Not sure if this topic belongs here, but....
For Christmas every year my daughter gets me a desk calendar. For many years it was The Far Side. Then she started changing the theme every year; one year golf, last year was Italian words and phrases. This year is Everything Mafia. Its a tear off calendar and every day has a new word, phrase, historical antecdote, or biography. Recently the origin of the word "Mafia" came up. I think I always took it for granted or never gave it much thought, but here is what the calendar said.

"One of the theories about how the word Mafia entered the language is that it started as an acronym for the rallying cry of the Sicilian resistance forces. Morte alla Francia Italia anelia! is translated as "Death to the French is Italy's cry." There is another opinion that Mafia is a corruption of an Arabic word meaning "refuge". In Sicily's violent history, people regularly ran for the hills to seek refuge from the invader."

I've heard it before, but that death to the French thing is preposterous. The origins of the Mafia go back much further than the 18th centiry. All legitimate sources point to its word origin as Arabic since the Muslims conquered Sicily in the 9th century.

There's a good entry in Wikipedia. It could have come from the Arabic, or possibly some Sicilian slang word, according to that source. While the acronym may well apply to the French when they occupied Sicily, it is clear that the term predates
the Norman occupation of the island.

from all the sources that ive read, i believe the arabic theory the most.

I like this site. I don't think I've ever come across it before.

http://www.bestofsicily.com/mafia.htm

It does not, the Mafia as a society came to exist in the green area of lemon and orange trees around Palermo, somewhere between 1850 and 1860.
The name itself probably has Arab roots, yes.

John Dickie, Cosa Nostra, 2004.

There is an Urban Legend in Sicily that on the evening of what is called "the night of the sicilian vespers," a Sicilian woman went into one of the churches in Palermo and found her daughter being raped by a French soldier. Legend has it that she then ran out into the streets yelling "Ma fia Ma fia" which translates into "My daughter! My daughter! Some believe that this is where the word "Mafia" might have originated from.



The Night of the Sicilian Vespers actually took place in Sicily sometime around the 13th century. It was a rebellion / uprise against the French troops allowed to occupy Sicily by a King that had taken over control of Sicily, supposedly with the backing of the Pope.


The locals were forced to pay heavy taxes to the King. At the time Palermo was being inhabited by French troops. Legend has it that the French inahbitants, with the backing of the King, made it a tradition to force newly married Sicilian brides to spend the night with them BEFORE being with their new husbands on their wedding night. The French inahbitants of Sicily, backed by the King, were abusing the Sicilian people in many different ways, especially the woman. On one particular night while the sicilian people were attending an evening prayer service of vespers, a group of French officials came by to join in and began to drink. They then began to fondle the breasts of the women and with that the sicilian men decided to finally defend the honor of their woman. A revolt started throughout Palermo, and the sicilian men killed the French inahbitants. Hence the term : Night of The Sicilian Vespers."

Dickie is refering to the formal organization. I am refering to the Sicily's reacton to its various occupiers which are legion and go back to antiquity and especially the Normans in the 10th century. Mafia is a way of life as well as an orgnization. It is akin to the Machismo in Hispanic culture which places emphasis on maniliness which is characterised by bearing one's torments without recourse to formal authority for remedy and complete loyalty to one's clan.

Mm. In my opinion the mafia is not a way of life. Just an (or two) organization(s) of thieves and murderers, nothing more. That's the core of all of it, I can't see how that could also be a way of life. It's also the reason why it has managed to survive such a long time, cause "you can't wipe out the way of life of those Sicilians".

Anyways, just my 2 cents