Posted on YouTube: Septemer 28, 2019
Listen to that tune! It is haunting to the core. The melody was published by Francisco Tárrega in 1896, about the Alhambra in Granada, Spain – the capital of the last Moorish outpost in Spain.
The Alhambra is a World Treasure to this day. Tourists are stunned by its intricacy and beauty – the Arabic calligraphy on its walls is breathtaking.
One is reminded how the last Moorish/Arabic ruler in Granada, Boabdil – that was what the Spanish called him; the Arabs knew him as Muhammad XII of Granada – cried after his defeat, when he looked back on Granada and realized he had to leave the Alhambra. Legend has it that his mother supposedly told him …
“You weep like a woman for what you could not defend like a man?”
Talk about a toxic mother!!!
I do not care if it is politically incorrect to say this, but that mother seriously deserved a slap for that. That was brutal.
The Arabs remember this defeat to this very day, and call it “The Tragedy of Andalusia.”
The conquering Catholic royals, Ferdinand and Isabella, were so enamored of the Moorish architecture that they chose to be buried in Granada, not the expected Christian capital.
There is a tension in Spanish culture – and to a lesser extent in Portuguese culture – between European and Arabian civilization. The Portuguese liberated all their territory by 1249. The Spanish allowed Granada to linger on under Islamic control for another 243 years, until 1492, but only as a vassal state.
Yes, Granada was reduced to vassalage – having to pay tribute to Spain – but it was still there, and so the effect of Arab rule is stronger in Spanish culture.
Sections of the Iberian Peninsula had been under Islamic rule for 781 years (711 to 1492). Such a long duration has cultural, genetic, political, and linguistic consequences.
While the Spanish were happy to be rid of Muslim tyranny – and it was tyranny, do not kid yourselves – they realized that something had been lost as well – and hence the Spanish fascination with Alhambra, and Arabic culture in general.
And so the story of Muslim rule, and the Reconquista to free Spain, lingers on in the Spanish imagination the same way the civil war lingers on in the American. Everyone knows the good guys (Spain/the North) won, but the losing side (the Moors/the Confederacy) have been glamorized out of all reality.
About 8% of the Spanish language is Arabic in origin. Look at these two words to see where the Spanish term differs from other European languages – and know that Spanish has thousands of such Arabic words.
| Arabic | Spanish | English | French | Italian | German |
| ‘azraq | azul | blue | bleu | blu | blau |
| zeit | aciete | oil | huile | olio | Öl |
The linguistic effect on Spanish in enormous. On Portuguese, too.
Genetically, the effect is there, though not enormous. The Spanish have between 2% and 10% North African admixture. Though part of that admixture may be due to pre-Islamic, pre-Roman Carthaginian DNA. In 1609, Spain expelled all Muslims from its country, including some who had converted to Catholicism, so whatever Arabic genetic input had occurred during Moorish rule was probably reduced somewhat.
STILL, THE GENETIC EFFECT IS THERE, EVEN IF LIMITED
Spanish place names are often Arabic.
Spain’s Quadalquivir River come from wādī l-kabīr which is Arabic for the great river.
Guadalajara is a city in Spain; and the name comes from wādī al-ḥajārah which means Valley of the Stone.
THE NAME WAS LATER TRANSFERED TO MEXICO
Posted on YouTube: September 14, 2022
The name originates from Arabic NOT Mexican natives.
Albuquerque in New Mexico, United States has an Arabic root to its name – though that may go back even further to Latin.
Source: I AM NEW MEXICO
The Albu(r)querque region of Iberia likely derived its name from the Arabic (the area was occupied by the Moors for centuries) Abu al-Qurq (land of the cork oak; Spanish: pais del alcornoque), which in turn may have been derived from the Latin `albus quercus’ (white oak) as the trunk of the cork oak is white after the outer layer has been exposed. Note that the seal of the Spanish city of Alburquerque bears the design of an oak. (The other main theory is that the name derives from al-burquq, the plum.)
This Arabic influence was brought to the New World – and that does not even include the Moriscos who came with the Conquistadores.
There are echoes of this Arabic influence which carry over to Latin America. Argentina’s gauchos may be, in part, derived from Moriscos who fled the Inquisition to Latin America.
A full treatment would require a very large book, not a post on a website.
January 24, 2024 – Edited: replaced a dead video link.