1) Musulman
Sent on: 06/22/1998 02:44:08
I can't shed light on how the word came to be used in the camps, but I can help a little with the Spanish part of the question.
"Musulman" (w/ emphasis and written accent on the 'a') is either a noun or an adjective (masc., singular) meaning Muslim, Islamic. "Sarraceno" (English equivalent 'Saracen') is a historical word from medieval and Renaissance times; it is used today only as a pretentious (and sloppy) synonym for Muslim. "Moro" is the traditional Spanish work for any man of Islamic faith, whether North African Berber, Pakistani or Turk (or anyone else). The English word 'Moor' (as in "Othello") has a similar connotation - someone with what is perceived as dark skin.
"Mozarabe" (written accent and emphasis on the first 'a'), used for people and a particular type of art, means a Christian living under Muslim rule in Spain in the Middle Ages. Because the Reconquests of Portugal and Aragon were essentially finished by the end of the thirteenth century (and the remaining Islamic kingdoms were essentially vassals of Christian rulers), there was comparatively little Mozarabic culture and very few "mozarabes" from the beginning of the 15th century on.
I doubt very seriously that Ladino provided the word "musulman" to Europeans in the camps; there is testimony about how the Ladino-speaking Greek and Balkan Jews were unable to communicate with most people in the camps because of the lack of a common language. As far as the history of the Islamic Spaniards ('moros') goes: in the15th century (starting with the riots of 1391), the Spanish *Jewish* community was fatally weakened by repeated murder, robbery, forced and willing conversion. This took place in Castile and Aragon, in the towns and in all the cities - Barcelona, Seville, Cordoba, Toledo, etc., etc. The small Islamic kingdoms were warred upon and conquered throughout the 15th century, but the civilian population was let more or less alone, and when the kingdoms were conquered by Christians there were not the forced mass conversions characteristic of the recurring anti-Jewish riots. Muslims in 15th-century Spain starved no more often than anyone else.
In the year of the Jewish expulsion (1492) the last Muslim kingdom (Granada) fell to Ferdinand and Isabella. But the Muslims were not expelled; they were granted the right (on paper at least) to remain in Christian Spain and practice their religion. It was only under the heavyhanded attempts by Cardinal Jimenez de Cisneros at forced conversion and prohibition of Arabic and Muslim clothing that they rebelled (1498-99) and new directives were promulgated. The descendants of these Muslims (called "moriscos") were finally expelled from Spain by a series of decrees spanning the years 1608-1614.
I think it would be more fruitful to look for the origins of the usage in European culture and 'Orientalism' of the 19th and early 20th century.
Marti Krow-Lucal
[Moderator's note: word _musulman_ (obs. Russian for Moslem, here means 'goner, one not far from death') in the Nazi camps was borrowed from the Russian camp argot (see e.g. Meyer Galler, Soviet camp speech / Jerusalem: Magnes Press, The Hebrew University, 1994. Previous editions 1972 and 1977). -i.v.]
"Musulman" (w/ emphasis and written accent on the 'a') is either a noun or an adjective (masc., singular) meaning Muslim, Islamic. "Sarraceno" (English equivalent 'Saracen') is a historical word from medieval and Renaissance times; it is used today only as a pretentious (and sloppy) synonym for Muslim. "Moro" is the traditional Spanish work for any man of Islamic faith, whether North African Berber, Pakistani or Turk (or anyone else). The English word 'Moor' (as in "Othello") has a similar connotation - someone with what is perceived as dark skin.
"Mozarabe" (written accent and emphasis on the first 'a'), used for people and a particular type of art, means a Christian living under Muslim rule in Spain in the Middle Ages. Because the Reconquests of Portugal and Aragon were essentially finished by the end of the thirteenth century (and the remaining Islamic kingdoms were essentially vassals of Christian rulers), there was comparatively little Mozarabic culture and very few "mozarabes" from the beginning of the 15th century on.
I doubt very seriously that Ladino provided the word "musulman" to Europeans in the camps; there is testimony about how the Ladino-speaking Greek and Balkan Jews were unable to communicate with most people in the camps because of the lack of a common language. As far as the history of the Islamic Spaniards ('moros') goes: in the15th century (starting with the riots of 1391), the Spanish *Jewish* community was fatally weakened by repeated murder, robbery, forced and willing conversion. This took place in Castile and Aragon, in the towns and in all the cities - Barcelona, Seville, Cordoba, Toledo, etc., etc. The small Islamic kingdoms were warred upon and conquered throughout the 15th century, but the civilian population was let more or less alone, and when the kingdoms were conquered by Christians there were not the forced mass conversions characteristic of the recurring anti-Jewish riots. Muslims in 15th-century Spain starved no more often than anyone else.
In the year of the Jewish expulsion (1492) the last Muslim kingdom (Granada) fell to Ferdinand and Isabella. But the Muslims were not expelled; they were granted the right (on paper at least) to remain in Christian Spain and practice their religion. It was only under the heavyhanded attempts by Cardinal Jimenez de Cisneros at forced conversion and prohibition of Arabic and Muslim clothing that they rebelled (1498-99) and new directives were promulgated. The descendants of these Muslims (called "moriscos") were finally expelled from Spain by a series of decrees spanning the years 1608-1614.
I think it would be more fruitful to look for the origins of the usage in European culture and 'Orientalism' of the 19th and early 20th century.
Marti Krow-Lucal
[Moderator's note: word _musulman_ (obs. Russian for Moslem, here means 'goner, one not far from death') in the Nazi camps was borrowed from the Russian camp argot (see e.g. Meyer Galler, Soviet camp speech / Jerusalem: Magnes Press, The Hebrew University, 1994. Previous editions 1972 and 1977). -i.v.]