Demarcating the lands of the village of Comares (Axarquia of Malaga) in the 16th century: toponomy and territory

Abstract

The focus of this research is on the Axarquia region, located in the interior of the Malaga province, and specifically on the village of Comares. The main objective is to know the demarcation of the lands of Comares in the 16^th century. Therefore, we have studied the documentation related to the Malaga disengagements and the administrative district (ṭā'a) of Comares of the 15^th century, in addition to the 16^th century books on the boundaries and distributions of the villages of Comares, Cútar and El Borge. The study of the toponomy of Arabic and Romance (or pre-Romance) etymology is useful to understand the composition of the landscape and countryside with its main landmarks, both artificial and natural. Based on our analysis of these data, we are able to obtain the demarcation of Comares with respect to its old farmsteads of El Borge, Cútar and the Tierras del Pan, as well as to establish the length and width of the town, to achieve the landscape of this part of the Axarquia region in the 16th century. Finally, we have included a toponymic table with the etymological origin and semantic value of the different words.