From Syria (and the Middle East) 2 Latin America
The alfajor (or alajú) is one of the foremost ambassadors of South American and Spanish pastries. It is also found in the Philippines and in the South of France.
This delicious confection consists of two or more layers of cookies, joined by a filling generally made of fruit or milk jam, honey, chocolate mousse, or even dried fruit or nut pastes, such as almonds, walnuts or hazelnuts. However, coconut and dulce de leche are the most common.
According to Manuel Alvar López (1923 – 2001), eminent philologist, dialectologist and Spanish professor in his “Manual de dialectología hispánica”, and his field studies, compiled in his linguistic and ethnographic atlases, the alfajor in clearly of Andalusian origins, at the time of Al-Andalus.
Andalusia (Andalucía), is an autonomous community made up of eight provinces, located in southern Spain.
Al-Andalus is the term which designates all the territories of the Iberian Peninsula and some of the South of France, such as Septimania, which were under Muslim domination between 711 and 1492, when Grenada was taken. Andalusia today, which takes its name from it, was for a long time only a small part.
In 712, General Abu Abderrahman Moussa ibn Noçaïr ibn Abderrahman Zayd al-Bakri al-Lajmi, better known under the name of Moussa ibn Noçaïr (640 – 716 in Syria) who participated in the Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula, arrived in Algeciras, in Spain, with an army of 18,000 soldiers and types of alfajores, to undertake the conquest of Medina Sidonia, Alcalá de Guadaira and Carmona.
According to Manuel Alvar López, the word “alfajor” is an Andalusian variant of the Castilian word “alajú”, itself derived from the Arabic word الفاخر, “al-fakher”, meaning “luxurious”, and was introduced to Latin America as “alfajor”. Until Today, this sweet could be found in Syria and the Levant under the name الفاخر.
(Photo Credit: Alfakher - ebay.com/CAJA DE ALFAJORES HAVANNA)
(source: https://www.196flavors.com/alfajores/)