On the toponym Gemellæ > Jamīlā > Malīlī > Mlili: some historical geography notes about the Ziban of Biskra during the Middle Ages
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.30827/meaharabe.v70i0.15168Keywords:
Gemellæ/Jamīlā, Toponymy, Algeria, Ziban, Arab-Berber sourcesAbstract
These historical geography notes reopen the issue of the ancient toponym Gemellæ in the written sources of medieval Maghreb, in which the place name appears in different graphic forms. The place, which played quite an important role in the configuration of the southern boundaries of Roman Numidia, is located in the western part of the Ziban mountains, in Algeria. The area constitutes a large geographic region in south-eastern Algeria, between the southern part of the Aurès mountain range and the Lower Sahara. The paper recalls how the ancient place name Gemellæ (sometimes associated with the small town of El Kasbat) came to be identified with the Arab-Berber place name Jamīlā, through the critical reading of some texts from the medieval Maghreb (chroniclers and geographers) and specialized bibliography. One of the central aspects of this brief note revolves around the somewhat surprising contribution by the eastern geographer al-Muqaddasī, who provided the spelling of the toponymic name Jamīlā.
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