THE LANGUAGES OF MEDIEVAL IBERIA AND THEIR RELIGIOUS DIMENSION1

MARA ANGELES GALLEGO

Madrid

ABSTRACT The aim of this article is to investigate language use as a social phenomenon in the period of eight centuries during which there was a Muslim state in the Iberian peninsulathat is, more exactly, the period comprising 711 C.E. to 1492 C.E., which are the dates of the Muslim arrival and conquest of the peninsula, and the end of the reconquest of the Muslim territory by the Christians, respectively. For this purpose, I will look into the contexts and registers in which the diVerent languages of Medieval Iberia were used, as well as references to linguistic usages that the written sources of this period contain. Religious aYliation will prove to be a decisive factor in the use of diVerent linguistic varieties and, moreover, the values ascribed to each of them.

I. Background The study and description of the inter-relations between language and society has been the object of a relatively new discipline, sociolinguistics, which has come to fruition within the past fty years. Within this period our understanding of the social organization of language behavior has considerably increased. Whats more, sociolinguistic studies have shed light upon a range of phenomena previously ignored by theoretical linguistics by including social categories (social class, gender, social network) as variables of linguistic change. Sociolinguistic research has also brought to light other phenomena of linguistic culture as important as diglossia (see below 2.1.3). The achievements of sociolinguistic theorizing, however, have had a limited echo in the study of the linguistic situation of the Iberian peninsula in the Middle Ages. A major hurdle in the way of incorporating the implications of theoretical sociolinguistics in the case of medieval Iberia is the lack of data
The second part of this article relies heavily on the lecture I gave at the Centre of Middle Eastern Studies of the University of Cambridge (UK): Language and Society in Medieval Muslim Spain, on 8 March 2001.
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Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2003 Also available online www.brill.nl

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collected from everyday speech and, more speci cally, the lack of information on phonological variation. Phonological changes, representing processes of unconscious language change, have been established as a major source of sociolinguistic information. Since the pioneer study carried out W. Labov2 on the English of New York, numerous studies on phonological variation have shown the close links existing between social class, gender, social network, and ethnicity (among other social variables), and language use and variation.3 For the description of the Iberian linguistic situation one obviously lacks this sort of data and, therefore, the variationist paradigm as developed by Labov cannot be applied.4 The understanding and description of language use achieved in variationist studies, however, will be applied in the present study. In spite of the general lack of data on naturalistic speech, there are realms of language behavior relatively well documented and useful as a source of evidence for a general description of language use in medieval Iberia. The sources and facts on which I base my study can be summarized as follows: anecdotes and references to linguistic usages preserved in medieval primary sources; names employed to refer to the diVerent linguistic varieties; literary evidence of the use of languages or, in other words, evidence of what is written in what language; and historical circumstances, similar historical circumstances have given rise to similar linguistic solutions. I will therefore use historical data to make inferences about the kinds of language use in diVerent social contexts. II. Language use in Christian Spain 1. Latin and Romance When the rst Muslim troops arrived in the Iberian peninsula in 711 C.E., the linguistic situation they encountered was similar to that obtain2 See W. Labov, The Social Strati cation of English in New York City (Washington, D.C.: Center for Applied Linguistics, 1966), and his later work Sociolinguistic patterns (Philadelphia: University of Philadelphia Press, 1972). 3 See, for instance, P. Trudgill, The Social DiVerenciation of English in Norwich (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1974). The pressure of social networks and its eVects on phonological variation is the core of Milroys paper: L. Milroy and J. Milroy, Social network and social class: toward an integrated sociolinguistic model, Language in Society, 21 (1992), 1-26. 4 See Labov, Social Strati cation of English.

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ing in other parts of the former Roman Empire: the native population spoke an incipient linguistic variety developed from Latin, known as Romance, although they continued to use Latin as their written language. Very little is known about the Romance of this period, apart from what can be deduced from some contemporary Latin writings in which the in uence of the spoken language is clearly attested. This scant evidence, along with the reconstruction from later Romance texts, shows that there already existed trends to regional or diatopic linguistic diversi cation.5 These linguistic centrifugal forces were the outcome of the deterioration of the Roman communication and administrative infrastructure that led to the isolation of the diVerent provinces, along with the decay of the classical educational system. The written Latin of this period mostly belonged to the category known as late or low Latin. It diVered from classical Latin in several aspects, notably the re ection of an analytical rather than a synthetic linguistic type (linear order of the elements of the sentence, loss of declension, increased use of prepositions, etc.) and some phonetic changes as a result of the in uence of the spoken language.6 The picture we get from the linguistic culture of this period is that of a diglossic situation. But rst it is necessary to clarify my use of the term diglossia, since it will frequently be used throughout this study. The sociolinguistic condition known as diglossia was originally formulated in 1959 by Charles Ferguson7 in the following way: Diglossia is a relatively stable language situation in which, in addition to the primary dialects of the language (which may include a standard or regional standards), there is a very divergent, highly codi ed (often grammatically more complex) superposed variety, the vehicle of a large and respected body of written literature, either of an earlier period or in another speech community, which is learned largely by formal education and is used for most written and formal spoken purposes but is not used by any sector of the community for ordinary conversation. 8 The language of formal contexts is labeled H(igh) variety, whereas the colloquial spoken language comes to be the L(ow) variety.

5 See R. Lapesa, Historia de la lengua espaola 5th ed. (Madrid: Editorial Gredos, 1986), par. 30 (123-28); R. Menndez Pidal, Orgenes del Espaol: Estado lingstico de la Pennsula Ibrica hasta el siglo XI (Madrid: Casa Editorial Hernando, 1926); and nally R. Wright, Late Latin and Early Romance in Spain and Carolingian France (Liverpool: Francis Cairns, 1982). 6 Lapesa, Historia, par. 15-18 (68-81). 7 C. A. Ferguson, Diglossia, Word, 15 (1959), 325-40. 8 Ferguson, Diglossia, 336.

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In his characterization of this linguistic situation, Ferguson depicted four clear-cut examples: classical Arabic/colloquial Arabic, German/Swiss German, French/Haitian Creole and literary Greek/modern Greek. Further research on diglossic situations carried out by Fishman9 has widened the original scope of diglossia, by incorporating cases of genetically unrelated varieties. In Fishmans extended de nition, the key characteristic of diglossia is the social compartmentalization of function and language. Despite Fergusons objections to the extended diglossia,10 I will use this concept (rather than narrow diglossia) in my description of language use in medieval Iberia, in keeping with most researchers within sociolinguistics. The use of Latin and Romance at the time of the Muslim conquest and specially in the following centuriescorresponds to the diglossic categorization. The domains of Latin were those of the High variety: education, religion, and literature, whereas Romance was used in informal contexts and as an everyday spoken language. Another diglossic characteristic is that Latin was highly standardized whereas Romance lacked a norm of usage. Finally, Latin was highly valued within the linguistic community, while Romance was considered low or vulgar speech. The Muslim conquest brought about dramatic changes in the linguistic evolution of the Iberian Peninsula (see below p. 119 V.), but the Romance/Latin diglossic framework persisted until roughly the middle of the thirteenth century. In their relationships with Christians, Muslims recognized the current cultural scheme. It is worthy of mention that the Latin inscription which appeared in the rst coins issued in the peninsula by Muslims was the fundamental statement of Islam: In the Name of God, there is no god but God, alone, without compeer. The primary intention of these coins, as H. Kassis points out, was to inform the subjugated Christians of the contents of Islam.11 These Latin inscriptions show the acknowledgment by Muslims of the linguistic barrier that separated them from Christians at this early stage and their awareness of the role of Latin as the language of formal contexts, including reli9 J. A. Fishman, Bilingualism with and without diglossia; diglossia with and without bilingualism, Journal of Social Issues, 23, no. 2 (1967), 29-38; revised and reprinted as Societal Bilingualism: stable and transitional, in Sociolinguistics: A brief introduction (Rowley, Mass.: Newbury House, 1970), 78-89. 10 C. A. Ferguson, Epilogue: Diglossia Revisited, Southwest Journal of Linguistics, 10 (1991), 214-34. 11 H. Kassis, The Arabization and Islamization of the Christians of al-Andalus: Evidence of their Scriptures in Languages of Power in Islamic Spain, ed. R. Brann (Bethesda, Md.: CDL Press, 1997), 136-55 (138-39).

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gion. In later years, Islamic coins were inscribed in Latin and classical Arabic and, nally, from 721 C.E. onwards only Arabic was used. A more positive attitude among medieval scholars towards Castilian Romance is re ected for the rst time in the Chronica Adefonsi Imperatoris, a medieval chronicle of c. 1150. Romance terms are introduced by the author with the sentence as we say/as it is said in our language (nostra lingua) rather than vulgar speech or vulgar language as Romance used to be designated.12 Early in the thirteenth century, Romance varieties started to take over certain domains of the High language, mainly in the area of literary production. Poetic and narrative works were produced in Castilian, Galician-Portuguese, and Catalan varieties. SuYce it to mention the Castilian epic poem Cantar de mo Cid (pre-existing in an oral form since the middle of the twelfth century), the Galician-Portuguese lyric works known as Cantigas de amigo, and the Catalan Chronicle of James the Conqueror or Llibre dels Feyts. In this period, Castilian started to share with Latin the juridical and diplomatic domains (pertaining to the H language) in the chancellery of the Kingdom of Castile and Leon. Although there was certain hesitation about its use until a later period.13 When King Ferdinand III of Castile conquered Crdoba (1236), for instance, a juridical corpus to rule the city was prepared in Castilian Romance on the spot. However, as soon as the king returned to Toledo, a Latin extended version of the same legal dispositions was prepared by the royal chancillery, on the model of the Fuero Juzgo.14 In the treaties between Christians and Muslims the languages used were normally classical Arabic and Latin, as required by the formality of the document. This is the case of the surrender treaty between James the Conqueror and the vanquished city of Jtiva in 1244, written in Arabic and Latin. Only one year later, however, another treaty signed by the same monarch and the Muslim rebel al-Azraq has (Aragonese in uenced) Castilian as the language representing the Christian party.15
12 See J. Snchez Belda, ed., Chronica Adefonsi Imperatoris (Madrid: Escuela de Estudios Medievales, CSIC, 1950), 33, 79, 86, and Wright, Late Latin and Early Romance, 227-28. 13 See R. Wright, Latin and Romance in the Castilian Chancery (1180-1230), Bulletin of Hispanic Studies, 73 (1995), 115-28, and F. J. Hernndez, Sobre los orgenes del espaol escrito, Voz y Letra 10, no. 2 (1999), 133-66. 14 F. Gonzlez Oll, El largo camino hacia la oficialidad del espaol en Espaa, in M. Seco and G. Salvador, eds. La lengua espaola, hoy (Madrid: Fundacin Juan March, 1995), 37-62 (38). 15 See R. I. Burns and P. E. Chevedden. Negotiating Cultures: Bilingual Surrender Treaties in Muslim-Crusader Spain (Leiden: Brill, 1999).

