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For the Egyptian oasis with same name, see Kharga Oasis. For the Moroccan footballer, see Houssine Kharja. For other uses, see Kharjah.
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A kharja or kharjah (Arabic: خرجة, romanized: kharjah, lit. 'exit' [ˈxardʒa]; Spanish: jarcha [ˈxaɾtʃa]; Portuguese: carja [ˈkaɾʒɐ]; also known as a markaz مَرْكَز 'center'),[1] is the final couple of abyāt, or verses, of a muwaššaḥ (مُوَشَّح 'girdle'), a poem or song of the strophic lyric genre from al-Andalus. The kharja can be in a language that is different from the body; a muwaššaḥ in literary Arabic might have a kharja in vernacular Andalusi Arabic or in a mix of Arabic and Andalusi Romance, while a muwaššaḥ in Hebrew might contain a kharja in Arabic, Romance, Hebrew, or a mix.

The muwashshah typically consists of five strophes of four to six lines, alternating with five or six refrains (qufl); each refrain has the same rhyme and metre, whereas each stanza has only the same metre. The kharja appears often to have been composed independently of the muwashshah in which it is found.

Characteristics of the kharja

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About a third of extant kharjas are written in Classical Arabic. Most of the remainder are in Andalusi Arabic, but there are about seventy examples that are written either in Iberian Romance languages or with significant Romance elements.

Generally, though not always, the kharja is presented as a quotation from a speaker who is introduced in the preceding stanza.

It is not uncommon to find the same kharja attached to several different muwashshahat. The Egyptian writer Ibn Sanā' al-Mulk (1155–1211), in his Dar al-Tirāz (a study of the muwashshahat, including an anthology) states that the kharja was the most important part of the poem, that the poets generated the muwashshah from the kharja, and that consequently it was considered better to borrow a good kharja than compose a bad one.[2]

Kharjas may describe love, praise, the pleasures of drinking, but also ascetism.

Corpora

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Corpus of Arabic muwaššaḥāt

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Of the approximately 600 known secular Arabic muwaššaḥāt, there are almost 300 kharjas in vernacular Andalusi Arabic and over 200 in Standard Arabic (فُصْحَى), though some of the vernacular kharjas are essentially Standard Arabic with a vulgar gloss.[3]: 185  About 50 are in Andalusi Romance or contain some Romance words or elements.[3]: 185 

Corpus of Hebrew muwaššaḥāt

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About half of the corpus of the more than 250 known muwaššaḥāt in Hebrew have kharjas in Arabic.[3]: 185  There about roughly 50 with kharjas in Hebrew, and about 25 with Romance.[3]: 185  There are also a few kharjas with a combination of Hebrew and Arabic.[3]: 185 

Others

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In their experimentation of the muwaššaḥ genre, the Mashriqi writers Ibn Sanā' al-Mulk and as-Safadi made kharjas in different languages using Persian and Turkish.[4]

Romance kharjas

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Though they comprise only a fraction of the corpus of extant kharjas, it is the Romance kharjas that have attracted the greatest scholarly interest. With examples dating back to the 11th century, this genre of poetry is believed to be among the oldest in any Romance language, and certainly the earliest recorded form of lyric poetry in Andalusi Romance or another Iberian Romance language.

Their rediscovery in the 20th century by Hebrew scholar Samuel Miklos Stern and Arabist Emilio García Gómez is generally thought to have cast new light on the evolution of Romance languages.

The Romance kharjas are thematically comparatively restricted, being almost entirely about love. Approximately three-quarters of them are put into the mouths of women, while the proportion for Arabic kharjas is nearer one-fifth.[5]

Debate over origins

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Since the kharja may be written separately from the muwashshah, many scholars have speculated that the Romance kharjas were originally popular Spanish lyrics that the court poets incorporated into their poems.[6] Some similarities have been claimed with other early Romance lyrics in theme, metre, and idiom.[7][8] Arabic writers from the Middle East or North Africa like Ahmad al-Tifashi (1184–1253) referred to "songs in the Christian style" sung in al-Andalus from ancient times that some have identified as the kharjas.[9]

Other scholars dispute such claims, arguing that the kharjas stand firmly within the Arabic tradition with little or no Romance input at all, and the apparent similarities only arise because the kharjas discuss themes that are universal in human literature anyway.[5][10]

Debate over language and reading

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Modern translations of the Romance kharjas are a matter of debate particularly because the Arabic script does not include vowels. Most of them were copied by scribes who probably did not understand the language they were recording, which may have caused transmission errors. A large spectrum of translations is possible given the ambiguity created by the missing vowels and potentially erroneous consonants. Because of this, most translations of these texts will be disputed by some. Severe criticism has been made of García Gómez's editions because of his palaeographical errors.[11] Further debate arises around the mixed vocabulary used by the authors.

