Arabic Influence Research Articles

Rhythms of Medicine and Community in Late Sixteenth Century Japan: Yamashina Tokitsune (1543-1611) and his Patients

[Andrew Edmund Goble is Professor of Japanese History and of Religious Studies at the University of Oregon. His recent research has focused on issues of medicine and society in pre-modern Japan. He is most recently the author of “War and Injury: The Emergence of Wound Medicine in Medieval Japan” (Monumenta Nipponica, 2005); “Kajiwara Shōzen (1265-1337) and the Medical Silk Road: Chinese and Arabic Influences on Medieval Japanese Medicine” (In Goble, Robinson and Wakabayashi (eds.), Tools of Culture: Japan’s Cultural, Intellectual, Medical, and Technological Contacts in East Asia, 1000s-1500s, 2009). His manuscript Confluences of Medicine: Exploring Song Chinese Medical Knowledge in Medieval Japan, will be appearing from the University of Hawai’i Press.]

On the Date and Contents of a Portuguese Medieval Technical Book on Illumination

The book this article discusses is a late medieval Portuguese technical text on illumination written with Hebraic characters. It belongs to a miscellaneous manuscript at Parma's Biblioteca Palatina. Discovered in 1803, it was attributed to Abraham ben Judah Ibn Hayyim and dated to 1262. Soon some authors assigned it to the fifteenth century. The paper's water-marks, recently observed, confirmed the fifteenth century date. Yet, the possibility that this text could be a copy of an older original remains. However, the discussion of the historical context and the content also suggests that the original dates more probably from the fifteenth than the thirteenth century. In terms of structure and content this text should not be considered a treatise but a heterogeneous compilation which, besides the Hebraic marks, presents significantly alchemic, Castilian and Arabic influences.

HLA Class I and Class II Polymorphism in Three Sicilian Populations

Two human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class I loci (HLA-A and HLA-B) and one class II locus (HLA-DR) were typed at the DNA level in the Sicilian population. Study participants were of Sicilian origin (183 for class I loci and 260 for class II loci) and live in three towns, chosen on the basis of geographic position and different historical events. These towns are Sciacca (southwest Sicily, located at sea level, conquered by Arabs in A.D. 814), Piana degli Albanesi (northwest Sicily, 720 m above sea level, has maintained religious, cultural, and linguistic peculiarities traced to Albanian settlement in 1488), and Troina (northeast Sicily, 1120 m above sea level, known as the first settlement of Normans). The assumptions underlying the study of genetic structure, based on HLA allele polymorphism, are that these three towns are located in areas that can be distinguished according to historical criteria and that they are likely to have contributed to cultural and probably genetic differences. As such, the high frequency of some alleles in Sciacca and Troina seems to be correlated with Greek, Phoenician, North African, and Arab influence. In accordance with different human settlements in Sicily, we found that the HLA allele frequencies support the existence of genetic differentiation between the western and eastern sides of Sicily. This separation is attributed to Greek colonization in the east and to Phoenician-Carthaginian-Arab influence in the west. Moreover, the comparisons of all allele frequencies between Mediterranean and AfrIcan populations show the same trend, highlighting in some cases European origin and in other cases non-European origin.

Diet and dietetics in al-Andalus

Al-Andalus society (711-1492) based its idea of health on the wisdom of Classical Greece, the Hippocratic-Galenic theories, as well as the Persian and Hindu cultures. The twelfth century in al-Andalus is considered to be the most prolific period for works of a scientific and technical nature. At the time, the main treatises on dietetics were written and this science reached its widest expression with such leading figures as Ibn Wāfīd, Avenzoar, Averroes and Maimonides, whose works revealed the first scientific knowledge on the nutritional processes of the human body. Diet was regarded as being essential for health and the prevention of disease. Dietary guidelines were written for different age groups, different body types and different seasons of the year. The amount of food to be ingested, the number of meals recommended and the order in which the food should be consumed were all issues that were discussed. A variety of foods were thought to have medicinal properties, some of which are known today. The diet in al-Andalus was varied and very probably made a substantial contribution to the origin of the present-day Mediterranean diet, rich in olive oil, wholemeal cereals, fruit and vegetables, fish, lamb, poultry, nuts and spices. We also find that many of the terms in current use in diet and agriculture are a living testimony to the Arabic influence, as are many of the dishes of our varied Mediterranean gastronomy.

