Kandahar

For our first Word Of The Week, I have chosen "Kandahar", which is the name of a city in Afghanistan. It is a proper name, so it won't win you any points in Scrabble, but it has been in the news lately as we commemorate the 5th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Kandahar was a home base for the Taliban in Afghanistan until 2002. What is the origin of the name Kandahar? Well, there are several theories. One traces its origins to a kingdom called Gandhara that flourished nearby in antiquity. While it may have gone by that name at some point, the modern name Kandahar actually has its origins with the conquests of Alexander the Great. Alexander named cities after himself wherever he conquered territory-the city of Alexandria in Egypt is probably the most famous of these cities. Well, as he marched eastward Alexander also named what is now Kandahar. Kandahar was an Alexandria, or rather an Alexandropolis. The Greek language never penetrated far beyond the administrative level in lands taken by Alexander beyond the Levant. His name was taken into the native languages of these areas and changed accordingly. In Arabic-influenced lands, the Greek Alexandros dropped the Greek "os" ending and became Al-Iskandar. The "al", which means "the" in Arabic, was lost and, with some switching of letters, the name became Iskandar, still a common name in certain Arab countries. In Persia Alexandros became Skandar while in the Punjab it became Sikandar. So naturally Alexandropolis became the City of Skandar, or Kandahar.

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