The Ras vs. Rash thing was always confusing to me. His name is literally translated from Arabic as head of the demon with Ras meaning head.. I've studied Arabic and lived for more than a year in Yemen. I've traveled to Egypt, Saudi, Dubai, Jordan, Lebanon, Oman, and Syria. In none of those places have I ever heard some pronounce Ras as Rash. The spelling of the word in Arabic is رأس. From left to right the final character is a sin, س, which makes an English s sound. The letter which makes a sh sounds is shin which is written thus,ش . The middle letter is an alif ,أ, and makes an English elongated short a sound. Therefore the TAS pronunciation of Rash doesn't seem to fit with the phonetics of the spelling.
I will admit that he originated over 700 years ago from nomadic Bedouins so the pronunciation could have been different. However it still seems odd that Rash has become a popular pronunciation considering even in Quranic Arabic (supposedly the most well preserved form) Ras is still used.
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