Italian and Arabic

Abstract

This article focuses on Italian and Arabic language contact in the Mediterranean until early modern times. Particular emphasis will be placed on lexical exchange with Italian as the recipient language. The most important contact zone between Arabic and Italian was southern Italy. Numerous Arabic elements also appear in texts and documents of pilgrims, merchants and diplomats who traveled to Arabia as well as in translations from Arabic. Special features of those contacts are dealt with in separate chapters: Ar…