The Portuguese language has influences from the Arab world (Brazil-Arab News Agency (ANBA) 12/08/2005.
The book by the Lebanese Assaad Zaidan identified one thousand Arabic words in the Portuguese language. The text shows that Arab influence in Brazil goes well beyond cooking. Portuguese terms for tariff (tarifa), peddler (mascate), lettuce (alface) and lackey (lacaio) come from the Arabic. In literature, as well as the words, it is possible to see traces of the culture from that region in the work of famous Brazilian writer Guimarães Rosa.
Cláudia Abreu*
São Paulo - An Arab named Tarif Bem Amer set up a fiscal stop in a little island in the Strait of Gibraltar. It was the year of 710. All ships that went from Europe to Africa, from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean, and vice-versa, paid customs fees to the commander. Of saying things like "I have already paid Tarif" so many times, came the term 'tariff' (tarifa, in Portuguese). These and other stories are in the book "Letters and History: one thousand Arabic words in the Portuguese language" by the Lebanese writer Assaad Yoessef Zaidan.
The book takes the reader in an interesting journey through history of the Arab language, its origin, its long journeys and its influences in the spoken Portuguese in Brazil. As well as 'tarifa', another 999 words appear in the Lebanese's text. To gather them together, Zaidan researched in more than 100 bibliographic sources and more than 200 dictionaries. The five thousand books in his personal library weren't enough, the writer sent for more volumes in the Arab world to complement his study.
According to Zaidan, the idea of the book came up in the 1970s, after a meeting with the intellectual Tufic Curban. "He told me he had managed to identify 700 Arabic words in the Portuguese language and that stuck to my mind," tells the writer. Time passed, Zaidan wrote other books in Arabic and, in 1991, the first volume in Portuguese, "Gulf War".
Curban's subject, however, was never left aside. The words in Portuguese that had similar pronunciation as the Arabic were written down, carefully, by Zaidan. After that, one by one, they were confirmed and included in the final text. The book, however, doesn't start by the words; it makes a brief, however precise, introduction about the first languages that led to the Arabic.
Zaidan explains, for example, that the Arabic is written from right to left due to the influence of the Phoenicians, who, in their turn, learned from miners, who excavated the mines with the drill in the left hand and hammering with the right hand. "This form of excavation was transformed into the first text impressions, which only later was passed onto paper. Ink appeared a little before Christ, squeezing coal and gum," he reveals.
The Arab language dates from 1,500 years before Christ; it is one of the most ancient and perfected languages. "It acquired rich heritage from languages from the peoples of the first civilisations and empires established in the Middle East, such as Mesopotamia, Egypt, Syria, Ethiopia, Persia and India," writes Zaidan. "As in any culture, it received many influences, it is the result from a miscegenation," he adds.
Poetry
In the first half, the writer also reserved some space to talk about the importance of poetry in the development of the Arabic. "The Arabs, amongst all peoples in the world, were the ones who loved and versed poetry the most. Each poet was a representative and defender of his tribe, teller of its story, glories and history of its peoples," he writes. Through the poems, they wrote about theology, philosophy, grammar, legendary tales, astronomy and even mathematics and algebra.
According to Zaidan, only the Koran made the Arabs forget a bit about poetry and improved a lot the language in form of prose, with rhyming and creative phrases.
From the Arabic Peninsula to Spain. The Arabs took the opportunity of the internal division in the Iberian Peninsula to invade the region, and took with them all the cultural baggage. Cordoba, in Spain, was as important as Constantinople and Baghdad, known as the cultural capital of the world. Illiterate people were rare in the region and in 1130 began the translations of Arab scientific books to Latin. Works from famous doctors like Al Razi and Avicen (Ibn Sena) were translated.
The relationship with the Portuguese began in the following years. A great example is in the name of various cities. Alenquer, Almerim, Fátima and Foro come from the Arabic. "A simple hint is to know that all words beginning with 'al' have Arab origin. Few people know as well that Fatima is the name of the daughter of the prophet Mohammed," he explains.
Literature
In Europe, the Arabic influenced great personalities. Miguel de Cervantes, for example, quoted many Arab proverbs throughout Sancho Pança's speech in "Don Quixote". Traces of Arab poetry style are also in the works of the German poet Goethe, in Dante's and Victor Hugo's work. The first, reader of the Koran, even wrote the famous poem "West-Eastern Divan".
The Arab influence is also present in works by South Americans. The texts of the Argentinean Jorge Luis Borges and the Brazilian João Guimarães Rosa are marked by the Arab culture. Milton Hatoum, who wrote the preface to Zaidan's book, recalls that in the book "Grande Sertão Veredas", the character Riobaldo meets the Arab family Assis Wababa in the middle the Brazilian wilderness, the 'sertão'.
Still in the second part of his book, Zaidan tells about the two journeys made by emperor don Pedro II to the Arab world. He visited Palestine, Lebanon, Egypt and Syria. It was him who gave permission for the Arabs to immigrate to Brazil. He closes the chapter telling of the Arab families' saga in Brazilian lands. Surnames such as Houaiss, Chalita, Nassar and Yázigi appear in the text.
Zaidan's book has been in Brazilian bookstores since July. The publication was sponsored by the government of the northern state of Pará.
About the writer
Zaidan was born in Central Lebanon, came to Brazil in 1952, learned to speak Portuguese in the state of Alagoas, in the Northeast of Brazil, as he likes to recall, and learned all the regional characteristic language expressions. Since his arrival in the country, he wrote in Arab newspapers and magazines, especially for Iraqi, Lebanese and Syrian vehicles. He was also editor at the "Notícias Árabes" (Arab News) newspaper, from 1965 to 1959.
*Translated by Silvia Lindsey
