Aljamiado

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Aljamiado (Spanish: [alxaˈmjaðo]; Portuguese: [alʒɐmiˈaðu]; Arabic: عَجَمِيَة trans. ʿajamiyah [ʕaʒaˈmij.ja]) or Aljamía texts are manuscripts that use the Arabic script for transcribing European languages, especially Romance languages such as Medieval Spanish, Mozarabic and others from the Peninsular Romance Continuum.

According to Anwar G. Chejne, Aljamiado or Aljamía is "a corruption of the Arabic word ʿajamiyah (in this case it means foreign language) and, generally, the Arabic expression ʿajam and its derivative ʿajamiyah are applicable to peoples whose ancestry is not of Arabian origin".^[3] During the Arab conquest of Persia, the term became a pejorative.^[4]

History

The systematic writing of Romance-language texts in Arabic scripts appears to have begun in the fifteenth century, and the overwhelming majority of such texts that can be dated belong to the sixteenth century.^[5] A key aljamiado text is the compilation Suma de los principales mandamientos y devediamentos de nuestra santa ley y sunna by the mufti of Segovia, of 1462.^[6]

In later times, Moriscos were banned from using Arabic as a religious language, and wrote in Spanish on Islamic subjects. Examples are the Coplas del alhichante de Puey Monzón, narrating a Hajj,^[7] or the Poema de Yuçuf on the Biblical Joseph (written in Aragonese).^[8]

Aljamiado played a very important role ^[9] in preserving Islam and the Arabic language in the life of the Moriscos of Castile and Aragon; Valencian and Granadan Moriscos spoke and wrote in Andalusi Arabic. After the fall of the last Muslim kingdom on the Iberian peninsula, the Moriscos (Muslims in parts of what was once Al-Andalus) were forced to convert to Christianity or leave the peninsula. They were forced to adopt Christian customs and traditions and to attend church services on Sundays. Nevertheless, some of the Moriscos kept their Islamic belief and traditions secretly, and this included the usage of Aljamiado.

In 1567, Philip II of Spain issued a royal decree in Spain, which forced Moriscos to abandon using Arabic on all occasions, formal and informal, speaking and writing. Using Arabic in any sense of the word would be regarded as a crime. They were given three years to learn the language of the Christian Spanish, after which they would have to get rid of all Arabic written material. Moriscos of Castile and Aragon translated all prayers and the Hadith (sayings of Muhammad) into Aljamiado transcriptions of the Spanish language, while keeping all Qur'anic verses in the original Arabic. Aljamiado scrolls were circulated amongst the Moriscos. Historians came to know about Aljamiado literature only in the early nineteenth century. Some of the Aljamiado scrolls are kept in the Spanish National Library in Madrid.

Alphabet

Letters

Notes:

1. It is not an independent letter, but a special "dongara" consisting of a letter and a consonant (in other words, the repetition of a letter) to indicate a specific sound.
2. These letters are only used in writing Arabic loanwords. The Ladino equivalents for these letters are in accordance with the Judeo-Arabic orthographic traditions.
3. This letter has a dual pronunciation, depending on the letter after it. For this reason, both in Aljamiado and in Ladino, two different letters are used to represent it.
4. In Ladino, the pronunciation of this letter differs from its equivalent in modern Spanish.
5. Whenever the letter "D" is at the beginning of the word, or after a nasal consonant ("m" or "n"), or after a lateral consonant ("l"), pronounced as [d] and written with the letter "d". In all other cases, it is pronounced as [ð] and written with the letter "d".^[10]
6. The letter "waw" does not correspond to any exact letter in the Spanish Latin alphabet. This letter and its sound [w] are pronounced in certain digraphs and trigraphs. Worded differently, there are diphthongs and triphthongs as result of certain vowel sequences, where the sound [w] is pronounced and the letter "waw" is used to write it.
7. The letter "y" in the Spanish Latin alphabet is equivalent to "yaʾ" (ي). But this letter is also used to write some consonant sequences, especially consonant sequences that have a sound similar to [j] in their pronunciation.

Diphthongs

Other uses

The practice of Jews writing Romance languages such as Spanish, Aragonese or Catalan in the Hebrew script is also referred to as aljamiado.^[11]

The word aljamiado is sometimes used for other non-Semitic language written in Arabic letters:

• Bosnian and Albanian texts written in Arabic script during the Ottoman period have been referred to as aljamiado. However, many linguists prefer to limit the term to Romance languages, instead using Arebica to refer to the use of Arabic script for Slavic languages like Bosnian.
• The word Aljamiado is also used to refer to Greek written in the Arabic/Ottoman alphabet.^[12]

Text sample

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:^[13]

See also

• Ajami script – Arabic script used for various African languages
• Arabic Afrikaans – Variant of Arabic script used to write the Afrikaans language
• Arebica – Serbo-Croatian variant of the Arabic script
• Belarusian Arabic alphabet – Arabic-based alphabet for Belarusian
• Elifbaja shqip – Writing system for the Albanian language during the Ottoman EmpirePages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets
• Jawi (script) – Arabic alphabet used in Southeast AsiaPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets
• Judeo-Spanish – Language derived from Medieval Spanish spoken by Sephardic JewsPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets
• Karamanli Turkish – Greek-written Turkish dialect of the Karamanlides
• Kharja – final refrain of a muwashshahPages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
• Mozarabic language – Medieval Romance dialects of Al-AndalusPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets
• Xiaoerjing – Writing system for Chinese in the Perso-Arabic scriptPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets

References

Further reading

• Los Siete Alhaicales y otras plegarias de mudéjares y moriscos by Xavier Casassas Canals published by Almuzara, Sevilla (Spain), 2007. (in Spanish)

External links

• A bilingual Arabic-aljamiado Qur'an from the fifteenth century
• Aljamiado (Texts and Studies)