Mozarabic

views updated May 21 2018

Mozarabic. C9–early C11 style of Spanish Christian architecture under Moorish rule. It included horseshoe-shaped arches, but was essentially an amalgam of Romanesque and Islamic elements, as in San Miguel de la Escalada, near Léon (913), and Santiago de Peñalba, near Ponferrada, León (931–7).

Bibliography

Fernandez Arenas (1972);
Jane Turner (1996)

Mozarabic

views updated May 21 2018

Mozarabic of or relating to the Christian inhabitants of Spain under the Muslim Moorish kings. Recorded from the late 17th century, the word comes via Spanish from Arabic musta῾rib, literally ‘making oneself an Arab’.

The term Mozarab is used to designate a person who continued to practise Christianity, but who adopted many aspects of Islamic culture, including language.
Mozarabic liturgy the ancient ritual of the Christian Church in the Iberian peninsula from the earliest times until the 11th century; a modified form of it is still used in some chapels in Spain.

Mozarabic

views updated Jun 27 2018

Mozarabic epithet of the ancient ritual of the church in Spain, prob. so called from being used by the Mozarabs after being disused by others. XVIII. f. Sp. Mozarabe — Arab. musta'rib one who adopts Arab customs, f. base of 'arab ARAB; see -IC.