أذن في مالطا

Arabic

Etymology

Literally: “to call to Islamic prayer in Malta”. The phrase would, of course, work with every non-Islamic location. The choice of Malta is perhaps not coincidental, but may originally have expressed Muslim bitterness about the loss of the island (after the Norman conquest in 1091) as well as the fact that large portions of the Arabo-Islamic population quickly converted to Christianity. (The remaining Muslims were expelled in 1249, but the Arabic language remains intact to this day.)

Verb

أَذَّنَ فِي مالْطَا • (ʔaḏḏana fī mālṭā)

1. (idiomatic) to carry coals to Newcastle (do something futile)
2. to say something that nobody listens to