for many years, the de montalvo novel languished in obscurity, with no connection known between it and the name of california. in 1864, a portion of the original was translated by edward everett hale for the antiquarian society, and the story was printed in "the atlantic monthly" magazine. hale supposed that in inventing the names, de montalvo held in his mind the spanish word "calif", the term for a leader of an islamic community. hale's joint derivation of "calafia" and "california" was accepted by many, then questioned by a few scholars who sought further proof, and offered their own interpretations. george davidson wrote in 1910 that hale's theory was the best yet presented, but offered his own addition. in 1917, ruth putnam printed an exhaustive account of the work performed up to that time. she wrote that both "calafia" and "california" most likely came from the arabic word "khalifa" which means steward or leader. the same word in spanish was "califa", easily made into "california" to stand for "land of the caliph" خلیف, or "calafia" to stand for "female caliph" خلیفه . putnam discussed davidson's 1910 theory based on the greek word "kalli" (meaning beautiful) but discounted it as exceedingly unlikely, a conclusion that dora beale polk agreed with in 1995, calling the theory "far-fetched". putnam also wrote that "the song of roland" held a passing mention of a place called "califerne", perhaps named thus because it was the caliph's domain, a place of infidel rebellion. chapman elaborated on this connection in 1921: "there can be no question but that a learned man like ordóñez de montalvo was familiar with the "chanson de roland" ...this derivation of the word 'california' can perhaps never be proved, but it is also plausible—and it may be added too interesting—to be overlooked." polk characterized this theory as "imaginative speculation", adding that another scholar offered the "interestingly plausible" suggestion that roland's "califerne" is a corruption of the persian "kar-i-farn", a mythological "mountain of paradise" where griffins lived.