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Algeria · الجزائر
al-Jazāʾir · Algérie · al-ja-ZAA-ir · modern state since 1962
Names over time
Their own language
Other languages
Today
The Koran
what they called themselveswhat others wrotenot proven to be this land
Every name, with its source
How the names connect
Jazāʾir Banī Mazghanna → الجزائر · The city’s name, shortened, became the country’s under the Ottomans.Verified
الجزائر → Cezayir-i Garp · Arabic into Ottoman Turkish.Verified
الجزائر → Algérie · Through the city’s French name, Alger.Verified
Algérie → Algeria · French into English.Verified
الجزائر → Dzayer · From al-Jazāʾir, or from “those of Ziri”: both are proposed.Open
The Koran’s Miṣra at Mesra?OpenWhat doesn’t add up yet
No name covered today’s borders until the 20th century.Numidia, Mauretania and the Middle Maghreb each covered part; the Regency of Algiers and French Algérie stopped short of most of the Sahara. What did the people of this land call the whole of it?Take one on · start a thread →Is Dzayer from al-Jazāʾir, “the islands”, or from “those of Ziri”?Both are proposed; neither is shown by an early text.Take one on · start a thread →Icosium: the Greek “twenty” story is a folk etymology.Coins give the Punic name as ʾYKSM. Its meaning is still argued.Take one on · start a thread →A place named in the Koran is proposed here.Mesra is put forward for the Koran’s Miṣr. It is not proven.Take one on · start a thread →Periods
Places in this country
Names
al-Jazāʾir
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