Al-Djazair

[Shotokan_Karate]

Salaam!

Just wondering:

How did the name "Al-Djazair" come about?

Has it anything to do with islands??

Any ideas?

[Aficionados]

I'm not 100% sure, but I hear that there were few Islands out of the Bay of Algiers. And then when Khoroto came over, they ate them lol.

[nardinef]

Originally posted by Aficionados
I'm not 100% sure, but I hear that there were few Islands out of the Bay of Algiers. And then when Khoroto came over, they ate them lol.

You are funny. Anyway, my father (Allah ya rahmou) told me that they call it Algeria because it's north side is surrounded by "des petits rochers". So, it's kind of like having little islands around it. That is why it's called the Aljazair.

[Shotokan_Karate]

Ah! I never knew that before. Thanks for the info

Here's what I also found on the net:

***
Algeria - Named after the capital city Algiers or Al-Jazair ("The Island") in Arabic. A reference to the small islands that once dotted the bay of the city.
***
The name Algeria derives from the Arabic Jaza'ir which is the plural for the word meaning "island" or "peninsula". The name Jaza'ir comes from the ancient regional descriptive, Barr al Jaza'ir (Lands of the Islands), indicating the three countries of the Maghrib region.
***
The country took its name from its capital, from the arabic al (the) + jaza'ir (islands), with reference to four islands lying off the coast at algiers but joined to the mainland by 1525.

mmm...no more islands

[nardinef]

It's OK. Don't cry. We will be alright

[Shotokan_Karate]

Thanks. I'm feeling all right now.

We lost the islands but we still have Al-Jazair