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The Christian conquest (reconquest) of Muslim territories had reached one of its nal peaks by the middle of the thirteenth century and, as each Christian kingdom made progress in this crusader enterprise, its variety of Romance spread in the conquered lands. This is the explanation for the linguistic map of Spain, in which the dialectological variants run vertically from north (original Christian redoubt) to south (Muslim Spain or al-Andalus). Another linguistic fact of major importance is the prevalence of Castilian over other Romance varieties, as an outcome of its military success and of its leading role in the campaigns against Muslim Spain. Had it not been for this historical circumstance, it is very unlikely that Castilian would have become the most important Romance variety and later the oYcial language of Spain. Other Romance varieties, especially Leonese and Aragonese, were closer to Latin and enjoyed a higher prestige. Castilian, on the other hand, originated in the mountains of Cantabria, near a Basque speaking area, in a poorly Romanized territory of the Iberian peninsula. This inhospitable area was strongly forti ed (hence its name Castilla from castillo or castle). It has been argued that these peculiar circumstances explain Castilians innovative features and highly diVerentiating characteristics with respect to the other Romance dialects of the peninsula. The de nitive impulse to Castilian came from the scholarly activities promoted and championed by king Alfonso X the Learned (reigned 1252-1284). In what is known as the School of Translators of Toledo, all kinds of literary works were translated from Arabic into Castilian and from Castilian into Latin. The Jewish reluctance to use Latin, a language closely associated with Christianity, played a signi cant role in the process of normalization of the use of Castilian: the usual practice was that Jews translated Arabic texts into Castilian and Christians translated from Castilian into Latin. But many times the Castilian version remained, sometimes revised and corrected by a Christian. There was a proli c literary production in Castilian during this period, including not just belles lettres but historical, juridical, and scienti c works as well. These literary activities inevitably led to a process of linguistic normalization or leveling, abandoning certain forms and favoring others. King Alfonso X placed special emphasis on the correctness of linguistic usage and encouraged writing in straight Castilian (castellano drecho) by giving example with his own writings and employing correctors (emendadores) of the language. The culmination of the standardization process was the publication in 1492 of the Gramtica of Castilian by Antonio de Nebrija.

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In this way, Castilian became a language of culture at an earlier stage than any other Romance language in the Iberian Peninsula. Whats more, it was used as lingua franca and a language of culture in the rest of Christian Spain, extending its in uence to Galician-Portuguese, Basque, Aragonese, and Catalan speaking areas.16 But the eZorescence of Castilian as a language of culture and diplomacy from the thirteenth century onwards did not completely put an end to the previous Romance/Latin diglossia: the realms of academia and religion remained faithful to Latin until a much later period (seventeenth and early twentieth century, respectively). The predominance of Castilian in Christian Spain was not imposed by any planning policy (contrary to what happened in the eighteenth century). It was rather the outcome of the cultural and historical circumstances. Castilian, in any case, was not the only language used in literature: Galician was preferred for lyric compositions, whereas literary works were produced in the other languages, although to a lesser scale than in Castilian. In those parts of the peninsula where a language other than Castilian was used, the functions of the High variety were normally shared by Latin and Castilian,17 whereas the domains of the Low language were lled by the respective local languages. 2. Christian Arabic The extent of Arabization among Christians of Muslim Spain (known as Mozarabs) has been the object of a long controversy (see below p. 119). That in certain parts of the Islamic territory Christians had Arabic as their written and spoken language by the eleventh century is attested in the Arabic documentary evidence produced by the Mozarab community of Toledo. The documents preserved consist of over 1200 legal deeds,18 mostly dated to the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, that is, to the two centuries that followed the reconquest of Toledo by king Alfonso
16 King Ferdinand of Aragon (Ferdinand the Catholic, reigned 1479-1516), for instance, employed Castilian to correspond with Muslim Andalusi rulers and with other Christian kings within the peninsula. 17 This is specially the case in Leonese and Aragonese speaking regions, whereas the Galician-Portuguese and Catalan varieties showed a stronger entity and participated in the domains of written literature. 18 These documents were edited by A. Gonzlez Palencia, Los mozrabes de Toledo en los siglos XII y XIII, 4 vols. (Madrid: Instituto de Don Juan, 1926-30). I. Ferrando carried out a linguistic survey of this material in El dialecto andalus de la Marca Media: los documentos mozrabes toledanos (Zaragoza: Universidad de Zaragoza, 1995).

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VI (1085). This is a singular case of maintenance of the Arabic language by Christians under Christian rule. In Ferrandos comprehensive analysis of this linguistic situation, 19 three main reasons are given for the use of Arabic as a cultural vehicle of Christian society. In the rst place, there was no Christian language that could clearly compete with Arabic in ful lling the functions of a High variety. Latin, as signaled above, was losing ground vis--vis Romance varieties, but no Romance variety could claim to be a language of culture as yet. A second factor that was decisive in retaining the use of Arabic was the arrival by the middle of the twelfth century of a migratory ux of Arabic speaking Christians eeing from the intolerant North African Muslim rulers of al-Andalus. Finally, the wish of the Mozarabs to mark a clear diVerence between them and other Christian groups played a part in keeping this linguistic status quo.20 It was by the end of the thirteenth century when all three factors faded away: the emergence of Castilian as a language of culture and administration, no signi cant Christian migrations from the south, and the integration of this minority group in the wider Romance speaking Christian community. 3. Muslim language use As the Christian Kingdoms pushed southwards from the eleventh century onwards, major Arabic-speaking Muslim communities fell under Christian rule. These Muslim groups were known as Mudejars (or Moriscos when converted after 1492). The capitulation agreements between Muslim communities and Christian rulers generally allowed them to keep their juridical and religious organization, along with their languagein a similar situation as the Christian communities lived under Muslim rule. However, the increasing pressure exerted by Christian authorities to ensure the Muslims acculturation had an inevitable impact in their social and cultural network. These pressures evoked diVerent responses among Muslim communities: on the one hand, linguistic assimilation to the wider Romance speaking community, as it was the case with the majority of Muslim groups in the Peninsula; on the other, Arabic maintenance as a means to preserve Muslim identity, as in the case of the Muslims
19 I. Ferrando, The Arabic language among the Mozarabs of Toledo. In J. Owens (ed), Contributions to the Sociology of Language: Arabic as a Minority Language (Berlin: Mouton, 2000), 45-63. 20 Ferrando, Arabic language, 48.

