Some New Evidence for the Romance Origins of the "Muwashshahas"

Abstract

According to the mediaeval Arab literary historians, the muwashshaha was born in Spain, al-Andalus, about the year goo A.D. Spain was on the periphery of the Muslim world, and the vast majority of the Muslim population was in fact made up of converts of peninsular racial stock. All the evidence points to the existence of a population that was largely bilingual in Romance and Arabic. Since the wives of most of the Arabic speakers in the first century of Muslim rule would be Romance speaking women, their progeny would naturally be bilingual. It is noteworthy that Romance would be the language of mothers, a delicate feminine tongue associated with tenderness, childhood songs and lullabies, mothers and women in general, while Arabic would be the language of religion, politics, administration and sophistication, a tongue associated with masculinity. These considerations of themselves help us to understand the emotional impact that a kharja in Romance would have, as the culmination of a muwashshaha in Arabic. S...