Most of the Romance kharjas are not written entirely in Romance, but include Arabic elements to a greater or lesser extent. It has been argued that such blending cannot possibly represent the natural speech patterns of the Romance speakers,[12] and that the Romance kharjas must therefore be regarded as macaronic literature.[13]

A minority of scholars, such as Richard Hitchcock contend that the Romance Kharjas are, in fact, not predominantly in a Romance language at all, but rather an extremely colloquial Arabic idiom bearing marked influence from the local Romance varieties. Such scholars accuse the academic majority of misreading the ambiguous script in untenable or questionable ways and ignoring contemporary Arab accounts of how Muwashshahat and Kharjas were composed.[14]

Examples

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Romance

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An example of a Romance kharja (and translation) by the Jewish poet Judah Halevi:

Vayse meu corachón de mib:
ya Rab, si me tornarád?
Tan mal meu doler li-l-habib!
Enfermo yed, cuánd sanarád?
My heart has left me,
Oh sir, will it return to me? (Alternate translation: Oh Lord, will you transform me?)
So great is my pain for my beloved!
I am sick, when will I be cured?,

These verses express the theme of the pain of longing for the absent lover (habib). Many scholars have compared such themes to the Galician-Portuguese cantigas de amigo which date from c. 1220 to c. 1300, but “[t]he early trend […] towards seeing a genetic link between kharajat and cantigas d'amigo seems now to have been over-hasty.” [15]

Arabic

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An example of an Arabic kharja:

How beautiful is the army with its orderly ranks
When the champions call out, ‘Oh, Wāthiq, oh, handsome one!’

The kharja is from a muwashshah in the Dar al-Tirāz of Ibn Sanā' al-Mulk.[16]

History of kharja scholarship

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Manuscript sources

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Ibn Sanāʾ al-Mulk, a 12th century Egyptian poet, wrote an anthology and study of the muwaššaḥ and its kharja entitled Dār aṭ-ṭirāz fī ʿamal al-muwaššaḥāt (دار الطراز في عمل الموشحات).[17] The Syrian scholar Jawdat Rikabi [ar] published an edition of the work in 1949.[17]

Ibn al-Khatib, a 14th century Andalusi poet, compiled an anthology of muwaššaḥāt entitled Jaysh at-Tawshīḥ (جيش التوشيح).[18] Alan Jones published a modern edition of this work.

An anthology of muwaššaḥāt entitled Uddat al-Jalīs (عدة الجليس), attributed to a certain Ali ibn Bishri al-Ighranati, is based on a manuscript taken from Morocco in 1948 by Georges Séraphin Colin (1893-1977). Alan Jones published an Arabic edition in 1992.[19]

Ibn Bassam wrote in Dhakhīra fī mahāsin ahl al-Jazīra  [ar] (الذخيرة في محاسن أهل الجزيرة) that the kharja was the initial text around which the rest of the muwaššaḥ was composed.[20]

Ibn Khaldun also mentions the muwaššaḥ and its kharja in his Muqaddimah.[21]

Modern study

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In 1948, the Hungarian linguist Samuel Miklos Stern published "Les Vers finaux en espagnol dans les muwaššaḥs hispano-hebraïques" in the journal al-Andalus, translated into English in 1974 as The Final Lines of Hebrew Muwashshaḥs from Spain.[21][22] Stern's interpretation of kharjas in Hebrew texts made them accessible to Romanists and had a great impact on the Spanish establishment and scholars of Romance in the West.[21][22]

Emilio García Gómez and Josep M. Solà-Solé compiled collections of kharjas.[22][23] Gómez's 1965 book Jarchas Romances De La Serie Arabe En Su Marco presented a corpus of all known kharjas at the time; although it did not include annotation or scholarly apparatus, it became canonical.[22] Solà-Solé's Corpus de poesía mozárabe (Las Harjas andalusíes) offered a complete scholarly apparatus, variations taken from different manuscripts, thorough discussion, and thoughtful speculation.[22]

LP Harvey, Alan Jones, and James T. Monroe have also made influential contributions to the study of the kharjas.[22]

See also

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References

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Editions of the Kharjas and Bibliography

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Revisions and contributorsEdit on WikipediaRead on Wikipedia

Kharja

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from Grokipedia
The kharja (Arabic: خروجة, meaning "exit") is the concluding refrain, typically a couplet or short stanza, of the muwashshah, a strophic poetic form that originated in al-Andalus (Islamic Iberia) between the 11th and 13th centuries. Often voiced from the perspective of a young woman, it expresses intimate emotions such as love, longing, or lament in vernacular languages like Ibero-Romance (Mozarabic) or colloquial Arabic, interspersed with Arabic elements, serving as an emotional and melodic climax that contrasts sharply with the formal classical Arabic or Hebrew of the poem's body. The kharja emerged within the multicultural milieu of , where Arab, Berber, Jewish, and Hispano-Roman communities interacted, fostering innovations in and influenced by the 9th-century musician Ziryāb. As a snippet from popular songs or tunes, it preserved oral vernacular traditions, often drawing from women's songs, and was integral to the muwashshah's structure of varying schemes across stanzas. Scholarly recognition of the kharja's significance began in , when Samuel Miklos Stern identified Romance-language examples in Hebrew muwashshah manuscripts, revealing over 60 such "Romance kharjas" and reshaping understandings of medieval Iberian literature. Linguistically, kharjas exemplify and bilingualism, blending Arabic vocabulary with Romance dialects spoken in , which highlights the region's hybrid cultural identity. This vernacular focus distinguishes them from the muwashshah's elite classical elements, making kharjas some of the earliest attested examples of Ibero-Romance , predating the 12th-century Provençal troubadours by a century. The kharja's cultural importance lies in its role as a bridge between poetic traditions and emerging European vernacular literatures, influencing the development of strophic forms in Spanish, , and Occitan poetry while underscoring al-Andalus's contributions to global lyric expression. Post-Stern's discovery, interdisciplinary studies—encompassing paleography, , and —have proliferated, with key conferences like the 1988 Exeter Colloquium advancing analyses of its manuscripts and transmissions.