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of Valencia.21 These two diVerent patterns of language behavior are the expected responses of an ethnolinguistic community under pressure. As M. Brenzinger puts it: Pressure on ethnolinguistic communities from outside may evoke language maintenance activities and resistance. But it also may undermine self-perception, which can then result in changes in language use patterns. This is when the downward spiral of reduced language use and loss may start its deadly circle.22 But the eVort to preserve their Muslim identity is not only manifest in those communities that kept Arabic as a spoken and written language. Romance speaking Muslims and Moriscos in Castile and Aragon developed a kind of Islamic literature that tries to reconcile the use of Romance with their Muslim identity. This Islamic Romance literature is known as Aljamiado. For the correct understanding of Aljamiado, we need to bear in mind the status of Arabic as the sacred language of Islam (see below p. 122) which has had a profound eVect in the way in which Muslims use Arabic and languages other than Arabic. This is a common phenomenon among those religious communities that believe in the sacrality of one particular language: its sacred status has, rst of all, an impact on the languages development, since its speakers will show a highly conservative attitude towards it (consider, for instance, the case of classical Arabic, the language of the Koran, vis--vis dialectal or neo-Arabic). Furthermore, considering one language sacred conditions the use of other languages by the members of that religious group. The two main characteristics of the impact of the sacred language on the profane one are the exportation of its alphabet and certain vocabularymainly of the religious domain. If the members of the religious group in question are linked by strong social ties (for instance marry and work within their own community), reluctance to language innovation is bound to occur and therefore archaisms will appear in diVerent linguistic realms.23 Finally, the
On the question of the Arabization of Muslims and Christians in Valencia, as well as other issues regarding the use of languages in Muslim Spain, see C. Barcel (1984), Minoras islmicas en el Pas Valenciano. Historia y dialecto (Valencia: Universidad de Valencia, 1984), and R. I. Burns, Muslims, Christians and Jews in the Crusader Kingdom of Valencia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984), 172-192. 22 M. Brenzinger, Language Contact and Language Displacement, in The Handbook of Sociolinguistics, ed. F. Coulmas (Oxford: Blackwell, 1998), 273-84 (283). 23 As demonstrated in the sociolinguistic surveys carried out by James and Lesley Milroy, linguistic innovations are transmitted through weak social networks. When the members of a social group are linked by strong social ties, there is a stronger resistance to linguistic changes. See Milroy, Linguistic change, and L. Milroy, Language and Social Networks, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1987).
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high appreciation and exceptional values ascribed to a sacred language can generate carelessness and lack of interest in the correct usage of other languages on the part of the members of a religious community. These characteristics t the case of Islamic literature in Romance or Aljamiado.24 Aljamiado writings are composed by and addressed to Muslims (or Moriscos). Its main diVerentiating features from the Romance literature of the rest of the population are the use of Arabic script, the inclusion of Arabic vocabulary (specially for religious concepts), and a freer re ection of the spoken language than in the writings by Christian authors. They show as well some archaic traits, mostly in the area of lexicon and phonetics. The rst preserved Aljamiado works are dated to the fteenth century, notably the Breviario Sunni or Compendium of Islamic Law by Ie de Gebir, composed in 1462. The expulsion of Muslims from Spain in the seventeenth century put an end to Aljamiado literature since the Romance Morisco communities expelled from the Peninsula gradually adopted the Arabic language of their North African homeland. 4. Jewish language use The languages used by the Iberian Jews were basically the languages used by the groups among which they lived, namely, Arabic and Romance. They also had Hebrew, the language of their own religious tradition (see below pp. 137-38), for liturgy and certain written spheres. Overall, Jews were characterized as a polylinguistic community, at least their higher strata.25 Their excellent knowledge of Arabic allowed them to hold important oYces in Christian Kingdoms, as secretaries and courtiers ( Joseh Ferrizuel [Cidellus], Isaac ben Zadok [Don Cag de la Maleha], Sheshet Benveniste . . .).
24 See G. Wiegers, Islamic Literature in Spanish and Aljamiado: Ya of Segovia ( . 1450), His Antecedents and Successors (Leiden: Brill, 1994), chs. 2, 3, 6; L. F. Bernab-Pons, La asimilacin cultural de los musulmanes de Espaa: lengua y literatura de mudjares y moriscos, in Chrtiens et musulmans la Renaissance: Actes du 37e colloque international du CESR (Paris: Honor Champion, 1998), 317-35; L. P. Harvey, Aljama, in Encyclopaedia of Islam (Leiden: Brill, 1960) 1: 404-5; O. Hegyi, Language between Christianity and Islam: The case of Aljamiado Literature, Scripta Mediterranea, 5 (1984), 29-38; A. Galms de Fuentes, La lengua espaola de la literatura aljamiado-morisca como expresin de una minora religiosa, Revista Espaola de Lingstica 16, no. 1 (1986), 21-38; M. J. Viguera, Introduccin, in F. Corriente, Relatos pos y profanos del manuscrito aljamiado de Urrea de Jaln (Zaragoza: Institucin Fernando el Catlico, 1990), 9-51. 25 The High varieties used by Jews in Medieval Iberia have been studied by E. R. Miller, Jewish Multiglossia: Hebrew, Arabic and Castilian in Medieval Spain (Newark, Del.: Juan de la Cuesta, 2000).

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They also had an active role as cultural intermediaries through their translation activities. One the one hand, they were commissioned by Christian rulers to translate into Romance numerous Arabic works, as those produced in the School of Translators of Toledo. The other main translation activity consisted of rendering into Hebrew the Arabic ( JudeoArabic, see below p. 139) writings of Jewish scholars living under Muslim rule. In this way, the impressive intellectual production of Arabic-speaking Jews was transmitted to the rest of European communities that remained innocent of Arabic. One of the most highly reputed translators was Judah ben Saul ibn Tibbon (c. 1120-c. 1190), the initiator of an activity that would count with many followers among the members of his family. After eeing from Granada in the middle of the twelfth century, Ibn Tibbon got settled in the south of France, where he practiced as a physician and carried out his translation activities. In his famous Ethical Will, addressed to his son Samuel ben Judah ibn Tibbon, he acknowledges the importance that knowing Arabic had for Jews: you know that the great men of our people attained their greatness and many virtues only because of their ability in writing Arabic. You have already seen what the Nagid, of blessed memory, said about the greatness he achieved through it.26 Judeo-Romance literature is another case of language use under the impact of a sacred language, bearer of a speci c religious tradition. We designate Judeo-Romance literature those writings composed by Jews in Romance varieties, 27 using Hebrew characters and in uenced by the grammar and lexicon of the Hebrew language. There are Judeo-Romance texts dated to the pre-Expulsion period, including the Proverbios morales by Shem Tov de Carrin (fourteenth century) and the anonymous Poema de Yoef (beginning of the fteenth century). It is safer to label the language of these works Judeo-Romance rather than Judeo-Spanish since the existence of Judeo-Spanish before the Expulsion is still a controversial issue.28 What is clear is that JudeoRomance literature of peninsular Jews did only clearly develop in exile, after 1492. It is after this date that all the Jewish Romance varieties
26 I. Abrahams, Hebrew Ethical Wills (Philadelphia: The Jewish publication Society of America, 1926), 57. 27 On peninsular Judeo-Romance varieties other than Castilian, see J. R. Magdalena Nom de Du, Judeorromances marginales de Sefarad, Miscelnea de Estudios rabes y Hebraicos, 37-38 (1988-89), 41-53. 28 Defending the existence of a pre-expulsion Judeo-Spanish, see L. Minervini, Testi giudeospagnoli medievali, 2 vols., (Napoli: Liguori, 1992). The opposite view is held by R. Penny, Judeo-Arabic Varieties Before and After the Expulsion, Donaire, 6 (1996), 54-8.

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came into contact as a result of Jewish groups from diVerent parts of the Iberian peninsula coming together in the cities of the Ottoman Empire. Under these conditions of dialect contact and the subsequent process of leveling, a new koin was created that showed substantial diVerences with the Romance varieties spoken in the peninsula. To this linguistic variety we refer as Judeo-Spanish, Judezmo, Ladino or Sephardic Spanish.29 5. Conclusions If we compare the sociolinguistic situation of the Iberian Peninsula at the time of the Muslim conquest in 711 and that obtaining in 1492, after the surrender of the last Muslim state of the peninsula, the main changes could be summarized as follows. The domains of Latin as a High language had been considerably reduced by 1492 and taken over by Romance varieties, especially in the area of literary production. Among the diVerent kinds of Romance, Castilian prevailed as a language of culture and administration. This was the outcome of its early process of normalization and standardization, along with its political dominance as the language of the kingdom of Castile, leader of the reconquest campaigns against the Muslims. During the period of eight centuries that there existed a Muslim state in the peninsula, Romance culture and society underwent a signi cant in uence of the more prestigious Arabic language and culture. Linguistically, this in uence resulted in numerous Arabic lexical borrowings and certain grammatical in uence on Romance varieties and even Basque. The rst channel of transmission was arguably Arabized Christians who emigrated from Muslim Spain to the Christian kingdoms. Language contact situations increased as the reconquest advanced and entire groups of Arabic speaking population were absorbed within Romance Christian society. Arabic speaking Christians, Muslims and Jews gradually shifted to the language of their environment, namely, Romance, with the exception of Muslim groups in the eastern coast of the Peninsula, which kept Arabic. The shift to Romance was complete in the case of Christians. Jews and Muslims, however, manifested a more complex language behavior: Hebrew and Arabic, the sacred languages of Judaism and Islam

See D. M. Bunis, The Language of the Sephardim: A Historical Overview, in Moreshet Sepharad: The Sephardi Legacy, ed. H. Bernart ( Jerusalem: Magnes, 1992), 2: 92126; I. M. Hassn, El espaol sefard ( judeoespaol, ladino), in La lengua espaola, hoy, ed. M. Seco and G. Salvador (Madrid: Fundacin Juan March, 1995), 117-40; M. Lazar Ladino, Encyclopaedia Judaica. Jerusalm: Keter, 1972), 10: 1342-50.
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respectively, occupied certain domains of the High language (the variety highly valued by the speakers.) Religious practice, as expected, was one of them. Certain juridical and legal documents, related to social practices regulated by religion (marriage, inheritance, etc.), were issued in these languages as well. In addition to that, Iberian Jews produced in Hebrew important literary works that included poetic, scienti c and philosophical works. Finally, another speci c linguistic behavior shared by Muslims and Jews was the development at the end of the reconquest period (when that of romancization was stronger) of a variety of written Romance, for internal consumption, that incorporated elements of their respective sacred languages and showed certain linguistic diVerences with respect to contemporary Romance writings by Christians. III. Language use in Muslim Spain The existence of a Muslim state in the peninsula (known as al-Andalus) had a profound eVect in the linguistic evolution of both Christian (see above p. 112) and Muslim Spain. As in other territories ruled by the emerging Islamic Empire, the Arabic language in al-Andalus acquired a central role as a language associated to the circles of power and administration and as the sacred language of Islam. It has to be said, nevertheless, that the number of native Arabic speakers who took part in the invasion of 711 or arrived subsequently, as the Islamic rule came to be established, was very limited. The army that crossed to the peninsula was mostly composed of Berber males who must have spoken some form of Berber language and maybe some form of Latin.30 Despite the numerical disadvantage of Arabic speakers vis--vis Romance speakers, Arabic gradually replaced Romance and Berber as spoken languages. A tendency to monolingualism with Arabic seems to have dominated in Muslim Spain since the end of the eleventh century. Most scholars agree on thorough Arabic monolingualism from the thirteenth century until the surrender of the last Muslim kingdom of Granada, and some claim the complete extinction of the Romance language in Muslim Spain since the end of the eleventh century.31 The extent of Arabization, the dates when it took place, and the preservation or disappearance of the Romance language in Muslim Spain
30 See D. Wasserstein, The Language Situation in al-Andalus, in Studies on the Muwashshah and the Kharja, ed. A. Jones and R. Hitchcock (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), 1-15 (4). 31 F. Corriente, Poesa dialectal rabe y romance en Alandals (Madrid: Gredos, 1997), 338.

