Including “God willing.” What do you know about the remaining Arabic words in Spanish and Portuguese?

Since the launch of the Islamic armies to the African continent from the gate of Egypt in the year 20 AH and throughout the following seventy years until the year 90 AH / 709 AD, those armies did not calm down and did not hesitate to spread their culture in these northern countries of Africa.

Since Egypt has been the front and first base for decades, supplying the conquerors in Libya and even Tunisia with equipment and men, and planning for land and sea military operations, the establishment of Uqba bin Nafie for the city of Kairouan in Tunisia in the middle of the first century AH as a base and forward capital for Muslims in North Africa came as a stronger impetus for the incursion In the depth of Algeria and the Far Maghreb, as well as the western islands of the Mediterranean, such as Sicily, Mallorca, and their surroundings.

And when Musa bin Nusair came as governor of North Africa, by the Umayyad Caliph Abdul Malik bin Marwan and his brother Abdul Aziz bin Marwan, the governor of Egypt in the year 85 AH, and he was able to unite North Africa to the Atlantic Ocean under complete Islamic sovereignty, and fate came as a gift to Muslims when Tariq bin Ziyad realized The governor of Tangiers said that the opportunity to conquer Andalusia had arisen. After internal disputes and turmoil in the Visigothic kingdom, Muslim armies set out to the north.

Since the year 92 AH / 711 AD, Muslims turned to conquer this rich island, and five or six years did not pass until their forces reached the south of France, and the civilized Islamic presence remained militarily, culturally and materially for eight centuries in Andalusia, but it is remarkable that despite the wars of recovery and the defeat of Muslims and their expulsion, and the greater perpetration of The massacres against them in the Inquisition until the final expulsion in 1609 AD, the impact of Islam and its first language, the language of the Qur’an, are still present to this day and influence the Spanish and Portuguese languages, the two heirs of Andalusia.

How did Arabic impose itself in Andalusia?

How did Arabic affect the Spanish and Portuguese languages?

What are the most prominent words left to date in the language of the Spanish and Portuguese?!

That is what we will see in our next lines.

How did the Arabic penetrate into Andalusia?

The famous British historian and orientalist Montgomery Watt (1909-2006 AD) admits in his valuable book “The Virtue of Islam over Western Civilization” that “Most parts of Islamic Spain (today Spain and Portugal) witnessed the gradual crystallization of a homogeneous Arab-Islamic culture, and Christians and Muslims were together in the Islamic Bekaa on the It seems that they are conversant with the Arabic language, although they all use in their daily purposes a romantic dialect (Old Roman) with Arabic words entered, and the Christians under Islamic rule adopted all aspects of the culture of the rulers except with regard to religion, to the extent that they were known as Mozarabs, and there is a paragraph written In 854 AD / 240 AH, the bishop of Alvar (city) complains that the youth of the Christian community are so attracted by Arabic poetry that they neglected the study of the Latin language and turned to the study of Arabic.

Montgomery Watt asserts that the Jews in Andalusia also adopted the Arab culture in everything except in religion, and the spread of this Arab-Spanish culture after the Christians began to restore Spain were two important things;

The first is that some Christian princes persuaded a number of Musta'ribists (Arabic-speaking Christians) to migrate from the south and reside in uninhabited and disputed areas.

The second matter is that with the expansion of the area controlled by the Christians of the North from the Castilians and others, so that it included with time Islamic cities, many of the people of those Muslim cities continued to reside in them under the rule of the Spaniards, and these cities remained bearing the character of Islamic civilization or Arab-Spanish mainly [1].

It seems that the strong and historical reason for borrowing Spanish and Portuguese from Arabic centuries ago is that the ancient dialects of these languages ​​were living in a state of fluctuation and instability at a time when the Arabic language had spread and settled in the Andalusian island, so these dialects borrowed from Arabic were known in light of the strength and progress of Islamic civilization In all fields.

However, the most important reason is also that the Moriscos, who preserved their religion and belief within their chests and their sons and daughters despite oppression, torture, systematic killing and the Inquisition, were another reason to preserve the Arabic language until their last breath at the time, and despite being forced to forget Arabic, and to fight their learning secretly and publicly. They created the Alcamido language, meaning the foreign language, which is a language that combined Castilian, Roman and Arabic, and was written in the Arabic script, and it was fortunate that these vulnerable Moriscos were able to write some books in this newly developed language, to preserve their religion and belief while not forgetting Arabic.

