Editing Madagascar (section)

==Etymology==
In the [[Malagasy language]], the island of Madagascar is called ''Madagasikara'' ({{IPA|mg|madaɡasʲˈkʲarə̥}}) and its people are referred to as ''[[Malagasy people|Malagasy]]''.<ref name=NatGeo1>{{cite web |last = National Geographic |title = Style Manual |url=http://stylemanual.ngs.org/home/M/madagascan-malagasy |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130525104716/http://stylemanual.ngs.org/home/M/madagascan-malagasy |archive-date = 25 May 2013 |url-status=dead |access-date =31 August 2012}}</ref><ref name=MalagasyOrNot>{{cite web|url=https://theconversation.com/malagasy-or-is-it-madagascan-our-research-provides-the-answer-128343|title=Malagasy? Or is it Madagascan? Our research provides the answer|last=Raveloson|first=Andriamiranto|date=25 March 2020|website=theconversation.com|language=en|access-date=20 August 2020|archive-date=13 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200613102719/https://theconversation.com/malagasy-or-is-it-madagascan-our-research-provides-the-answer-128343|url-status=live}}</ref> The origin of the name is uncertain,<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Voarintsoa |first1=Ny Riavo G. |last2=Raveloson |first2=Andriamiranto |last3=Barimalala |first3=Rondrotiana |last4=Razafindratsima |first4=Onja H. |date=July 2019 |title='Malagasy' or 'Madagascan'? Which English term best reflects the people, the culture, and other things from Madagascar? |journal=Scientific African |language=en |volume=4 |pages=e00091 |doi=10.1016/j.sciaf.2019.e00091|bibcode=2019SciAf...400091V |s2cid=187807236 |doi-access=free }}</ref> and is likely foreign, having been propagated in the [[Middle Ages]] by Europeans.<ref name="Cousins2">Cousins (1895), pp. 11–12</ref> If this is the case, it is unknown when the name was adopted by the inhabitants of the island. No single Malagasy-language name predating ''Madagasikara'' appears to have been used by the local population to refer to the island, although some communities had their name for part or all of the lands they inhabited.<ref name="Room 2006, p. 2302">Room (2006), p. 230</ref>

One hypothesis relates ''Madagascar'' to the word ''[[Malays (ethnic group)|Malay]]'', referring to the [[Austronesian peoples|Austronesian]] origin of the [[Malagasy people]] in modern-day [[Indonesia]]. In a map by [[Muhammad al-Idrisi]] dating from the year 1154, the island is named ''Gesira Malai'', or "Malay island" in [[Arabic]]. The inversion of this name to ''Malai Gesira'', as it was known by the [[Greeks]], is thought to be the precursor of the modern name of the island.<ref name=":022">{{Cite journal |last=Clockers |first=Alain |date=2014-12-30 |title=Histoire des noms anciens de Madagascar : réévaluations et nouvelles hypothèses |url=https://journals.openedition.org/oceanindien/1704?lang=en |journal=Études Océan Indien |language=fr |issue=51–52 |doi=10.4000/oceanindien.1704 |issn=0246-0092 |doi-access=free |access-date=1 June 2023 |archive-date=1 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230601201349/https://journals.openedition.org/oceanindien/1704?lang=en |url-status=live }}</ref> The name "Malay island" was later rendered in Latin as ''Malichu'', an abbreviated form of ''Malai Insula'', in the medieval [[Hereford Mappa Mundi]] as the name of Madagascar.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Grandidier |first=Alfred |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9u4kwwEACAAJ |title=Histoire de la géographie de Madagascar |date=1885 |publisher=Imprimerie nationale |language=fr |access-date=23 June 2023 |archive-date=21 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230821020820/https://books.google.com/books?id=9u4kwwEACAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=":022"/>