North African Berber and Arab Influences in the Western Mediterranean Revealed by Y-Chromosome DNA Haplotypes

We have analyzed Y-chromosome diversity in the western Mediterranean area, examining p49a,f TaqI haplotype V and subhaplotypes Vb (Berber) and Va (Arab). A total of 2,196 unrelated DNA samples, belonging to 22 populations from North Africa and the southern Mediterranean coast of occidental Europe, have been typed. Subhaplotype Vb, predominant in a Berber population of Morocco (63.5%), was also found at high frequencies in southern Portugal (35.9%) and Andalusia (25.4%). The Arab subhaplotype Va, predominant in Algeria (53.9%) and Tunisia (50.6%), was also found at a relatively high frequency in Sicily (23.1%) and Naples (16.4%); its highest frequency in Iberia was in northern Portugal (22.8%) and Andalusia (15.5%). In Iberia there is a gradient of decreasing frequencies in latitude for both subhaplotypes Va and Vb, related to eight centuries of Muslim domination (8th to 15th centuries) in southern Iberia.

A Possible Connection between the Philosophy of the Castilian king Alfonso X and the Risālat ayy ibn Yaqān by Ibn ufayl

This article explores the textual connections between two narratives: Ibn ufayl's (581/1185–6) Risālat ayy ibn Yaqān and a brief history of religions present in two works – the General Estoria and the Stenario – produced in the Castilian court of king Alfonso X (1221–1284). Both literary narratives deal with the intersection of philosophy and metaphysics. First, Alfonso X's cultural renaissance is contextualized. Under Arabic influence, Alfonso's collaborators created a cultural synthesis that was denounced by his son Sancho in the 1290s. Second, we compare Ibn ufayl's and Alfonso X's narratives. Ibn ufayl's model was probably adapted to justify a cultural programme that blended Christianity and Pagan inheritance. Unfortunately, there is no physical evidence to prove that Alfonso's circle was familiar with Ibn ufayl's work. Nevertheless, the analysis of a common genre – following A.W. Hughes's theory – allows us to contend that Alfonso X reproduced this type of text within a Christian context.

Arabic Influence on Sabazian Poetry in Yemen

A new poetic form emerged among Jews in seventeenth-century Yemen. It is associated with R. Salim al-Sabazi, its most prolific practitioner. Scholars disagree on the causes for this development, some pointing to earlier models in Jewish literature, others arguing for the influence of Yemeni Arabic poetry on the genre. Here, the controversy surrounding the origins of Sabazian poetry will be discussed. A case for the influence of the semi-vernacular humayni poetry of Lower Yemeni Sufis on the early development of Sabazian poetry will be advanced.

Remarks on Mathematical Terminology in Medieval Latin : Greek and Arabic Influences

The development of mathematical terminology in the Latin Middle Ages has not yet been systematically investigated ; there is in print no report on the whole field, only three general articles 1 and occasional specialized information on a special text. Accordingly, my talk is based on my own work on mathematical texts of this time. They show that there were two different traditions. One of these came from Greek mathematical writings which were known in Latin by translations and reworkings made in Roman times and late antiquity they were a formative influence on medieval culture. The second tradition begins with the translations from Arabic into Latin in the 12th century : thereby a large number of Greek writings became known and at the same time Indian and Arabic mathematics, which in part belonged to the same tradition. In the following I should like to describe these traditions and to characterize their principal trends with the help of a few examples.

La indumentaria sefardí en el Norte de Marruecos. El tocado y la ropa de cada día

When the Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492, many of them crossed the straits of Gibraltar to live under the protection of the Sultan of Morocco, whose court, at the time, was in Fez. The existing North African Jewish population —of Arabic and Berber language and culture— increased by the arrival of the Sephardic Jews who kept Spanish as their conversational language as well as many customs originating in the Iberian peninsular. The clothing of this group had a particular character due partly to its development from Hispanic roots before the expulsion and partly to its gradual evolution amidst the surrounding Arabic influence and the strict Muslim laws compelling the men to always dress in black.

