Italian and Arabic

Wolfgang Schweickard Italian and Arabic 1 Introduction 5 Editorial philology: performance 2 Arabic in Southern Italy and limits 3 Arabic elements in historical 6 Lexicological and lexicographical sources research 3.1 Pilgrimages 7 Conclusions 3.2 Trade, politics, diplomacy 8 Bibliography 3.3 Scientific texts 8.1 Abbreviations 3.4 Translations of religious texts 8.2 Primary sources 3.5 Individual voyagers 8.3 Studies, corpora and dictionaries 4 Special features of the Arabic- 9 Index verborum Italian language contact 9.1 Arabic 4.1 Arabic as the mediating language 9.2 Catalan 4.2 Borrowing routes of the Arabic 9.3 Greek elements 9.4 Italian 4.3 Number and status of the 9.5 (Medieval) Latin borrowings 9.6 Persian 4.4 Language skills 9.7 Portuguese 4.5 Modalities of adaptation 9.8 Sicilian 4.6 Excursus: Italian elements in 9.9 Spanish Arabic 9.10 Turkish Abstract: This article focuses on Italian and Arabic language contact in the Medi- terranean until early modern times. Particular emphasis will be placed on lexical exchange with Italian as the recipient language. The most important contact zone between Arabic and Italian was southern Italy. Numerous Arabic elements also appear in texts and documents of pilgrims, merchants and diplomats who traveled to Arabia as well as in translations from Arabic. Special features of those contacts are dealt with in separate chapters: Arabic as the intermediate language for borrowings with a different remote etymology (Greek, Persian), the various channels of transmission of genuine Arabic elements, the number and status of the borrowings, the degree of familiarity of the travelers with Arabic, basic patterns of formal adaptation and corrupt spellings, and finally, in a brief excursus, Italian elements in Arabic. Additional chapters deal with the strengths and weaknesses of editorial philology, the lexicological and lexicographical treatment of Arabisms and remaining desiderata. Wolfgang Schweickard, FR Romanistik, Universität des Saarlandes, Campus A5 3, 1 OG., Zi. 1.11, Saarbrücken, Germany, e-mail: [email protected] https://doi.org/10.1515/lexi–2017-0009 122 Wolfgang Schweickard Keywords: Language contact, Italian, Arabic, loanwords, Borrowings, Mediterra- nean languages 1 Introduction This article focuses on Italian and Arabic language contact in the Mediterranean until early modern times. Particular emphasis will be placed on lexical exchange with Italian as the recipient language. The most important contact zone between Arabic and Italian was southern Italy. Numerous Arabic elements also appear in texts and documents of pilgrims, merchants and diplomats who traveled to Arabia as well as in translations from Arabic. Special features of those contacts are dealt with in separate chapters: Arabic as the intermediate language for borrowings with a different remote etymology (Greek, Persian), the various channels of transmission of genuine Arabic elements, the number and the status of the borrowings, the degree of familiarity of the travelers with Arabic, basic patterns of formal adaptation and corrupt variants, and finally, in a brief excursus, Italian elements in Arabic. Addition- al chapters deal with the strengths and weaknesses of editorial philology, the lexicological and lexicographical treatment of Arabisms and remaining desiderata.1 2 Arabic in Southern Italy As the language of Islam, Arabic had played a leading role since the seventh century.2 The Arab expansion towards Southern Europe was initially centered on the Iberian Peninsula (→ Ruhstaller/Gordón in this volume), which was conquered between 711 and 716. Between 827 (the invasion of Asad ibn al-Furāt and the conquest of Marsala) and 878, Sicily and parts of southern Italy came under Arab rule. In 831, Palermo, which at that time had about 100,000 inhabitants, was taken after a long siege and became the metropolis of Arab Sicily. In the following years Messina (842), Modica (845), Ragusa (849), and finally Siracusa (878) were conquered. The Arab domination lasted until the 11th century. After that, first the Normans (1061–1189) and then the Hohenstaufen dynasty (13th century) gained control over the island. The cultural influence of the Arabs, however, remained vital far beyond this time.3 It is in the nature of things that during the period of Arab rule there were intense contacts between the conquerors and the indigenous population. Linguistically, this 1 I would like to thank Farid Benfeghoul, Francesco Crifò, Martin Gleßgen and Max Pfister † for their helpful comments. 2 Steiger (1948/1949: 3 ff.); Tietze (1958); Versteegh (2010: 634 f.); Abdel Haleem (2011); Gazsi (2011); Selmani (2017: 133 ff.); for the spread of the Arabic alphabet, cf. Banti (2000: 19 ff.). 