California was named after Calif(Ha)ronia: Caliph Haroon Rashid. Al Hambra was also from Muslim Spain….More than 500 American town have Muslim origins
California is not an anomoly, hundreds of cities and town across America have Muslim names. Rebuilding the Jewish-Christian-Muslim symbiosis in my homeland
A sum of 565 names, 484 in America and 81 in Canada, of villages, towns, cities, mountains, lakes, rivers and etcetera, are etymologically Arabic, designated by locals long before the arrival of Columbus. Many of these names are in fact the same as names of Islamic places; Mecca in Indiana, Medina in Idaho, Medina in New York, Medina and Hazen in North Dakota, Medina in Ohio, Medina in Tennessee, Medina in Texas, Medina and Arva in Ontario, Mahomet in Illinois and Mona in Utah, are just a few noticeable names at the outset. A closer analysis of the names of native tribes will immediately reveal their Arabic etymological ancestry; Anasazi, Apache, Arawak, Arikana, Chavin, Cherokee, Cree, Hohokam, Hupa, Hopi, Makkah, Mohician, Mohawk, Nazca, Zulu, and Zuni are only a few.
Islam is America is everywhere. One just has to look for it. From Caliph Haronia (California), to Allah-Bumya (Alabama), to Tallah-Hasse (Tallahassee), to Medina Ohio, to Moorestown New Jersey, to Islamorada Florida, to Al-hambra California Muslims ahve left an impact on the country
Caliph Harun Rashid ruled the Muslims from 786 to 809, and his Abbassid reign was marked by scientific, cultural, and religious prosperity. Art and music o flourished significantly during his reign. He established a library Bayt al-Hikma.
His life and the fabulous court over which he held sway have been the subject of many tales: some are factual but most are believed to be fictitious. The famous The Book of One Thousand and One Nights contained many stories that might have been inspired by Harun’s magnificent court.
Future U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, when he was a New York Police Department Commissioner, was called in the local newspapers “Haroun-al-Roosevelt” for his habit of lonely all-night rambles on the streets of Manhattan, surreptitiously catching police officers off their posts. (Harun al-Rashid is said in the 1001 Nights to have wandered Baghdad at night dressed as merchant in order to observe the lives of his subjects).
Many towns in Al-Andulusia Spain were named after the great Caliph. Muslims ruled Spain for about 700 years (711-1492). Al-Hambra and California are but some of the Muslim named which got transferred from Spain to Mexico to the United States. We present records of Humbolt County on this matter.
America my land 
A mosque is American as Apple Pie
Reds Have Green roots. 500 Us towns with Muslim names 
Muslims in America before Columbus <img src=”http://moinansari.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/newsweekmuslims.jpg” width=”150″ height=”150″California was named after Caliph Harun: Calif-Harunia Humboldt County
History
History of Humboldt County California – Historic Record Co., Los Angeles, 1915
CHAPTER I.
The Origin of the Name California
Almost everybody knows that the discussion concerning the name California waxed warm for a number of years. Norton, the author of a recent book on California, tells us it is interesting to note that most school children are familiar with the discussion which has heretofore taken place as to the origin of the name. He says many people are familiar with its alleged formation from two Spanish or Latin words meaning a hot furnace; but unfortunately for the theory that this is the true derivation, it must be remembered that to the early Spaniards who first used the name in connection with the country, California was not a hot country, but in comparison with those through which they had to come to reach it, a cold one. The name first appeared in the written record as applied to Lower (Baja) California in Preciado’s diary of Ulloa’s trip down the coast of that peninsula in 1539. But it is used there as if it were already in common use. And it is probable that it was first given to the country by Cortes or some of his followers either at Santa Cruz or La Paz between 1535 and 1537.
In his History of the New California the author of the present work (Leigh H. Irvine) discusses the origin of the name somewhat at length. He says that Prof. Josiah Royce, of Harvard, Winfield Davis, and other historians, now accept Edward Everett Hale’s conclusion that the name California was derived from an old romance and applied by Cortes to the peninsula he discovered in 1535.
