“Scriptor noster maior de arabico”, the Arabic notary in the Hispanic Christian kingdoms

Abstract

The main objective of this paper is to provoke a historiographic revision of the proposed topic: the approach, analysis and study of the Arabic notary in the Hispanic Christian kingdoms between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries. For this purpose, a historiographic review will be carried out, exploring the studies on romance documentation held in the Spanish archives and the various works that examine the figures of Jewish scribes, Arab “trujamanes”, Moorish scribes, diplomatic “mudejars” and “romanceador” scribes. In this way, setting out the results geographically and diachronically, we intend to offer a vision that is as complete, uniform and documented as possible on this semi-institutionalized figure who drafted documents when needed, once a territory dominated by Islam was conquered. Later, when the inhabitants of the area had learned the language of the victors, the role was no longer necessary and simply disappeared.