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T O P I C     R E V I E W
the lioness
Member # 17353
 - posted
ETYMOLOGY OF THE WORD AFRICA


AFRI was the name of several Semitic peoples who dwelt in North Africa near Carthage ( in modern Tunisia). Their name is usually connected with Phoenician AFAR, "dust", but a 1981 hypothesis has asserted that it stems from a Berber word IFRI or IFRAN meaning "cave", in reference to cave dwellers. Africa or IFRI or AFER is name of Banu Ifran from Algeria and Tripolitania (Berber Tribe of Yafran).

Under Roman rule, Carthage became the capital of Africa Province, which also included the coastal part of modern Libya.
The Roman suffix "-ca" denotes "country or land".

The later Muslim kingdom of IFFRIGIYA, modern-day Tunisia, also preserved a form of the name.

Other etymological hypotheses that have been postulated for the ancient name "Africa":

* the 1st century Jewish historian Flavius Josephus (Ant. 1.15) asserted that it was named for EPHER, grandson of Abraham according to Gen. 25:4, whose descendants, he claimed, had invaded Libya.
* Latin word APRICA ("sunny") mentioned by Isidore of Seville in Etymologiae XIV.5.2.
* the Greek word APHRIKE (Αφρική), meaning "without cold." This was proposed by historian Leo Africanus (1488–1554), who suggested the Greek word PHRIKE (φρίκη, meaning "cold and horror"), combined with the privative prefix "a-", thus indicating a land free of cold and horror.
* Massey, in 1881, derived an etymology from the Egyptian af-rui-ka, "to turn toward the opening of the Ka." The Ka is the energetic double of every person and "opening of the Ka" refers to a womb or birthplace. Africa would be, for the Egyptians, "the birthplace."
* yet another hypothesis was proposed by Michčle Fruyt in Revue de Philologie 50, 1976: 221–238, linking the Latin word with africus 'south wind', which would be of Umbrian origin and mean originally 'rainy wind'.

(wikipedia)

if you have other etymologies feel free to post
 
Afrocentric Liars Exposed
Member # 18528
 - posted
L. Africa (terra) "African land, Libya, the Carthaginian territory," fem. of Africus, from Afer "an African." Originally only in reference to the region around modern Tunesia, it gradually was extended to the whole continent. Derivation from Arabic afar "dust, earth" is tempting, but the early date seems to argue against it. The M.E. word was Affrike.
 
alTakruri
Member # 10195
 - posted
My take on this is at the TNV page Etymology of Africa and
on this forum's page The Name 'Africa' IS of Egyptian Origin!
which includes Wally's view.

Just last year at this time it came up again on this forum --
ot - Africa's etymology -- with useful input from Mazigh, Asar
Imhotep, Dana Marniche, and Wally.
 
the lioness
Member # 17353
 - posted
quote:
Originally posted by alTakruri:
I take it Africa comes from the name of the ethny in the locale of what
became Carthage. Under various spellings their name is Aourigha withthe 'ou' being a 'v.' I will post,what to me, is the best reference I have
to date after 18 years of delving into the matter. My source, however,
feels Africa derives from the Latin Afer. But then I ask where did the
Latins learn the word Afer?

Among the Azgar, an important division of the Tuareg, one of the noble or
free tribes, styled Aouraghen, is said to descend from a tribe named Avrigha .
The Avrigha, or Afrigha, in ancient times occupied the coast lands near
Carthage, and some scholars derive the word Africa from their name



 -

 -

alTakruri:
Tunisia's majority ethny, living there when the K*na`ani founded Qeret
Hhaddashat, were the Aourigha (as transcribed by Charles Tissot, and
Avrigha or Afrigha by others). The Aourighen are a clan of the Tuareg
who in turn are a tribe of Imazighen (Berbers). Knowing this dissolves the
need for comparatively fanciful and highly speculative etymologies for
the word Africa.
Afrika seems most likely derived from the name of the people the K*na`ani
found inhabiting Tunisia upon their arrival. It doesn't come from fanciful
explanations involving fruit, cold, sunshine, separation, legendary
personages, or post-Byzantine, post-Roman, post-Greek, or Arab Muslim
designations.
Before the Romans had their word Africa, the Greeks had their word Aphrikę,
and before that the Imazighen had the Afrigha tribe. The difference is that the
Greek and Roman words are not native to either language whereas Afrigha
is from the Tamazight root, F-R-GH.
"Africa" is not an original Latin word but borrowed from the Greek Aphrikę --
which only use in Greek was for "Africa" (the Afrigha being the people whom
the Ssuri paid to rent the land where they founded their new city Carthage
(Qeret Hhaddashat). They didn't take it from their own Semitic terms "pharaqa"
or "phariki."
There seems to be no connection between the Afrigha tribe, the generic
Afer/Ater peoples, and the AE Af-rui-ka designation. Af-rui-ka points
to places upriver but for places west of the Nile AE's used Amenti. This
suggests that our modern word Africa stems from the Amazight language
rather than from the AE language.




