irony

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Tarik Dozier
25 May 2001

n., pl.i ro nies.

Incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs.
An occurrence, a result, or a circumstance notable for such incongruity.

My real name is indeed Tarik. That is what my parents named me at birth, and over the years, despite the constant mispronunciations of the slightly Americanized version they gave me (it's pronounced "tär'ick," by the way), I've grown to become rather fond of it. [When I was much younger, I was dead set on the idea of changing my first name to "John," to be the third John Dozier in the male family line. I've since gotten over that.]
Online - and to many of my Goth friends - I'm also known as "Osiris" (for reasons I won't go into right now). I'm quite fond of that name as well, but when I started using it, I didn't recognize the actual significance of my real name.
I've always known that the most likely reference to my name people will recognize is to the general Tariq ibn Ziyad, who led the Moors in an extraordinarily successful conquest of Spain and most of the Iberian Peninsula in the year 711.
That's one of the first things I found in my encyclopedia when I was a child. That's what I tell people when they mention that my name is interesting or pleasing to them, or if they give me a funny look after the odd discourse inherent in learning to pronounce it (I still don't understand why people have such difficulty with repeating two simple phonic sounds common to the English language immediately after hearing them, or that they have such trouble after reading it; it sounds just like it looks). That Tarik - though seemingly unusual to Western ears - is a common Arabic name is merely incidental; it's not reflective of my particular heritage, so I don't mention it, to avoid the risk of adding to their confusion.
But I digress.
I suppose I just didn't notice the rest of the story of Tariq when I read it.
I knew the stories of his heroism. I knew that Jabal Tariq (the Mount of Tariq), otherwise known as the Rock of Gibraltar, was named for him. I knew a lot of things, but I seem to have missed that specific little part that says that it was the Visigoths who occupied that particular section of the world until they were utterly decimated by Tariq's armies. I mean, really decimated; his victory was absolute. Within two years, Tariq and his loyal followers completely destroyed the last remnants of the Visigoths.
And so it was that Tarik, the morning star, was responsible for the extinction of the Goths. Somehow, I find that humorously ironic... considering the circumstances surrounding me and my chosen subculture of the same name.

n., pl.i ro nies.
	Incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs. An occurrence, a result, or a circumstance notable for such incongruity.

		My real name is indeed Tarik. That is what my parents named me at birth, and over the years, despite the constant mispronunciations of the slightly Americanized version they gave me (it's pronounced "tär'ick," by the way), I've grown to become rather fond of it. [When I was much younger, I was dead set on the idea of changing my first name to "John," to be the third John Dozier in the male family line. I've since gotten over that.] Online - and to many of my Goth friends - I'm also known as "Osiris" (for reasons I won't go into right now). I'm quite fond of that name as well, but when I started using it, I didn't recognize the actual significance of my real name. I've always known that the most likely reference to my name people will recognize is to the general Tariq ibn Ziyad, who led the Moors in an extraordinarily successful conquest of Spain and most of the Iberian Peninsula in the year 711. That's one of the first things I found in my encyclopedia when I was a child. That's what I tell people when they mention that my name is interesting or pleasing to them, or if they give me a funny look after the odd discourse inherent in learning to pronounce it (I still don't understand why people have such difficulty with repeating two simple phonic sounds common to the English language immediately after hearing them, or that they have such trouble after reading it; it sounds just like it looks). That Tarik - though seemingly unusual to Western ears - is a common Arabic name is merely incidental; it's not reflective of my particular heritage, so I don't mention it, to avoid the risk of adding to their confusion. But I digress. I suppose I just didn't notice the rest of the story of Tariq when I read it. I knew the stories of his heroism. I knew that Jabal Tariq (the Mount of Tariq), otherwise known as the Rock of Gibraltar, was named for him. I knew a lot of things, but I seem to have missed that specific little part that says that it was the Visigoths who occupied that particular section of the world until they were utterly decimated by Tariq's armies. I mean, really decimated; his victory was absolute. Within two years, Tariq and his loyal followers completely destroyed the last remnants of the Visigoths. And so it was that Tarik, the morning star, was responsible for the extinction of the Goths. Somehow, I find that humorously ironic... considering the circumstances surrounding me and my chosen subculture of the same name.