Mr. Hale made his investigations in the year 1862, while reading the old romance entitled “Sergas de Esplandian,” by Garcia Ordouez de Montalvo, the translator of Amidas. In this connection it is worth while to give some of the statements of the eminent Dr. Hale, for there have been a number of theories as to the origin of the name. He says : “Coming to the reference in this forgotten romance to the Island of California, very near to the Terrestrial Paradise, I saw at once that here was the origin of the name of the state of California, long sought for by the antiquaries of that state, but long forgotten, for the romance seems to have been published in 1510-the edition of 1521 is now in existence-while our California, even the peninsula of that name, was not discovered by the Spaniards until 1526, and was not named California until 1535.”
Not long after this discovery Mr. Hale invited the American Antiquarian Society to examine the evidence, and in March, 1864, he translated for the Atlantic Monthly all the parts of the story that relate to the Queen of California (Califia), and in 1873 he published a small volume on the subject, in which he said: “The name California was given by Cortes, who discovered the peninsula in 1535. For the statement that he named it we have the authority of Herrera. It is proved, I think, that the expedition of Mendoza, in 1532, did not see California ; it is certain that they gave it no name. Humboldt saw, in the archives of Mexico, a statement in manuscript that it was discovered in 1526, but for this there is no other authority.
“It is certain that the name did not appear until 1535. No etymology of this name has been presented that is satisfactory to the historian. Venegas, the Jesuit historian of California, writing in 1758, sums up the matter in these words: `The most ancient name is California, used by Bernal Diaz, limited to a single bay. I could wish to gratify the reader by the etymology of the word, but no etymology of the name has been presented that is satisfactory. In none of the dialects of the various natives could the missionaries find the least trace of such a name being given by them to the country, or even to any harbor, bay, or small part of it. Nor can I subscribe to the etymology of some writers, who supposed the name to have been given to it by the Spaniards because of their feeling an unusual heat at their first landing here; but they thence called the country California, compounding the two Latin words califa and fornax, a hot furnace. I believe few will think the adventurers could boast of so much literature. Clavigero, in his history of California, after giving this etymology, offers as an alternative the following as the opinion of the learned Jesuit Giuseppe Compoi : He believes that the name is composed of the Spanish word cala, which means ‘a little cove of the sea,’ and the Latin fornix, which means ‘the vault of a building.’ He thinks these words are thus applied, because, within Cape St. Lucas there is a little cove of the sea, towards the western part of which rises a rock, so torn out that on the upper part of the hollow is seen a vault, as perfect as if made by art. Cortes, therefore, observing this cala or cove and this vault, probably called this port California or Cala fornix-speaking half in Spanish, and half in Latin. Clavigero suggests as an improvement on this somewhat wild etymology that Cortes may have said Cala Fornax, meaning cove furnace, speaking as in the Jesuit’s suggestion, in two languages.”
Towards the close of this romance of the Sergas de Esplandian the various Christian knights assemble to defend the Emperor of the Greeks and the city of Constantinople against the attack of the Turks and Infidels. In the romance the name appears with precisely our spelling in the following passage:
“Sergas Chapter 157: ‘Know that, on the right hand of the Indies there is an island called California very near to the Terrestrial Paradise, which was peopled with black women, without any men among them, because they were accustomed to live after the fashion of Amazons. They were of strong and hardened bodies, of ardent courage, and of great force. The island was the strongest in the world, from its steep rocks and great cliffs. Their arms were all of gold; and so were the caparisons of the wild beasts which they rode, after having tamed them; for in all the Island there is no other metal. They lived in caves very well worked out; they had many ships, in which they sailed to other parts to carry on their forays.”
The name appears in several distinct passages in the book. Mr. Hale adds : “This romance, as I have said, is believed to have been printed first in 1510. No copies of this edition, however, are extant. But of the edition of 1519 a copy is preserved ; and there are copies of successive editions of 1521, 1525 and 1526, in which last year two editions were published-one at Seville and the other at Burgos. All of these are Spanish. It follows, almost certainly, that Cortes and his followers, in 1535, must have been acquainted with the romance; and after they sailed up the west side of Mexico, they supposed they were precisely at the place indicated, ‘on the right hand of the Indies.’ It will be remembered, also, that by sailing in the same direction, Columbus, in his letters to the sovereigns, says : ‘He shall be sailing towards the Terrestrial Paradise.’
We need not suppose that Cortes believed the romance more than we do; though we do assert that he borrowed a name from it to indicate the peninsula which he found ‘on the right side of the Indies, near to the Terrestrial paradise.’ * * * In ascribing to the Esplandian the origin of the name California, I know that I furnished no etymology for that word. I have not found the word in any earlier romances. I will only suggest that the word Calif, the Spanish spelling for the sovereign of the Mussulman power of the time, was in the mind of the author as be invented these Amazon allies of the Infidel power.“
It will be seen that there have been many discussions on the subject, and whether true or false the little romance is now accepted as the most likely explanation of the origin of the word. Transcribed by Kathy Sedler.
Back to Humboldt County Histories Index Page
From Moorestown New Jersey, to Islamorada Florida; from Medina Ohio to Lahore Virginia, from Palestine Texas, to Al-Hambra California… more than 500 American towns are named after Muslim cities in the old world.
The first mosques in America were not built in the 60s but in the earliest times when African and a Cherokee Muslims prayed in small buildings. From the Islamic architecture Tiffany houses ensconced in the American section of the Metropolitan Museum of Art to Caad Zaan the Rignling Brothers home in Sarasota Florida; from Labanon in New Jersey to California (Khalifa Harunia); from Alabama (Allah um ya) to Talahasse (T Allah Hassee)—Islam is not only visible in America, it is part of our American society and American culture. Islam can be heard in American concert halls in Beethoven’s 9th symphony or on the Turkish instruments that make up the orchestra.
Islam can be tasted in America when you eat a croissant (patterned on the Turkish flag-Crescent) or crepes (from the original Morocoon Crepes). Islamic architecture can be seen in the architecture of 5th Avenue synagogues, gothic buildings, dome structures of our capitols, and in California homes.
Our nation is an amalgamation of many cultures and religions. By opposing a mosque in our midst we are simply hurting the feelings of our fellow countrymen. New mosques are being built not to attract new Muslims, but to allow our existing congested structures. Without a Rockaway mosque the Muslims will pray in older crowded mosques, in basements and in rented warehouses.
The Muslim Jesus 
Muslim “Darwin” to Islamic “Newton”
Why Didn’t Muslims not condemn violence? 
Muslim voices muted by the media
What if Islam went away 
“Kite Runner” promotes “Orientalism”, reinforces stereotypes
Orientalism in Germany maligning Islam
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Expansion of Early Islam in maps: 6th & 7th century 
West’s debt to Islam in Science and Technology 
Turkey takes a turn towards Islam 
Burmese Muslims a forgotten minority
Thai Occupied Muslim Sultanate of Patani” 
Muslims in Latin America before Columbus
Muslims before Columbus in the Caribbean 
Muslims in Suriname and Guyana before Columbus 
Moorish Marronage Muslims of Jamaica
Linguistic heritage of Pre-Columbus Muslims
Cherokee Muslims in the USA before Columbus
Current day Muslims in Germany
Muslims brought about the renaissance in Spain 3 centuries before Italy 
Islamic Sicily fed the Christian Renaissance 
Melungeon Muslims in America escaping the Spanish Inquisition
Expansion of Early Islam in maps: 6th & 7th century
THE PAKISTANI RIVIERA
The Mekan Coast of the Blue Sea
A mosque is as American as apple pie. Admiral Zeng He a Chinese Muslim and his entourage “Came to American before Columbus” (”1421?). Columbus sailed from Muslim Spain (Al-Anduls) and many of the sailors were Muslim. At least two captains of his ships were Panzone brothers who were Arabs. At least one third of the Africans slaves brought in as slaves were Muslim and demographically more than a third of the current African-Americans are still Muslim. The Cherokee language is based on the Arabic alphabet and the Cherokee headdress resembles Mali head wear.
