I'm currently studying spanish and have come to learn a lot about the history of the spanish moors and the arab influence on the entire culture. One of my more interesting findings, was that in the development of the spanish language as we know of it today, there were huge arabic influences on nouns more specifically. Typically you create words for things you don't have words for, interestingly enough the word al-kuhool (alcohol) came from arabic, which is strange seeing as though alcohol is taboo in the islamic culture. Are there any other instances you can think of which stood out to you or you found interesting?
This may be more geographical than linguistic, but I like the Puente de Alcántara in Toledo. Puente means bridge, so it's the Bridge of Alcántara, basically. But Alcántara means bridge too. (Wikipedia says it comes from Arabic القنطرة (al-qanţarah) ). So it means the Bridge of the Bridge. Not only that, there are two bridges that are called Puente de Alcántara! This one in Toledo and this one that was commissioned by the Roman Emperor Trajan.
Many in fact and most of them still in use in what you'd call Castillian Spanish.
Most words incorporating Al- at the beginning are of Arabic origin. Alhambra, Alfanje, Alacena etc. Same goes for geographical features like the name of many rivers and towns, river Guadalquivir, the town of Alcántara etc.
Interesting for instance is the use of the word "Alfil" which is the chess piece called Bishop in English. Alfil is in fact "Elephant" which is what the piece was in the original Indian game, Arabs supposed to bring it to the west.
Several examples here: