MOZARABIC JARCHAS: ORIGIN, CHARACTERISTICS AND EXAMPLES - LITERATURE - 2025

The mozárabes jarchas are small lyrical compositions written by Arab-Andalusian Hebrew poets during the Muslim rule in Spain. The first appeared after three hundred years of occupation, between the 11th and 15th centuries. These brief literary structures were in charge of closing the poems in Arabic called "moaxajas".

Setting of the recital of a moaxaja. Source: By UnknownUnknown author (UnknownUnknown source), via Wikimedia Commons

The moaxajas, for their part, are a poetic verse composition typical of the Arab people. In the Spanish translation they are understood as "necklaces", so we can visualize the jarchas as the "charms" that hang and adorn the poetic necklaces that are the moaxajas.

Normally the jarchas were written in the Arabic of the vulgar, however there are records where the elaboration of these poetic closings (also known as "exits") in the Romance language (Mozarabic) is shown. The exact number of exits written in this dialect is not known.

The jarchas have a fully romantic connotation that is linked to the ancient form of the lyric typical of Hispania, the carols and the so-called “Cantigas de amigo”. In short: the poetry of the people.

However, despite the fact that their themes touched on aspects concerning the common people, those who wrote them were usually learned and renowned men. Yes, the vast majority of the writing corresponded to Ismaili and Israelite scholars whose poetic pattern was traditional Romanesque lyrics.

Each written jarcha had to respond to the characteristics of the moaxaja to which it was attached. Bearing this in mind, each poet had to be careful in studying the theme, meter and rhyme of the base poem so that the jarcha, or outlet, would fit perfectly.

origins

Following the Arab expansion on the Asian continent one hundred years after the founding of Islam, the known world underwent an immense cultural change.

After the Arabs crossed part of the Red Sea, the Nile Delta and interacted with the Egyptians, the Berber tribes and spread the Islamic faith in almost all of North Africa, they reached the European continent. More specifically to Hispania, after crossing the Strait of Gibraltar in the 8th century.

After their arrival, and after fighting with the Visigothic resistance to which the Romans had left the care of the lands, they managed to prevail. All its accumulation of scientific, architectural, musical, poetic, and mathematical riches, went on to sneak into the inhabitants of present-day Spain.

The oldest data on the jars in Spanish lands is located in the eleventh century, while the most recent in the early fourteenth century. They were extremely common between the end of the 11th century and the beginning of the 12th century, there they suffered their greatest effervescence.

Moaxajas was a type of versification developed by the Arabs from the 4th century on. They were composed, for the most part, with certain exceptions, of long verses that were paired with each other with simple rhymes, around the same sound motif at the end of each one.

Since its appearance, its use was focused on teaching, both pedagogically and andragogically. After Muhammad presented himself with the Qur'an, these poetic devices, the moaxajas and jarchas, were obviously used for religious purposes by the teachers of the law.

The Arabs understood early on the great value of these lyrical manifestations, and when they arrived in the Iberian Peninsula they did not hesitate to take them with them, applying them in the transmission of their knowledge.

characteristics

Both the moaxajas and the jarchas, after being conceived in the 4th century AD. C., spent four hundred years perfecting themselves, serving as links between the inhabitants of the different populations and also as a bridge between the various cultures.

A series of peculiarities of the jarchas will be presented below:

The jarchas give reason to the moaxaja

Although its name means “closing” or “farewell”, and they are used to close the moaxajas, it is necessary to keep in mind that the jarchas are the first to be made. That is to say: the moaxaja is written around the poetics raised by the jarcha.

They have a variable metric structure

The rhythmic development of each verse of the jarcha is subject to the peculiarities of each poet. We can find, for example, in a jarcha of four verses -the most predominant stanzas, by the way- a verse of five syllables, another of seven syllables, another of ten and one of eleven.

They are not suited, then, to a particular measurement. They become popular, then, more for the lyrical originality of their verses, than for their meter.

Let us remember that the proper use of colloquial language by its composers was crucial in order to generate a real impact on the population and achieve its dissemination.

For the same jarcha there may be several moaxajas

As it is the most well-known and widespread part of the population, and already belongs to popular sayings and conversations, it was normal for the same jarcha to be composed of different moaxajas.

This is not at all strange. If we take it to the current level, let's imagine a popular saying from a village, it is common for writers in that area, based on these aphorisms, to compose poems about it.

In Latin America it would be common for tenths to be made around these, and if the jarchas are eight-syllable quatrains, which is not so strange, as they would serve as a "foot" for experienced decimists.

Speaking of "foot" means that each verse of the jarcha represents the final verse of four tenths composed around it. The jarcha, then, would be the poetic heart of the four tenths that would emerge later.

Its strophic forms are very diverse

Let us remember that these "poemillas", being developed by the various cultures that made life in Hispania, took on the connotations of each sector. So the Arabs had a way of making them, likewise the Jews, the Hispano-Arabs and the Hispano-Hebrews.

This same ethnic variance assigned very rich properties to each new jarcha that was made, the ones that came closest to the people being the most widespread.

It was totally normal, based on the above, to find two-line jarchas, as well as eight-line jarchas. However, when the jarcha exceeded four verses, the poets had to use rhyme to achieve the much-needed learning in the common people.

If the poetic composition was very extensive, and a meter with good rhythm and catchy rhyme was not alluded to, it would be very difficult for people to memorize and repeat the compositions, irretrievably relegating them to oblivion.

Within the peninsular lyrics, it is one of the firsts

Although they were developed since the 4th century by the Arabs, the oldest jarcha on the soil of the Iberian Peninsula dates from approximately 1050. With all that, and despite its arrival seems very late and being written in Mozarabic, represents one of the youngest popular poetic forms in Hispania.

These "closing stanzas", as they are also called, came from the hand of the Arabs to the Spanish lands to signify an attractive way to spread the love of poetry among the settlers, in addition to encouraging the learning of reading and writing.

They helped consolidate the Spanish language

The widespread use of jarchas since the 11th century throughout the Iberian Peninsula, consolidated the consolidation of the Spanish language as a logical unit of communication. Of course, this occurred when the first jarchas formally written in the Spanish language began to appear, with the grammatical structure of the dialect.

How can this be possible? After its elaboration in Mozarabic the first years, the jarchas began to be written in the Spanish dialect, which by then, and as the Emilianenses Glosses show, was taking shape.

As everything that is sung, has rhythm and rhyme, is easier to learn and to be spread by word of mouth, the jarchas served as mediators in the reinforcement and fixation of various linguistic and grammatical structures in the nascent Hispanic dialect.

From the grassroots of the popular to the upper echelons of the monarchy, these poetic forms penetrated deeply, bringing enormous idiomatic benefits.

Examples

From the compendium of existing jarchas, the most popular ones among the population will be shown, those with the greatest presence in the various textbooks and manuals prepared for their study and understanding (the versions in their original language and the translation in Spanish will be presented):

Example 1

(Jarcha of Yosef al-Kātib)

- Translation:

“From so much loving, from so much loving,

friend, from so much loving!

They made eyes

that were healthy before and now they hurt a lot ”.

Example 2

(Jarcha of Yehuda Halevi)

- Translation

“My heart goes out of me.

Oh sir, I don't know if I will come back!

It hurts so much for the friend!

He is sick, when will he heal? "

Example 3

(Jarcha of Yehuda Halevi)

- Translation

“You say, oh little sisters,

how am I going to stop my illness?

Without my friend I cannot live:

where should I go to find him? "

The jarchas, dialect evidences of Spanish

In addition to the aforementioned characteristics that expose the particularities of these poetic forms, it is necessary to enhance this quality.

Each of the jarchas represent, in themselves, an unequivocal sample of the various Mozarabic, Arab, Hebrew, Hispano-Hebrew, Hispano-Arabic dialect variants and other linguistic manifestations present in Hispania between the 11th and 15th centuries.

This becomes one of the most significant contributions of these "poemillas". They are, literally, the most reliable idiomatic mark of each population that passed through Hispania at that time. This particularity gives many facilities to philologists to strengthen the formal studies of current Spanish.

References

1. Cerezo Moya, D. (2015). About the jarchas, the glosas and other misappropriations. Spain: Cervantes Virtual. Recovered from: cvc.cervantes.es.
2. The Mozarabic jarchas. (S. f.). (N / a): Illusionism. Recovered from: ilusionismosocial.org
3. García Gómez, E. (S. f.). Brief history of the jarchas. (N / a): Jarchas.net. Recovered from: jarchas.net.
4. García Gomez, Emilio. (2016). Brief history of the jarchas. Belgium: Jarchas.net. Recovered from: jarchas.net.
5. Jarcha. (S. f.). (N / a): Wikipedia. Recovered from: es.wikipedia.org.