Definition and Characteristics

Definition

The kharja, meaning "exit" in , serves as the concluding or of the , a strophic poetic form that originated in 11th-century . This final element acts as an , providing closure to the poem's more elaborate preceding stanzas, which are typically composed in or Hebrew. Typically comprising 2 to 5 lines, the kharja often employs a dialect, creating a deliberate contrast with the formal literary language of the 's body. This linguistic shift underscores its role as a poignant coda, heightening the poem's emotional resonance. The primary function of the kharja is to deliver an emotional or lyrical climax, frequently centering on themes of , , or lament, which intensify the 's overall sentiment. Unlike the , a fully vernacular strophic poem, the kharja is inherently tied to the as a subordinate concluding part rather than an independent composition.

Structural and Thematic Features

The kharja serves as the concluding stanza, often referred to as the final ghuṣn (branch) or markaz (refrain), in the strophic structure of the muwashshah, where it ties into the poem's overall rhyme scheme by echoing the simṭ (internal rhyme) established in the preceding aghṣān (stanzas). This placement creates a structural pivot, contrasting the formal body of the poem with a more intimate coda that resolves or refracts the earlier themes. In Arabic and Hebrew muwashshahs, the kharja's rhymes align with the common-rhyme lines (qaṣīdat al-qaṣīd) of the main stanzas, ensuring metrical and sonic continuity while allowing for linguistic shifts. Thematically, the kharja frequently embodies colloquial intimacy, with a prevalence of motifs centered on romantic love, often voiced from a perspective expressing pleas, longing, or distress. Common themes include abandonment by a lover, unfulfilled desire, and appeals to a maternal figure or confidante for solace, as seen in examples where a woman's voice laments separation or yearns for reunion. This female-voiced intimacy underscores a shift toward emotional immediacy, distinguishing the kharja from the more stylized, courtly tone of the muwashshah's opening sections. Such motifs highlight the kharja's role in humanizing the poem, blending personal vulnerability with poetic artifice. In terms of and meter, the kharja exhibits notable flexibility, adapting to prosody—typically accentual or —rather than adhering strictly to the quantitative meter (ʿarūḍ) that governs the or Hebrew stanzas of the muwashshah. This adaptation allows for a more fluid, speech-like cadence that mirrors everyday colloquial s, enhancing the kharja's dramatic and emotional impact. Unlike the rigid long/short patterns of the main body, the kharja often prioritizes natural intonation over , reflecting its roots in popular song traditions. Variations in the kharja's form are evident across , Hebrew, and multilingual traditions, with line counts ranging from one to five, though couplets are most common, and rhyme patterns that may incorporate internal echoes or extensions of the simṭ. occasionally appears, particularly in longer kharjas, to heighten tension by carrying a phrase across lines without pause, amplifying the sense of urgency in love motifs. These structural divergences accommodate the kharja's multilingual elements, such as Romance inflections, while maintaining cohesion with the muwashshah's framework.

Historical and Cultural Context

Origins in Al-Andalus Poetry

The kharja emerged as an integral component of the poetic form in 11th-century , a period marked by the decline of the after 1031 CE and the subsequent rise of the kingdoms. This fragmentation of political authority from Cordoba, the former Umayyad capital, to regional centers like , Toledo, and fostered an environment of cultural efflorescence, where courtly patronage by rulers supported literary innovation. Poets composed under the aegis of these patrons, integrating the kharja as a concluding that provided a vernacular contrast to the body of the poem. The form evolved within the poetic , incorporating rhythmic and oral elements from earlier eastern Arabic influences, to produce the fully strophic by around 1040–1100 CE, distinguished by its repetitive rhymes and the kharja's role as an envoi-like coda. This synthesis represented a departure from the linear of the eastern , adapting to the peninsula's multicultural milieu while maintaining Arabic prosodic rigor. Earliest attestations of the kharja appear in muwashshahat from the mid-11th century, with poets like al-A‘mā al-Tutīlī (d. 1126) incorporating vernacular insertions for dramatic effect. Ibn Quzmān (d. 1160), active in Cordoba during the Almoravid era following the Taifas, exemplifies this innovation through his diwan, where kharjas served as vernacular refrains that bridged classical composition and colloquial expression. His works, including both muwashshahat and the related form, highlight the kharja's function as a popular song fragment embedded within elite poetry. Socio-culturally, the kharja facilitated a blend of elite with popular song traditions, reflecting the interactions among Muslim, Jewish, and Christian communities in . Performed often by female singers in court settings, these endings captured everyday vernaculars and themes of longing, allowing diverse audiences to engage with high through accessible, melodic conclusions. This fusion underscored the region's hybrid identity, where the kharja acted as a cultural bridge in a society of linguistic and .

