Tinerfe "the Great" is a legendary hero who was a guanche mencey (aboriginal king) of the island of Tenerife (Canary Islands, Spain). It is estimated that he lived at the end of the 14th century.
He was the son of mencey Sunta, who ruled the island in the days before the conquest of the Canary Islands by Castile. Tinerfe the Great lived in Adeje (like all his predecessors), approximately a hundred years before the conquest of 1494.
Upon Tinerfe's death, his sons divided the island into nine kingdoms. At the time of the conquest the kings of these kingdoms were:
In the toponymy of the island
The 17th-century historians Juan Núñez de la Peña and Tomás Arias MarÃÂn de Cubas, among others, state that the name of the island of Tenerife could come from Tinerfe.
References
Bibliography
- Abreu y Galindo, J. de, Historia de la conquista de las siete islas de Canarias, en A. Cioranescu (ed) Goya ediciones, Tenerife, 1977 .
- Arias MarÃÂn de Cubas, T. Historia de las siete islas de Canaria, edición de ÃÂngel de Juan Casañas y MarÃÂa Régulo RodrÃÂguez; proemio de Juan Régulo Pérez; notas arqueológicas de Julio Cuenca SanabrÃÂa. Real Sociedad Económica de Amigos del PaÃÂs, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 1986
- Bethencourt Alfonso, J. Historia del pueblo guanche: Tomo II. EtnografÃÂa y organización socio-polÃÂtica, Francisco Lemus Ed. La Laguna, 1991 .
- Espinosa, Fray A. de, Historia de Nuestra Señora de Candelaria, en A. Cioranescu (ed) Goya ediciones, santa Cruz de Tenerife, 1967 .
- Torriani, L. Descripción e historia del reino de las Islas Canarias, en A. Cioranescu (ed) Goya ediciones, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, 1978 .
- Viana, A. La Conquista de Tenerife, en A. Cioranescu (ed) Aula de Cultura de Tenerife, Cabildo Insular, 1968-1971.