Centre For Medieval Studies Middle Eastern and Islamic Influence on Western Art & Liturgy

Central to the conference, held during March 5-6, 2004, at Trinity College,University of Toronto (Canada), was the desire of its organizer, AndrewHughes, to find analogies in other disciplines to his speculation that theEuropean plainsong (liturgical chant) of the Middle Ages was performed in a manner similar to that of Middle Eastern music (“Continuous Music:Natural or Eastern? The Origins of Modern Performance Style”). His speculationstemmed from decades of discussions with his colleague TimothyMcGee about the nature of musical sound. Oral transmission, its replacementby various difficult-to-interpret notations, and an often polemic rejectionof Arabic influence make the investigation difficult and controversial.1McGee responded (“Some Concerns about Eastern Influence in MedievalMusic”) and later, working from practical experiments presented by agroup of graduate students attending the conference, offered a very interestingnew interpretation. Some reservations were expressed by CharlesBurnett (Warburg Institute, London), a distinguished Arabist with musicologicalqualifications. He was invited to comment on the initial round tableand the conference as a whole.Other papers relevant to music were George Sawa’s review of Arabictheories of medieval music (“The Uses of Arabic Language in MedievalRhythmic Discourses”). He referred to numerous matters that might havea bearing on European music, especially with respect to ornamentationand rhythm. Art Levine discussed other non-western musical cultures,some of which were also influenced by Islamic music, and raised questionsabout ornamentation, tuning, and the nature of pitch (e.g., what is anote? “What Can Non-Western Music Offer?”).Moving from the sound of music to words about it, Randall Rosenfelddescribed numerous pilgrimage and Crusader chronicles. They containpassages reporting that Europeans found little strange in eastern music,suggesting that eastern and western music cannot have been as dissimilaras seems to be the case today (“Frankish Reports of Central Asian andMiddle Eastern Musical Practice”). John Haines traced in detail the use ofArabic terms from Adelard of Bath’s twelfth-century translation ofEuclid’s geometrical writings to an important mid-thirteenth-centurymusical treatise, where the terms for quadrilateral shapes resemblingsquare notation are used to refer to musical symbols (“Anonymous IV’sElmuahim and Elmuarifa”). Luisa Nardini presented details of particularmelodic characteristics in Gregorian chants that identify Byzantine andGallican melodies in Gregorian repertories (“Aliens in Disguise:Byzantine and Gallican Songs as Mass Propers in Italian Sources”).In other disciplines, Philip Slavin revealed the striking similarities oftopics and words between Byzantine and Roman (Gregorian) penitentialliturgy, seeing possible origins in Jewish prayers and the fourth-centuryConstitutiones Apostolorum (“Byzantine and Western Penitential Prayers ...

Middle Eastern Migrants in the Philippines: Entrepreneurs and Cultural Brokers

AbstractThe Philippines deviated from the usual Southeast Asian pattern of Hadhrami Arab dominance among Middle Easterners. Despite the influence of Muslim Arabs in the Islamic southwest, the predominant community initially consisted of Armenians, and then of immigrants from Ottoman Syria from the 1880s. Coming via Latin America, the United States, or Asian entrepôts, most of these "Syrians" were Christians from modern Lebanon. They, however, included substantial Muslim Druze and Oriental Jewish minorities, and some came from Syria proper, Palestine, and even further a field. They formed the largest twentieth-century Syro-Lebanese community in Monsoon Asia. Some Middle Easterners became Filipino citizens, speaking either Spanish or English, others emigrated to the USA or Australia, and yet others went home. Their main contribution to the Philippines was economic. Initially peddlers and small shopkeepers, they moved into real estate, agriculture, mining, the leisure industry, the professions, the import-export trade, embroidery for export to the USA and, after independence, manufacturing for the local market.

Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) variants in Malaysian Malays

