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Posts: 357
Joined: Dec. 5 2008
From: New Jersey USA
Al-Andalus?
Every time I've encountered a reference to the origin of the name Andalusia, I've read that it is derived from the Arabic Al-Andalus and means Land of the Vandals. The Vandals, as we remember, were a Germanic tribe who, after vandalizing Rome, worked their way into the south of what was left of Roman Spain and set up shop. Then, in the mid-400s AD, they crossed the Straits of Gibraltar into North Africa, to annoy and then crush the remnants of the Romans there. They evidently all crossed, and left Spain open for the Visigoths, who replaced them as overlords of Spain.
But it turns out that there are several explanations of the origin of the name Andalusia. The book God's Crucible: Islam and the Making of Europe, 570-1215 by David Levering Lewis, tells that Andalusia is a corruption of a Gothic phrase, landa-hlauts or "land lots", referring to the various landholdings of the Visigoth nobility. Another aficionado, though, has read that the term comes from the Gothic vandalen-haus, "House of the Vandals". Neither of these explanations originates the term with the Arabs or with Arabic. And considering that the Arab-Moorish invasion of Spain occurred centuries after the Vandals had packed up and left Spain, to be replaced there by the Visigoths, why would the Arabs name Spain "Land of the Vandals" and not "Land of the Visigoths"?
I have come across all the explanations you mention and more, Runner. The origin of the name "Al-Andalus" probably will never be definitively settled. Nevertheless, I have always considered the possibility that the Arabic "Al Andalus" might have been a corruption of a descriptive Latin (or early Spanish, as Latin was fragmenting into the various Romance languages, including Spanish) term. It has occurred to me that the Spanish verb "anda" (infinitive "andar"), meaning to walk or to travel, coupled with the Spanish (and Latin) noun "luz," meaning light, might have predated the Moorish invasion of Spain and was absorbed into the Arabic tongue. Together, "Al-Andaluz" may have meant to travel in the land of light (sunny Spain!) or something of that sort.
Bill
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And the end of the fight is a tombstone white, With the name of the late deceased, And the epitaph drear, "A fool lies here, Who tried to hustle the East."
I'd buy that except that the moors were no stranger to sun before they got to Spain. I'd be willing to bet Spain was a bit of relief from the heat of North Africa.
I agree that we will likely never learn the origin of the term "Andalusia", but I like the notion that it may derive from a Latin base; folks entering Spain from the north would indeed "travel toward the light". Thus, the Arab linguistic connection may be post facto, in that they may have picked up a name already given to the region by others.
Now if we can only untangle the origin of "flamenco"..........
According to one source I found, Al-Andaluz might be derived from the old Arabic "Handalusia", meaning "land in the west", "land where the sun sets"...
Do we have anyone fluent in Arabic who can comment on Ed's idea about Handalusia=Land in the West, etc.? Again, this might be a case of Arabic incorporating an already-existing term from another language into itself.
Do we have anyone fluent in Arabic who can comment on Ed's idea about Handalusia=Land in the West
The most western bit of Al-Andaluce was Portugal , the bottom bit know as the'' The Algarve from Arabic Al-Gharb,...meaning ''The West '', everyone in Portugal knows that
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