 
the lioness
Member # 17353
 - posted
^^^^^al Takruri believes that the word Africa derives from Tuaregs of the tribe of Imazighen (Berbers) called

Aourighen (Auriga)

____________________________________



The Greeks seems to have been using the word Libya to describe the whole of Africa (or just the Northern half if that's all they had knowledge of)
The Romans apparently preferred "Africa" as per Carthage. the word perhaps deriving from al Takruri's Tuareg origins

There is also the question of when the word Africa came to be used to describe the whole continent and who were the first people to map Africa and have a sense of it's boundaries.

__________________________________________


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/2446907.stm

Africa's Oldest Map Unveiled
By Alastair Leithead
BBC correspondent in Cape Town

 -



The oldest map of the African continent, dating back to 1389, has gone on display in Cape Town.

It is part of an exhibition drawing attention to the history of South Africa and the way it is perceived around the world.

The Chinese map, covering more than 17 square metres, was produced in silk.

It is thought to be a copy of a map sculpted into rock 20 or 30 years earlier.

It is never been shown to the public before anywhere in the world, and the South African government was given special permission to take a full size facsimile of the delicate historical artwork.


South Africans have to find their own perspective, and accept the validity of perspectives of others

Frene Jinwala, Speaker of South African parliament

The Da Ming Hun Yi Tu, or Amalgamated Map of the Great Ming Empire, is a unique snapshot of history.

Created in China in 1389, and clearly showing the shape of Africa, more than 100 years before Western explorers and map-makers reached the continent.

Challenging stereotypes

The full-size facsimile of the silk map forms the centrepiece of an exhibition, Perspectives on and of Africa, at the South African parliament.

Up to now, only a small number of people have been allowed to see the original.

The speaker of the National Assembly, Frene Jinwala, said it was an important exhibit for South Africa.

"We're trying to illustrate perspective. There is no north or south in space," she said.

"It's a political decision that places the northern hemisphere on top of a globe and that collectively South Africans have to find their own perspective, and accept the validity of perspectives of others."

Organisers hope the exhibition challenges Western perspectives of Africa, of slavery and colonial exploitation.

It is using the Chinese map alongside South African rock art to illustrate the history of the continent before the time it was discovered by Europeans.

______________________________________________


Other early maps:

 -

The woodblock map was first published in a Latin edition and appeared in Munster's 1553 Comographia. The map is one of the primary compilations of early maps of Africa. It is believed the map is based in part on Ptolemaic sources and has some reference to Portuguese as well as Arabic.

____________________________________________

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.swaen.com/os/Lgimg/17035.jpg

 -

AN EARLY EDITION of Sebastian Münster?s Geographia Universalis, first published in 1540. The Geographia was landmark work which contained, along with the Ptolemeic maps, several of the most significant modern maps in the history of cartography.
The first separate maps of the four continents appear here, and include the earliest European map of Africa, also the first separately printed map of England, and the oldest obtainable woodcut of Scandinavia.
 
alTakruri
Member # 10195
 - posted
Ibn Khaldun's map is older, 1377.

 -

See it in detail enlarged here.

quote:
Originally posted by the lioness:
There is also the question of when the word Africa came to be used to describe the whole continent and who were the first people to map Africa and have a sense of it's boundaries.

__________________________________________


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/2446907.stm

Africa's Oldest Map Unveiled
By Alastair Leithead
BBC correspondent in Cape Town

 -



The oldest map of the African continent, dating back to 1389, has gone on display in Cape Town.



 
the lioness
Member # 17353
 - posted
The Ibn Khaldun world map is based on the Book of Roger's pattern.

 -

Tabula Rogeriana, 1154 - upside-down with north oriented up

The Nuzhat al-mushtaq fi'khtiraq al-afaq lit. "the book of pleasant journeys into faraway lands", most often known simply as the Tabula Rogeriana (lit. "The Book of Roger" in Latin), is a description of the world and world map created by the Arab geographer, Muhammad al-Idrisi, in 1154. Al-Idrisi worked on the commentaries and illustrations of the map for fifteen years at the court of the Norman King Roger II of Sicily, who commissioned the work around 1138.

