A Handbook and Reader of Ottoman Arabic
|II. Reader
25. Libya 1: Ḥasan Al-Faqīh Ḥasan’s Chronicle Al-Yawmiyyāt Al-Lībiyya (early 19th century)
Texte intégral
Transcription
1According to al-ʾUsṭā and Juḥaydar (eds) ( [1984] 2001, 1: 534)
Translation
2Wednesday 13 ḏū al-ḥijja 1246 h.
3My dear friend the ḥājj Muṣṭafā b. Mūsā went to the garden (?) of the consul and registered as an English subject. The English consul went to inform our Lord of that. And that’s all.
4Saturday 16 ḏū al-ḥijja 1246 h [corresponding to] 28 May 1831 in the European calendar.
5On that day there took place a party for the King of England at the consul’s residence. He had three barrels of wine put in the shop of the Maltese Christian Gian Buba (?), an awning in front of the shop and the English flag over the shop. The consul warned all the Christians [lit. ‘his subjects’] that every single person should take [only] one bottle, every man with a family should take according to their number [i.e., the number of the members of the family]. All the consuls who were in Tripoli of the West went to the consul’s. There were also Muslims who went to him and presented their compliments to him, which delighted him and his son Frederic very much. He sent a message to our Sovereign— may his glory endure—asking him to send four ceremonial cannons [lit. ‘of the embellished type’] to fire them. Our Sovereign gave him four cannons with their carriages. They were taken to the sea-side in front of the pavilion [which towers over the Pasha’s palace] by the gunners of Al-Qājījī. They fired the cannons and brought them back. And that’s all.
Commentary
The verb)(‘to go (to)’, used three times in this short passage, is common in MA texts; it can be considered the ‘stylistically elevated’ correspondent of rāḥ (cf. text II.9, no. 4).cf. Ital. suddito, Sp. súbdito. The chronicle of Ḥasan al-Faqīh Ḥasan is rich in borrowings from Romance languages (cf. the notes to lns 3, 5–9, and 13 below). No attempt is made here to determine their precise origin, and the references to Spanish (Sp.) or Italian (Ital.) are purely indicative, since these words may have been borrowed from various Italian or Spanish dialects or, more likely, in certain cases at least, from the Lingua Franca.cf. Ital. festa, Sp. Fiesta.colloquial genitive particle. It is attested from the 12th c. in Maghrebi MA texts.cf. Ital. rè, Sp. rey.cf. Ital. tenda, Sp. tienda.cf. Ital. bandiera, Sp. bandera.cf. Ital. bottiglia, Sp. botella.cf. Ital. famiglia, Sp. familia.fi / fīh ‘there is’. Well known in Levantine dialects, but is also used in some (Eastern) Maghrebi dialects.. For -īn, see text II.9, no. 13.m (u) ḥallāt (root ḤLW/Y). The editors understand‘places’ and gloss mutanaqqila ‘movable, transportable’.plur. of, cf. Ital. carrozza, Sp. carroza.. See text II.9, no. 18.rawwaḥū. See text II.9, no. 4.Table des illustrations
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