The word toponymy in the heading might
be “all Greek” to some, and indeed it is! It is the study of
place-names, their origins, meanings, use and typology. It comes
from the Greek words tópos ("place") and ónoma ("name").
To anyone interested in History, toponymy can give us a wealth of information on a region's past. Today we are going to travel through
3000 years of history thanks to the place-names of the province of
Cádiz.
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| Hypothetical map of punic Gadir. Museo de Cádiz |
Starting with the capital city, Cádiz
was first founded by Phoenitians from Sidon and Tyre in 1104 BCE as
Gadir; which means “palisade” or “fortress” in ancient Punic
language. Gadir became a rich and famous city in Antiquity, with the
Greeks translating the name as “ta Gadeira” and the Latins as
“Gades”. With the Muslim invasion of 711 CE, Gadir was remained
in Arabic as Qadish, from which the modern Cádiz stems.
Also dating from pre-Roman times is
Jerez. It was first known as Xera and by the time that Arabic was
spoken in Spain it had mutated to Sherrish. Here we have a curious
evolution of the name. In modern Spanish it derived to Xerez-Jerez.
Jerez became famous overseas for its' wine which became a luxurious
drink in northern Europe. Merchants from Britain came to enrich
themselves on the trade, but found themselves unable to properly
pronounce Xerez; instead of “Jerez” they would say “Sherry”...
And the word stuck. Today the city is Jerez, and the wine Sherry.
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| Ancient image of Medina-Sidonia |
South from Cádiz, and often visible
from Rota on clear days, is the white-washed hilltop town of Medina
Sidonia. It was founded some years later that Cádiz by Phoenitians
from Sidon, hence the “second-name” and until the Muslim conquest
it simply was known as Sidon, or Asido. Under Muslim rule the city
received the title Madinah, meaning “city”. After the
Christian conquest not only did “Medina-Sidonia” continue in
usage but was elevated to be the head of one of the most important
dukedoms in Spain; “el ducado de Medina-Sidonia y condado de
Niebla.
Near to Rota, and home to many
Americans, is Chipiona. Although it might seem an unimportant coastal
resort town, Chipiona has been vital for centuries to shipping. It
guards the entrance to the Guadalquivir River, and to mark that, it
has the highest lighthouse in Spain. That lighthouse is a modern one
dating from 1867, but is a worthy heir to the one built in 140 BCE by
the Roman pro-consul Quintus Servilio Caepio. The lighthouse became
known as Turris Caepionis -the tower of Caepio- evolving later
on to Chipiona.
With the fall of the Roman Empire in
the West in 476 CE and the Germanic invasions which swept through
Spain, most cities were abandoned as organised government crumbled.
By 711 several tribes had ruled over Spain, the most important of
which was the Visigoths and their kingdom based in Toledo; however,
their time had come. Profiting from a civil war in Spain, the Muslim
Berbers of North Africa sent an army across the Strait, making
landfall on what they called “the Rock of Tarik”, Gebal at-Tarik;
today the British occupied Gibraltar.
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| Old image of Gibraltar seen from Algeciras |
Just across the bay from Gebel
at-Tarik there was a wooded island that quickly became a great
harbour and shipyard for the invaders. The Arabs called it “the
green isle” or Al-yazira al-hadra. Al-Yazira eventually became
Algeciras and still is one of the mayor ports of Spain.
As the Muslim conquerors moved north
they renamed most places to better suit their Arab language. In some
places only changing the pronunciation -Corduba became Qurtuba,
today's Córdoba- but in others the old names were sent to oblivion.
The river known as Baetis in Antiquity was seen by the conquerors as
“the great river”. It was second to no other river in Andalusia;
hence they began referring to it as Al-Wadi al-Kabir... Guadalquivir.
Guadalquivir means exactly the same as many other rivers in the world
such as the Ohio, Rio Grande, or Yangtsí.
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| Border between the kingdoms of Castile and Granada after 1250 CE |
After 500 years of Arabic-speaking
rule in Andalusia, Muslim power began to crumble after the battle of
Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212. A coalition of three Christian kingdoms
smashed the almohad armies forcing their retreat to Morocco.
Portugal, Castile-León and Aragon all built upon the victory
conquering city after city with little or no resistance with the
exception of Seville. By 1275 even Algeciras had fallen and the long
frontier between Castile and Granada arched like a crescent across
Andalusia.
That frontier gave name to many cities
and towns: Jerez de la Frontera, Arcos de la Frontera, Conil de la
Frontera, Chiclana, Jimena, Castellar, Aguilar, Morón... All these
places became border outposts in a war that would still last until
1492. If you get a modern map of Andalusia and find all the towns
named de la Frontera you can actually mark what was the
dividing line between East and West for 300 years.
A place that could have been “de la
Frontera”, but wasn't was Alcanatir. Alcanatir in Arabic means
“Harbour of the Salterns” and referred to today's El Puerto.
After the Christian conquest, the Castilian king Alfonso X renamed it
as Santa María del Puerto; several “reconquered” places received
similar names: Santa Maria do Faro, Santa María del Mar... With time
the name changed itself around to El Puerto de Santamaría.
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| Street of Setenil de las Bodegas. |
Still, all were not Christian
victories. In the highlands of upper Andalusia the Moorish kingdom of
Granada held out defiant, and the old Roman town of Laccipo was a
spearhead into Castilian territory. Time and time again Castilian
armies assaulted the city which is dug into a canyon, and time and
time again they failed to take it. Seven times they met with defeat!
So low was the morale that Christians began referring to this place
as Septem Nihil, that is “Seven-Nothing”. When the town was
finally conquered in 1484 the name Setenil de las Bodegas was used to
rename it. But, why “de las Bodegas”? Well, the caves that humans
had dug into the canyon for their houses were great for storing
foodstuffs as they never changed their humidity nor their
temperature. “De las Bodegas” means “of the cellars/stores”.
But, “what about Rota?” you may
ask. Surely it cannot simply come from the Spanish word for “broken”.
Rota historians have traced back several names for the town, the
oldest of which is the pre-Roman “Astaroth”; some have
hypothesised that it means in ancient Iberian “The harbour of
Asta”. Asta, or Hasta, was a disappeared city west of modern-day
Jerez. The Roman name “Speculum Rotae” has also been considered,
although no translations of the name really make much sense.
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| Castillo de Luna, Rota. Built over the muslim rabita. |
(Publicado en el Rota Coastline el 16 de enero de 2014)
This is fascinating! Thanks so much.
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