The book, written in Arabic, is divided into seven climate zones (in keeping with the established Ptolemaic system), each of which is sub-divided into ten sections, and contains maps showing the Eurasian continent in its entirety, but only the northern part of the African continent. The map is oriented with the North at the bottom. It remained the most accurate world map for the next three centuries

The compilation of Edrisi marks an era in the history of science. Not only is its historical information most interesting and valuable, but its descriptions of many parts of the earth are still authoritative. For three centuries geographers copied his maps without alteration. The relative position of the lakes which form the Nile, as delineated in his work, does not differ greatly from that established by Baker and Stanley more than seven hundred years afterwards, and their number is the same. The mechanical genius of the author was not inferior to his erudition. The celestial and terrestrial planisphere of silver which he constructed for his royal patron was nearly six feet in diameter, and weighed four hundred and fifty pounds; upon the one side the zodiac and the constellations, upon the other-divided for convenience into segments-the bodies of land and water, with the respective situations of the various countries, were engraved.
 
alTakruri
Member # 10195
 - posted
So far Khaldun's map remains the first to show
the surrounded on all sides by water continent
of Africa. Or if it's only a copy of al~Idrisi then
that 1154 CE map takes precedence.

Of course there are earlier maps that have some
portion of Africa in them but the Europeans are
not the first to produce a map of the entire
continent of Africa.

There are maps based on Greek and Roman works but
none of them are from authentic antiquity authors.

See them at Ancient Greco-Roman geography re Egypt

I had posted Ptolemy's map in a discussion with DJ
but if that thread was not deleted I cannot find it
with any search engine.

EDIT: OK I found it but had to search on Gaetuli.
Funny how it does not come up under a search on
Ptolemy map.

About the Muslim map's authorship, ibn Khaldun says:
"... we wish to draw a map of the earth, as was done
by the author of the
Book of Roger."

My sincere thanks to the Lioness for the correction  - .
 
the lioness
Member # 17353
 - posted
The Ptolemy map does not appear to cover Africa south of the equator

can't make sense of the Khaldun does Africa here have no separation from Europe via the Mediterranean
as per the Western area of the map looking like one continuous land mass? Maybe an reader of Arabic can clear it up?
 
alTakruri
Member # 10195
 - posted
Even though he knew of Java Ptolemy and even ibn
Khaldun who knew of Zanzibar believed it was too
hot beyond the equator for human life so it was
left uncharted though they well knew Africa was
circumnavigateable. Apparently the equator was
more a celestial line for the sun's circuit than
a terrestial line bisecting the earth.

 -

See al~Idrisi's original in detail enlarged here.

Keep in mind that south is the prime direction
with east at the left and west at the right.

Africa is the landmass at the left going to the
top and continuing on to the right. Separating
the two great bodies of water is Sinai and the
Arabian Peninsula. The larger body of water is
the Indian Ocean, the smaller the Mediterranean.
 
the lioness
Member # 17353
 - posted
^^^^I see it now I thought the Africa part was the whole world but now I see the large white area that is contoured by the circle is Eurasia (with the umbrella looking shapes on it) I had thought that was blank space earlier


___________________________________

More on the Chinese map

 -

^^^^Africa at left (earlier post is a detail of this)

The Great Ming Amalgamated Map or Da Ming Hun Yi Tu (Chinese: 大明混一图; is a world map created in China.

Little is known about this world map. Its author is unknown and the date of creation is unclear. The map was created in China sometime during the Ming Dynasty and handed over to the new rulers of China, the Manchus. It has been kept on the Imperial Palace and was called Qingzi Qian Yitong Tu (清字簽一統圖) in some catalogs. It is currently kept in protective storage at the First Historical Archive of China, in Beijing. A full-sized digital replica was made for the South African government in 2002.

sub-Saharan Africa is depicted in a good approximation of the correct shape, complete with mountains near the southern tip. The interior of the continent is extraordinary: a river with twin sources (the common depiction in Classical and Islamic maps of the Nile) starts in the south of the continent, but enters the Red Sea, while the Nile, contrary to the information in non-Chinese maps of the era (though in conformity with a reported Arab geographical legend that "farther south from the Sahara Desert is a great lake, far greater than the Caspian Sea") has its source in a vast inland sea. This is likely to be based on vague information about the several great lakes in the region of modern Tanzania, gained during the course of direct trade between China and south-east Africa[

The place names of China on the map reflect the political situation in 1389, or the 22nd year of the reign of the Hongwu Emperor. Thus some Chinese scholars concluded that it was indeed created in 1389 or little later. Others maintain a cautious attitude, suggesting that what was revised in 1389 is probably a source map of the Da Ming Hun Yi Tu and that the Da Ming Hun Yi Tu itself was created much later.

