The elite knights of Adal that were commanded by Imam Ahmed himself were known as the Malassay (or Malachai in Portuguese), and according to one passage the word meant ‘The Sea’;
“The last division was made up of men of strength and valour who were nicknamed 'The Sea’, because of the number of their swords. Their commander was the imam Ahmad himself.” (Futuh - P.125)
I used to think its root word had something to do with the war office of a ‘Malaakh’ but after seeing that it meant ‘The Sea’, I’m now leaning more towards a plural form of the Somali word ‘Malaay’ i.e ‘Malaayga’. It could be sweet suugo science but the fact that the Arabic word for Sea is nothing like the word Malassay and that a score of swords would resemble a school of fish, Malassay / Malachai = Malaayga makes sense.
Add your own ingredients to this suugo; @Shimbiris @The alchemist @Garaad diinle
By @Hussain Al Gaturi
“The last division was made up of men of strength and valour who were nicknamed 'The Sea’, because of the number of their swords. Their commander was the imam Ahmad himself.” (Futuh - P.125)
I used to think its root word had something to do with the war office of a ‘Malaakh’ but after seeing that it meant ‘The Sea’, I’m now leaning more towards a plural form of the Somali word ‘Malaay’ i.e ‘Malaayga’. It could be sweet suugo science but the fact that the Arabic word for Sea is nothing like the word Malassay and that a score of swords would resemble a school of fish, Malassay / Malachai = Malaayga makes sense.
Add your own ingredients to this suugo; @Shimbiris @The alchemist @Garaad diinle
By @Hussain Al Gaturi
. I’m down to help y’all discover Somali etymologies too cause some words in Geysinan are Somali loanwords. Like I was gonna say Absame comes from the word Absuma, but that’s a Somali loanword in the Harari language. The only thing we have close to that is Absum which means circumcision
The Harari etymology would have merit if it had a maritime character to it, not solve a Gordian Knot.
