A ketubbá, in Portuguese, from the Jews of Lisbon (15th century)

In the last quarter of the 15th century a ketubbá was written in Portuguese by Yuda Barceloní, the Jewish notary of the Lisbon community (comuna). It celebrated not only the contract but also the marriage between Josepe Crespim and Rica, previously a widow. This original form of writing ketubbot stemmed from royal normative to control public notary. Jewish and Muslim minorities were therefore forbidden to use their respective languages in every notarial instrument. Though it is the only document of this typology so far known in a romance language, same elements, namely the structure, coincide with other ketubbot. Others, however, differ as a side effect of this community’s customary law (minhagim) that shaped its own identity

Day-night differences in Cunene horse mackerel (Trachurus trecae) acoustic relative densities off Angola

The assessment and the management of the Cunene horse mackerel in Angola rely heavily on abundance estimates from hydroacoustic surveys. Acoustic data collected from 1994 to 1999 were analysed to quantify diurnal variation in relative acoustic densities at 38 kHz. The nautical-area scattering coefficient (s(A), m(2) nautical mile(-2)) was characterized by clear day night differences: s(A) values recorded during the day were significantly higher (mean s(A): 135 m(2) nautical mile(-2)) than the corresponding night-time values (mean s(A) 83 m(2) nautical mile(-2)). This pattern is associated with differences in behaviour and horizontal and vertical distributions between day and night: by day, the fish school near the seabed, and by night, they move into the pelagic zone and disperse into widespread scattering layers. More than 40% of the total backscatter by day originated from the bottom 10 m, but at night this proportion decreased to <10%. The findings demonstrate considerable influences of behaviour and aggregation dynamics on acoustic measurements. Possible implications for the estimates of acoustic abundance are discussed in the light of the differences.Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD); Dr Fridtjof Nansen programme; Gulbenkian Foundationinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

"Muslim Minority in the Portuguese Kingdom (1170-1496): identity and writing"

The historical perspective of Muslim minority (as the Jewish one) is subjected to a mediated discourse, based mainly upon documentation produced or controlled by the Christian powers. Even so, it is possible to trace the identity marks of this minority in the written records, mainly in production of Islamic Law or in other documental levels that registered services rendered to the Portuguese king in Islamic territories. A bipartite identity expressed in Portuguese, in an adscription to the King and the realm, in their assumption of the legal statute of mouro forro (free moor), and in Arabic, as garīb, in their relation to the Islamic umma

“A minoria muçulmana do reino português e os contactos diplomáticos com o dār al-islām”

Os muçulmanos do reino português são pontualmente convocados pelo monarca para exercer funções diplomáticas com o mundo islâmico. Ligados à comuna de Lisboa, com que o rei mantém relações privilegiadas e homens da sua confiança, estes muçulmanos serão convocados por Afonso V, para uma missão junto ao sultão mameluco Īnāl. O monarca, embora de forma indireta, pretende intervir sobre Jerusalém, na proteção dos cristãos dessa cidade. A utilização destes muçulmanos nas relações com o dār al-islām remete para a relevância de um equilíbrio político no Mediterrâneo que passa também pelo fenómeno sociológico das minorias étnico-religiosas

"Mouros e Guerra Santa na produção do Mosteiro de S. Vicente de Fora: O Indiculum e a Crónica da tomada desta cidade de Lisboa aos mouros e da fundação deste Mosteiro de S. Vicente".

As produções escritas do Mosteiro de S. Vicente sobre a sua fundação, o Indiculum e a Crónica, respetivamente o texto latino e a sua tradução reformulada, remetem para uma visão distinta do “Mouro” em função dos tempos e dos contextos específicos em que ambas foram produzidas. No primeiro caso, um muçulmano semanticamente neutro, serve apenas como contraponto à acção dos Cruzados; no segundo, enfatizam-se os atos desses “mouros”, num campo semântico despectivo do Islão e dos seus apaniguados, os “inimigos da Santa Fé”. O discurso ideológico, no entanto, encontra-se eivado de conceitos da cosmogonia e do direito islâmicos, sendo verosímil que o seu anónimo autor possa ser um muçulmano convertido que, num excesso de zelo e/ou de hétero-afirmação, leva ao limite um discurso de intenção ideológica e propagandística, antimuçulmano e apologético da Guerra Santa