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are linguistic issues controversial among scholars in the eld.32 This linguistic discussion has taken place within a broader historiographical context. Continuous use of Romance language in Muslim Spain and a limited and late Arabization (alongside scarce Islamization) constitutes one of the core arguments of scholars claiming the continuity of one single Spain before, during, and after the Muslim invasion. 33 The opposite linguistic opinion, proposing the disappearance of the Romance language around the end of the eleventh century, along with a thorough linguistic and cultural Arabization of al-Andalus, is held within a substantially diVerent historiographical position. This linguistic evolution is contemplated in a Muslim state and society whose political and social structures were similar to those existing in other parts of the Islamic world. Muslim Spain, according to this line of thought, represented a complete disruption of social and cultural patterns of former Visigothic Spain.34 From a sociolinguistic point of view, one observes several shortcomings in the way that evidence for the diVerent theories has been used. In the rst place, there is insuYcient distinction between High language and Low Language in diglossic situations such as that of classical Arabic and colloquial Arabic in Muslim Spain. Ignorance of this sociolinguistic situation might lead to the wrong interpretation of facts. One of the arguments given to demonstrate a merely super cial Arabization of the population of al-Andalus, is scarce knowledge of Arabic. Evidence for it is the abundant production of Arabic grammars and treatises for the correct use of Arabic.35 The existence of these kinds of works only serves to
32 For a summary of the diVerent opinions, see O. Zwartjes, Love Songs from al-Andalus. History, Structure and Meaning of the Kharja (Leiden: Brill, 1997), 5-22; and more speci cally about the use of languages in Valencia, see Burns, Muslims, Christians and Jews, 172-92. 33 One of the clearest exponents of historio-linguistic attitude is F. J. Simonet who, in his study on the Romance dialect spoken in Muslim Spain, states for example: The Arabs did not contribute to our civilization any substancial or formal element whose relevance can be measured in terms of bene t and usefulness or by its long maintenance. As it happened with other barbar nations [. . .], settled in the middle of a highly civilised nation, they shone for some time on the remains of the vanquished; F. J. Simonet, Glosario de voces ibricas y latinas usadas entre los mozrabes precedido de un estudio sobre el dialecto hispano-mozrabe (Madrid: Real Academia de la Historia, 1888), XLVI. 34 See P. Guichard, Structures sociales orientales et occidentales dans lEspagne musulmane (Paris and The Hague: Mouton, 1977), and M. J. Viguera Molns Planteamientos sobre Historia de al-Andalus, in El saber en al-Andalus. Textos y Estudios, II, ed. J. M. Carabaza and A. T. M. Essaway (Sevilla: Universidad, Fundacin El Monte, 1999), 121-32. 35 See, for instance, J. Vallv, Toponimia de Espaa y Portugal. Las lenguas hispnicas y su re ejo en las fuentes rabes, Boletn de la Real Academia de la Historia, 193, no. 2 (1996), 197-237: It is reasonable to assume that the Arabic language in the Iberian peninsula was impregnated by Latin and Romance languages to an incredible extent. This in uence is re ected in the phonetics and, specially, the Arabic vocabulary, and

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corroborate, however, the Fergusonian characterization of a High variety as a language with a strong tradition of grammatical study36 and a language that can only be acquired through an arti cial learning process. In order to have a good command of classical Arabic, one has to learn linguistic rules and structures that do not exist in the colloquial language. De cient knowledge of the former or interference of the spoken variety is the origin of deviations and mistakes in the use of classical Arabic. The concern for linguistic correctness in al-Andalus is similar to that existing in any modern Arabic country, whose speakers have an Arabic dialect as an everyday language and classical Arabic as a linguistic ideal. Another characteristic of High is that speakers regard it as a language of prestige and a superior language. The association of classical Arabic with Islam, high culture, and power structures renders its knowledge highly valued. It is therefore a prestigious thing to be mentioned in the account of somebodys intellectual achievements that he was an expert or knew classical Arabic well. This is the case in the biographies of some Andalusi personalities. In the traditionalist school, however, the reading of evidence is substantially diVerent: the mention of good command of Arabic in biographies points to the rarity of the event since, according to these scholars, knowledge of Arabic was very limited.37 Arguably, the most widely accepted conclusions with regard to the use of languages in Muslim Spain are those posited by D. Wasserstein,38 belonging to the non-traditionalist position. In his analysis, Wasserstein uses the diglossia paradigm to explain the linguistic situation of Muslim Spain and its evolution. Notwithstanding, Wasserstein makes no distinction between High and Low varieties. 39
maybe the syntax [. . .] This special situation of Spanish Arabic led many grammarians to study the incorrections of the language (213-14, 216). 36 Ferguson, Diglossia, 331. 37 J. Ribera, pica andaluza romanceada, in Disertaciones y Opsculos I, (Madrid: Maestre, 1928), 111-12: When doing a careful reading of the biographies of Spanish Muslim ulemas, one observes an insistent and repetitive praise of the merit achieved by those Spanish ulemas that were able to show their knowledge of the language of the Arabs. It is clear that they had to learn it arti cially, and the fact is that there were no schools until a later period. This would explain that in Andalusia there lived many Muslims who could only speak Romance, in spite of the fact that they could read Arabic and translate it. We observe here a clear inconsistency in Riberas analysis: he rst argues little familiarity of Andalusis with classical Arabic (the language of the educated class [ulam"], the language that one learns arti cially in the school), and then surprisingly concludes that this would account for the fact that they could not speak colloquial Arabic (!). 38 Wasserstein, Linguistic situation. 39 Wasserstein, Linguistic situation, 4: when I use the word Arabic, I am not,

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In what follows I will try to give a general picture of the sociolinguistic evolution of Muslim Spain by, rst, describing the two diglossic pairs that came into contact in the rst period of Muslim presence in the peninsula: classical Arabic/colloquial Arabic and Latin/Romance. For dealing with the development of these original diglossic pairs, I will focus on language use in the diVerent religious communities: Muslims, Christians, and Jews. 1. Classical Arabic/Colloquial Arabic The Arabs that came to the Iberian peninsula brought with them diVerent varieties of spoken or dialectal Arabic, and one literary form, known as classical Arabic. Classical Arabic evolved in the Arabian Peninsula as a poetic koine and super-tribal language in pre-Islamic times. But it was with the rise of Islam that classical Arabic acquired its special status as a sacred language of all Muslims. Moreover, the Islamic conquests carried with them the use of colloquial and classical Arabic to the furthest ends of the Islamic empire. Classical Arabic occupies a privileged position among Muslims as the language of the Prophet Muammad and, above all, as the language that God used to transmit His Message.40 The eloquence of the Arabic used in the Qur"n (the written version of Gods Message) has been a literary guide and linguistic authority for Arabic speaking Muslims from the Middle Ages until today. Its stylistic excellence is considered miraculous within the Islamic community. Linguistically, this variety of Arabic belongs to the synthetic linguistic type, contrary to the spoken or colloquial Arabic. The latter had shown increasing analytical trends (loss of case endings and in ections of the verb, xed word order, etc.) since the pre-Islamic times. This incipient diglossia emerging in pre-Islamic times was accentuated and developed in the Islamic period. Classical Arabic, in its frozen linguistic state, was the language of formal contexts including religion and literature, whereas spoken Arabic lled the functions of the Low language and its domains were those of informal contexts. As is typical in a diglossic situation, knowledge of classical Arabic had to be acquired through formal tuition.
unless I actually say so, referring speci cally to either spoken or written Arabic, but to the two indiVerently. More signi cantly, when I use the terms Latin and Romance, and also such expressions as Late Latin and Spanish or proto-Spanish, I do not mean to imply any signi cant diVerences between the language forms behind them. 40 See Qur"n 16:103, 26:198, 41:44.

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Classical Arabic was the language of administration and Islam in Muslim Spain, as in most of the Islamic world. Further, it was the vehicle of most of the intellectual production. The prestige imbedded in mastering Classical Arabic is evident in Andalusi society. It constitutes one of the qualities highlighted in the biographies of Andalusi personalities.41 By the same token, lacking a good command of the literary language, especially in the case of people who held important oYces, aroused severe criticism. This is the case of the Cordoban judge M s ibn Muammad ibn Ziyd (tenth century C.E.) who is depicted by alKhushan as an ignorant man for his lack of grammatical ability:
I heard from some ulemas that [the judge] M s ibn Ziyd was a man of good conduct and cultured, and that he had the outlook of a polite and respectful man. But the truth is that he was an ignorant and ignominious man. It is told that in one occasion [. . .] this judge said that he had fasted the whole month of Ramadan, including the day of alArafa and then another day. [When he said that] he made two awful mistakes: On the one hand, he thought that there was a day of Arafa in the month of Ramadan as in the month of Dh al-Hijjah and, on the other, he added the article al to the day of Arafa. I heard too that he used to put an alif at the end of the word time (marrah) and that he used to nish the word names ("asm") with h" [rather than hamza]42

The pride in having a good knowledge of classical Arabic was a prevalent notion in Muslim Andalusi scholarship. And a good way to prove ones linguistic command was, no doubt, making a linguistic correction to a real Arab. In al-Zubayds biographies of Andalusi grammarians of the rst Islamic period, he tells us meaningful anecdotes in this regard, including the argument between a native Andalusi and an Arab about a grammatical question, in which the Andalusi ends up proving to have a deeper knowledge of the Classical language:
Muammad ibn Umar informed me, learning it from more than one person that witnessed it, that Ab Muammad al-Arb al-mir said to Ibrahm ibn Hajjj, thanking him for something that the latter did for him: By God, it was nothing but your right that led the Arabs to make you chief (sayyadatka)!. Ab al-Kawthar al-Khawln was present and said: Ab Muammad, our experts in Arabic say sawwadatka. Ab Muammad answered: sawd means black, so they are wrong, they make a mistake. Ibrahm upbraided him saying: Do you dare to challenge the Arabs in their language? "Ab al-Kawthar
See all the examples cited by Ribera, Disertaciones y Opsculos, 111-12 n. 2. See J. Ribera, Historia de los jueces de Crdoba por Aljoxan: Texto rabe y traduccin espaola por Julin Ribera (Madrid: Ibrica, 1914), 162 (Arabic text). My translation of the last sentence diVers considerably from Riberas (p. 201).
41 42

