Talk:Casablanca

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King Hassan's II mosque is the second largest after Mecca.

I have conflicting sources on this. Provided Mecca is counted as a mosque (which it should be IMO), Hassan II is either the second or the third. Can anyone help? --Vjam 20:59, 15 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Meaning of Casablanca's arabic name

The English name of the city, Casablanca, means White House in Spanish. But I think Arabic Dar el Beyda actually means 'House of the White (princesse). It comes from Lalla Beida (The White Princess), for whom a memorial was built in the city.

--Revas 19:48, 26 December 2005 (UTC)

Hi Revas. I am not quite sure of what you said and never heard about that. All I know that the Arabic name is Ad-dar el Beyda and not Dar el Beyda; which means that it has a definite article and therefore can't mean a House of the White (princesse). Cheers -- Szvest 08:19, 27 December 2005 (UTC)  ^{Wiki me up™}

I have reverted this to "House of the White Princess" - at least one source seems to confirm (the Rough Guide to Morocco). However, think this needs advice. Historically, this may have referred to a princess, but there is no word for princess in the name. I'd suggest that a better translation might be "House of the White One", but I'm not an Arabic speaker and I'm just surmising. --Vjam 21:32, 27 December 2005 (UTC)

I am not sure again Vjam about what comes in (the Rough Guide to Morocco). All I know is that the time the Portuguese arrived, they called it Casa Branca and I've heard because of a white house on a hill in Anfa. However, I'll seek advice from Khalid hassani who surely can sort this out for us. Cheers - Szvest 22:34, 27 December 2005 (UTC)  ^{Wiki me up™}

Hi Fayssal, thanks for seeking my advice :). As far as I know, the name is in fact from a portuguese origine and was originally Casa branca which means white house (after a white house near the shore visible from the sea) the name has been later transformed to Casablanca. The arabic name Dar el Beyda name derives from Casablanca and not the other way around. See also the French entry : http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casablanca#Histoire.--Khalid hassani 23:52, 27 December 2005 (UTC)

Yes, it seems to me that the Portuguese must have been the first to name the town white anything. However, as noted above, the classical Arabic name uses the definite article "el". Not being an Arabic speaker, it would seem to me that this makes the "el beyda" part of the name a noun, rather than an adjective (it is an adjective in the Spanish and Portuguese versions). If "white" is a noun here, then "White House" cannot be the translation, although it could be something more like "House of the White One", as I suggested above.

The basic question (for an Arabic speaker) is: is the "el beyda" in "ad dar el beyda" an adjectival or a noun phrase? --Vjam 16:41, 28 December 2005 (UTC)

Hi Vjam. Good question. It must be noted that there's one more important definite article for dar as well (ad-dar where ad mean al).

• Dar el Beyda = Casa Do Branca = House of the white (one).
• Ad dar el beyda = Casa Branca = The White house. Cheers -- Szvest 17:44, 28 December 2005 (UTC)  ^{Wiki me up™}

If I may clear up the confusion (as both an Arabic speaker and inhabitant of Casa), the Arabic name, using Modern Standard Form, is ad-Dar al-Baida, lit. The White House. It seems to me a bit of confusion occurs in hearing local Casa dialect, where ad-Dar tends to get pronounced d-Dar l-Beida. That is the definate article on Dar (house) tends to get eaten by a lot of people. If Rough Guide is pimping the idea of the White One, that's their ignorance. And, yes, Beida is adjectival to Dar here. Wierd little controversy.(Collounsbury 03:00, 31 January 2006 (UTC)).

Moved the Arabic script in the first para back to being Standard Arabic. This may be wrong, but the way someone had moved things around ended up being incoherent. Please correct if you are qualified to do so. --Vjam 21:26, 26 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Since Independence Section

This section needs work as it is simply a random unconnected set of factiods.

[edit] Surface

The surface of the city would be a great info to insert in the article. Is there any suburb around it? If so, surface and total population would be nice, too. --SidiLemine 16:47, 6 November 2006 (UTC)