Role in Arabic, Hebrew, and Multilingual Traditions

The kharja, as the concluding refrain of the , was adopted by Hebrew poets in to infuse their works with emotional immediacy and vernacular authenticity, particularly in the 11th and 12th centuries. Yehuda Halevi (d. 1141), a prominent figure in both secular and liturgical poetry, incorporated Romance kharjas to evoke the voice of a passionate female speaker, as seen in his where the kharja laments: “Don’t touch me, my love;/ I don’t want him who hurts me./ My breast is sensitive./ Stop it, I refuse all [suitors].” This device allowed Halevi to contrast the elevated Hebrew stanzas with raw, colloquial expressions of longing and refusal, enhancing the emotional depth of Jewish poetry amid themes of divine and earthly love. Similarly, (d. 1138), in his theoretical treatise Kitab al-Muhadarah wa-al-I'dah and poetic compositions, utilized kharjas to symbolize feminine allegory and yearning, bridging classical Hebrew rhetoric with folk-like intimacy in both secular and piyyutim (liturgical poems). The kharja and its enclosing form spread beyond through migration to (the ) and , influencing local poetic traditions up to the 13th century. Following the political upheavals and expulsions in Iberia, Andalusian poets and musicians carried the strophic structure to the , where it merged with existing Arabic forms like the , a strophic poem, fostering hybrid expressions in courts and popular settings under the Almohad and later dynasties. In , under Muslim rule from the 9th to 11th centuries, the form arrived via Arab-Berber migrations and cultural exchanges, integrating into Sicilian that blended Andalusian innovations with local dialects, as evidenced in love lyrics that echoed the kharja's style. This diffusion sustained the kharja's role in sung performances, adapting to regional tongues while preserving its rhythmic and thematic core. Multilingual interplay characterized the kharja's evolution, incorporating Christian Mozarabic Romance elements alongside and Hebrew, which persisted in oral traditions even after the . Kharjas frequently featured Mozarabic dialects spoken by Christian communities in , allowing the form to serve as a conduit for in themes of love and , with Romance refrains voicing female perspectives amid or Hebrew bodies. Post-, from the 13th century onward, these elements endured in folk poetry, such as villancicos (peasant songs) and cantigas de amigo, where formulaic and motifs from kharjas survived orally among Sephardic and communities, evading written suppression. The kharja held profound cultural significance as a bridge between elite literature and popular expression, embodying Al-Andalus's —the coexistence of , , and . By embedding kharjas within sophisticated muwashshahs, it democratized poetic voice, allowing folk melodies and dialects to permeate and reflect the hybrid socio-linguistic fabric of urban centers like and . This interplay not only preserved oral traditions but also symbolized tolerant cultural synthesis, influencing broader Mediterranean lyricism.

Linguistic Composition

Romance Elements

The Romance elements in kharjas predominantly feature Ibero-Romance dialects, particularly the Mozarabic varieties spoken in during the 11th to 13th centuries. These forms, akin to Andalusian Romance, appear in approximately 10% of all surviving kharjas, though they are often mixed with or Hebrew elements rather than fully Romance. All identified Romance components derive from Ibero-Romance substrates, with no evidence of non-Iberian Romance influences. Phonological traits of these elements include a heptavocalic (/i, e, ɛ, a, ɔ, o, u/) with limited diphthongization of mid vowels, distinguishing them from the five-vowel systems of later Castilian or the diphthong-heavy developments in northern Ibero-Romance. Intervocalic occurs variably, with occlusives like Latin /p, t, k/ weakening to fricatives or (/β, ð, ɣ/), as in forms reflecting spoken Mozarabic patterns. of vowels preceding nasal consonants is also attested, contributing to the colloquial sound. Syntactically, the Romance portions exhibit simplicity, consisting of short clauses and paratactic structures that prioritize direct expression over complex subordination. Many adopt a dialogue form, simulating exchanges between speakers—such as a lover addressing a companion—evident in the brief, emotive phrasing typical of the verses. This contrasts with the more elaborate syntax of the surrounding body, underscoring the kharjas' origins. Culturally, these Romance elements serve as key evidence of a enduring Romance linguistic substrate within multicultural Andalusian society, preserving spoken traditions amid dominance. Scholars interpret them as adaptations of popular oral , likely from women's repertoires or performances in domestic or courtly contexts, where female perspectives on and longing predominate in about three-quarters of the cases.

