Mozarabic

Mozarabic (from Arabic مستعرب [musta^ʕrab], «Arabized») is the name given to the Christian population, of Hispano-Visigothic origin, who lived in the territory of Al-Andalus and who, like the Jews, were dhimmis (people of the Book, lit. "protected"), as opposed to pagans who must accept Islam or die. individual, property, as well as freedom of religion, in exchange for loyalty to the state and the obligatory payment of the jizia. The term "Mozarabic" was not used by Muslims, but by Christians in the northern kingdoms of Spain to designate the Christians from Al-Andalus who emigrated to their territories; This name indicates that the Mozarabs had taken customs from their Arab dominators. Thus, the word "mozarabic" does not appear in Arabic texts but in Christians: the first document in which its use has been verified is from the kingdom of León and is dated 1024.

During the first century since the Islamization of the peninsula, they accounted for the majority of the population of Al-Andalus, to gradually reduce their number as a consequence of their gradual conversion to Islam. In the century X, already constituted a minority because then the majority of the Andalusian population was already Muslim, both in the cities and in the countryside.

There were episodes of conflict with Muslim power such as that of the Martyrs of Córdoba (850-859). Their situation changed with the arrival of the Almoravids at the end of the century XI. In 1126, a massive deportation to North Africa took place, which apparently meant their disappearance from the urban areas of Andalusian territory.

History

Arches of horseshoe of the Mozárabe temple of Santiago de Peñalba.

The Mozarabs had the legal status of dhimmis in Arab society —which they shared with the Jews—, as People of the Book. For practical purposes, their culture, political organization, and religious practice were admitted, and had some legal coverage. However, they were also forced to pay taxes from which Muslims were exempted, in addition to having other types of restrictions; because, although the churches already built were not destroyed, it was not allowed to build others or expand the existing ones. As Islamic culture took root in the Muslim-dominated peninsular territories, the Mozarabs became Arabized and many of them converted to Islam. The reasons were both religious and fiscal, ceasing to be Mozarabic and becoming designated muladíes. As some authors point out, Islamic legislation protected "foreign" groups, but favored their integration into Islam with measures of a very diverse order. The Mozarabic communities were governed by the Liber Iudicorum and its judges (quḍāt al-nașārà or iudices) preserved the tradition of Visigothic culture, although their jurisdiction was only put into practice when both parties to the dispute were Christian. Mixed cases, as derived from Ibn Sahl, were resolved by the qadi or the șahib al-šurta. The head of the Christian community, called comes or 'count' he had collection ( exceptor , mustajrij ) and judicial ( qādī al-ˁajam ) functions, which he used to delegate.

Aguamanil in the form of a turkey preserved at the Louvre Museum which has a bilingual inscription in Arabic and Latin encrypted, but which can be interpreted as the date of manufacture (year 972) and the name of the artist, Abd al-Malik al-Nasrani, that is, "the Christian". It would be the work of a Mozárabe outbreak of Al-Andalus who perhaps worked in the Medina Alzahira court, under the Al-Hakam II caliphate.

During the conquest of the Iberian Peninsula that began in 711, the Arabs sometimes had Hispano-Visigothic Christian noblemen who cooperated in the fight against other Christians.

The unstable nature of the borders and the prolonged Arab presence in the Iberian Peninsula favored integration between very different cultures. Given the eminently religious character of Islamic society, with the progressive integration (not only linguistic and legal, but also religious and cultural) it was facilitated that, with the passage of time, the heirs of the Hispano-Visigothic society came to acquire the consideration of Muslims. The conversion, therefore, represented much more than a gesture of a religious nature. In any case, cases of "false conversions" have also been documented, although most of them -and motivated by socioeconomic and cultural reasons, or by simple forgetfulness of the old religion- Christians were progressively assimilating to Islam. Thus, the Christians dominated by the Muslims became culturally Arabized, for which they were called Mozarabic (Arabized), although they continued to be Christians.

This process was generally peaceful, although that does not explain why some Mozarabs fled to the Christian kingdoms to the north, and why the claims of the Christian community were often disdained by Islamic jurists and on occasion by partiality law provoked riots, riots and voluntary martyrdoms.

Restrictions and Christianophobia

Mozárabe mural painting by San Baudelio de Berlanga, currently at the Prado Museum

Christians did not enjoy the same rights under Islamic rule, and their original guarantees, at first quite extensive, were steadily diminishing. They were still allowed to practice their own religion in private, but their cultural autonomy shrank more and more over time. The Mozarabs inevitably lost more and more status, but they long maintained their dignity and the integrity of their culture, never losing personal and cultural contact with the Christian world.

In the generations that followed the conquest, Muslim rulers enacted new statutes clearly to the disadvantage of the dhimmi. Finally, the construction of new churches and the ringing of church bells were prohibited. But when Eulogius of Córdoba recorded the martyrdom of the Martyrs of Córdoba during the decade after 850, it was evident that at least four Christian basilicas remained in the city, including the church of San Acisclo which had housed the only redoubts in 711, and nine monasteries and convents in and around the city; however, their existence soon became precarious.

