Ceuta Arabic

The Arabic variety currently spoken in the city of Ceuta is a Maghrebi or western and pre-Hilali variety, that is, it originates in the first Arabization wave in the Maghreb. The evolution of the settlement of the Arabic-speaking population in Ceuta, started since the end of the eighteenth century, has had an effect on the formation of this Arabic variety which does not greatly differ from those spoken on the other side of the political border between Spain and Morocco, the only remarkable difference being a higher presence of Spanish in Ceuta’s Arabic than amongst the Arabic spoken by their Moroccan neighbours.

Thus, some features of rural origin can be noted due to a preferably Jebli provenance (from the mountain region of Jbala) of the first Muslims and Arabic-speaking people settling in the city, alongside other urban traits, mostly from the Tetouan and Tangiers varieties, which are the closest to the city and have significant linguistic influence over it.

This situation can be noted in the existence of different sociolects in the city which operate depending on the variables of age and sex of the speakers.

Mount Musa or Dead woman - By Team nhəḍṛu

El Príncipe neighbourhood - By Team nhəḍṛu

Audio 1

Audio 1

Ceuta Arabic: Visits to Morocco

Árabe de Ceuta: Visitas a Marruecos.

Transcription

(1) ī:::wa ka-nxdəm^[1] məl^[2] lə-tnīn n-əǧ-ǧŭmʕa w-əs-səbt w-əl-ḥădd ka-nṛəţḥu (2) īwa u f-ǝs-səbţ ka-nnūḍu f-əṣ-ṣbāḥ nʕəmlu šġŭnna^[3] u ka-nəmšīw n-əl-măġṛəb nəmši n n-fnīdăq nţsăxxăṛ nəmši n-ţəṭwān (3) bnādəm k-ībəddəl šwāy l-hwa k-ībəddəl l-wəqţ u k-ībəddəl l-hwa wə-nţsăxxṛu nəmšīw ʕănd əl-ḥbāb nṭəllu ʕlīhŭm (4) īwa wə-mmšīw^[4] n-ţəṭwān ţəṭwān mzīwna ʕāwəd məzyāna bəlḥăqq ən-nās s-săbţāwĭyya ma-nqədṛu-ši nʕīšu::: šāyllāh sīdi mbāṛək ma-nqǝdṛu-ši nʕīšu ţəmma (5) dāba stānəsna hna lli xlāqna u ţṛăbbīna hnāya u nāsna wə-ždūdna ma nqədṛu-ši ka-mmšīw^[5] wə-nţsăxxṛu wə-ntlāqāw mʕa l-ḥbāb wə-nbəddlu l-wăqţ (6) bǝlḥăqq ţəmma lḥāq* əl-ḥāqīqa ma nqǝdṛu-ši nʕīšu ţəmma stānəsna hnāya fə::: f-səbţa ṛ-ṛižāḷ^[6] ḍ ḷḷāh ma::: ma nqədṛu-ši ma* (7) ka-nəmšīw ngŭwwzu n-nhāṛ ka-mmšīw^[7] ngŭwwzu dīk-ǝd-dīwāna ʕāwəd dīk-ǝd-dīwāna dīk eh::: ṣʕība štītu^[8] ši mṛāṛi ka-ţkūn məzyāna u ši mṛāṛi ka-ţkūm^[9] mzĭyyṛa nţi ka-ţăʕṛəf lqa* ka-ţăʕṛəf əl-qāʕida (8) īwa wāxxa ngŭwwzu dīk-əs-sāʕa d-əl-kōla ūla d-əl-fīla ūla də::: (risas) ka-ngŭwwzu dīk eh::: īwa nṭŭbʕu ke si l-wăṛqa l-xăḍṛa ke si l-wăṛqa ṣ-ṣăfṛa wə-ḥna māšyīn (9) wə-mmšīw^[10] wə-nţsăxxṛu ţəmma ši ḥāža::: ṛxīṣ bnādəm l-ḥāža ṛxīṣa māši fḥāl hnāya ka-ddi^[11] ʕăšṛa d-əl-euro ka-džīb^[12] l-qfīfa d-əs-sŏxṛa džīb^[13] tōmātēš w-əl-lčīn^[14] w-əl-bṭāṭa (10) u hnāya ka-ţăʕṛəf bnādəm lli xəddāma eh::: l-xəddām d-əl-mwăqəf^[15] māši fḥāl eh::: bnādəm eh::: (11) ka-nţsăxxṛu wə-nžību s-sxīṛa d-əs-sēmāna ʕāwəd əl-ḥădd ʕāwəd kān::: ūla xṛŭžna ʕāwəd ši mūṭăʕ məzyān ūla ma-xṛŭžna-ši ka-ngəlsu bāš lətnīn nʕāwṛu^[16] ka-nəbdāw l-xədma dyānna^[17] (12) īwa wə-ḥna māšyīn mʕa l-wăqţ īwa wə-ḥna māšyīn mʕa l-wăqţ (13) ka-nəmšīw n-ṭănža ʕāwəd bəlḥăqq ṭănža ka-džīna^[18] štītu bʕīda xxx ţəṭwān u kastīyēxo ka-īžīna šwĭyya qṛīb bəlḥăqq ṭănža::: ka-džīna^[19] šwĭyye^[20] bʕīda (14) ka-nəmšīw īla kāyən hāyda nəbġu nəšṛu ši ḥāža ʕăndna ši făṛḥ ši ʕŭṛs ūla ši hāža ţəmma l-ḥāžāţ kāyna kāyən bəzzāf bəzzāf bāš ţəxṭāṛ f ţəṭwān kāyən bəlḥăqq māši bəzzāf d-əl-ḥwānəţ dīk-šši dyāl eh::: lă-ʕṛāyəs u dīk-šši dyāl (15) dāba yāna xţi ʕāwəd ʕănda^[21] wāḥəd-l-kǝlfa māš džŭwwəž^[22] bənţa^[23] dīk-n-nhāṛ mšīna mšīna u::: u čŭfna hādi u hādi ka-ţăʕṛəf ṭănža kāyən bəzzāf d* kāyən fāyən ţxăyyəṛ kāyən fāyən ţ ţ* lāxŏṛ (16) hna f-ţəṭwān māši bəzzāf d-əl-ḥwānəţ kāyən ġīṛ žūž ţlāţa bāš təžbăṛ ši ḥāža ṭănža tbāṛăk ḷḷāh kbīṛa u kāyən bəzzāf d-əl-ḥwānəţ ʕăndək fāyən ţxăyyəṛ u ʕāwəd šwāyye^[24] məzyāna u ṛxa* ʕāwǝd štītu ṛxīṣa ʕla ţəṭwān (17) u dīk-əl-măsʔālāt čwāyye ṛxāṣīn ʕla ţəṭwān māši fḥāl l-xŏḍṛa l-xŏṭṛa l-xŏḍṛa fāyənma mšīti kīf kīf eh::: ūla zāyda dīk xămsa fṛa* xămsīn fṛănk māši fḥāl eh::: dīk-əl-ḥāžāt dyāl eh::: lă-ʕṛāsāţ w-əl-lbās u u t-təkšīṭāţ u dīk-š-ši māši fḥāl eh::: u::: u (18) ṭănža ʕāwəd ḥətţa hĭyya mzīwna::: ḥətţa hĭyya dāba ʕăddlūha mzīwnīn eh::: lḥămdŭḷḷāh ʕāwḍu awtopistas ʕăddlu mzīwnīn ʕād dāba bnādəm məzyān ţqdəṛ ţəmši::: (19) zăʕmāk māši fḥāl qbəl qbəl ṭ-ṭṛīq kāţ^[25] eh::: ṭ-ṭṛīq kānu mānʕīn f-əš-šta mānʕa ma txāf təmši dāba lḥămdŭḷḷāh awtopistāţ məzyānīn ţqdăṛ ţəmši::: (20) u zăʕmāk hādīk ka-mmšīw^[26] f eh... təqdəṛ ţəmši f eh… ši sēmāna ĭyyəh ši sēmāna lāʔ bəlḥăqq ʕāwəd ma bʕīda dīk-ən-nhāṛ ka-čəbbăṛ^[27] konže ka-ţəmši n-fās məknēs bəlḥăqq eso eh::: (21) ma hādīk š-ši ma… ka-ţkūm^[28] mʕa l-konže ţəqdăṛ ṭănǧa u ţəṭwān zăʕmāk eh::: ţqṛābīn ka-ţqdəṛ ţəmši fīhŭm f-nhāṛək u dži^[29] nhāṛək bəlhăqq ǝl-blūdāţ yāxṛīn la xxx (22) xăṣṣək bəzzāf d-əl-ĭyyām xăṣṣək bāš ţəqdəṛ eh::: yăwmāyn tǝlţ ĭyyām ţəmši ţətsāṛa ūla dīk-š-ši xăṣṣək eh po lo^[30] sīmāna băʕdək bāš tətsāṛa u čūf^[31] l-ḥāžāt məzyān (23) u ṭănža ḥətţa hĭyya mzīwna ṭănža məzyānīn wāxxa ma* ka-mmšīw^[32] bāš nsāṛīw bāš nəbq* bāš nəbqāw ţəmma ma ma nqədṛu-ši nəbqāw ţəmma bəlḥăqq t-tsāṛĭyya ĭyyəh (24) ka-nţsāṛāw u ka-yăʕžəbna l-ḥāžāţ xxx lli ţəmma ʕāwəd ma ka-nžəbṛu-ši hnāya u bġīţi ʕāwəd ţʕăddəl ši ḥəlwāţ wə-dčṛi^[33]::: ḥāža tipiko de d-əl-măġṛəb ma kāyən-š fḥāl kāyən hna f-səbţa bəlḥăqq t-ţāmān dyāla::: eh::: ġāli māši bḥāl eh::: bḥāl ţəmma ka-džəbṛa^[34]::: (25) y u āna əl-ḥāqīqa ma-ʕăndi-š əl::: ʕāʔīla bəzzāf f ṭănža ʕăndi ši žūž d-ən-nās eh::: əl-ʕāʔīla ši žūž d-əl-ʕāʔīlāt ṣāfi kāyən f ţəṭwān ĭyyəh ʕăndi l-ʕāʔīla f rinkon f kastīyēxo (26) īwa ḥna māšyīn ḥətta yhănn ḷḷāh ḥna māšyīn ḥətta yəbġi sīdi ṛabbi w-īblaġ^[35] ən-nhāṛ dyālna ʕāwəd ntəbʕu l eh l ždūdna u nāsna u ḥbābna īwa u hād-š-ši ma nqūl lkŭm.