Arabic and Hebrew Elements

In kharjas of Arabic muwashshahat, colloquial , often referred to as Andalusian darija, predominates, employing everyday and simplified grammar that contrasts with the of the preceding stanzas. This vernacular form incorporates diminutives such as habibi ("my beloved"), which convey intimacy and affection in a casual tone, alongside onomatopoeias and elements like thieves' argot (lughat al-diyasa) to evoke spontaneity and realism. For instance, a kharja by al-Kumayt expresses personal through phrases like "By , I cannot take more of this , he has bruised my ," highlighting the shift to direct, emotive speech typical of spoken Andalusian . Hebrew kharjas appear primarily in Hebrew adaptations of the form, integrated into piyyutim (liturgical poems) by Andalusian Jewish poets, where they mimic the Arabic while weaving in biblical allusions to elevate secular themes with sacred resonance. These kharjas often draw on scriptural imagery, such as echoes of the , to blend erotic or longing motifs with theological depth, reflecting the poets' erudition in both Hebrew scripture and Arabic poetics. Stylistically, they maintain a rhythmic parallelism to the strophic body but introduce a more intimate, Hebrew register, adapted for elite audiences familiar with multilingual courtly traditions. Instances of code-switching and hybrid forms are evident in both Arabic and Hebrew kharjas, particularly where Arabic terms infiltrate Hebrew contexts to heighten emotional or rhythmic effect, such as the insertion of habib ("beloved") into a Hebrew by Yōsef al-Kātib, creating a trilingual layering of Hebrew, , and occasional Romance elements. These hybrids underscore the cultural synthesis in , with words serving as bridges in Hebrew piyyutim to preserve metrical fidelity and thematic continuity. Scholars have identified approximately 93 such kharjas embedded in Hebrew muwashshahat, illustrating the elite adaptation of Semitic linguistic interplay. Arabic and Hebrew kharjas, while constituting the majority of the corpus—outnumbering Romance examples, which appear in only about 8% of Arabic muwashshahat—represent a deliberate poetic choice to vernacularize the form, contrasting the high-register stanzas and emphasizing cultural intimacy over the more exotic Romance variants. This predominance highlights their role in sustaining the muwashshah's evolution within and Jewish literary circles in .

Scholarly Corpora

Arabic Muwashshah Collections

The primary corpus of Arabic containing kharjas derives from 15th- and 16th-century anthologies, most notably the 'Uddat al-jalīs wa-mu'ānasat al-wazīr wa-l-ra'īs by ʿAlī ibn Bishrī al-Anṣārī (d. after 1492), a comprehensive collection that preserves numerous , many with intact kharjas in or Romance vernaculars. This anthology, compiled in toward the end of the Nasrid period, serves as a key repository for later Andalusian strophic poetry, drawing from earlier poets and emphasizing thematic elements like and within the muwashshah's characteristic of alternating strophes and refrains. Earlier foundational texts also contribute significantly to the corpus, including the Al-Maqāmāt al-luzūmiyyāt by Abū Bakr Yaḥyā al-Saraqusṭī (d. 1167), a 12th-century collection of rhymed narratives interspersed with that feature bilingual kharjas blending and Romance elements. Complementing this is the Dīwān of Ibn Quzmān (d. 1160), which, while primarily known for its approximately 150 zajals (colloquial strophic poems), includes several with kharjas that highlight the form's evolution in 11th- and 12th-century Cordoba. Critical editions have been essential in cataloging and analyzing these sources, with Emilio García Gómez's 1952 publication in providing a pioneering transcription and interpretation of 24 Romance kharjas embedded in Arabic at. Subsequent works by García Gómez, such as Las jarchas romances de la serie árabe en su marco (1975), expanded on this by contextualizing the kharjas within their poetic frameworks, facilitating deeper linguistic and thematic studies; across all sources, scholars have identified approximately 45 Romance kharjas in Arabic at and about 26 in Hebrew ones, totaling around 64. The overall corpus faces significant challenges due to the fragmentary survival of medieval manuscripts, exacerbated by the political upheavals following the fall of in 1492. Modern compilations like Dīwān al-muwaššaḥāt al-andalusiyya (1979–1986) attempt to address these gaps by aggregating surviving examples, but the reliance on late anthologies means earlier, potentially diverse kharjas may be underrepresented.