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wrote to Yazd ibn alaa [a reknowned Andalusi grammarian, ninth century C.E.], telling him about this matter and Yazd answered him: what is known is sawwadatka, with waw. It might be that the form that: Ab Muammad said is a variant used by the Banu mir tribe. When Ab al-Kawthar got the letter said: Oh Ab Muammad, the master has denied what you said and told him what he had said. AlArb then yelled and got agitated. Ibrahm then called for Yazd and when Yazd arrived, he told him: Do you dare to challenge this man in his language? Ibn alaa answered: Knowledge is not on the side of the strife, but on the side of justice and truth. Let Ab Muammad answer what I am going to ask him. Ibrahm said: Ask!. Yazd asked: How do the Arabs say: sda/yas du or sda/yasdu, and alArb answered: sda/yas du. Yazd said: In this example, the ww is part of the verb. And how do the Arabs say: al-s dad or al-sdad ?and al-Arb answered: al-s dad. Yazd said: This ww is part of the name. He then asked: What position has Umar ibn al-Khab May God have Mercy upon him!among you, with respect to purity of language? Al-Arb answered: The highest. Yazd said: We give for sure that he said: Acquire knowledge before you are proclaimed masters (tusawwad ), and none of the experts in language doubts the veracity of this adth, contrary to other adths that have proved to contain errors. Al-Arb then persevered and said: Oh people of the cities, what have you done with the language?43

A similar story, demonstrating the pride of local Andalusi scholars for their knowledge of classical Arabic, is found in al-Zubayds biography of Ufayr ibn Mas d (d. 919 C.E.):
When al-Ajal came from Iraq, he withheld his books and was stingy with them. He summoned the people to come to him so that he could dictate [his books] to them. People ew to him, ocked to his class, and al-Khushans class was empty. Ufayr said: al-Khushan told me: How come you do not rush to where everyone else has rushed and I said to him: I do not seek a substitute for you. He said: I want you to go to that man and witness his class. I went in the morning to al-Ajal and was present when he dictated: al-mirra means enmity and its plural is mirar. One of the people who was copying down in front of him was Zayd al-Jayyn. Then I said: May God have Mercy upon you!, Ab Ubayd stated in Al-Muannaf: al-mi"ra [with hamza] means enmity and its plural is mi"ar. It seemed to me that I saw that Zayd had erased what he wrote. And I said: This is the correct form. Then I refuted him again about another word and yet a third one in that session and people left him and nobody went back again.
43 Al-Zubayd, abaqt al-nawiyyn wa-l-lughawiyyn, ed. M. A. Ibrahim (Cairo, 1954) 295-6. I am indebted to Dr. Manuela Marn for pointing me to the existence of this anecdote.

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The news reached al-Khushan and when I went to him, he came close to me and kissed me between the eyes, saying to me: You certainly are a depositor of knowledge!44

The cultivation of classical Arabic has its highest expression in the poetic art, which is considered the Arabic national art. Writing Arabic poetry entails a deep knowledge of the grammar and vocabulary of classical Arabic, along with a deep knowledge of the literary tradition of the Arabs. Poetic works were produced in al-Andalus since a very early period and blossomed in the eleventh century C.E. More than two hundred poets were active during this period in al-Andalus. The number and quality of these works attests to a profound cultural Arabization by this date, at least in the high strata of society. Regarding the use of colloquial Arabic, we must note that the Arabs that came to the peninsula spoke a variety of Arabic dialects that gradually evolved into one main linguistic variety, known as Andalusi Arabic. The main characteristics of Andalusi Arabic had taken form by the tenth century.45 Linguistically, this dialect showed diVerences with classical Arabic similar to those manifested in other neo-Arabic dialects, including an analytic grammatical structure and signi cant phonetic shifts. Other speci c elements of Andalusi Arabic vis--vis classical Arabic resulted from the in uence of the Romance and Berber dialects. This latter phenomenon is obviously the outcome of the contact of the diVerent groups of population of Muslim Spain: native Arabic speakers, on the one hand, and, on the other, the more numerous Romance population of the Peninsula, along with the Berber groups that arrived in diVerent waves with the Muslim armies. In a similar situation to modern Arabic dialects, Andalusi Arabic had no recognition from the speakers as a diVerent linguistic variety. It was simply regarded as corrupted or vulgar Arabic. Its domains were those of the Low language: family, casual and intimate interaction. Colloquial Arabic was used as well for certain kinds of literary composition pertaining to Low registers, including proverb collections and folk poetry.46
Al-Zubayd, abaqt, 298. F. Corriente, rabe andalus y lenguas romances (Madrid: Mapfre, 1992) 11. For a general study on the development of Arabic in non-Arabic speaking territories, see K. Versteegh, Linguistic Contacts Between Arabic and Other Languages, Arabica, 48, no. 4 (2001), 419-69. 46 The use of the colloquial language in these literary compositions has led F. Corriente to a disproportionate evaluation of the relevance of Andalusi dialect, in one of his earlier works on the topic: In one respect SpAr [Spanish Arabic] is unique in its epoch and would remain so for centuries amidst Arab lands, and it is by the fact that its speakers
44 45

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Grammarians were not concerned with its description or study. Notwithstanding, they made numerous references to this colloquial variety in order to prevent the cultivated class from being in uenced by it and making mistakes when using the literary language. Compilations of these vulgar usages gave place to a linguistic genre known as Lan al-mma or Treatises on the errors of language made by the common people.47 The linguistic ideas expressed in these works reveal the prevailing feelings of the Arabic speech community with regard to the colloquial variety. The earliest work of this kind is the Lan al-awmm, by the above mentioned grammarian al-Zubayd (928-989 C.E.). In the preface, the author expresses his views on the diVerences between the literary and the vulgar language: It is a question of alterations, owed to our mma [common people], which has modi ed the pronunciation (of certain words) or adapted the meaning, and has been followed in this practice by a great many people, to the point where these incorrect usages have in ltrated into the works of poets, and the most eminent scribes and functionaries include them in their correspondence and make use of depraved expressions in their conversations. 48 2. Latin/Romance One can assume that the linguistic situation of al-Andalus in the rst years of Islamic rule was not very diVerent from that described for Christian Spain (see above), with the only, though crucial, diVerence being that the new ruling group spoke and wrote in a diVerent language. The initial sociolinguistic situation of Muslim Spain radically changed as the native population increasingly adopted the religion and language of the conquerors. This is the expected evolution in a society in which being a Muslim and having a good knowledge of classical and colloquial Arabic are basic and almost indispensable factors of integration in its administrative and power structures.
were aware of the personality of their dialect and not a bit ashamed of it, to the point that they sometimes preferred it over Classical Arabic for purposes such as folk poetry and proverb collections. F. Corriente, A grammatical sketch of the Spanish Arabic dialect bundle (Madrid: Instituto Hispano rabe de Cultura, 1977), 8. 47 See Ch. Pellat, Lan al-mma, in Encyclopaedia of Islam (Leiden: Brill, 1986), 5: 605-10. Speci c for al-Andalus, see G. KrotkoV, The Lan al-awmm of Ab Bakr al-Zubayd Bulletin of the College of Arts and Sciences (Baghdad), 2 (1957), 3-15, and J. Prez Lzaro, al-Madjal il taqwm al-lisn wa-talm al-bayn (Introduccin a la correccin del lenguaje y la enseanza de la elocuencia) de Him al-Lajm (m. 577/1181-1182) , 2 vols. (Madrid: CSIC, 1990). 48 I follow the English translation of Pellat, Lan al-mma, 606.

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One of the best documented linguistic changes occurring in al-Andalus was the displacement of Latin by classical Arabic as a language of culture by the tenth century. No signi cant Latin texts were produced in al-Andalus after this date.49 The demise of Latin among Christian population forms the background to the famous complaints of Alvarus of Crdoba in 854:
What trained person, I ask, can be found today among our laity who with a knowledge of Holy Scripture looks into the Latin volumes of any of the doctors? [. . .] Do not all the Christian youths, handsome in appearance, uent of tongue, conspicuous in their dress and action, distinguished for their knowledge of Gentile lore, highly regarded for their ability to speak Arabic, do they not all eagerly use the volumes of the Chaldeans, read them with the greatest interest, discuss them ardently, and, collecting them with great trouble, make them known with every praise of their tongue, the while they are ignorant of the beauty of the Church and look with disgust upon the Churchs rivers of paradise as something vile. Alas! Christians do not know their own law, and Latins do not use their own tongue, so that in all the college of Christ there will hardly be found one man in a thousand who can send correct letters of greeting to a brother. And a manifold crowd without number will be found who give out learnedly long sentences of Chaldean rhetoric.50

The history of Romance is more diYcult to trace given its nature as Low language and, as such, its neglect in the documentary evidence available to us. As a case parallel to colloquial Arabic, Romance had not recognition from its speakers as a language diVerent from Latin. It was rather regarded as vulgar speech (see above p. 110). Christians perception of Romance as a low form of Latin 51 is re ected in one of the Arabic names given to Romance in Muslim Spain, namely, al-lan al-mm (vulgar Latin), found in Arabic pharmacological treatises. Consider the following examples, taken from the Commentary on Dioscorides by the Andalusi pharmacologist Ab Muammad Abd Allh ibn alBayr ( rst half of the thirteenth century):52
49 All the Latin texts produced in al-Andalus have been assembled by J. Gil, Corpus scriptorum muzrabicorum, 2 vols. (Madrid: Instituto Antonio de Nebrija, CSIC, 1973). 50 English translation by E. P. Colbert, The Martyrs of Crdoba (850-59): A Study of the Sources (Washington: The Catholic University of America, 1962), 301. Latin text in Gil, Corpus, 1: 314-15. 51 See Lapesa, Historia, par. 40 (160-61). 52 A. Dietrich, Die Dioskurides-Erklrung des Ibn al-Bair: Ein Beitrag zur arabischen P anzensynonymik des Mittelalters (Gttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1991). Vulgar Latin is also one of the names used by the tenth-century Andalusi botanist Ab Dw d

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1. [mursnis mrus] . . . wa-thamratuhu huwa al-murdynaj bi-lsurynyya wa-l-murtn wa-al-murta bi-l-lan al-mm wa-zahruhu tusammhu al-barbar bi-lughatihim "iqmmm wa-huwa al-raihn bilugha ahl al-Andalus53 Translation: [mursnis mrus] . . . Its fruit is called in Syriac murdynaj and in vulgar Latin murtn and murta. The Berbers call its owers "iqmmm and in the language of the people of al-Andalus they are called rain. 2. [q mr s] . . . wa-huwa ar al-dabb inda ahl al-Andalus wa-mma al-Maghrib tusammhu "assn wa-bi-l-lan al-mm mar niya54 Translation: [q mr s] . . . the people of al-Andalus call it ar aldabb, while ordinary people of the Magrib call it "assn . In vulgar Latin it is mar niya. 3. [uqaiyqanus] . . . bi-lugha ahl al-Andalus zur r al-awdiya wa-aljabriy l bi-l-mm min al-lisn al-lan55 Translation: [uqaiyqanus] . . . In the language of the people of alAndalus [it is called] zur r al-awdiya and in vulgar Latin [it is called] jabriy l.