^{^[1]} En ocasiones, la dicción rápida tiene como consecuencia la caída de algunas vocales breves y la no aparición de los supuestos esquemas nominales o verbales. ^{^[2]} /mən lə-tnīn/→[məllətnīn]. ^{^[3]} /dyālna/→[dyānna]. ^{^[4]} /u nəmšīw/→[wəmmšīw]. ^{^[5]} /ka-nəmšīw/→[kammšīw]. ^{^[6]} Pronunciación clásica, normalmente en marroquí la /i/ no existe. ^{^[7]} /ka-nəmšīw/→[kammšīw]. ^{^[8]} El adverbio de cantidad stītu ‘poco’ es pronunciado por la informante štītu. ^{^[9]} /ka-ţkūn mzĭyyra /→[kaţkūm mzĭyyra]. ^{^[10]} /u nəmšīw/→[wəmmšīw]. ^{^[11]} /ka-təddi/→[ka-ddi]. ^{^[12]} /ka-tžīb/→[ka-džīb]. ^{^[13]} /tžīb/→[džīb]. ^{^[14]} /lətšīn/→[lčīn]. ^{^[15]} La informante se equivoca, debería ser mawqəf, es decir xəddām əl-mawqəf ‘un trabajador cualquiera’, Prémare DAF 12/256, aunque es probable que se refiera a un trabajador en paro. ^{^[16]} /nʕāwdu/ /→[nʕāwru]. ^{^[17]} /dyālna/→[dyānna]. ^{^[18]} /ka-tžīna/→[kadžīna]. ^{^[19]} Idem. ^{^[20]} /šwīya/. ^{^[21]} /ʕənd-ha/→[ʕănda]. ^{^[22]} Idem. ^{^[23]} /bənt-ha/→[bənta]. ^{^[24]} /šwĭya/. ^{^[25]} /kānəţ/→[kāţ]. ^{^[26]} /ka-nəmšīw/→[kammšīw]. ^{^[27]} /ka-tšəbbăr/→[kačəbbăr]. ^{^[28]} /ka-ţkūn/→[kaţkūm]. ^{^[29]} /tži/→[dži]. ^{^[30]} La informante iba a decir la expresión en español ‘por lo menos’. ^{^[31]} /tšūf/→[čūf]. ^{^[32]} /ka-nəmšīw/→[kammšīw]. ^{^[33]} /təšri/→[dčri]. ^{^[34]} /ka-təžbărha/→[kadəžbra]. ^{^[35]} /u yəblăġ/→[w-īblăġ].