Hebrew Muwashshah Collections

Hebrew muwashshahat containing kharjas are primarily preserved in medieval Hebrew anthologies from the 11th and 12th centuries, including the Diwan of Yehuda Halevi (c. 1075–1141) and the poetic collections of Moses ibn Ezra (c. 1055–c. 1138). These works feature strophic compositions modeled on Arabic forms, with many ending in kharjas expressed in Romance vernaculars or Arabic, capturing the cultural synthesis of Al-Andalus. Halevi's diwan, for instance, includes muwashshahat with Romance kharjas that evoke themes of love and longing, while ibn Ezra's poems similarly integrate multilingual closings to enhance emotional resonance. Later compilations extend this tradition into the , notably the Mahbarot Immanuel (c. 1320) by ben Solomon of (c. 1261–1332), which incorporates Hebrew muwashshahat with kharjas, blending Andalusian influences with Italian Jewish contexts. Scholarly editions highlight the preservation challenges of these texts, as seen in Tova Rosen's 2003 study Unveiling Eve: Reading Gender in Medieval Hebrew Literature, which analyzes over 20 kharjas from Hebrew muwashshahat, noting their frequent Romance or elements that convey female voices and erotic motifs. Rosen emphasizes how these closings serve as poignant culminations, often adapting popular dialects to bridge elite Hebrew verse with expression. The overall Hebrew corpus includes over 250 muwashshahat, many with identifiable kharjas in , Hebrew, or Romance—though smaller than some Arabic collections owing to manuscript losses and cultural disruptions from the Jewish expulsion from in 1492, which scattered communities and hindered transmission. This limited scope underscores the form's role in sustaining Hebrew poetic innovation amid diaspora, as briefly noted in broader studies of multilingual traditions.

Additional and Comparative Sources

Beyond the primary and Hebrew muwashshah collections, supplementary corpora encompass fragments from Sicilian and n traditions that extend the strophic forms associated with kharjas. In , the and genres persisted into the medieval period and beyond, with 13th-century manuscripts containing poetry featuring kharja-like refrains in colloquial or vernacular dialects, reflecting continuations of Andalusian innovations after the . These fragments, often preserved in oral and manuscript traditions, illustrate the migration of the form eastward and southward, as seen in Tunisian and Moroccan sources where kharjas evoke popular song elements. In , under Norman rule in the 12th and 13th centuries, and Hebrew poets produced strophic love poetry that parallels the structure, including endings akin to kharjas, though direct Romance-language kharjas are rarer and primarily inferred from multilingual influences in courtly compositions. This Sicilian corpus, documented in works by poets like Ibn Hamdis, highlights cross-cultural exchanges between Andalusian and Mediterranean traditions, with fragments showing thematic and formal similarities to examples. Comparative sources draw parallels between kharjas and European poetry, particularly in Occitan traditions, where strophic forms with refrains mirror the muwashshah's concluding couplets, suggesting potential influence via cultural contacts in the . Scholars identify structural affinities, such as the use of a closing "exit" in popular to contrast learned stanzas, in cansos and the Galician-Portuguese cantiga d'amigo, positioning kharjas as precursors to Romance lyric developments. Modern folk song archives further aid comparisons, with North African collections of malḥūn and ṣawt preserving strophic songs that echo the kharja's blend of courtly and elements, as documented in ethnomusicological recordings from and . Post-2000 philological research has updated interpretations of these peripheral sources, emphasizing digital editions and cross-linguistic analyses, though broader encyclopedic coverage often underrepresents such advancements in reconstructing fragmentary texts.

Key Debates

Authenticity and Origins

The debate over the authenticity of kharjas as genuine vernacular emerged after Samuel M. Stern's discovery of Romance-language examples, with early scholars like Emilio Gómez interpreting them as authentic snippets of popular song. However, skepticism arose regarding whether the Romance elements were fabricated by Arab or Hebrew poets as imitations of folk traditions rather than authentic expressions of . This doubt stemmed from the sophistication of the muwashshahat framework, suggesting that the kharjas might represent literary inventions tailored to fit or Hebrew poetic conventions. Arguments supporting the authenticity of kharjas highlight their linguistic consistency with known Mozarabic dialects, as evidenced by comparisons with 10th-century inscriptions and artifacts from , which share phonetic and morphological features like and diminutives. Thematic parallels to folk traditions, including motifs of longing and lamentation, further bolster this view, indicating that kharjas captured elements of oral expression rather than purely contrived additions. Counterarguments persist, positing kharjas as stylized literary constructs created within the Arabic poetic system, a position reinforced by the absence of independent vernacular Romance texts from before 1200, which raises doubts about their independent existence outside muwashshahat. Since the , scholarly consensus has shifted toward viewing kharjas as largely authentic, with origins traceable to oral traditions of women's laments, as argued in detailed analyses by Samuel M. Stern and James T. Monroe, who emphasize their formulaic structures and cultural embedding in everyday speech. This perspective integrates philological evidence with historical context, affirming kharjas as vital witnesses to medieval in .

