Visigothic law and canon law in al-Andalus: reconsidering the Leiden Glossary and the Vocabulista in Arabico

This paper explores the interaction between the two languages and the cultures they embody by investigating how Latin-Arabic glossaries translate legal concepts from Latin into Arabic and viceversa. It is our aim to bring out the cultural and religious interactions residing under the surface of the deceptively simple act of translating. By focusing on lexica as carriers of wider cultural information, as encyclopaedic in nature and covering much more than legal knowledge, we intend to offer an additional perspective on law, including canon law, in its Andalusian environment. Our analysis focuses on two manuscripts containing Latin-Arabic lexica from two distinct moments of the Islamic period, which will allow us to trace chronological developments as well.