We performed DNA analysis using cord blood samples on 86 male Malay neonates diagnosed as G6PD deficiency in the National University of Malaysia Hospital by a combination of rapid PCR-based techniques, single-stranded conformation polymorphism analysis (SSCP) and DNA sequencing. We found 37.2% were 871G>A (G6PD Viangchan), 26.7% were nt 563 C>T (G6PD Mediterranean) and 15.1% were 487G>A (G6PD Mahidol) followed by 4.7% 1376G>T (G6PD Canton), 3.5% 383T>C (G6PD Vanua Lava), 3.5% 592C>T (G6PD Coimbra), 2.3% 1388G>A (G6PD Kaiping), 2.3% 1360C>T (G6PD Union), 2.3% 1003G>A (G6PD Chatham), 1.2% 131C>G (G6PD Orissa) and 1.2% 1361G>A (G6PD Andalus). Seventy-one (82.6%) of the 86 G6PD-deficient neonates had neonatal jaundice. Fifty seven (80%) of the 71 neonates with jaundice required phototherapy with only one neonate progressing to severe hyperbilirubinemia (serum bilirubin >340 micromol/l) requiring exchange transfusion. There was no significant difference in the incidence of neonatal jaundice, mean serum bilirubin level, mean age for peak serum bilirubin, percentage of babies requiring phototherapy and mean number of days of phototherapy between the three common variants. In conclusion, the molecular defects of Malay G6PD deficiency is heterogeneous and G6PD Viangchan, Mahidol and Mediterranean account for at least 80% of the cases. Our findings support the observation that G6PD Viangchan and Mahidol are common Southeast Asian variants. Their presence in the Malays suggests a common ancestral origin with the Cambodians, Laotians and Thais. Our findings together with other preliminary data on the presence of the Mediterranean variant in this region provide evidence of strong Arab influence in the Malay Archipelago.

Linguistic Resistance in the Murid Speech Community in Senegal

The Murids form a community in which Islamic beliefs, linguistic behaviours, and patterns of conduct are associated with resistance against colonialism. The use of European-like linguistic or behavioural characteristics (especially French) are disapproved of in the community as they are equated with imperialism, while the use of pure Wolof or Wolof with Arabic influence are highly desired as they represent symbols of belonging to the community. This paper examines the religious and linguistic behaviour of the Murid brotherhood in Touba, Senegal. It argues that the patterns of behaviour found in the community are idiosyncratic of the brotherhood, and set apart Murids from other religious groups. First, this study discusses the history of French colonisation in Senegal, and underscores the ideological, political, and economic motives used to justify colonisation. Second, the paper examines the birth context of Muridism, and shows how Murid practices and way of life have been used as means of anti-colonial resistance and assertion of Murid African identity. Finally, the paper argues that, unlike other forms of resistance against French assimilation and domination in Africa, Muridism represents one of the few non-violent resistance movements, which have survived the sundry traps of the French colonial authority in sub-Saharan Africa.

The Iranian‐siamese connection: an Iranian community in the Thai kingdom of Ayutthaya

Those who are familiar with the history of Muslim civilization in Southeast Asia in general, and in Thailand in particular, might be conversant with traces of the Malay or Arabic cultural and religious influences in this region. Cultural interchanges between Iran and maritime Southeast Asia during the pre-Islamic period have been studied by a number of scholars including Brian Colless who wrote several works on the activities of Nestorian and Armenian Christians in the region during the Sasanid period. Much more work has been done on Iranian influences in the spread of Islam into Southeast Asia although the interpretation of the phenomenon often depends on the religious perspective of the writer. Much of the modern literature focuses on actual or alleged Persian elements in Malay language, literature, and culture.The purpose of the present paper is to review some of the literature to date on the Iranian community in the Siamese Ayutthaya kingdom in the seventeenth century and to highlight the main problems those studies have focused on.

Anglo-Norman Medicine, Vol. 1, Roger Frugard's "Chirurgia" and the "Practica Brevis" of Platearius (review)