But the most normal way to refer to Romance in Arabic sources is using the term ajamiyya (foreign, non-Arabic language). One must be careful, however, in the interpretation of this term since, as E. Lapiedra has demonstrated, the original linguistic meaning of ajam developed into several ethnic and religious senses, including Christian, and non-Arabic Muslim, as attested in Andalusi Arabic chronicles.56 An Arabic passage usually quoted with regard to the use of Romance among Muslims is, in my view, an example of the confusion created by the semantic evolution of ajam. The passage in question appears in al-Khushans account of the appointment of a new judge in Crdoba by Abd al-Ramn III (tenth century C.E.). Among the candidates to this oYce, al-Khushan reports that one had Christian origins (interpreted by other scholars as Romance speaking origins): At that time there was a candidate to
Sulaymn Ibn Juljul, when referring to Romance names, (see Simonet, Glosario de voces ibricas, xxiv n. 4). Ibn Juljuls references are preserved as well in a later anonymous botannical treatise; see M. Asn Palacios, Glosario de voces romances registradas por un botnico annimo hispano-musulmn (siglos XI-XII) (Madrid and Granada: CSIC, 1943), xxxvi-xli. For an Arabic edition, translation, and commentary see A. Dietrich, Dioscurides triumphans: ein anonymer arabischer Kommentar (Ende 12. Jahrh. n. Chr.) zur Materia medica: arabischer Text nebst kommentierter deutscher bersetzung/herausgegeben von Albert Dietrich (Gttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1988), 2 vols. 53 Dietrich, Dioskurides-Erklrung, 375/115 (Arabic text/Translation and Commentary). 54 Dietrich, Dioskurides-Erklrung, 373/131. 55 Dietrich, Dioskurides-Erklrung, 378/95. 56 E. Lapiedra, Cmo los musulmanes llamaban a los cristianos hispnicos (Alicante: Instituto de Cultura Juan Gil-Albert, 1997), 258-85.

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the judgeship who had Christian ancestors (kna f ubuwwiyyihi ajama). When Aslam was dismissed [from the judge oYce] and Al-abb was appointed, Aslam started to say: Thanks God, who made me be among those who say There is no more god than God, alluding to the candidate whose parents were Christian (kna b"uhu ajaman).57 The religious sense of ajam in this context becomes clear in Aslams remark about his being Muslim (There is no more god than God) in opposition to the unsuccessful candidate, whose religious aYliation is not so clear. In Riberas rendition of the highlighted sentences, the original [but not appropriate for this context] linguistic meaning of ajam has been adopted: somebody descendant of a completely Latinised family, both his father and his mother and [the candidate] whose parents were known to be Latinised.58 The use of ajam in this passage is similar to its use in the Muqtabas II of Ibn ayyn, when the author narrates the episode of the surrender of a rebellious group of Christians and Muslim converts (muwallads) to the wizier Him ibn Abd al-Azz, in 875 C.E. Him gathered everybody in one place and then asked to each man: muslim anta am ajam ? (are you Muslim or Christian?). If they answered Christian Him ordered them to be killed immediately. To those who answered Muslim Him asked them to recite a sura of the Koran and then another one, and another one . . . until they hesitated or made a mistake, giving Him an excuse to kill them, saying m akhbartukum annahu ajam ? (did I not tell you that he was Christian?), until all the men were dead.59 The status of Romance as a Low language makes its use extremely rare in belles lettres literature. One of the few testimonies of the use of this language in the literary works produced in Muslim Spain are the nal couplets or kharjas of a strophic verse composition known as muwashsha. The norms of the genre dictate that these nal verses should
Ribera, Historia de los jueces de Crdoba, 188. Ribera, Historia de los jueces de Crdoba, 234/188. Other scholars have interpreted these sentences in same way. See, for instance, D. Hanlon A Sociolinguistic view of hazl in the Andalusi Arabic muwashsha, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 60 no. 1 (1997), 35-46 (39). Hanlon has also erroneously identi ed the candidate of Christian origins with the one who is nally appointed for the oYce [Al-abb]: The adoption of Islam as a way of life and Arabic as a means of communication similarly enabled one al-abb, of Romance-speaking parents [. . .] to pursue a legal career and rise to the top of the Andalusi judiciary in the early tenth century [p. 39]. 59 See J. Vallv, Juniores, fatas y jenzaros: una re exin sobre la situacin actual en Yugoslavia, Boletn de la Real Academia de la Historia, 141 no. 1 (1994), 1-35 (21-22), and Lapiedra, Cmo los musulmanes, 264-65. Arabic text in M. A. Makki, ed., Al-Muktabas min anb" ahl al-Andalus (Beirut: Dar al-Kitab, 1973), 131-32.
57 58

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constitute a ludic, frivolous element, in contrast to the poem in which they are inserted. The use of languages ts this thematic distribution: classical Arabic is employed for the main poem and colloquial Arabic or Romance for the nal verses. This linguistic distribution con rms the perception of Romance and Colloquial Arabic at the same level, as Low languages or languages of informal contexts. 60 The two language levels (High and Low), operating in the kharjas attest to the extended diglossia that must have existed at one stage within the Andalusi speech community, having classical Arabic as a language of culture and Romance as a Low language. The distinction between the two sociolinguistic levels should lead us to a reconsideration of the linguistic data available: the use of classical Arabic is not de nitive evidence of the existence of an Arabic speaking population, whereas Latin literature could have been produced by speakers of Colloquial Arabic. In fact, we have examples of both situations: after their territories were reconquered by Christians, Muslim communities kept on using literary Arabic, mostly notarial documents, for internal purposes, at a time that they already had Romance as a spoken language.61 On the other hand, we learn from the Latin literature produced by the Christians of al-Andalus that some of the so called martyrs of Crdoba uttered their insults against Islam in vernacular Arabic, although their instruction had been in Latin in most of the cases. Most scholars agree that when Latin stopped being used around the tenth century and classical Arabic became the educated language of everyone, Romance continued to be spoken among certain groups of the population until the end of the eleventh century (if not later). The dates for its disappearance in Muslim Spain are a controversial issue beyond the scope of this article.62 In any case, we must bear in mind that little or lack of evidence in the written sources of that period does not prove the disappearance of Romance, given its marginalized status within Andalusi society. The status of Romance as a Low language has other implications in our description of language use in al-Andalus: many scholars have sug-

See Hanlon, A Sociolinguistic view of Hazl. Viguera, Introduccin, 19-20. 62 See A. Galms de Fuentes, Las jarchas mozrabes. Forma y signi cado (Barcelona: Grijalbo, 1994), 80-88, where the author argues the preservation of Romance in alAndalus until the thirteenth century. In an erudite survey, Simonet compiled all the evidence from primary sources that could be used in favor and against the Arabization of the Christians of al-Andalus, see Simonet, Glosario de voces ibricas, vii-xxxiii.
60 61

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gested Romance/colloquial Arabic bilingualism in Andalusi society during the rst two centuries of Islamic presence in the peninsula, without giving much explanation of the terms of such bilingualism. We must keep in mind that we are speaking of two Low languages whose domains were just the same: casual linguistic interaction. And by comparison with other bilingual situations, it is unlikely that speakers had maintained the use of both linguistic varieties with the same functions for such a long period. As J. Fishman states: Bilingualism without diglossia tends to be transitional both in terms of the linguistic repertoires of speech communities as well as in terms of the speech varieties involved per se. Without separate though complementary norms and values to establish and maintain functional separatism of the speech varieties, that language or variety which is fortunate enough to be associated with the predominant drift of social forces tends to displace the other(s).63 In the light of Fishmans statement it seems more likely to think that there existed colloquial Arabic/Romance bilingualism simply as a previous and necessary step towards Arabic dominance. But it is unlikely that it constituted a stable or permanent linguistic situation. Not all the groups of the population, however, acquired Arabic as a spoken language at the same time. We can assume that the Arabization of rural areas, women and marginalized groups of the population had taken place at a slower pace. This would account for the two or more centuries of co-existence of Romance with Colloquial Arabic in al-Andalus and for the transitional bilingual states. 3. Muslim Language use The three spoken languages of the Muslims during the rst period of Andalusi history were Arabic, Berber, and Romance. This initial linguistic situation gave way to the almost entire dominance of Arabic from the eleventh century onwards. The only language of culture used by the Muslims of al-Andalus was classical Arabic. No writings in the other two learned languages of al-Andalus, Latin and Hebrew, were produced by Andalusi Muslims. The displacement of Romance and Berber by colloquial Arabic was preceded by a period of language contact and bilingualism, which left a signi cant imprint in Andalusi Arabic.64 There are quite a few testimonies

63 64

Fishman, Bilingualism with and without diglossia, 36. See Corriente, Arabe andalus, 125-53.