In either case, it is certain that the Ming Dynasty created a map around 1389. Japanese scholar Miya Noriko speculated on the motivation behind it: Although the Hongwu Emperor, first of the Ming dynasty, drove the Mongol Yuan Dynasty out of China in 1368, Mongols maintained military power that posed a real threat to the new dynasty. The situation was changed in 1388 when Uskhal Khan of Northern Yuan was killed and the Khubilaid line of succession was terminated. The Ming Dynasty may have celebrated this historic event by creating a new map.
Maps had for centuries played an important role in the government of such a vast country, and surviving examples on stone dating from AD 1137 but based on much earlier surveys, show great accuracy, using a grid system. By then the Chinese had also developed the magnetic compass, and in the 13th century western versions of that device allowed European cartography, almost abandoned after the fall of the western Roman Empire, to catch up with Chinese standards of accuracy.

By the early years of the 14th century, when Mongol domination over much of Eurasia created favourable conditions for east-west communication, Islamic maps of Europe and Africa had found its way to China, encouraging Chinese cartographers to create world maps incorporating the new information.

Scholars consider that the Da Ming Hun Yi Tu was ultimately based on a now lost world map named Shengjiao Guangbei Tu (聲教廣被圖). It was created by Li Zemin during the Mongol Yuan Dynasty.

The European coverage goes only as far as the new portolan mapping, showing the Mediterranean and Black Sea areas. Unlike the African lake, those seas are not shaded with wave symbols, and nor is the nearby Caspian Sea, mapped in Islamic style with two islands, suggesting that the whole area is based on a single Islamic map. Arabia is squeezed horizontally, but recognisable. The prominent peninsula on the west coast of the Chinese landmass is Malaysia, but India is represented merely as a collection of place-names north-west of Arabia. Another manifestation of the same problem, dependence on external sources for geographical information, can be seen to the south of Korea, at the far right side of the map, where Japan, over-sized and misshapen, confusingly meets the much more correctly sized and positioned Taiwan.
 
dana marniche
Member # 13149
 - posted
quote:
Originally posted by the lioness:
quote:
Originally posted by alTakruri:
I take it Africa comes from the name of the ethny in the locale of what
became Carthage. Under various spellings their name is Aourigha withthe 'ou' being a 'v.' I will post,what to me, is the best reference I have
to date after 18 years of delving into the matter. My source, however,
feels Africa derives from the Latin Afer. But then I ask where did the
Latins learn the word Afer?

Among the Azgar, an important division of the Tuareg, one of the noble or
free tribes, styled Aouraghen, is said to descend from a tribe named Avrigha .
The Avrigha, or Afrigha, in ancient times occupied the coast lands near
Carthage, and some scholars derive the word Africa from their name



 -

 -

alTakruri:
Tunisia's majority ethny, living there when the K*na`ani founded Qeret
Hhaddashat, were the Aourigha (as transcribed by Charles Tissot, and
Avrigha or Afrigha by others). The Aourighen are a clan of the Tuareg
who in turn are a tribe of Imazighen (Berbers). Knowing this dissolves the
need for comparatively fanciful and highly speculative etymologies for
the word Africa.
Afrika seems most likely derived from the name of the people the K*na`ani
found inhabiting Tunisia upon their arrival. It doesn't come from fanciful
explanations involving fruit, cold, sunshine, separation, legendary
personages, or post-Byzantine, post-Roman, post-Greek, or Arab Muslim
designations.
Before the Romans had their word Africa, the Greeks had their word Aphrikę,
and before that the Imazighen had the Afrigha tribe. The difference is that the
Greek and Roman words are not native to either language whereas Afrigha
is from the Tamazight root, F-R-GH.
"Africa" is not an original Latin word but borrowed from the Greek Aphrikę --
which only use in Greek was for "Africa" (the Afrigha being the people whom
the Ssuri paid to rent the land where they founded their new city Carthage
(Qeret Hhaddashat). They didn't take it from their own Semitic terms "pharaqa"
or "phariki."
There seems to be no connection between the Afrigha tribe, the generic
Afer/Ater peoples, and the AE Af-rui-ka designation. Af-rui-ka points
to places upriver but for places west of the Nile AE's used Amenti. This
suggests that our modern word Africa stems from the Amazight language
rather than from the AE language.