Reviewed by: Anglo-Norman Medicine Luke Demaitre Tony Hunt, ed. Anglo-Norman Medicine. Vol. 1, Roger Frugard’s “Chirurgia” and the “Practica Brevis” of Platearius. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1994. 328 pp. $89.00; £49.50. Medieval medical texts in European vernaculars, long eclipsed by the Latin literature, are drawing increasing attention. They shed light on bookish learning as well as on folk traditions. The latter were sampled by Tony Hunt in Popular [End Page 519] Medicine in Thirteenth-Century England: Introduction and Texts (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1990), with a host of receipts largely drawn from a manuscript at Trinity College, Cambridge. Now the transmission of learned medicine is illuminated by Hunt’s edition, from the same mid-thirteenth-century manuscript, of Anglo-Norman translations of two Latin “textbooks.” The Trinity College codex further contains Anglo-Norman versions of shorter scholastic treatises, which will appear in a second volume together with a general introduction and index. The present volume consists of separate editions, with little thematic or linguistic correlation, of the two texts. The Practica brevis was probably compiled between 1120 and 1150 by Johannes Platearius II from the experiences of his father and other masters in Salerno. The Chirurgia was a redaction, by Guido of Arezzo in the 1170s, of lectures that Roger Frugard had given at Parma. These treatises document not only the common characteristics but also the distinct branches of medical teaching as it developed independently in southern and northern Italy. They share a direct concern with practice and a clear appreciation of theoretical underpinnings. Both compilations preserve authoritative knowledge, yet neither leans heavily on Greek authorities or reflects Arabic influences beyond those disseminated by Constantine the African. On the other hand, the topical comprehensiveness, rational structure, and therapeutic range of the practical compendium stand in typical contrast to the surgical textbook’s focus on injuries, preference for physical descriptiveness over logical neatness, and omission of dietary and internal remedies. The Anglo-Norman version of the Practica brevis, which may come from France rather than England, adheres closely to the Latin. The more distinctly insular translator of the Chirurgia was hampered by a defective exemplar and personal limitations such as the inability to recognize the surgical scraper, chisel, and other tools. Precision may not have mattered much if the version was intended less for instruction than for edification, as would appear from the drawings that illustrate the text in the Trinity College manuscript. It is worth noting that these have been published in The Medieval Surgery (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 1992) by Tony Hunt, who is dispensing the riches of a Cambridge cornucopia with a dispatch uncommon in scholarly circles. Luke Demaitre Washington, Virginia Copyright © 1996 The Johns Hopkins University Press

O universo cultural e científico valenciano durante os séculos XIII e XIV e a contextualização da obra de Arnaldo de Vilanova

The present article focuses attention on the singularity of Arnau de Vilanova's medical though in comparison with that predominating among his thirteenth-century contemporaries on the European continent. Moreover, it propounds that such peculiarities were a result of Arabic influences upon this Christian thinker during his youth, in his native city of Valencia, and which continued to prevail even after his studies at the Montpellier School of Medicine. That is why the study first draws a sketch of Valencia's cultural and scientific universe, and then goes on to analyze well-known aspects of Arnau de Vilanova's medical ideas, where the enduring preponderance of the Valencian environment is evident, even in his later years.

Self-Determination: A Solution to the Sudan Problem

Self-Determination: A Solution to the Sudan Problem Sam L. Laki Central State University, Ohio South Sudan is different from North Sudan in nearly every aspectethnicity , culture, history, religion and geography. It was misguided for the British colonial administration, under pressure from Egypt, North Sudan, and Britain, to annex South Sudan to North Sudan arbitrarily. Since Sudan's independence from Britain in 1956, the people of South Sudan have been subjected to racial, social, and religious discrimination. They have been relegated to second-class citizenry in their own country. North Sudan's sectarian parties have a vision of the country deeply rooted in sharia (Islamic) law, and correspondingly have pursued vigorously the policy of Islamicization and Arabization of South Sudan. The current National Islamic Front (NIF) government of Lt. General Omer El Bashir brags openly of its success in the application of the sharia law that has brought misery and immense suffering to the African population of Sudan. It is my contention that future changes of leadership in Khartoum will not bring any improvement to the conditions of the people of South Sudan. I would like to make it clear at the outset that the 'Sudan problem' is unique and has no comparison or similarity whatsoever with any local, regional or national problem in any African country. Precolonial Period The people of North Sudan are Muslims who lay claim to some form of Arab descent, and the South Sudanese are Africans who practice their own African beliefs mixed with Christianity. The diverse population speaks 400 different languages. This ethnic, religious, and racial mixture has been the root cause of the identity crises in Sudan.©Northeast African Studies (ISSN 0740-9133) Vol. 3, No. 2 (New Series) 1996, pp. 7-20 8 Sam L. Laki Before the advent of the Anglo-Egyptian colonial era in 1898, the Arabs and Africans lived apart with nothing in common. The TurcoEgyptian administration (Turkiyya), from 1820-1881, and the Mahdi administration (Mahdiyya), from 1881-1898, never attained any measure of control over South Sudan. South Sudan remained a theater of war between the intruders and the indigenous populations. The legacy of the notorious slave trade poisoned the relationship between the people of South Sudan and North Sudan to an extent that the relationship between the Arabs and Africans had been characterized by hatred and violence. The Arabs plundered South Sudan looking for ivory and slaves. It is fair to say that the only contact the two peoples had was through the slave trade, when the North Sudanese Arabs made many incursions into South Sudan in search of loot and people to enslave. North Sudanese retainers and slave traders pillaged and disrupted life in South Sudan. This invasion of South Sudanese territory by the Arabs was conducted with the tacit approval of the Islamic leadership. It suffices to say that the Sudan is an artificial creation of Britain, Egypt and elites of North Sudan. The people of South Sudan have never been a party to it. The Condominium Period The British colonial policy was to foster Islamic culture in North Sudan and indigenous African culture in South Sudan. Keeping the two nationalities separate was an honest recognition by the British of the distinct difference in culture, religion, peoples and geography. The 1918 closed districts and passports ordinances sealed off South Sudan from Arab influence until the reversal of the "Southern policy" in 1947. The governor-general, Sir Harold McMichael, was responsible for the institution of the "Southern Policy," meant to keep the Africans separate from the North Sudanese. This policy had been designed to close South Sudan from the external Arab influence with the ostensible intention of preserving indigenous African customs, traditions and beliefs. The policy was a total failure because the Anglo-Egyptian colonial administration also never engaged itself in any form of social, political, or economic development of South Sudan. Self-Determination: A Solution to the Sudan Problem 9 As mentioned above, North Sudanese claim Arab ancestry and identify with Arab culture, and South Sudanese have African ancestry and identify with African culture. The distinct difference between the African Sudanese and the Arabs has given birth to the "nationality question" at the core of...

