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Melilla
Melilla (/mɛˈliːjə/, Spanish: [meˈliʝa] ⓘ; Tarifit: Mřič) is an autonomous city of Spain on the North African coast. It lies on the eastern side of the Cape Three Forks, bordering Morocco and facing the Mediterranean Sea. It has an area of 12.3 km2 (4.7 sq mi). It was part of the Province of Málaga until 14 March 1995, when the Statute of Autonomy of Melilla was passed.
Melilla is one of the special territories of the member states of the European Union. Movements to and from the rest of the EU and Melilla are subject to specific rules, provided for inter alia in the Accession Agreement of Spain to the Schengen Convention.
As of 2019, Melilla had a population of 86,487. The population is chiefly divided between people of Iberian and Riffian extraction. There are also small numbers of Sephardic Jews and Sindhi Hindus. Melilla features a diglossia between the official Spanish and Tarifit.
Like the autonomous city of Ceuta and Spain's other territories in Africa, Melilla is subject to an irredentist claim by Morocco.
Borrowed from Spanish, the English name Melilla is pronounced /mɛˈliːjə/ or /məˈliːjə/ to approximate the sound of the Spanish double L, properly [meˈliʝa] in most standard Spanish dialects. The name is attested from the 9th century, deriving from Arabic Malīlya (مَلِيلْيَة, [maˈliːlja]) of uncertain etymology. The name has been related to honey (Spanish: miel; Latin: mel; Ancient Greek: μέλι, méli) since Melilla was a notable site for beekeeping in antiquity, a bee appearing prominently on the city's bronze coinage under Mauretanian rule. Alternatively, it has been taken from words meaning "discord", "fever", or a medieval Arab figure.[which?] The placename perhaps comes from the Amazigh root M·L (meaning 'white'), producing the Amazigh mlilet and which results in the local Mrič ([mrɪtʃ]) via /l/→ [r] and /lt/ → [č] changes.
Melilla was a Phoenician and later Punic trade establishment under variations of the name Rusadir (Punic: 𐤓𐤔𐤀𐤃𐤓, ršʾdr), taken from the Phoenician name of the nearby Cape Three Forks. After Carthage's defeat in the Punic Wars, the city fell under the control of the Roman client state Mauretania. After its annexation under Caligula, Claudius organized it as part of the province of Mauretania Tingitana. Pliny mentions it as a native hillfort and port (Latin: oppidum et portus). It was made a Roman colony in AD 46, after which it was sometimes referenced as Flavia. Rusaddir was said to have once been the seat of a bishop, but there is no record of any bishop of the purported see and it is not included in the Catholic Church's list of modern titular sees.
The political history is similar to that of towns in the region of the Moroccan Rif and southern Spain. Melilla was progressively ruled by the Vandals, Byzantines, and the Visigoths. In the early 6th century, it was the main port of the Mauro-Roman Kingdom. After the Islamic conquest of North Africa, it fell under the Umayyads, Cordobans, Idrisids, Almoravids, Almohads, Marinids, and Wattasids.
During the 15th century, the city declined, like most Mediterranean cities of the Kingdom of Fez, eclipsed by those on the Atlantic. After the Catholic Monarchs' conquest of the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada in 1492, their Secretary Hernando de Zafra gathered intelligence about the sorry state of the North African coast with territorial expansion in mind. He sent agents to investigate, and subsequently reported to the Catholic Monarchs that, as of 1494, locals had expelled the authority of the Sultan of Fez and had offered to pledge loyalty. While the 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas put Melilla and Cazaza, until then reserved to the Portuguese, under the sphere of Castile, the conquest of the city had to wait, delayed by the French occupation of Naples.
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Melilla
Melilla (/mɛˈliːjə/, Spanish: [meˈliʝa] ⓘ; Tarifit: Mřič) is an autonomous city of Spain on the North African coast. It lies on the eastern side of the Cape Three Forks, bordering Morocco and facing the Mediterranean Sea. It has an area of 12.3 km2 (4.7 sq mi). It was part of the Province of Málaga until 14 March 1995, when the Statute of Autonomy of Melilla was passed.
Melilla is one of the special territories of the member states of the European Union. Movements to and from the rest of the EU and Melilla are subject to specific rules, provided for inter alia in the Accession Agreement of Spain to the Schengen Convention.
As of 2019, Melilla had a population of 86,487. The population is chiefly divided between people of Iberian and Riffian extraction. There are also small numbers of Sephardic Jews and Sindhi Hindus. Melilla features a diglossia between the official Spanish and Tarifit.
Like the autonomous city of Ceuta and Spain's other territories in Africa, Melilla is subject to an irredentist claim by Morocco.
Borrowed from Spanish, the English name Melilla is pronounced /mɛˈliːjə/ or /məˈliːjə/ to approximate the sound of the Spanish double L, properly [meˈliʝa] in most standard Spanish dialects. The name is attested from the 9th century, deriving from Arabic Malīlya (مَلِيلْيَة, [maˈliːlja]) of uncertain etymology. The name has been related to honey (Spanish: miel; Latin: mel; Ancient Greek: μέλι, méli) since Melilla was a notable site for beekeeping in antiquity, a bee appearing prominently on the city's bronze coinage under Mauretanian rule. Alternatively, it has been taken from words meaning "discord", "fever", or a medieval Arab figure.[which?] The placename perhaps comes from the Amazigh root M·L (meaning 'white'), producing the Amazigh mlilet and which results in the local Mrič ([mrɪtʃ]) via /l/→ [r] and /lt/ → [č] changes.
Melilla was a Phoenician and later Punic trade establishment under variations of the name Rusadir (Punic: 𐤓𐤔𐤀𐤃𐤓, ršʾdr), taken from the Phoenician name of the nearby Cape Three Forks. After Carthage's defeat in the Punic Wars, the city fell under the control of the Roman client state Mauretania. After its annexation under Caligula, Claudius organized it as part of the province of Mauretania Tingitana. Pliny mentions it as a native hillfort and port (Latin: oppidum et portus). It was made a Roman colony in AD 46, after which it was sometimes referenced as Flavia. Rusaddir was said to have once been the seat of a bishop, but there is no record of any bishop of the purported see and it is not included in the Catholic Church's list of modern titular sees.
The political history is similar to that of towns in the region of the Moroccan Rif and southern Spain. Melilla was progressively ruled by the Vandals, Byzantines, and the Visigoths. In the early 6th century, it was the main port of the Mauro-Roman Kingdom. After the Islamic conquest of North Africa, it fell under the Umayyads, Cordobans, Idrisids, Almoravids, Almohads, Marinids, and Wattasids.
During the 15th century, the city declined, like most Mediterranean cities of the Kingdom of Fez, eclipsed by those on the Atlantic. After the Catholic Monarchs' conquest of the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada in 1492, their Secretary Hernando de Zafra gathered intelligence about the sorry state of the North African coast with territorial expansion in mind. He sent agents to investigate, and subsequently reported to the Catholic Monarchs that, as of 1494, locals had expelled the authority of the Sultan of Fez and had offered to pledge loyalty. While the 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas put Melilla and Cazaza, until then reserved to the Portuguese, under the sphere of Castile, the conquest of the city had to wait, delayed by the French occupation of Naples.