Toponymes et anthroponymes dans le Kitāb al-Barbariyya

Although written in North Africa by a native author, the Kitāb al-Barbariyya contains a very limited number of North African place names, as a consequence of its nature as a commentary on a legal text dealing with general subjects, unrelated to a specific region. The only North African place names mentioned in the work refer to the inhabitants of Zouagha, Zouara, and Gennat in Libya: u zeǧǧaɣ (glossed in Arabic as al-zuwāġī), u zeǧǧar (glossed as al-zuwārī), and u ǧennat (glossed as al-ǧannāwunī) (f. 263b, ll. 18–19). Naturally, we also find Arabic toponyms, often Berberized, such as Mekkeṯ ‘Mecca’, Lmedint ‘Medina’ (whose inhabitants are called imekkiyen and imedeniyyen) (f. 399b, l. 6-8 and 64b, l. 1-2). This phenomenon of "Berberization" of proper names is particularly noticeable among personal names, where we observe either simple phonetic adaptations (notably the spirantization of dental stops) as in Mḥemmeḏ (Muḥammad) and Ḥaṯim (Ḥātim), or more profound modifications such as the addition of an initial vowel and the use of u instead of ibn, as in Aɛemmar u Yaser (Ɛammār b. Yāsir) <ʾʿMār° ʾū yasar> (f. 64a, l. 2). We can note here the opposite of what long prevailed in Arabic-speaking milieu, which "Arabized" every Berber name, reflecting a sociolinguistic situation where, on the contrary, Berber was the primary language of reference.