sīd. "Hamete" is also the Castilian form of a proper name of Hispanic Muslim origin. However, scholars do not agree on its exact equivalent in Arabic, as it could correspond to three very similar names. The Egyptian Hispanist Abd al-Aziz al-Ahwani makes it equivalent to حمادة Hamāda; Abd al-Rahman Badawi opts for حميد Hāmid, while Mahmud Ali Makki affirms that is أحمد Aḥmad, a more common name than the others. The meaning of "Benengeli" is proposed to be a play on Cervantes' name. The first to propose an interpretation was the Arabist José Antonio Conde, who interpreted it as a Spanish version of ابن الأيل Ibn al-ayyil, "son of the deer". This was a subtle allusion to Cervantes' own surname, as the word for deer in Spanish is "ciervo". The scholars Diego Clemencín and Abd al-Rahman Badawi agreed. The orientalist Leopoldo Eguílaz y Yanguas relates Benengeli to berenjena ("brinjal, aubergine, eggplant"), a relation mentioned by Sancho Panza in the novel. The Cervantists Saadeddine Bencheneb and Charles Marcilly proposed as an etymology ابن الإنجيل Ibn al-Inŷīl, that is, "son of the Gospel." This would be an ironic pun highlighting the difference between the supposedly Muslim author and the Christian character of the real author, himself. For the Hispanicist Mahmud Ali Makki, none of the previous interpretations have consistency, and he is inclined to assume that the name is simply an invention, although he points out that it may be inspired by the surname of a well-known Andalusian family originally from Denia, the Beni Burungal or Berenguel (بني برنجل, last name of Catalan origin -Berenguer-, arabized and then again romanized as Berenguel). The possible puns referenced above would rely on Cervantes' knowledge of the Arabic language, which is a feasible presumption. Cervantes spent five years captive in Algiers, and he was allowed to move around the city and interact with its inhabitants. On the other hand, Américo Castro was the first to point out its possible Converso origin, a hypothesis that has been sustained to a greater or lesser degree by later authors. And La Mancha, finally, as well as a good part of the southern half of the Peninsula, was densely populated by Moriscos. In any case, the Arab and the Islamic were not alien to Cervantes. See also List of Don Quixote characters References Abd Al-Aziz al-Ahwani, trans. Arabic and notes to Don Quixote de la Mancha, Cairo, 1957. Abd