Spanish translation

(1) Entonces...trabajo de lunes a viernes, y el sábado y el domingo descansamos. (2) El sábado nos levantamos por la mañana, hacemos nuestro trabajo y nos vamos a Marruecos, vamos a Castillejos a comprar, voy a Tetuán, (3) la gente cambia un poco de aires, cambia el tiempo y cambia de aires, compramos, vamos a casa de los parientes a visitarlos. (4) Entonces vamos a Tetuán, Tetuán es bonito, es decir, está bien, pero la gente de Ceuta no podemos vivir..., ¡qué gran Santo Sidi Mbarek!^[1], no podemos vivir allí. (5) Ahora estamos acostumbrados aquí, los que hemos nacido y nos hemos criado aquí, y nuestra gente, nuestros abuelos, no podemos. Vamos, hacemos la compra, nos encontramos con los parientes, cambiamos el tiempo, (6) pero la verdad es que allí, no podemos vivir allí, nos hemos acostumbrado aquí en... en Ceuta, ¡(benditos sean) los santos de la ciudad!^[2], no podemos. (7) Vamos, pasamos el día, vamos, pasamos la frontera. Es decir, esa frontera... es un poco difícil. Algunas veces está bien y algunas veces está complicada, tú ya conoces lo que hay. (8) Entonces, de acuerdo, pasamos la cola o la fila o... pasamos esta... entonces sellamos (el pasaporte), que si el papel verde, que si el papel amarillo, y así vamos. (9) Vamos, hacemos la compra allí, algo... barato, la gente, las cosas son baratas, no como aquí, llevas diez euros, traes la cesta de la compra, traes tomates, naranjas, patatas, (10) aquí conoces a los trabajadores, un trabajador cualquiera, no como... la gente... (11) Compramos y traemos la compra de la semana. De nuevo el domingo, o salimos otra vez a algún lugar bonito o no salimos, nos quedamos para que el lunes de nuevo empecemos nuestro trabajo. (12) Así pasamos el tiempo, así pasamos el tiempo. (13) Vamos a Tánger, pero Tánger nos viene un poco lejos, Tetuán y Castillejos nos vienen un poco cerca, pero Tánger... nos viene un poco lejos. (14) Vamos si hay, queremos comprar algo, tenemos una fiesta, una boda o algo, allí hay cosas, hay mucho, mucho para elegir, en Tetuán hay pero no hay muchas tiendas, esas cosas de las bodas o de, (15) ahora yo, mi hermana tiene una celebración familiar, su hija se va a casar. Ese día, fuimos, fuimos y vimos esto y aquello, ya sabes, en Tánger hay mucho donde elegir, hay... (16) Aquí en Tetuán no hay muchas tiendas, hay solo dos o tres para encontrar algo, Tánger, ¡bendito sea Dios!, es grande y hay muchas tiendas, tienes donde elegir, es un poco mejor y un poco más barata que Tetuán. (17) Estas cosas son un poco más baratas que Tetuán. No es como la verdura, la verdura, la verdura donde vayas es exactamente igual, o cinco, cincuenta francos más, no es como... estas cosas de las bodas, la ropa, los vestidos, y eso, no es como... (18) Tánger también es bonita, también la han puesto bonita, gracias a Dios, han hecho autopistas, las han hecho bien, ahora la gente está bien, puede ir. (19) Es decir, no es como antes, antes el camino era... el camino estaba inaccesibles con la lluvia, inaccesible, ahora no da miedo ir, gracias a Dios, las autopistas están bien, puedes ir. (20) Es decir, vamos en, puedes ir en, una semana sí, una semana no, pero igualmente está lejos. El día que coges vacaciones vas a Fez, Meknés, pero eso... (21) Eso no, es con las vacaciones, puedes. Tánger y Tetuán, es decir, están cerca puedes ir y volver en el mismo día, pero los otros lugares no, (22) necesitas muchos días, necesitas para poder eh..., dos días, tres días, ir a dar una vuelta o necesitas tener por lo (menos) una semana para pasear y ver las cosas bien. (23) Y Tánger también es bonito, Tánger está bien... aunque no, vamos para pasear, para quedarnos allí, no podemos quedarnos allí, pero pasear sí, (24) damos una vuelta y nos gustan las cosas que hay allí y que no encontramos aquí. Quieres hacer pasteles o comprar algo típico de Marruecos que no hay. Aquí en Ceuta hay, pero su precio es muy caro, no como allí lo encuentras. (25) Yo, la verdad, no tengo mucha familia en Tánger, tengo dos personas... familias, dos familias y ya está. En Tetuán sí hay, tengo familia en Rincón, en Castillejos. (26) Así, vamos hasta que Dios considere, vamos hasta que el Señor quiera y llegue nuestro día y sigamos a nuestros abuelos y a nuestra gente y nuestros parientes. Esto es lo que tengo que deciros.

