Word Origin | Trafalgar

In the middle ages, mainly because they were world leaders in science and technology, Arabs donated hundreds of words to European languages: alchemy, alkali, alcove, admiral, alcohol, and so on. Spain is sprinkled with Arabic place names. There are probably thousands of place names in Spain with an Arabic origin, from large regions and rivers to the smallest of hamlets and streets. Arabic toponyms are common throughout Spain, except for areas that never came under Muslim rule or where this was particularly short-lived (Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria, the Basque country) and most of Catalonia. Conversely Arabic toponyms are particularly common along the Eastern Coast (Valencia and Murcia) and in Andalusia. See more 

Arabic was spoken in Spain from the Islamic invasion of 711 to some time after the end of the Reconquista in1492. Consequently, it has exercised a huge influence over Spanish – particularly in terms of vocabulary. The Real Academia Española lists some 1280 words. Almost all words in Spanish beginning with al- are Arabic in origin. Many, many places Spanish place names also derive from Arabic. 

A number of Laws were passed in the sixteenth century forbidding Arabic without varying degrees of ‘success’. The Laws of 1501 and 1511 banned the possession of most Arabic books and the 1511 decree invalidated contracts written in Arabic, though this does not seem to have been observed. In 1526 Charles V ordered that henceforth only Castilian would be spoken, used to create contracts, and used in the marketplace, but the legislation was suspended shortly afterwards. In 1566, Philip II ordered that all moriscos (baptized moors who stayed in Spain after the Conquest) would only be permitted to speak Castilian, not Arabic within three years. Although, the use of Arabic persisted in Spain until the expulsion of the moriscos in 1609.

Mavi Boncuk | 

Cape Trafalgar is a point in the south west shore of the Iberian penninsula, north of Gibraltar. This is the place where the famous battle of Cape Trafalgar[1] happened in October of 1805, and Admiral Horatio Nelson defeated the combined fleet of France and Spain, assuming supremacy of the seas for Britian for a century. 

The name is of Arabic origin[2], corresponding possibly to Taraf al-Gharb (طرف الغرب 'cape of the west') or Taraf al-Ghar (طرف الغار 'cape of the cave/laurel').[2]

In both cases, taraf (طرف) literally means 'edge' or 'extremity' and hence refers to a promontory (edge of the land). 

In modern Arabic, however, the place is sometimes re-transcribed as al-Taraf al-Aghar (الطرف الأغر).

[1] The Battle of Trafalgar (21 October 1805) was a naval engagement fought by the Royal Navy against the combined fleets of the French and Spanish Navies, during the War of the Third Coalition (August–December 1805) of the Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815).


The battle was the most decisive naval victory of the war. Twenty-seven British ships of the line led by Admiral Lord Nelson aboard HMS Victory defeated thirty-three French and Spanish ships of the line under French Admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve off the southwest coast of Spain, just west of Cape Trafalgar, in Caños de Meca. The Franco-Spanish fleet lost twenty-two ships, without a single British vessel being lost.

Richard Burton, in his translation of the Arabian Nights, notes in the footnotes that the correct etymology is the last one (Cape of the West), and rebuts Captian Peel that it is the second (Cape of Laurels). So, neither the current Spanish, English nor Arabic spelling is true to the original name. 

[2] Like other European languages, English contains many words derived from Arabic, often through other European languages, especially Spanish Among them is every-day vocabulary like "sugar" (sukkar), "cotton" (quṭn) or "magazine" (maḫāzin). More recognizable are words like "algebra" (al-jabr), "alcohol" (al-kuhūl), "alchemy" ("al-kimiya"), "alkali", "cypher" and "zenith" 

A more indirect form of influence is the use of certain Latinate words in an unclassical sense, derived from their use in Latin translations of medieval Arabic philosophical works (e.g. those of Averroes), which entered the scholastic vocabulary and later came into normal use in modern languages. Examples are "information" to mean the imparting or acquisition of knowledge (Arabic taṣawwur, mental impression or representation, from a root meaning "form") and "intention" (Arabic manā, meaning).  

See also: List of English words of Arabic origin