The reason Khladun mentions Auragh is because of its link to the the Ta-waragh or Tuwareg who came from Tripolitania Barca in Libya and once stretched to Carthage and Numidia. The name Auragh is not related to Afar or Afer which is the name of an modern and ancient Tuareg tribe still living in Mali and called Beni Ifren or Iforas and were known as Ifuraces. According to African or Tuareg tradition the word Africa is related to Afra or Afyr, Ifriki or Ifrikus Tubba names of well known Yemenite or Sabaean (Aa'd) chiefs of the 2nd millenium BC from which they claim descent.

The Kelowi Tuareg of Air in Niger were considered by Richmond Palmer to have derived their name from Kel Lowi which he related to the name of the Luwata Berbers otherwise known as the Levathes Mauri of the Libyan coast. Others claim it to be from Kel Owey or people of the Bull. They once controlled Agadez.

http://sarahmanaud.com/blog/?p=638

See Kel Owey and other Aurigh originated in Barca and the Gulf of the Syrtis. (Kelowi woman of Niger in link above) Hence the Mauri or Aurigh were called "black". [Smile]

 -
Kelowi woman
 
alTakruri
Member # 10195
 - posted
quote:

It is said that from their home in Yemen, (the Tubba's) used to
raid Ifriqiyah and the Berbers of the Maghrib. Afriqus b. Qays
b. Sayfi, one of their great early kings who lived in the time
of Moses or somewhat earlier, is said to have raided Ifriqiyah.
He caused a great slaughter among the Berbers. He gave them
the name Berbers when he heard their jargon and asked what
that "barbarah" was. This gave them the name which has remained
with them since that time. When he left the Maghrib, he is said to
have concentrated some Himyar tribes there. They remained there
and mixed with the native population. Their (descendents) are the
Sinhajah and the Kutamah. This led at~Tabari, al~Jujani, al~Masudi,
ibn al~Kalbi, and al~Bayhaqi to make the statement that the
Sinhaja and the Kutamah belong to the Himyar. The Berber
genealogists do not admit this, and they are right.


... All this information is remote from the truth. It is rooted
in baseless and erroneous assumptions. It is more like the
fiction of storytellers.
... There is no way from Yemen to the
Maghrib except via Suez. The distance between the Red Sea and
the Mediterranean is two day's journey or less. It is unlikely
that the distance could be traversed by a great ruler with a
large army unless he controlled the region. This, as a rule, is
impossible. In that region there were the Amalekites and Canaan
in Syria, and, in Egypt, the Copts.
... There is, however, no report
that the Tubba's ever fought against one of these nations ...
Furthermore the distance from the Yemen to the Maghrib is great,
and an army requires much food and fodder. ... Again, it would be a
most unlikely and impossible assumption that such an army could
pass through all those nations without disturbing them, obtaining
its provisions by peaceful negotiation. This shows that all such
information (about Tubba' expeditions to the Maghrib) is silly
or fictitious.

... Assertions to this effect should not be trusted; all such
information should be investigated and checked with sound norms.
The result will be that it will most beautifully be demolished.



ibn Khaldun
The Muqaddimah
Oran, ~1377
Introduction I,13-16


 
mena7
Member # 20555
 - posted
According to Nigerian scholar Catherine Acholonu Africa was name after the African God Afra. There is a region of Nigeria name Biafra/ Bi Afra meaning home of the God Afra. There is also the Afar tribe of Africa.

Nice ancient African map and ancient world map in this thread.
 
HidayaAkade
Member # 20642
 - posted
Interesting
 
The Explorer
Member # 14778
 - posted
quote:
Originally posted by Afrocentric Liars Exposed:

Originally only in reference to the region around modern Tunesia, it gradually was extended to the whole continent.

If so, then it's funny how it is now almost always used as a euphemism for "sub-Saharan Africa only" by Euro folks.

Usually places like Tunisia are treated as a landmass different from Africa altogether, and in cases where they are associated with the continent hosting them, Euro folk are generally very careful to attach north intimately to the Africa. Little to no care is generally given to the geographic orientation of the remainder of the African continent.
 



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