Language Interpretation and Transcription

The kharjas, as the concluding refrains of poems, are inscribed in or Hebrew scripts devoid of diacritical marks for vowels and short consonants, rendering their transcription into inherently ambiguous. This orthographic sparsity permits diverse interpretations, where a single graphemic sequence might evoke an term or a Mozarabic Romance phrase, complicating efforts to discern the intended expression. For example, the form حبيب (ḥb y b) has been read as the "habib" ("beloved") in some contexts, while alternative vocalizations propose Romance equivalents like "a mi bo" or associations with "amigo" ("friend"), reflecting the script's flexibility in accommodating bilingual poetic traditions. Twentieth-century scholarship, led by Emilio García Gómez, established foundational transcriptions in works such as Las jarchas romances de la serie árabe (1965), positing Romance readings for over 50 kharjas from sources. However, these efforts faced criticism for inconsistencies, such as arbitrary emendations to fit metrical schemes or preconceived linguistic patterns, which disregarded evidence in roughly one-third of cases. In the , Joan Corominas advanced revisions through detailed critiques, including reexaminations of ambiguous forms like "awsak" (potentially Romance "oh sack" or "while you"), altering interpretations for approximately 30% of the corpus by prioritizing paleographic fidelity over speculative normalization. These debates underscore the tension between philological rigor and the reconstructive demands of extinct dialects. To address such uncertainties, scholars employ paleographic analysis, scrutinizing minutiae like dot placements, ligatures, and variations—evident in the Manuscrit Colin—to differentiate letters such as sīn from shīn or rāʾ from zāy. Complementary integrates evidence from modern Ibero-Romance dialects, historical Mozarabic glosses, and parallel structures in Galician-Portuguese cantigas de amigo, enabling probabilistic reconstructions that align kharjas with broader Andalusian vernacular patterns.

Illustrative Examples

Romance Kharjas

The Romance kharjas serve as the culminating refrains in many muwashshahat, composed in the Mozarabic of and often voicing a female speaker's intimate emotions of love and loss. These short verses, typically two to four lines long, exhibit a rhythmic flow through repetition and simple schemes, distinguishing them from the more formal stanzas that precede them. Selected for their representation of themes and emotional immediacy, the following examples are drawn from 12th-century -hosted poems, illustrating the vernacular's role in blending popular expression with learned poetic forms. A notable example appears in a attributed to Ibn Quzmān (c. 1150): "¡Ay, mi amigo, qué faré eu!" This translates to English as "Oh, my friend, what shall I do!" and embodies the theme of despair over romantic turmoil, with the speaker directly addressing a in a cry of helplessness. A representative case from a 12th-century is "Mamma, mi amor va e no torna ja! / Dime ke farey, mamma, si no m’alenno!" translated as "Mamma, my love is going away and won’t be back again! / Tell me what to do, mamma, if my pain doesn’t ease!" Here, the rhythmic flow emerges through the insistent address to "mamma" and the parallel pleas, highlighting the of abandonment while integrating maternal as a cultural motif in these verses. These kharjas exemplify emotional directness through exclamatory phrasing and syntax—such as inverted and phonetic simplifications absent in —contrasting the ornate, metaphorical style of the preceding stanzas to create a poignant shift toward raw, personal utterance. Their selection emphasizes common patterns in Arabic-hosted muwashshahat, where the Romance elements provide a lively, rhythmic closure that evokes the oral traditions of medieval Iberia.

Arabic and Hebrew Kharjas

Arabic kharjas, the concluding refrains of poems, often employ colloquial Andalusian Arabic to convey intimate, emotional expressions that contrast with the of the poem's body, highlighting stylistic variations through diminutives, direct address, and rhythms. These kharjas frequently adopt a female voice, evoking longing or plea, and serve as a bridge between elite literary forms and popular speech. A representative example appears in a 12th-century muwashshah by the poet al-Abyad, where the kharja reads: "Bi-llāh rasūl qid li-‘l-khalīl kayfa ‘l-sabīl wa-yabīt ‘indī / Nu‘tī-h dalūl khalfa ‘l-hijāl ‘alā ‘l-nikāl wa-nazīd nahd-ī." Translated as "By , Messenger, say to my lover, is there no way in which he could spend the night with me? He will be showered with love in my curtained apartment, and I’ll offer him my breasts," this kharja shifts from the poem's idealized love themes to a slave girl's bold, submissive invitation, using colloquial diminutives like dalūl (caresses) for tender intimacy. Another case is from Ibn Baqī's , with the kharja: "Nadīmu-nā qad tab ghannī la-hu wa-‘shdu / Wa-‘rid ‘alay-hi ‘l-kās ‘asāhu yartaddu," rendered as "Sing another song to him, and offer him a with it. And in all hopefulness, he will turn apostate again." Here, within a of convivial drinking, the kharja injects witty historical to early Islamic figures, employing playful syntax to add levity and . A third example, from al-Jazzār's work, features: "Nūfī-k jamāl-ī, wa-nuhdī-k nahd-ī wa lā nqassir," translated as "I’ll offer you my beauty, and make you a present of my breasts and won’t fall short (in any way)!" This kharja, in a poem exploring love's trials, introduces erotic directness through colloquial imperatives, underscoring the form's hybrid blend of formal structure and spoken sensuality. Kharjas in Hebrew muwashshah poetry are typically in Romance or Arabic rather than Hebrew, reflecting the multilingual traditions of and integrating biblical echoes with popular vernacular elements. These endings maintain the strophic rhyme while shifting to a more accessible, emotive register. An illustrative example comes from Yehuda Halevi's 12th-century "Rav-lakhem mokhiḥay," where the kharja states: "Báy(d)se mew qoraçón de míb / ya ráb si se me tornarád tan mál me dóled l' alḥabīb / enférmo yéd kand sanarád." This Romance kharja, translated roughly as "Sad is my heart for me / Oh Lord, if it returns to me, such harm the beloved has done me / Sick I was when it healed," blends intimate with devotional tones, using colloquial Romance syntax to evoke in a context.

