The word "aljama" is derived from the Arabic "jama" ("gather") plus the definite article "al". It originally meant "congregation", "assembly", "group", but was, even before the establishment of Spanish rule, applied by the Moors to their own religious bodies and the larger mosques, and especially to the Jewish communities in the midst of them, and to the synagogues and schools which formed the center of all Jewish life. The term was adopted by the Christians, and its meaning extended so as to designate also the quarters that Jews and Moors had made their own. In some Spanish cities, the former Jewish quarters are still known by that name, even though the Jews were expelled in 1492.