^{^[1]} Locución que expresa la admiración por un santo, cf. Prémare, Dictionnaire arabe-français, 1995, vol.7: 247. ^{^[2]} Locución que expresa la admiración por los hombres de Dios, cf. Prémare, Dictionnaire arabe-français, 1995, vol.5: 64-65.

Metadata file

Author: Ángeles Vicente (recording, transcription and translation).

Title: Ceuta Arabic: Visits to Morocco.

Type of account: Monologue.

Length: 04’38”.

Topic: An Arabic-speaking woman, who is living in Ceuta, describes her life between this city and Morocco.

Languages: Moroccan Arabic (urban northern variety) and a minimum appearance of Spanish (in codeswitching or loanwords).

Date: 05/02/2009.

Place: Ceuta.

Devices: Edirol R-09 Digital Voice Recorder (by Roland), with a Stereo Microphone Kit Edirol CS-15 (by Roland).

Transcription type: Broad phonetic transcription.

Translation language: Spanish.

Comments: This recording was made during fieldwork carried out in February 2009, in the framework of the research project Corpus oral en langues afroasiatiques: analyse prosodique et morphosyntaxique (231/2006-SHS), and funded by Agence Nationale de la Recherche (France), 2007-2011.

Informants

Number: 1.

Name: Nasiha.

Sex: Female.

Age: 50 years old (approximately).

Education level: Primary education.

Occupation: Concierge.

Origin: Born and raised in Ceuta, family of Moroccan origin.

Interesting data from the sociolinguistic point of view: The informant is bilingual in Spanish and Moroccan Arabic (northern variety spoken in the city of Ceuta).

Linguistic features of Ceuta Arabic

Phonology and Phonetics*

The phonological system of Ceuta Arabic coincides broadly speaking with that of sedentary and rural dialects of northern Morocco. As for the consonants, we find the voiceless realization of /q/, habitual in pre-Hilali dialects. The voiceless realization of the phoneme /ḍ/ > /ṭ/ is also typical: mrīṭa ‘ill’, băyṭa ‘egg’, ṭăhri ‘my back’.

The presence of several allophones due to the influence of some phonetic phenomena mostly resulting from the Berber substratum, such as spirantization and affrication is also a feature.

Spirantization produces several allophones, for instance /b/ > [ḇ]: dāḇa ‘now’, ġāḇa ‘forest’ or /k/ > [ḵ]: bəḵri ‘early’, qŭlţ ləḵ ‘I told you’, māḵla ‘food’.

As regards affrication, the palate-alveolar sibilant phonemes /ž/ and /š/ are realized in some contexts as affricate [ǧ] and [č]: ǧāmăʕ ‘mosque’, ḥāǧǧa ‘a woman who has completed the pilgrimage to Mecca or a respect formula’, ǧəllāba ‘jellaba”, ləčīn ‘oranges’, čūf ‘look!’.

Regarding vowels, Ceuta Arabic typically boasts a larger number of allophones of /ə/ ([ă], [ĭ], [ŭ]), and diphthongs whose first element is short (ḥăwma ‘district’, ṣăyf ‘summer’).