Christian leaders were beheaded, including Saint Eulogius of Córdoba according to Kenneth Baxter Wolf, as well as two other Christians executed in 860, and shortly after a third according to historical records. Later executions were in 888–912 and 913–920. Still further executions were recorded in Córdoba in 923 (Eugenie), a Pelagius child in 925 (for refusing to convert to Islam and submit to the Caliph's sexual advances), and Argentea in 931. According to Wolf, the executions would have continued.

Pelayo represented in 1660 in Mirror of Martyrs.

From this point on, Christians were increasingly alienated not only because they could not build new churches or ring church bells, but mainly because they were excluded from most positions of political, military, or social authority. and they suffered many other indignities as unequal under Islamic law. In the middle of the IX century, as revealed by the episode of the martyrs of Córdoba, there was a clear Christian opposition to the systematic pressure of a variety of legal and financial instruments of Islam, resisting their conversion and absorption into Muslim culture.

The initial official reaction to the Córdoba martyrs was to round up and imprison the leaders of the Christian community. Towards the end of the decade of the martyrs, Eulogius' martyrology begins to record the closure of Christian monasteries and convents, which would lead to a slow but systematic elimination of Christianity.

With the Reconquest, the Mozarabs integrated into the Christian kingdoms, where the kings privileged those who settled in the borderlands. They also migrated north to the kingdom of the Franks in times of persecution. A significantly large number of Mozarabs settled in the Ebro Valley. King Alfonso VI of Castile induced the Mozarabic settlers by promising them land and rewards. Its importation of Mozarabic settlers from Al-Andalus was very unique due to its surprising character. According to the Anglo-Norman historian, Orderic Vitalis, Alfonso sent some 10,000 Mozarabs to settle on the Ebro. Mozarabs were few in Tudela or Zaragoza, but were most common in places like Calahorra, conquered by the Kingdom of Navarre in 1045.

The Mozarabs of today, as a liturgical community

The Mozarabs who lived in territories that were reconquered by the Christian kingdoms of the north, ended up merging with the conquerors, with whom they shared religion. However, for some time a clearly separate identity for both groups was maintained in some places, for example in the city of Toledo.

Several parishes in Toledo used a different Mozarabic rite in religious services than in northern Spain: parishes of San Torcuato, San Sebastián, Santas Justa and Rufina, San Marcos, Santa Eulalia and San Lucas. This rite still subsists by tradition in several churches in the city:

Mass and office are celebrated daily in Latin in the Corpus Christi Chapel of the Primada Cathedral of Toledo; the mass in the Hispanic Mozarabic Rite is celebrated in Spanish weekly (every Tuesday, at 7:00 p.m.) in the Monastery of the Hermanas Clarisas in Madrid -next to Cibeles-; monthly in the Monastery of Santa María de Valdediós (Asturias); according to the calendar in the Old Cathedral of Salamanca and, sporadically, in many places in Spain.

In 1992, the first volume of the New Hispano-Mozarabic Missal was presented to Pope John Paul II. He then celebrated Holy Mass himself in this rite on May 28 of the same year, thus being the first time a pope had done it.

On the occasion of the celebration of the 800th anniversary of the conquest of the city of Alcaraz, in the current province of Albacete, by King Alfonso VIII of Castile, it was held there on May 23, 2013, in the Parish of the Santísima Trinidad y Santa María, a mass for this rite, presided over by the Archbishop of Toledo and superior of the Mozarabic Rite, wanting to recognize with this gesture the conservation efforts of this legacy throughout the centuries.

Mozarabic Knights

These are the knights belonging to the Illustrious and Ancient Brotherhood of Mozarabic Knights of Our Lady of Hope of San Lucas of the Imperial City of Toledo.

These knights are direct descendants of those Christians who lived under Muslim domination in the city of Toledo and who helped King Alfonso VI to conquer the city. Alfonso VI recognized the Christianity of these knights by granting them the "Fuero Mozarabus" and granting them in the year 1085 the privilege, among others, of being able to be armed as knights, which at that time was granting them the nobility, since only the nobles had access to the military establishment.