“Muslims in the Portuguese Kingdom: Between Permanence and Diaspora”

On December 1496, King Manuel published the edit expelling Jews and Muslims from Portugal or in option their conversion to Catholicism. The difference between the treatment given to Jews and to Muslims lays in the Christian minorities under Islamic rule in the Mediterranean, particularly those of Jerusalem, and in the Holy Sites of the city. For the Portuguese Muslims the solution oscillates between permanence as Christians and diaspora. Nevertheless, by royal grant, some Muslims stayed as such in the Moorish quarter of Lisbon

Assinaturas árabes em documentos medievais portugueses

As assinaturas árabes na documentação medieval portuguesa consubstanciam, no seu conjunto, um instrumento de análise da produção própria das comunidades mudéjares e dos seus códigos auto-referenciais. Embora parcas a nível da documentação medieva portuguesa, permitem, contudo, contrapor uma percepção onomástica interna, a uma visão externa que, necessariamente, veicula as percepções cristianocêntricas e as suas consequentes interpretações sobre a comunidade. De resto, a vivência dos grupos muçulmanos, comparte-se entre os dois códigos linguísticos, o português e o árabe, emergindo, neste último, um capital simbólico que se potencializa nestas assinaturas, perturbando a normalidade da expressão escrita da língua vernácula

Propriedade e direito entre os muçulmanos de Portugal: dos bens comuns à gestão do património do rei

El derecho islámico informa de la identidad de los musulmanes del reino portugués, desde el período matricial de su integración hasta finales del siglo XV. De la participación en los moldes de su propia subordinación fiscal y tributaria, a la cuestión del derecho sucesorio, los musulmanes legistas de Lisboa responden a las sucesivas interpelaciones de la Corona, constituyéndose el monarca como el principal beneficiario de esa producción legal. Esta manipulación del poder, el aspecto más visible en la documentación, muestra todo el dominio continuado de ese universo legal y de sus especialistas mudéjares. Aspecto que tendrá lógicamente su resonancia en la vivencia interna de estas comunidades, especialmente en lo que a la propiedad se refiere. El principio de la sunna de la dominación de los bienes colectivos se refleja en los bienes habices y los colectivos (al-Muslimina), aún documentados en el siglo XV. Por otro lado, la propia gestión del patrimonio del rey, en la morería de Lisboa, será dominada, en el mismo período, por una autoridad musulmana, el juez de los derechos reales, contradiciendo la ley canónica y la territorial que prohibía a los infieles ejercer poder sobre los cristianos.Islamic law constitutes part of Portuguese Muslims’ identity, since the formative period to the end of the 15Th century. The Lisbon’s Muslim jurists respond to successive appeals from the Crown, contributing as far as their own fiscal and tax subordination to the definition of succession rights. In any case the King became the main beneficiary of such legal production. This manipulation, the most visible feature in the written sources, proves nevertheless the persistent mastering of this legal universe and of its mudéjar experts, that will necessarily have its meaning in the daily life of the Muslim communities. Property reflects this feature. The dominance of collective goods, one of the sunna principles, projects itself in the hubs properties and in the collective goods (al-Muslimin), acknowledged till the 15th century. Moreover, the actual management of the King’s properties in the Muslim quarter of Lisbon, in the end of the same century, was in the hands of a Muslim authority, the judge of the King’s rights, contradicting the canonical and the territorial law that prohibited the infidels to exercise power over Christians

Conquerors, Brides and Concubines. Interfaith Relations and Social Power in Medieval Iberia.

As its title indicates, this book, which is divided into four chapters, seeks to provide an overview of “the diverse political, social and cultural functions that interfaith marriage alliances and other sexual encounters fulfilled within the overall dynamic of Christian- Muslim relations in the Iberian Peninsula during the medieval period, both within al- Andalus (…) and the expansionist Christian-dominated polities of the North” (4). In this sense, its chronological span reaches from the early eighth century (the conquest of the Iberian Peninsula by the Muslims) to 1492 (the Christian conquest of the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada