Johannes den Heijer

Introduction : Middle and Mixed Arabic, a new trend in Arabic Studies

Throughout its long history, the Arabic studies has functioned in a situation that is often referred to as diglossia , i.e. the co-existence of two distinct varieties of one and the same language, each with its own specific domains. This introductory aims to analyze the articles contained in this volume within the wider research context. The main issues studied in the articles collected here are discussed with reference, whenever relevant, to papers and discussions from the three AIMA conferences and the two related workshops. Taken as a whole, the collection of papers presented in this book reflects the remarkable multiplicity of subjects relating to the main topic, which is essentially the Arabic language and its variety of forms and functions. Finally, the articles published in this volume reflect an approach that combines thematic coherence, in the sense of the common approaches to a variety of materials just mentioned, with interdisciplinarity. Keywords:AIMA; Arabic studies; diglossia

The Martyrdom of Bifām Ibn Baqūra al-Ṣawwāf by Mawhūb ibn Manṣūr ibn Mufarrij and its Fatimid background

This paper discusses the primary Copto-Arabic literary source for the history of Fatimid Egypt, and indeed, for much of the history of Egypt in general: known as the History of the Patriarchs of Alexandria, it was compiled in Arabic in the late eleventh century CE on the basis of earlier, mostly Coptic sources, by the Alexandrian notable Mawhūb ibn Manṣūr ibn Mufarrij, who added original Arabic materials of his own. Later continuations were added by others, from late Fatimid times up to the twentieth century. The first part of the paper is an outline of the textual history of the History of the Patriarchs of Alexandria, its existing editions and their shortcomings, and the new critical edition that is now being prepared. This part also discusses the fundamentals of a meticulous method of textual criticism, close reading, and contextualization which should help to elucidate numerous problems of historic interpretation. In the subsequent sections of the paper, this same method is applied to a short text sample with an aim of, wherever possible, reconstructing Mawhūb’s original Arabic text, but also with the objective of illustrating how this late eleventh-century text may have been read by later generations. Finally, the freshly coined concept of “internal intertextuality” is employed to point to parallels with episodes that occur in the earlier parts of the Arabic History of the Patriarchs of Alexandria, based on older Coptic sources. At the level of content, several new historical interpretations and corrections to older interpretations are offered. The text sample in question concerns the martyrdom of a young Copt, Bifām ibn Baqūra al-Ṣawwāf, during the imamate-caliphate of al-Mustanṣir Billāh (427/1036–487/1094). Throughout the paper, it is argued that narratives such as this, together with accounts of events belonging to the early Islamic period or even to pre-Islamic (Roman, Byzantine) history, are to be seen as emanating from the specific socio-cultural environment of the Coptic urban elite of the mid-Fatimid period.

Solomon ben Joseph ha-Kohen on Fāṭimid Victory: A Hebrew Ode to al-Mustanṣir Billāh and Badr al-Jamālī Reconsidered

Abstract This article presents a vocalised edition (on the basis of MS T.-S. Misc. 36.174, Cambridge University Library) and a revised translation of a Hebrew ode written on the occasion of the Fāṭimid victory over the invading Saljūq army in Cairo in 469/1077. Elaborating on earlier research on the Cairo Genizah treasures starting with Julius H. Greenstones 1906 paper, the article first of all aims to present whatever historical data can be obtained about the poet, Solomon ben Joseph ha-Kohen, and about the time period and the circumstances in which he must have written his poem, which is addressed to the Fāṭimid caliph al-Mustanṣir Billāh and his vizier Badr al-Jamālī. Other major objectives of the article are the identification of other historical persons and events alluded to in the praise poem, a literary analysis of the ode within the conceptual framework of “martial poetry”, and an examination of its laudatory or propagandistic aspects.

Towards an Inventory of Middle and Mixed Arabic Features: the Inscriptions of Deir Mar Musa (Syria) as a Case Study

One of the most urgent desiderata in the study of Middle and Mixed Arabic is that of databases, or inventories, of linguistic features. A major problem with regard to the development of such research tools is the overwhelming abundance of the material and the highly general, nature of many of its features. This chapter offers some practical and methodological ideas on inventorying such data, with the focus on the issue of norms and standards. It examines a number of very common and widespread features taken from a limited corpus of texts Deir Mar Musa al-Habashi (Dayr Mar Musa al-?aba?i), in the Syrian Desert, near the town of Nabk. Systematical references are limited to five brief accounts of the common denominators of neo-Arabic features in the domains of orthography and phonetics, morphology and syntax and, to a lesser extent, lexical and cultural items. Keywords:Dayr Mār Mūsā al-Ḥabasī; Deir Mar Musa; Inventory; linguistic features; Mixed Arabic features; neo-Arabic features; orthography; phonetics; Syria