The scholar Muhammad Abdullah Annan confirms in his brilliant book “The State of Islam in Andalusia” that during his stay in Spain and in Madrid in particular, he was acquainted with many Alkhamid books and documents, especially in the National Library, which preserves a large sect, including books of prayers, supplications and jurisprudence, most of which open With the basmalah and prayers upon the Prophet, we were particularly drawn to a manuscript of it, which is a book on prayer and supplications. Its concluding statement indicates that the Arabic language, despite its prohibition and persecution, was still studied and written secretly until the end of the sixteenth century. Here is the text of the aforementioned phrase:

I freed the servant from God Almighty who confesses his sin and hopes for forgiveness of his sins, Ali bin Muhammad bin Muhammad Shukkar from the country of Mazamadhiani, the last day of Jumada al-Thani, on the twenty-fourth of the month of Maros, from the day of the third of it in the year ninety-eight nine hundred from the Prophet’s room, may God’s prayers and peace be upon him. And for a number of Christ from him, a year and eighty-nine thousand and five hundred, Amen, Amen, Lord of the worlds. It was completed by the grace of God and His good help, and it was the void, then the afternoon prayer.”[2]

Undoubtedly, these reasons combined over decades and centuries, and even after the military defeat of Muslims in Andalusia, were the motive for the survival of the impact of Arabism and Islam in Andalusia, despite the Spaniards and others.

Arabic words that survive to this day

British historian John Brand Trend notes in his research within the book "The Legacy of Islam" that the Arabic words that are foreign in Spanish and Portuguese are more than names of various kinds of things, emotions and desires, some of which were and still have Arabic names in current Spanish, such as, tahona, hotel (fonda), definition or definition (tarifa), and you may notice that the Arabic word is taken by the Spanish language and the definite article related to it, for example;

Hajja (la alhaja), rice or rice (el arroz).

The Spanish missionary Pedro de Alcala, who was published in 1505 AD, a few years after the fall of Granada, wrote two books dealing with the subject of the Arabic vernacular in the Spanish language of Granada at the time. (a-xems) means the sun, and the word “sultan” (a-coltan) means the sultan and so on [3].

We also find the word "azotea" which means the flat, which is a diminutive of the surface, which is the flat roof, and the word "alcoba" which means the cupola, which is the bedroom for the Spaniards and was used in some Arab environments with the same meaning, and the word "anaguel" which means the eater and its portable cart, which is the carrier, And the word “almohada” and its Arabic al-makhdah, which is the same meaning in Spanish, and “adoquin” is a diminutive of the shop, which means in Spanish the same or the meaning of the stone seat, and “alcanzar” al-kanzar, which means in Arabic the treasure, and in Spanish it means the possession and possession of something [4].

The word mezquito appears in several combinations, and the word market, although it is officially known as elmercado, is known in the countryside as “el ozogne” [5].

You may be surprised if you know that Spanish speakers still use the Arabic phrase “Inshallah” to this day, and it is the only interpretation of the well-known Spanish expression “ojala”, which was spelled “oxala” and then the letter “x” was pronounced in it as the letter “shin” is pronounced ( sh).

And if Arabic has made its way into Spanish, it has also penetrated into Portuguese, and there are hundreds of words of Arabic origin in Portuguese.

Such as the word “alcatila” which means velvet, which means in Portuguese the velvet carpet, and “alfandega” in Arabic the hotel, which means in Portuguese the customs, and the hotel in its old Arabic meaning means the place of reception of merchants in the frontiers, ports and cities, it is also closely related to the culture and the ancient Arab connotation, and “azinhaga”. That is, the lane in Arabic, and in Portuguese the narrow alley, and the lane still means the same connotation, and the word “arratel” means pound in Arabic and Portuguese[6].

And if the Arabic words have remained in the names of things, flags, and terms, they have remained so on many names of countries, places, rivers and valleys to this day in Spain and Portugal as a name and a signifier, such as “trafalgar” i.e. tip of the laurel, and “alcira” i.e. the island, and in Portuguese. alberca” means the pond, and “acequia” means the waterwheel [7].

These are some of the influences of the Arab-Islamic civilization in Andalusia in its two countries, Spain and Portugal, to this day. Arabic has been able to penetrate into these languages, and has proven that it is a language capable of linguistic and cultural coexistence, and to inspire other languages. It did not skimp on its counterparts with terms, names and words that these needed Languages ​​which, while developing from local dialects in the Middle Ages, were and still have the perfection, strength of structures, and infinite derivations!

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