Arabic in Spanish, Part I

Arabic is tightly wound up within Spanish, more so than most people know.

For 781 years, from 711 to 1492, all or large parts of modern Spain were under Muslim rule. Al-Andalus, that territory was called.

Now, when Muslim forces took the Iberian Peninsula from the Visigoths in the early 8th century, the Latin that had been brought there in 210 was already evolving into various Romance languages.

In al-Andalus, a set of related Andalusi Romance dialects developed, heavily influenced by Arabic. In the small Christian kingdoms to the north, others evolved: Leonese, Castilian, Aragonese, Galician, Catalan, Portuguese.

10th-century al-Andalus, known as the Emirate of Córdoba.

Andalusi society, especially under the long rule of the Umayyad clan, was complex. Arab people dominated government, with the Amazigh (a North African people more commonly known as Berbers, Mauri, or Moors) somewhat beneath them (to oversimplify).

Christians and Jews were welcomed in that society as dhimmis (ahl ul-ḏimmah, people of the book). The largest group?

The Muladis or Muwalladūn.

A Muladi/Muwallad was sometimes a person of mixed heritage, Arabic and Ibero Roman (with maybe some Gothic).

But usually, they were just people of European stock whose families were Muslim, who were brought up in “Arabic”…