What British territory is named after a former slave?
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07-11-04, 07:43 PM
FredPuli
Mozart,do you mean that we still own it? We have little enough. Suppose it could be the Isle of Man: " Man is born free and everywhere is in chains" [Rousseau] Big Grin

07-11-04, 08:16 PM
mozart56
Rousseau is right,Fred. Smile You really awoke my curiosity up about "The Isle of man" although this is not what I was looking for, I found its history very interesting.But I am looking for a "one name" place.

07-11-04, 09:31 PM
Kelleygirl
Gibraltar, Mozart?
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Gibraltar is named after a former slave

Mohammed's followers burst out of Arabia after his death in 632 and by the end of the 7th century their descendants had conquered the whole of North Africa. The first Moslem incursion into Iberia was in 710, when a small reconnaissance force landed at the southernmost point of the peninsula. The following year a former slave, a Berber by the name of Tariq ibn-Ziyad, led an army of about 7 000 ashore at a point close to the huge rock which dominates the entrance to the Mediterranean. They called the rock Jabal Tariq, or Tariq's Mount, and eventually Christian tongues changed it to Gibraltar.

Or is it?
Prior to the invasion of the Iberian Peninsular by Tariq, small incursions and recces were conducted by Tarif ibn Malik Nakli, who reported that Spain was ripe for the picking. According to Tito Vallejo in his article in the Gibraltar Chronicle, when Tariq landed in Gibraltar in 711, the Rock was named Jabal Al Fath and the town Medinat Al Fath, which mean the Mountain of Victory and the City of Victory respectively.

The Arab word Tariq means track or path. The Rock of Gibraltar became "Jabal Tariq" or The Mountain of the Path, for the Path of Islam into the Iberian Peninsula. The theory is that the Muslims, at the height of their religious fervour, would not dare to name the mountain after the name of a person but rather in honour of their religion. - http://www.didyouknow.cd/gibraltar.htm

I liked Fred's answer better. Wink

07-11-04, 11:21 PM
mozart56
That's the answer I was looking for Kelleygirl, Smile I visited Gibraltar in 1986,(drove up half way the rock, then was forced to come back down) but never been to "The Isle of man". Could be a nice place to visit in the future. Smile

07-12-04, 04:25 AM
FredPuli
The Isle of Man is a tax haven; it is to Britain what Monaco is to France, but without such independence. Only difference is that the weather in Monaco is so bad and wet compared to a mountain stuck in the sea some miles off Liverpool Big Grin

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