Arabic Beyond the Arabs
The Mozarabs
«المستعرِبون»
The Christians of al-Andalus who lived under Muslim rule were called musta'ribūn, "Arabised" – in Spanish Mozárabes, whence French and English Mozarabs. The word is Arabic musta'rib, one who takes on the speech and ways of the Arabs without being one of them. With it the Spaniards themselves recorded that these Christians lived in Arabic for centuries, and their name survives in an old rite of Toledo still known as the Mozarabic rite.
- In brief
- A Spanish word that still records what Arabic did to those who spoke it
- Outside Arabic
- Mozárabes · Mozarabs
«قد أُطلق على النصارى الأندلسيّين اسم "مُزاراب" (Mozarabes)، وهو مشتقٌّ من "استعرب"، كأنّهم استعربوا بمخالطتهم العرب.»
Strictly the word comes from the participle musta'rib, not the verb ista'raba as Pérès says: the Royal Spanish Academy's dictionary traces mozárabe to Andalusi Arabic musta'ráb. The Toledo rite is not in the lecture.
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Sources
- هنري بيريس، «اللغة العربيّة وسكّان الأندلس في القرون الوسطى»، مجلّة المجمع العلميّ العربيّ ١٩/٩ (١٩٤٤م)، ص٤٠٠
- Real Academia Española, Diccionario de la lengua española: mozárabe
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