3 Amari (1933–1939); Steiger (1948/1949: 25 ff.); Gabrieli (1993: 35 ff.); Backman (1995: 34 ff.); Scholz (1996: 169 ff.); Ineichen (1997: 32 ff.); Kontzi (1998: 341 ff.); Herbers (2016). Italian and Arabic 123 situation is mirrored by a large number of borrowings, especially in Sicily, but also in parts of the southern mainland (although no permanent occupation of these terri- tories had ever taken place).4 In his fundamental study on the Arabic borrowings in Medieval Sicily, Caracausi (1983) lists 298 main entries with documentation from Latin and vernacular sources.5 Via Sicily, some Arabisms were also introduced into early Tusco-Florentine literature, as for example acanino in Boccaccio’s Decamerone: “[…] tu m’hai miso lo foco all’arma, toscano acanino” (VIII, 10) < Sic. haninu ‘dear, beloved’ < Ar. ḥanīn (Pellegrini 1972: 75 f.).6 The strong presence of Arabic in southern Italy is also reflected by a considerable number of place names of Arabic origin: Favara < Ar. fawwāra ‘source’, Gisira <Ar. ǧazīra ‘island’, ‘peninsula’, etc. Also various typical place name constituents of Ara- bic origin are widespread: Ar. marsā ‘harbor, port’ (Marsala, Marzamemi), Ar. raḥl ‘farmhouse’, ‘hamlet’ (Racalmuto), Ar. qal‘a ‘castle’ (Caltavuturo, Calatafimi, Calta- nissetta), Ar. ǧibāl, pl. of ǧabal ‘mountain’ (Gibilmesi, Gibilmanna, Gibellina).7 Since names of this kind are usually not transparent to speakers, the formation of the tautological Mongibello < It. monte ‘mountain’ + Ar. ǧibāl ‘mountains’, and of the triplet monte de Mongibello, which first appeared in the 13th century,8 is only a logical consequence. Furthermore, many personal names of Arabic origin are common in Sicily to this day: Cafaro / Cafari < Ar. kāfir ‘infidel, unbeliever’ (Caffarelli/Marcato 338), Galiffa / Galifi < Ar. ḫalīfa ‘caliph’ (ibid. 817), Macaluso <Ar.maḫlūṣ ‘liberated (slave)’, Tabbi / Tabbì <Ar.‘attābī ‘silk taffeta’ (ibid. 1621), Tàffara / Tàffari <Ar. ṭayfūrīya ‘bowl’ (ibid. 1624), etc.9 3 Arabic elements in historical sources Lexical borrowings from Arabic appear since the earliest times, also in many Italian sources which are not directly related to the Arab supremacy in Sicily. These words have partially passed into Italian via Medieval Latin; partially they are the result of direct contacts of travelers with the Arab world. Among the different categories of sources, travel accounts of pilgrims to the Holy Land as well as commercial, 4 Varvaro (1981); Manzelli (1986); Gabrieli (1993: 109 ff.); Fanciullo (1996: 113 ff.); Agius (1991); Ineichen (1997: 35). 5 For an onomasiological overview on the borrowings, see Ineichen (1997: 39 f.); Kontzi (1998: 341 ff.). 6 The transliteration of the Arabic script follows the rules of the Deutsche Morgenländische Gesell- schaft (German Oriental Society, DIN 31635). 7 Caracausi (1994 s. v.); Ineichen (1997: 37 ff.); Kontzi (1998: 342); Mancini (2010: 2.2.). 8 Precisely in 1282 in Restoro d’Arezzo (ed. Morino 1976: 172; cf. DI 3,319 f.). 9 Pellegrini (1972: 227 ff., 1989: 153 ff.); Caracausi (1994); Ineichen (1997: 39); Kontzi (1998: 342); Mancini (2010: 2.2.). 124 Wolfgang Schweickard political and diplomatic texts are particularly important.10 The status of the Arabic elements in these texts is fundamentally different from those in southern Italy. Arabic elements in Italian historical sources are normally less deeply rooted. They usually do not have a direct relation to the Italian reality of life, but primarily refer to specificities of the Arab world which are particularly striking from the individual point of view of the travelers. 3.1 Pilgrimages The Terra santa was at all times a center of attraction for Christian Europeans. Besides the crusaders’ attempts to reconquer the Holy Land,11 the Christian pilgrimages were the peaceful variant of cultivating cross-border religious traditions. The voyages typically began in Venice and continued along the eastern coast of the Adriatic and, via Cyprus, to Jaffa, Alexandria or Beirut. From there the pilgrims took the land route to the biblical sites in Palestine.12 Sometimes the Christian places of commemoration in Egypt were on the agenda, as well.13 The distance from Venice to Jaffa via Cyprus is nearly 2,600 km, from Venice to Alexandria nearly 2,800 km. Depending on the weather, the pilgrims traveled 40 to 50 days, on average. The religious antagonism between the different faiths – especially between Christians and Muslims – usually did not lead to serious problems. The co- operation between the organizers of the pilgrimages and the regional authorities made it possible – despite some imponderables14 – to respect the planned schedule and to guarantee a relatively high degree of security.15 The expenses for the individual pilgrim were considerable (an approximate calculation reveals that more than one year’s salary of a senior Venetian official was necessary to cover them16): “E voi, lettori, che andate in Ierusalem per la via d’Alesandria e del Caero e per terra insino alla Terra Santa come abbiamo fatto noi, è una grande ispesa” (ZL 258). The earliest Italian pilgrim’s account, the anonymous Itinerario per la Terra Santa, dates from the 13th century (ed. Dardano 1966). Until the 17th century, the number of such texts grew steadily. For the period from the 13th to the 17th century, about 10 The series Christian-Muslim Relations (CMR) offers a helpful overview on relevant texts (for a review of volume 6 see Schweickard 2015c: 1230 ff.).

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