Verb Morphology

There is no gender distinction in the second person singular of the perfective, imperfective and imperative tense. In the perfective, the suffix -ţ is added for the feminine and masculine: čăfţ xālţək bărra ? ‘have you seen your (maternal) aunt outside?’, lʕăbţ l-kūra f-əz-zənqa? ‘have you played football in the street?’.

In the imperfective the affix ţ– is prefixed for both genders ţəšrəb qăhwa ūla ātāy? ‘do you drink water or tea?’.

In the imperative, the same form is used for feminine and masculine: skŭţ mən ṣ-ṣḍăʕ ‘stop making noise!’.

There are two preverbs of the imperfective la– and ka-: la-nčūf hād lă-ʕāyla ʕănda kŭll yăwm ‘I see this girl at her house everyday’, ka-nšəddu l-bār n-nhăr t-ţnīn ‘we close the bar on Mondays’.

The future particles are māši (or māš) and ʕādi (or ʕād): māš yəqra en la península ‘he willl study in the peninsula’, ʕād yĭmšīw ġădda bāš yĭšrīw l-ḥāžāţ d-əs-skwīla ‘they will go tomorrow to buy the things for school’.

Noun Morphology

Some changes in gender and number can be found with respect to other Moroccan varieties usually due to Berber influence. These changes usually occur in the most conservative sociolect which is spoken by older women of rural provenance.

Thus, the word ḥūţ ‘fish’ is feminine in this sociolect while it is usually masculine: l-ḥūţ bărda ‘the fish is cold’, l-ḥūţ l-mqlĭyya ‘the fried fish’. Or the word l-ma ‘water’, is usually singular though it is plural in Ceuta’s conservative sociolect: l-ma bārdīn ‘the water is cold ’.

The genitive is formed with the particles d- and dyāl: ḍ-ḍār dyālək, čŭfţa məfţūḥa ‘I have seen his house open’, hāda dyāli ‘this is mine’.

Regarding personal pronouns typical forms are: nţīnăk (nţīnăḵ) for the singular, and nţūmăk (nţūmăḵ) for the plural, both of them of common gender.

Lexicon

Several adverbs of place are prefixed with n-: nbărra ‘outside’, ntāxəl / ndāxəl ‘inside’, nfūq / nfūqi ‘up’, nţāḥĭţ / nhābəṭ ‘down’.

Other remarkable adverbs are: hnāya and ha fāyn ‘here’ and ţəmma and rāh fāyn ‘there’.

The conservative sociolect of the city typically includes terms from the rural varieties of the other side of the border which have usually become lost in other sociolects of the city through dialectal levelling: məfţāḥ ‘key’, (sārūţ in other sociolects), ṭʕām ‘cuscus’ (in other sociolects səksu), plāţīwəš ‘frying pan’ (in other sociolects măqla).

^* Data used in this brief summary were compiled from: Vicente, Ángeles 2007. Ceuta: una ciudad entre dos lenguas. Formación y evolución del árabe ceutí. Ceuta, Instituto de Estudios Ceutíes.

Author: Ángeles Vicente

The history of Ceuta

Ceuta (in Arabic سبتة [səbta]) is located on the southern side of the Strait of Gibraltar, on the north-western most tip of the African coast, opposite the Bay of Algeciras. It has a surface area of 19,617 km²and a population of 84,692 (as registered in 2014).

Since antiquity various peoples have inhabited the geographical area where modern Ceuta is located: Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, Vandals, Byzantines, Muslims, Genoese, Portuguese, Spanish and English. Its strategic position unquestionably played a major part in its history and in the settlement of its population.

A pre-historical site, perhaps Phoenician-founded though no archaeological evidence exists to prove this. The later presence of a Punic population (Carthage’s Phoenicians) in this zone has been documented with the discovery of some coins. It was known as Ad Abilem at the time and trade was conducted with other Punic cities.

In the year 40 C.E. it became part of the Roman Empire within the province of Mauritania Tingitana under the name of Septem Frates (Gozalves Cravioto 1990) and was given the status of Civitas Romanorum thanks to Caracalla’s edict of 212. Ceuta is one of the rare centres of Roman survival in North Africa though it was never a relevant city in the Roman Empire, according to H. Farhat, but rather a modest hamlet (Farhat 1993).