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of the existence and use of Romance among Andalusi Muslims during the rst two centuries of the history of al-Andalus. Some of them have been transmitted in al-Khusans Book of the Judges of Crdoba, including the following two anecdotes having place in Crdoba, around the middle of the ninth century C.E.:
At that time there was in the city an old man whose language was Romance (ajam al-lisn), called Yenayr. He used to go before the judges to declare, [since] he was well known among the people for his good conduct and orthodox belief. The wazirs sent for him and asked him about this judge. He answered in Romance: I do not know him, but I have heard people saying that he is a bad man. He said that [bad man] using a diminutive in Romance. When his words reached the emirMay God have Mercy upon himthe emir admired his words and said: Nothing but truthfulness would have caused this man to utter such a word. He then dismissed him as a judge.65 One day a woman came to the judge [Sulaymn ibn Aswad] and said to him in Romance (bi-l-ajamiyya): Oh judge, listen to this unlucky woman! The judge answered in Romance: You are not unlucky. The unlucky one is Ibn Amars mule which is gnawing its rein at the mosques door all day long66

Certain episodes of Muslims speaking or showing knowledge of Romance appear in Andalusi written sources of later periods, reaching the thirteenth century. In Ibn ib al-als chronicle of the Almohad Empire (Al-Mann bi-l-Imma), we read an interesting anecdote that involves an Andalusi knowing Romance and, further, a Christian king assuming his knowledge of this language. This Andalusi, Ibn Wazr, had come to the peninsula from Marrakesh in the year 1170 C.E., accompanying the Almohads in a military campaign. The Almohad leader Ab Sad, son of the Almohad caliph Abd al-Mu"min, sent Ibn Wazr to speak to the Christian King Fernando II of Leon and make a pact with him. Ibn Wazrs account of this encounter is as follows:
When he [Abu Sad] sent me, together with the oYcial ambassadors, to the above mentioned Fernando the Baboso (Fernando the Drooler), I entered upon the Babosos tent, and with him were his Christian counts and his learned men. He spoke to me in his Romance tongue (bi-lisnihi al-ajam) and I said to his translator: I do not understand Romance (lastu afham al-ajamiyya). But I only said that hiding the truth and as a trick so that I might understand from what he said whether
65 66

Ribera, Historia de los jueces, 96/118. Ribera, Historia de los jueces, 139/179.

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he wanted good or evil. His translator translated on my behalf the purpose for which I had come, as mentioned above. So I treated him kindly about the truce until it was completed.67

The linguistic reality that the appearance of Latin and Romance names in Andalusi pharmacological treatises re ects, is the object of controversial analysis. For scholars like A. Galms de Fuentes, translating into Romance the names of medicinal plants, as in the treatise of the above mentioned Ibn al-Bayr, is evidence of the use of this language in alAndalus until the thirteenth century C.E. 68 Other researchers, like C. Barcel, claim that this Romance lexicon does not re ect any live use, but that it is simply a transmission of older materials produced in the Orient in the ninth and tenth centuries.69 If the dates of the use of Romance are problematic, we have at least clear testimonies of the attitudes and values ascribed to this linguistic variety among the Muslims of al-Andalus: Romance is mostly associated with Christianity and non Arabic people. The use of the same term (ajam) in Andalusi Arabic sources with the two meanings of Romance speaker and Christian (see above pp. 128-29) symbolizes this identi cation of language use and religious aYliation. Further, Romance languages are linked with the people of the Christian Kingdoms, that is, with the enemies of the Muslim state. This is the idea underlying the complaints of the Toledan vizier Ab al-Muarrif ibn Muthann (d. 1066 C.E.), about hiring slave women from the North for the raising of Andalusi noble children:
The History of the Moroccan Empire in Maghrib, Andalusia, and Ifriqiya or volume II of Alman, bil Imamah Al-mustahdha n, ed. Abdul Hd Attaz (Beirut: Dar al-Andalus, 1964), 402. This text was translated into Spanish by A. Huici Miranda, Ibn ib al-al: alMann bil-Imama (Valencia: Anubar, 1967). In Huici Mirandas translation, however, there is an important mistake (probably typographical): the sentence lastu afham al-ajamiyya of the original text has been rendered as I understand the foreign language (comprendo la [lengua] extranjera), that is, exactly the opposite of what the author meant. This wrong data has been incorportated in the work of several scholars, including N. Roth, Jews, Visigoths and Muslims in Medieval Spain. Cooperation and Con ict (Leiden: Brill, 1994): During the Almohad period we have the contemporary evidence of Ibn ib al-al, who reports [. . .] that when the former [Ibn Wazr] went to negotiate with Fernando II (el Baboso) of Len, he told the Christian interpreter there that he understood the Spanish language (my emphasis, p. 53) and in Zwartjes, Love Songs from al-Andalus, 15 n. 18. It is from the entire story that we can deduce that Ibn Wazr knew Romance, but not from that particular sentence which means the opposite of what is found in Huici Mirandas translation. 68 Galms de Fuentes, Las jarchas mozrabes, 88. 69 Barcel, Mozrabes de Valencia, 271.
67

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How far is high from low, the sky from the earth, the light from the darkness, the eloquent expression from the barbarism [. . .] Arent we, people of this peninsula which is far away from the best nations, neighboring the Barbar (al-ajam) masses, arent we the worthiest of excuse for [our] incorrect speaking (lukn) [. . .]? Because, isnt it true that since one of the sons of your nobility starts to hear when he is born [. . . .], he does not hear but the words of a despicable, Romance speaking (ajamiyya), simple minded slave-woman, and the baby does not suckle but from her breast, and does not acquire but her incapability of expression, and is not calmed but in her lap, and is not trained but under her direction? To the point that when he becomes a man, culminating his growth, he is in touch with the Christian kingdoms since he speaks to them in their languages, he makes an eVort in keeping their language, he is concerned about their social classes and tolerates their habits.70

The religious meaning of Arabic as the language of the sacred message, along with the special circumstances of al-Andalus, in constant belligerent state with Romance speaking Christian kingdoms, made Arabic the only language viewed as the true language of Muslims. Even in the moments of highest ethnic tension between Arab Muslims and native Iberian Muslims, at the end of the ninth century, the meaning of the Arabic language as the language of Islam seems to prevail over its ethnic connotation as language of the Arabs.71 In the best known anti-Arab manifesto, known as Risla of Ibn Garca, Ibn Garca never rejects the use of Arabic. On the contrary, he asks the Arabs to be understanding with the non-Arabs faulty literary style: Oh you monopolizer of the art of poetry, and master of the pen in both prose and poetry [. . .] Even the elegant in speech may/sometimes lapse into error, so do not/accept the modest, well-meant work/other than with aVability.72 Very signi cantly, in the Arab refutations to this Risla, Arabs accuse Iberian Muslims of
70 Transmitted by Ibn Bassm, al-Dhakhra f masin al-Jazra, ed. Isn Abbs, 8 vols. (Libya: 1978). I follow, with little modi cation, the translation of Lapiedra, Cmo los cristianos, 274-75. 71 In an unpublished paper, M. Marn points to a very signi cant event having taken place at the time of these ethnic ghts. The confrontation between the two groups adopted a literary form in the town of Elvira: a poet was chosen as a spokesman of each party and was in charge of defending his groups claims with his poetic compositions. The fact that the Iberian Muslims participated in this typical Arabic custom, precisely to ght the Arabs, indicates, their deep assimilation of Arabic cultural patterns; see M. Marn, La arabizacin de al-Andalus: aspectos sociales y culturales, paper given in the colloquium El siglo VIII: Islam y Occidente, Madrid, 1997). I am indebted to the author for kindly providing me with a copy of this work. 72 J. T. Monroe, The Shu biyya in al-Andalus. The Risla of Ibn Garca and Five Refutations (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1970), 29.

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ingratitude, for not acknowledging the gift of having the Arabic language instead of their previous uncivilized languages:73
Woe to you, O brave lion. O buttocks of an ass scratched by the crupper, when you brayed; although it was in the language of the Arabs, your prisoners, that you acquired learning! [. . .] You muttered in the Arabic language yet you wearied of the Arabs wisdom; you uttered their war cry, imitated their poems, and brayed among their asses, though your brand is not like their brand. Did you not perfect your intelligence after having spoken in your defective tongue and foreign babble?[ [. . .] Did you and your ancestors, O base one, O you who have avoided the prescribed castigation, ever have a language to speak [. . .], or a grammar in your tongue for us to record, or a babble in your previous condition to in ect and decline?74

The religious signi cance of Arabic is attested as well in later periods, after Muslim communities fell under Christian rule and subsequently became Romancized. These Muslims groups developed their own Romance literature, known as Aljamiado, whose main distinctive characteristics result from the incorporation of Muslim signs of identity, namely, the Arabic script and Arabic vocabulary pertaining to the religious domain (see above p. 115). 4. Christian language use The most distinctive linguistic trait of Christian population during the rst Islamic period of al-Andalus was the preservation of Latin as a language of culture until approximately the middle of the tenth century. The progressive displacement of Latin by classical Arabic is the origin of Paul Alvars complaints in 854 (see above p. 127). In Alvars speech, there is a clear identi cation of Latin as the language of Christianity versus Arabic, the language of the Chaldeans. The fact is that the links between Latin and Christiany had never been as strong as the links between Hebrew and Judaism, let alone those of Arabic with Islam. Latin was not the language that Jesus Christ had used to transmit his message, nor was it the language of the New Testament, originally written in Greek. Latin, however, had become the language of the Roman Church around the fourth century C.E., and it was the language praised by Christian personalities as important as Saint Isidore of Seville and Saint Jerome.
73 74

Monroe, The shu biyya in al-Andalus. Response of Ab Yay ibn Masada. See Monroe, The Shu biyya in al-Andalus, 32-

33.

