know that this word was originally an Arab Orthodox word for a Christian who took the pilgrimage to Jerusalem? Isa can tell you the many derivatives we have today that are found in Eastern Orthodox Christian lands such as Greece, Romania, Bulgaria, etc...
It is a very common name among Orthodox Christians, and does indeed signify pilgrimage to Jerusalem. But is there any evidence to suggest that this is practice pre-dates Islam among the Orthodox?
Yes. It is the same word in Hebrew used for the pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the three feasts (Shukot, Pascha, Pentecost), so used in Aramaic/Syriac and passed to its cognate in Arabic. The Arab philologists (predominantly Muslim) are agreed that the meaning of the word as restricted to Mecca is later, with the imposition of Muslim law (for those who do not know, the Muslims, based on the Quran, admit that their first direction for prayer was towards Jerusalem, and was only changed later). As for its use before Islam outside of the Middle East, no, I don't think any exists as I don't think it was used by anyone outside of the Semitic Orthodox until after the conquest of Jerusalem. The form of the Greek I think would indicate it being borrowed around the time of the Great Schism with the Vatican.