In the fifth century, the Vandals invaded the region and destroyed the city almost entirely. Later on, around the year 534, the Byzantines arrived in North Africa.

The Muslim era in Ceuta reached its peak when Abdarrahman III incorporated it into the Andalusi territory in 931, which involved Ceuta’s integration into the caliphate of Cordoba propitiating the creation of a true city which had a mosque, a cadi and a population more or less aware of their identity.

During the early Middle Ages and up until the thirteenth century, Ceuta again became a territory dependant on Berber tribes, under the dominion of the Almoravids and the Almohades. Later, in the first quarter of the fourteenth century the city returned to the rule of a local dynasty, the Azafids. In 1327, it was subjugated by the Marinids of Fez and once more remained under Andalusi rule towards the end of the fourteenth century and the fifteenth century, as it belonged to the Nazari kingdom of Granada up until the arrival of the Portuguese.

The reasons behind the Arabization of this region were not due to the massive settlement of Arabic-speaking tribes originating in the East but to the dispersion of the descendants of Idris around the region and to the great influence of Al Andalus (Mosquera Merino 2002: 117-118).

Ceuta was conquered in August of 1415 by João I, king of Portugal. As a result, the Muslim population was dispersed. At first, all the local population fled and did not return until the appearance of the “moros de paces” one decade later, who had to pay a tribute to the Portuguese to be allowed to settle on the periphery.

The city of Ceuta was annexed by the Spanish crown in two different stages: the first took place between 1581 and 1640, and the second from 1640 up to the present day.

Philip II, due to his filiation rights, decided to intervene in the dispute between the heirs of the Portuguese kingdom. After his victory, Ceuta and all the other Portuguese possessions became part of the Spanish Crown in 1581. Portugal later managed to gain independence from Philip IV though Ceuta remained Spanish due to a popular plebiscite held in 1640.

The Muslim population was not allowed to settle in the city until the second half of the nineteenth century. Their arrival in the city was favoured by trade and by their joining some troops of the Spanish Army. Therefore, it was not until 1860 that the Muslim population was allowed back into Ceuta even though their settling in the city was always considered provisional (Planet 1998).

The second half of the nineteenth century was highly relevant for the future of the city: the war of Africa in 1859-1860, enormously transformed Ceuta causing changes in its demography as well as a new orientation in terms of its economic activities. On 18 May 1863 Ceuta became a free port propitiating economic expansion and significant growth.

In the twentieth century the city was again inhabited by a population from different geographic areas, as from Morocco as from Spain. Spaniards had settled in the city mostly in the first quarter of the century, at the time of the creation in 1912 of the Spanish Protectorate in northern Morocco. The establishment of the Spanish bureaucratic machinery directly resulted in the need of a workforce which led to considerable population growth with the arrival of immigrants mostly from southern Andalusia, but also from the most immediate surrounding Moroccan villages whose dwellers established ties with the Muslim population of Spanish enclave, especially after the independence of Morocco in 1956 (López García 1991: 178). After the Protectorate, and after a significant demographic decline, the population of Ceuta reached 70,000 to 80,000 inhabitants, a figure which remains up until the present day.

The city of Ceuta was part of the province of Cadiz in the Autonomous Region of Andalusia up until 1995. On 13 March 1995 the city was given a new status as an Autonomous City, as was Melilla, the other Spanish city located on the African coast.

Bibliography

Farhat, Halima. 1993. Sabta des origines au XIV^e siècle. Rabat, Al-Manahil.
Gozalbes Cravioto, Enrique 1990. El nombre romano de Ceuta: de Septem Fratres a Ceuta. Ceuta, Ayuntamiento de Ceuta.
López García, Bernabé 1991. “Entre Europe et Orient : Ceuta et Melilla”, Revue des mondes musulmans et de la Méditerranée 59-60, 165-180.
Mosquera Merino, Carmen 2002. “La señoría de Ceuta y el dominio sobre el Estrecho de Gibraltar”, Ceuta en el medievo: la ciudad en el universe árabe. Ceuta, Instituto de Estudios Ceutíes, 109-129.
Planet Contreras, Ana Isabel 1998. Melilla y Ceuta, espacios-frontera hispano-marroquíes. Melilla-Ceuta, Consejería de Cultura.