Arábia

1789 · ref. 14504 — 1789. Sousa João de. Vestigios da lingoa arabica em Portugal ou lexicon etymologico das palavras e nomes portuguezes que tem origem Arabica 1789 a foundational linguistic study documenting the influence of Arabic language and culture on Portuguese vocabulary. João de Sousa an eighteenth century scholar of Arabic born in Damascus and later active in Portugal served as the first professor of Arabic at the University of Lisbon and was an associated member of the Academia Real das Sciencias. His work emerged from the scholarly environment of late Enlightenment Portugal when the study of language history and cultural transmission became central concerns of learned academies. The book records the long historical impact of Arabic speaking societies in the Iberian Peninsula where centuries of Islamic presence from the early Middle Ages through the late fifteenth century left lasting linguistic and cultural traces in Portuguese. Sousa João de. Vestigios da lingoa arabica em Portugal ou lexicon etymologico das palavras e nomes portuguezes que tem origem Arabica. Lisbon: Na Officina da Academia Real das Sciencias 1789. First edition. The work was produced under the authority of the Academia Real das Sciencias of Lisbon and represents the first etymological dictionary devoted specifically to Portuguese words of Arabic origin. Entries are arranged alphabetically in Portuguese and followed by the corresponding Arabic word or source a transliteration and an explanatory discussion. The lexicon also identifies Portuguese terms that entered the language through Arabic but ultimately derived from other linguistic traditions including Hebrew Greek Persian and Turkish. Among the loanwords catalogued are terms relating to plants spices agricultural products architecture and place names illustrating the wide range of everyday vocabulary shaped by centuries of cultural exchange between Islamic and Iberian societies. The book appeared during a period when European scholars increasingly examined the linguistic consequences of medieval cultural contact between Islamic and Christian societies in the Mediterranean world. The Iberian Peninsula in particular preserved a large body of Arabic derived vocabulary that entered both Portuguese and Spanish through trade agriculture science and administrative life during the centuries of Muslim rule and cultural interaction. Sousa's lexicon became an important early contribution to the study of these linguistic exchanges and preceded later nineteenth century scholarship on the subject. A second edition was published in 1830 and further studies such as the work of Francisco de S. Luiz did not appear until several decades later. Quarto volume with twenty preliminary pages and 160 pages of text woodcut device of the Academia Real das Sciencias on the title page bound in mid nineteenth century quarter sheep over marbled boards with pictorial lithograph bookplate of José Bernardo Pereira Martins. Small binder's ticket of Santos & Alves of Lisbon on the front pastedown occasional marginal annotations in ink and pencil minor repair to the upper margin of the title page and two other leaves without loss and slight wear to spine ends and corners. Overall very good condition. unknown