Aljamiado
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A text in a Romance language is said to be aljamiado if it is written using the Arabic or Hebrew alphabets, as texts written in the Mozarabic or Ladino languages are.
Texts in the Arabic script are often written without short vowels, making these texts more difficult to read; for Aljamiado as for Arabic, the reader was expected to supply the missing vowels.
According to Anwar G. ChejneChejne, A.G. (1993): Historia de España musulmana. Editorial Cátedra. Madrid, Spain. Published originally as: Chejne, A.G. (1974): Muslim Spain: Its History and Culture. University of Minnesota Press. Minneapolis, USA, Aljamía o Aljamiado is "a corruption of the Arabic word achamiyyah (foreigner) and, generally, the Arabic expression acham and its derivative achamiyyah are applicable to peoples whose ancestry is not of Arabian origin". In linguistic terms, the Aljamia is the romance language which was used as everyday communication vehicle while Arabic was reserved as the cultivated and religious tongue.
In later times, Moriscos were banned their use of Arabic as a religious language, and wrote in Spanish on Islamic subjects. Examples are the Coplas del alhichante (about a hajj) or the Libro de Yuçuf on the Biblical Joseph.
Aljamiado played a very important role in the life of the Moriscos indeed. Moriscos was the Spanish name given to the Andalusian Muslims in Granada and other parts of what was once Al-Andalus after the collapse of the last Muslim kingdom of Granada in 1492. Moriscos 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, most of the Moriscos kept their Islamic belief and traditions secretly. In 1566, a royal degree was enacted 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. In order to keep their Qur'an, prayers and literature, Moriscos relied on the Aljamiado. Moriscos translated all prayers and the sayings of their prophet Mohammed into that language while they kept 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 National Library in Madrid.
In Spanish, aljama means the quarters where Jews or Mudejars lived.
Another meaning for the word aljamiado is for any non-Semitic language written in Arabic. Therefore, some Serbo-Croatian, Bosnian and Albanian texts written in Arabic script, during the Ottoman period could be classed as aljamiado. However, many linguists prefer to reserve the term only for Romance languages.
References
External links
- [A bilingual Arabic-aljamiado Qur'an from the fifteenth century]
- [Aljamiado (Texts and Studies)]
- [Islam y Al-Andalus] Comprehensive study of Andalusian Aljamiado (In Spanish)
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