The archive of Toledo’s Mozarabs was translated from Arab into Spanish and published in four volumes by Anhel Gonzales Palencia in 1926–1930. The territory of Toledo was numerous times reoccupied by either Spaniards or Arabs during the Reconquista period. The chronological frames are 1083–1315. The archive includes a collection of the 1175 documents: legal papers with the registration of property arrangements between individuals and religious institutions. Most of the documents are related to the Toledo Cathedral of St. Mary. Every Mozarab document (with the exception of 25) is written in Arabic which emphasizes the official status of Arabic language in Toledo even at the beginning of the 14th century. In Arabic texts, there are words in aljamiado, (Spanish words written with Arabic letters). This phenomenon is of great philological interest. Traces of Mozarabs’ aljamiado, the language of Spaniards on the territory conquered by Arabs, is not present in any of written documents so the earlier period of Spanish language history has been documented very poorly. The archive of Toledo’s Mozarabs is an important source of vocabulary in aljamiado of Moriscos. In these texts, there are Spanish toponyms; Christian onomatology; designation of church posts; names of Christian holidays; designations of a number of secular court posts; references to family connections, etc. Documents are very often written in Arabic and Romance. In many documents, there are names both in Arabic and Romance. The cases of name identification which show that the names used in daily life were those in Arabic and not in Romance are quite frequent. With Arabic names including elements of Spanish morphology, names in Romance, in contrast, were formed following the pattern of Arabic names including the distinctive characteristic such as mentioning of several generations. Particular attention should be paid to the transcription of names in Romance in Arabic documents. Some of these transfer the particularities of pronunciation which is closer to the Latin ones than Spanish. To identify Muslims among signers is especially difficult as Christians also had Arabic names.
Keywords: Mozarabs, al-Andalus, aljamiado, christian onomatology, Old Spanish language
DOI: 10.22250/2072-8662.2019.2.10-16
About the authors
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Oxana V. Tikhonova – PhD (Romance Philology), Assistant Professor at the Department of Romance Philology, St. Petersburg State University; 7–9 Universitetskaia naberezhnaia str., St. Petersburg, Russia, 199034; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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Larisa A. Shakunova – Bachelor (Oriental Studies), Master Student at the Department of Oriental Studies of St. Petersburg State University; 7–9 Universitetskaia naberezhnaia str., St. Petersburg, Russia, 199034; larisashakunova@gmail.com |