Question to someone who may know:
We see in Arabic many words which are prefixed with an
"al", Moammar Al-Qaddafi, for example. Others like Al-Akbar,
and I believe it was Anwar Al-Sadat of Egypt. To what
does the "al" refer? Or is it like a "the", "of", "from"?
Is it like Fitz in Fitzsimmons, Da in DaVinci, D' in D'Onofrio, Mac in MacKay, De in DeMaupassant? I notice it
is in names of places as well as people, hence my question.

Yes.

The word 'al is basically the definite article in Arabic, i.e., the.

The. Thanks.

and in NZ some place names begin with the French 'rue'. It translates to 'street' (I use to think it meant the)

Akaroa

Looks like a beautiful place.
Qadaffi's son was called Al-Qadaffi on the new this AM.

The same things happen in Ancient Greek if I remeber correctly...for about a week after learning this we went around school calling everyone "The Alice" or "The Guinevere"...I presume we found it funny to begin with but it only lasted that first week...

Even that makes more sense to me. With it being the
definite article explained that way. So the thing being
definitely pointed out (like Qadaffi) does not necessarily
mean anything, it is like The Alice?