On March 20, 2001, the 900th anniversary of the concession, by Alfonso VI, King of Castilla y León, of the Jurisdiction, Privilege or "Charta Firmitatis", in XIII kalendas of April of Era 1130 (March 20, 1101), favoring "ad totos Mozarabes of Toleto, tam Cavalleros quam Pedones", whereby, in translation of the medieval "LIBRO DE LOS PRIVILEGES DE TOLEDO", "I absolve them from all Lex de subjectión antigua et dó vos prescripta libertad", empowering them to continue to be governed by the "Book of the ancient Judicial Jurisdiction" and -mainly- "gives them freedom that if anyone is among them standing and wants and has power, let it be Cavallero", which was the same as declaring them nobles, since at that time the militia was purely military. It is the oldest preserved Jurisdiction, literally transcribed from the original "written in Gothic font, on leather parchment", in the confirmation of Pedro I, given in the Courts of Valladolid, on October 25, 1351, proceeding from him the quality and honorary name, until today in force, of "Caballero" or "Mozarabic Lady of Toledo". Also born from this Jurisdiction, where the nobility of the Mozarabs is declared, among other things, confirmed by the majority of the Kings of Castile and Spain, the Illustrious Mozarabic Community of Toledo, today made up of nearly 2000 families of this quality, rite and personal parish jurisdiction.

The title with which these gentlemen are addressed is Most Illustrious.

The Mozarabic community, made up of families, currently has a social branch, the Brotherhood of Mozarabic Knights and Ladies who parade in the Corpus Christi Procession, among other acts, are grouped around the two mother parishes of Santas Justa and Rufina and Santa Eulalia and San Marcos, in Toledo. The head of Mozarabia is the Cardinal Primate of Spain and Archbishop of Toledo, in addition to a cultural branch, through the Institute of Visigothic-Mozarabic Studies of Toledo.

Cardinal Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros had the Corpus Christi chapel built in the Cathedral of Toledo so that, by papal privilege, the mass and the choral office can be celebrated according to the Mozarabic Rite or Hispanic Liturgy, survival of the liturgy Hispano-Visigoth, preserved by the Christians who lived under Arab rule. Protected by a Gothic gate, it encloses a mosaic of the Virgin and Child, ordered to be built in Rome by Cardinal Lorenzana, and a large mural painting by Juan de Borgoña commemorating the capture of Oran by Cardinal Cisneros, regent of the Kingdom. in 1509, under an octagonal dome, the work of Jorge Manuel Theotocópuli, son of El Greco.

Currently the Mozarabic Knights participate in the Corpus Christi procession in Toledo. Since 2005 the entity has been twinned with the Royal Brotherhood of Cubicular Knights of Zamora.

For this type of act they wear a blue cloth cloak with a cap of the same color and with the cross of Alfonso VI embroidered on the left arm (cap and cloth with gold details).

Mozarabic language

As regards the Mozarabic language, it was made up of different Romance dialects. There was no unity between them and, unlike other Romance languages, the few written testimonies that have come down to us are in the Arabic alphabet instead of the Latin alphabet. According to Sola-Solé, Mozarabic was "part of the speech of the Christian communities that, subject to Islam, continued to live in the large urban centers of the old Visigothic kingdom." We know these dialects from the jarchas, final stanzas of the poems called moaxajas by the Andalusian poets, who sometimes used romance refrains with some Arabisms and Hebraisms.

The Arab terms contained in our jarchas usually come from the bottom of the poetic language and relates to the world of love, the primordial theme of our jarchas. (Sola-Solé pg. 35)

According to Sola-Solé, the Mozarabic language is a mixture of 40% Oriental terms and 60% Romance words and of these Oriental words, most are nouns and verbs are much less frequent.

A few examples of modern Spanish words derived from Arabic

cotton al-qutun

carpet al-ḥumra

alcoba, al-qubbah

village, ad-dayah

mayor al-qadi 'the judge'

meatball, al-bunduqa

Phonetics and morphology

In some respects, Mozarabic has been seen as more archaic than the other Romance languages. From the few written documents identified as Mozarabic, examples of these archaic features are the preservation of Latin consonant clusters (CL, FL, PL) and intervocalic voiceless consonants (P, T, C) as in the words lopa (she-wolf), toto (everything), and formica (ant).

The morphology of some words is more similar to Latin than to other Romance languages in general. This Romance variety had a substantial impact on the formation of Portuguese, Spanish, and particularly Andalusian Spanish, which explains why these languages have words of Andalusi Arabic origin.

Translation problems

The debate surrounding the translation from Mozarabic relates mostly to the Arabic script, in which vowels are generally not written. As a result, each translation of the jarchas is somewhat different, since it is the particular opinion of each specialist. Since Mozarabic was a mixed language, each region that spoke it had a different mix; Mozarabic from different regions would have different tendencies, rules, and patterns from others. That is why there is much debate and difficulty in the translation from Mozarabic and in particular from the jarchas.

"Naturally the greatest difficulties for the correct interpretation of the Mozarabic voices refer to the vowels, not only because they often do not reproduce graphically, but also because of the reduced vocálic system of classical Arabic, and the absence of vowels grouped in decreasing hiatus or diptongos. As is known, in the Arabic classical language there are only three vowels: /a/ /i/ /u/. The first difficulties arise when trying to reproduce, using the Arabic characters, a /e/ or a /o/ of the Romance language." (Galmés de Fuentes pg. 47)

Sample of Mozarabic from the 11th century