Another hypothesis is that ''Madagascar'' is a corrupted transliteration of [[Mogadishu]], the capital of [[Somalia]] and an important medieval Indian Ocean port. This would have resulted from 13th-century Venetian explorer [[Marco Polo]] confusing the two locations in his memoirs, in which he mentions the land of ''Madageiscar'' to the south of [[Socotra]]. This name would then have been popularized on [[Renaissance]] maps by Europeans.<ref name="Cousins2"/><ref name="Room 2006, p. 2302">Room (2006), p. 230</ref> One of the first documents written that might explain why Marco Polo called it ''Madagascar'' is in a 1609 book on Madagascar by Jerome Megiser.<ref name="London Missionary Society Press">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jYccAAAAMAAJ&dq=jerome+megiser+madagascar&pg=PA404 |title=The Antananarvio Annual and Madagascar Magazine |date=1893 |publisher=London Missionary Society Press |language=en |access-date=2023-06-04 |archive-date=2023-06-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230604192933/https://books.google.com/books?id=jYccAAAAMAAJ&newbks=0&printsec=frontcover&pg=PA404&dq=jerome+megiser+madagascar&hl=en |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Sibree 1896">{{Cite book |last=Sibree |first=James |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HRApAAAAYAAJ&dq=jerome+megiser+madagascar+magadaxo&pg=PA113 |title=Madagascar Before the Conquest: The Island, the Country, and the People, with Chapters on Travel and Topography, Folk-lore, Strange Customs and Superstitions, the Animal Life of the Island, and Mission Work and Progress Among the Inhabitants |date=1896 |publisher=Macmillan |language=en |access-date=2023-06-04 |archive-date=2023-06-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230604192928/https://books.google.com/books?id=HRApAAAAYAAJ&newbks=0&printsec=frontcover&pg=PA113&dq=jerome+megiser+madagascar+magadaxo&hl=en |url-status=live }}</ref> Jerome Megiser describes an event in which the kings of [[Sultanate of Mogadishu|Mogadishu]] and [[Adal Sultanate|Adal]] traveled to Madagascar with a fleet of around twenty-five thousand men in order to invade the wealthy islands of Taprobane and Sumatra. However, a tempest threw them off course and they landed on the coasts of Madagascar, conquering the island and signing a treaty with its inhabitants. They remained for eight months and erected at different points of the island eight pillars on which they engraved "Magadoxo", a name which later, by corruption became Madagascar.<ref name="London Missionary Society Press"/><ref name="Sibree 1896"/><ref>{{cite book |last1=Kent |first1=Raymond K. |title=Early Kingdoms in Madagascar and the Birth of the Sakalava Empire, 1500-1700 |date=1967 |publisher=University of Wisconsin--Madison |page=186 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_XubAAAAMAAJ |access-date=2023-06-05 |archive-date=2023-06-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230605111400/https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Early_Kingdoms_in_Madagascar_and_the_Bir.html?id=_XubAAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Warhafftige, gründliche und aussfüh">{{cite book |last1=Megiser |first1=Hieronymus |title=Warhafftige, gründliche und aussführliche, so wol historische als chorographische Beschreibung der ... Insul Madagascar. ... Samt ... angehengtem Dictionario und Dialogis der Madagascarischen Sprach |date=1609 |pages=58–60 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=srs_eP6UmhUC&dq=magadaxo+und+adel&pg=PA58 |language=de |access-date=14 January 2024 |archive-date=14 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240114164930/https://books.google.com/books?id=srs_eP6UmhUC&dq=magadaxo+und+adel&pg=PA58 |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Jan Huyghen van Linschoten]], a [[netherlands|Dutch]] traveler who copied Portuguese works and maps, confirmed this event by saying "Madagascar has its name from 'makdishu' (Mogadishu)" whose "shayk" invaded it.<ref name="London Missionary Society Press"/><ref>{{Cite book |last=Linschoten |first=Jan Huygen van |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GUxSjS0jpjwC&dq=the+voyage+of+john+huyghen+makdishu&pg=PA19 |title=The Voyage of John Huyghen Van Linschoten to the East Indies: From the Old English Translation of 1598. The First Book, Containing His Description of the East... |date=1885 |publisher=Hakluyt society |language=en |access-date=2023-06-04 |archive-date=2023-06-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230604192932/https://books.google.com/books?id=GUxSjS0jpjwC&newbks=0&printsec=frontcover&pg=PA19&dq=the+voyage+of+john+huyghen+makdishu&hl=en |url-status=live }}</ref>

The name ''Malagasikara'', or ''Malagascar'', is also historically attested. A British state paper in 1699 records the arrival of eighty to ninety passengers from "Malagaskar" to what eventually became [[New York City]].<ref>'America and West Indies: June 1699, 12-20', in ''Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies: Volume 17, 1699 and Addenda 1621-1698'', ed. Cecil Headlam (London, 1908), pp. 283–291. ''British History Online'' http://www.british-history.ac.uk/cal-state-papers/colonial/america-west-indies/vol17/pp283-291 {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230216231538/https://www.british-history.ac.uk/cal-state-papers/colonial/america-west-indies/vol17/pp283-291 |date=16 February 2023 }}  [accessed 1 June 2023].</ref> An 1882 edition of the British newspaper ''[[The Graphic]]'' referred to "Malagascar" as the name of the island, stating that it is etymologically a word of [[Malay language|Malay]] origin, and may be related to the name of [[Malacca City|Malacca]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=W. M. C. |date=December 16, 1882 |title=The Malagasy |work=The Graphic |issue=681 |url=http://www.sabrizain.org/malaya/library/1882-12-16thegraphic.pdf |access-date=1 June 2023 |archive-date=1 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230601201347/http://www.sabrizain.org/malaya/library/1882-12-16thegraphic.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1891, Saleh bin Osman, a [[Zanzibar]]i traveler, refers to the island as "Malagaskar" when recounting his journeys, including as part of the [[Emin Pasha Relief Expedition]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Saleh Bin Osman |date=August 1891 |title=The Story of My Life |url=https://onemorevoice.org/html/transcriptions/liv_020002_TEI.html |journal=St. Nicholas: An Illustrated Magazine for Young Folks |issue=18 |pages=795–8 |access-date=1 June 2023 |archive-date=1 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230601201352/https://onemorevoice.org/html/transcriptions/liv_020002_TEI.html |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1905, Charles Basset wrote in his doctoral thesis that ''Malagasikara'' was the way the island is referred to by its natives, who emphasized that they were ''Malagasy'', and not ''Madagasy''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Basset |first=Charles |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J5MoAAAAYAAJ |title=Madagascar et l'oeuvre du Général Galliéni |date=1903 |publisher=A. Rousseau |language=fr}}</ref>