The Introduction of Arabic Philosophy into Europe

During the first three decades of this century, a lively debateemerged in western academic circles regarding the extent of theArab-Islamic influence on western civilization. Certain scholarsrejected the idea that the West had been influenced in any significantmanner by the classical Arab-Islamic civilization (ninth to twelfthcenturies CE). Barnes, in The Intellectual History of Mankind, arguesthat there is nothing in Islamic teachings or history that encouragedthe pursuit of learning and scholarship. Thus, he claimed, one cannotspeak of any "Islamic contribution" to western civilization. Sevier, inhis The Psychology of the Mussa/man, goes further and argues thatone cannot even speak of an "Arab" civilization, because all of theknowledge and scholarship produced in the classical age of Islamwere due to Syrian, Jewish, Hindu, and Persian efforts. It naturallyfollows that all talk of any Arab influence on the West is superfluous.Other scholars presented counterarguments and took the positionthat the Arab-Islamic influence on western civilization was very significant.Briffault, in The Making of Humanity, credits classical Islamicscholarship with producing the intellectual concepts and methods thatwere the indispensable preludes to the European renaissance. Sarton,in his Introduction to the History of Science, argues that the impact ofHindu and Chinese cultures on the West can be totally disregardedwithout seriously impairing one's ability to understand the postmedievalprogress of the West. But if the Arab-Islamic impact were tobe discounted, then the story of this progress would become confusedand unintelligible ...

European Knowledge of Arabic Texts Referring to Music: Some New Material

The literature on the problem of Arabic influence on the music and poetry of western Europe in the Middle Ages is vast. The aim of this article is modest. It seeks to draw together some passages on music and musical instruments in Arabic texts that were translated into Latin in the Middle Ages. These texts were not specifically on music, and may have escaped the notice of musicologists for that reason. However, they are interesting in their own right, for they show the role of music in other contexts, such as medicinie, astrology and philolsophy, and exemplify the modifications that took place when texts were transferred from one culture to another.

Les interrelacions lingüístiques en la València doscentista: Comentaris a les aportacions de Robert I. Burns

Robert I. Burns is considered to be the most important expert in the Valencian 13th century. Far from the local, ideologically influenced dispute for and against the Catalan character of "Valencian", his conclusions clearly refute the supporters of linguistic secessionism. His theory of the "linguistic wall" (between the Moorish population and the invading Catalans) is a crucial contribution to understanding the linguistic and sociolinguistic problems created by King Jaume I's conquest. The present essay summarizes the linguistically relevant arguments dealt with by Burns in his historical works and particularly comments on the degree of Arabization of the country of València before the Catalan conquest, the possible survival of Mozarabic afterwards, the linguistic effects of the medieval Christian resettlement and the Arab influence on the literary structure of the famous chronicle Llibre dels feits of Jaume I.