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It was probably the weak religious identity of Latin as the language of Christianity, alongside the prestige of Arabic as a vehicle of culture, which led to the displacement of the former by Arabic in Christian writings. This process was so extensive that by the time that Paul Alvar was bemoaning the demise of Latin among Christians, somebody called af ibn Albar al-Q was translating the Book of Psalms from Latin into Arabic. Further, a canon law collection of al-Andalus was produced in Arabic by a priest called Vicentius around the eleventh century, if not before. The scant examples of Arabic literature of Andalusi Christians includes the work of two poets of the eleventh century: Ibn al-Miriz and Ab al-Qsim ibn Khayyt. No Arabic literature (belles lettres) by Christian authors is known to exist from the twelfth century onwards.75 With the exception of Paul Alvars statements, there are no clear testimonies on the part of the Mozarabs about their attitudes regarding the use of languages. It has to be said, rst of all, that their literary output was considerably reduced by comparison with that of the Jewish minority or by comparison with Christian communities of the Near East. Their use of literary Arabic with an aesthetic purpose is only attested in the case of the two poets mentioned above. The identi cation of Romance as the language of the Christians is attested in Arabic sources, as mentioned above (p. 128). We also learn from historical chronicles that the rulers of al-Andalus used to employ Andalusi Christians as interpreters when they had to meet with Christian rulers of the North. This choice seems to be motivated not just by the knowledge that these Christians had of Romance and Arabic, but by the role that they played as intermediaries, as people in between the two worlds.76 The identi cation of Romance users with Christians can hardly have corresponded to the Andalusi linguistic reality in the rst years of Islamic rule, given that Islamization is a process that usually occurs at a faster pace than Arabization.77 We can infer a sharpening of linguistic atti75 For a general study on the Arabic literature of Andalusi Christians, see P. Sj. Van Koningsveld Christian Arabic literature from medieval Spain: An attempt at periodization, in Christian Arabic Apologetics during the Abbasid Period (750-1258) , ed. S. Khalil Samir and J. S. Nielsen (Leiden: Brill, 1994), 203-24 and H. Kassis Arabization and Islamization. 76 See Lapiedra, Cmo los musulmanes, 269-70, where she gives an example of an Andalusi Christian dignatary who is dismissed from his oYce after translating a message of the Northern rulers that specially bothered the caliph. 77 For seminal study on conversion to Islam in the Middle Ages, see R. Bulliet, Conversion to Islam in the Medieval Period: An Essay in Quantitative History (Cambridge, Mass.)

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tudes from the end of the eleventh century, according to the historical circumstances: increasing advances of the Christian Kingdoms and arrival in al-Andalus of the North African dynasties, of a stronger Islamic orthodoxy. Not surprisingly, there is no trace of Romance language use in al-Andalus from the thirteenth century onwards, the period of highest tension between the two worlds. This is also the period when one of the Romance languages, namely Castilian, was used with the status of oYcial language in most of the Christian North. 5. Jewish language use The eZorescence of the Jewish community of al-Andalus, specially in the tenth and eleventh centuries C.E., is unique in the history of Jews in the Middle Ages: No other Jewish community produced as many Jews who achieved positions of status and even power in the non-Jewish world; and no other Jewish community produced such an extensive literary culture re ecting the deep impact of an intellectual life shared with non-Jews.78 It is within this historical context that the most striking linguistic phenomenon of the Andalusi Jews evolved: the revival of the Hebrew language for literary use outside the religious sphere. Hebrew holds a special position in the Jewish tradition as a sacred language: it is the language in which the Bible was written and the language of Jewish liturgy.79 The way Hebrew is referred to in Rabbinical sources is precisely leshon ha-kodesh (the sacred language). Biblical Hebrew had ceased being a spoken language after the fall of Jerusalem (587 B.C.E.), with its domains as a written language limited since then primarily to religious writings.80 In al-Andalus, however, Hebrew acquired a new vitality as a literary language. In the wake of the concept of arabiyya, which claims the superiority of Arabic language and culture, prevailing
Harvard University Press, 1979). Conversion to Islam in al-Andalus has been studied from a diVerent perspective by M. de Epalza Mozarabs: an emblematic Christian minority in Islamic al-Andalus, in The Legacy of Muslim Spain, ed. S. Kh. Jayyusi and M. Marn (Leiden: Brill, 1994), 188-200. 78 R. P. Scheindlin The Jews in Muslim Spain in The Legacy of Muslim Spain, eds. S. Kh. Jayyusi and M. Marn (Leiden: Brill, 1994), 188-200 (188). 79 See A. S. Halkin, The Medieval Jewish Attitude Toward Hebrew, in Biblical and Other Studies, ed. A. Altmann (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1963), 23348. On the traditional ideas about the Hebrew language within Judaism, see R. Loewe. Hebrew Linguistics, in History of Linguistics, Volume I: The Eastern Traditions of Linguistics, ed. G. Lepschy (London: Longman, 1994), 97-163. 80 See A. Senz-Badillos A History of the Hebrew Language (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993) 52.

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among Andalusi Muslims, Jews made Hebrew an object of linguistic praise and gave it a new life.81 Apart from extensively studying and analyzing their language, as the Muslims were doing with Arabic, Jewish scholars in al-Andalus used biblical Hebrew for the composition of secular poetry, in which so many excelled. The high status of Hebrew within the Jewish community, along with its use as a language of elevated literary purposes, lead us to include it as a type of High language. Notwithstanding, other linguistic varieties lled the domains pertaining to this: classical Arabic, the language of administration and general culture in al-Andalus, and Judeo-Arabic, a speci cally Jewish variety of classical Arabic. As the main vehicle of culture in al-Andalus, classical Arabic played a key role as a language of learning among Jewish males of the upper classes. Classical Arabic was also an indispensable tool for gaining access to the Islamic power and administrative structures. Among the Jewish courtiers employed by Muslim rulers, the most prominent case is that of Ismal ben Naghrla (known as Samuel ha-Nagid in Jewish tradition), who served as a vizier for the ruler of Granada in the rst half of the eleventh century. His deep knowledge of classical Arabic is acknowledged not just by his correligionists (see above Ibn Tibbons remarks, p. 117) but also by Muslims scholars, including the Andalusi historian Ab Marwn Ibn ayyn, who portrays Ibn Naghrla in the following way:
This cursed man was a superior man, although God did not inform him of the right religion. [. . .] He was an extraordinary man. He wrote in both languages: Arabic and Hebrew. He knew the literatures of both peoples. He went deeply into the principles of the Arabic language and was familiar with the works of the most subtle grammarians. He spoke and wrote classical Arabic with the greatest ease, using this language in the letters which he wrote on behalf of his king. He used the usual Islamic formulas, the eulogies of God and Muhammad, our Prophet, and recommended the addressee live according to Islam. In brief, one would believe that his letters were written by a pious Muslim.82

81 For an analysis of the factors and characteristics of the revival of the Hebrew language in al-Andalus, see A. Senz-Badillos Philologians and Poets in Search of the Hebrew Language in Languages of Power in Islamic Spain, ed. R. Brann and D. I. Owen (Bethesda: CDL Press, 1997), 49-75. 82 Text transmitted by Ibn al-Khab in al-Ia f akhbr Gharna. I follow the English translation of A. Schippers, Spanish Hebrew Poetry and the Arabic Literary Tradition (Leiden: Brill, 1994), 54-55.

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The literary work of Ibn Naghrla represents the linguistic choices of learned Jews in al-Andalus: Classical Arabic for interaction with the Muslim community and as the usual language of administration; Hebrew as the preferred language for poetry (the most praised art in the culture of the time); and Judeo-Arabic for the rest of literature, mostly of scienti c character: grammar, medicine, theology, philosophy, etc. The evaluation of Judeo-Arabic has gone through diVerent stages in modern scholarship.83 When we refer to medieval Judeo-Arabic, we could best de ne it as a variety of classical Arabic used by Jews for internal consumption, whose main characteristics are the use of Hebrew script, a signi cant input of Hebrew lexicon, and the use of registers close to spoken language or neo-Arabic.84 The signi cance of Hebrew as a sacred language within Jewish tradition is clearly in the origin of the distinctiveness of Judeo-Arabic vis--vis classical Arabic. The marked Islamic character of classical Arabic must have strengthened the attempts of the Jewish community to establish its own distinctive character in such a symbolic sphere as linguistic expression. Conclusion In sum, from the previous survey on the use of languages in Medieval Iberia one observes the shaping eVect of religion in the users evaluative behavior of the diVerent linguistic varieties. This evaluation is less overt in the rst period of Islamic conquest but clearly de ned from the eleventh century onwards. The aYliation of Classical and Colloquial Arabic with Islam, that of Hebrew with Judaism, and Latin and Romance with Christianity, fostered the prevailing linguistic attitudes in Muslim and Christian Spain. These attitudes are evident in the linguistic choices of H domains, including belle-lettres literature and religious practice. Further, the development of a literature in Aljamiado, Judeo-Romance, and Judeo-Arabic responds to one general phenomenon of language use under the in uence of a sacred language by members of a social group de ned by religion.
83 The most extensive research on Judeo-Arabic has been carried out by J. Blau, whose opinions have changed over time. For a general study on medieval Judeo-Arabic and Blaus updated opinions, see J. Blau, The Emergence and Linguistic Background of JudaeoArabic, 3rd ed. ( Jerusalem: Ben Zvi, 1999). For a general survey on Judeo-Arabic, see B. Hary Multiglossia in Judeo-Arabic, with an Edition, Translation and Study of the Cairene Purim Scroll (Leiden: Brill, 1996), 71-111. 84 See M. A. Gallego, Factor religioso y factor lingstico en el judeo-rabe medieval, Ilu: Revista de Ciencias de las Religiones, 2 (1997), 43-48.