Evolution of Scholarship

Manuscript Discoveries

The study of kharjas began in the through examinations of manuscripts preserved in Egyptian libraries, many of which had been transported from during the region's political upheavals. Dutch orientalist Reinhart Dozy played a pivotal role in identifying the structural elements of strophic poetry, including the kharja as the concluding , in his 1881 Supplément aux dictionnaires arabes, where he analyzed lexical and poetic terms drawn from these Andalusian-origin texts. This work laid foundational insights into the form, highlighting the kharja's distinct role without yet recognizing its potential Romance elements. The marked a transformative phase in kharja discoveries, primarily through the systematic exploration of the Cairo Genizah, a vast repository of Jewish documents unearthed in the Ben Ezra Synagogue in and intensively studied from the 1900s to the 1950s. These efforts uncovered hundreds of Hebrew manuscript fragments containing muwashshahs with kharjas, often in a mix of Hebrew, , and Romance vernaculars. A landmark contribution came in 1948 when Samuel M. Stern published his analysis of twenty Hebrew muwashshahs from Genizah fragments, revealing Romance-language kharjas transcribed in Hebrew script—the earliest documented examples of vernacular Romance . This discovery, detailed in Stern's article "Les vers finaux en espagnol dans les muwassahs hispano-hébraïques," shifted scholarly focus toward the kharja's multicultural and oral-traditional dimensions. Among the most significant manuscript sources are 11th-century Hebrew fragments from the Firkovitch Collection in what was then Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), which preserve variants of Andalusian strophic including kharjas, offering paleographic and linguistic evidence of early compositions. For Arabic muwashshahs, key exemplars include the 13th-century 'Uddat al-jalis , which compiles works with kharjas. In the , initiatives like the Friedberg enabled enhanced access to previously overlooked materials through high-resolution imaging and metadata cataloging.

Contemporary Research and Gaps

Following the publication of Emilio García Gómez's seminal 1965 edition, Las jarchas romances de la serie árabe en su marco, which provided a into Latin characters, rhythmic Spanish calques, and detailed linguistic analysis of the Romance kharjas embedded in Arabic muwashshaḥs, on kharjas shifted toward interdisciplinary approaches. This work established the kharjas as integral to a broader Romance lyric , influencing subsequent linguistic studies that examined their Mozarabic features and metrical structures. It also prompted explorations in , highlighting the kharjas' role in bridging and vernacular poetic forms. In the , research increasingly incorporated perspectives, with scholars analyzing the kharjas' frequent adoption of a voice as evidence of underlying oral traditions or performative elements in Andalusian . Michel Zink's examinations of medieval lyric contrasted the kharja's intimate, often emotional perspective with the more formal or Hebrew strophes, suggesting a deliberate poetic device to evoke authenticity and immediacy. These theories aligned with broader feminist readings that positioned the kharjas as rare medieval expressions of women's subjectivity, though debates persist on whether this voice reflects authentic authorship or male imitation. From the 2000s onward, trends in kharja studies have emphasized cultural and interpretive frameworks, including postcolonial and feminist lenses that view the kharjas as sites of hybridity in Al-Andalus's multicultural milieu. María Rosa Menocal's 2002 The Ornament of the World framed kharjas within a narrative of tolerant coexistence among Muslims, Jews, and Christians, underscoring their role in disseminating vernacular influences across linguistic boundaries. Recent scholarship, such as Otto Zwartjes's 2015 updated survey, continues to integrate postcolonial readings by exploring power dynamics in the incorporation of non-Arabic elements, while feminist interpretations highlight the kharjas' potential subversion of patriarchal poetic norms. Emerging applications of digital humanities, including corpus-based linguistic analyses, have facilitated new textual comparisons, though adoption remains limited. A 2017 thesis on the muwashshaḥ and kharja further traces their impact on Western literary traditions, advocating for interdisciplinary connections with global medieval poetics. Since 2020, research has expanded to intertextual and intermusical analyses, including studies on kharja influences in Galician-Portuguese cantigas and medieval monophonic song traditions. Despite these advances, significant gaps persist in contemporary research. Coverage of non-elite social influences on kharjas remains sparse, with most studies prioritizing courtly contexts over potential popular or rural origins. Sonic and oral dimensions, including practices and musical integrations, are underexplored, particularly in light of ethnomusicological approaches that link kharjas to broader Mediterranean traditions but lack comprehensive corpora. Future directions include leveraging AI for paleographic analysis of undeciphered manuscripts, potentially expanding access to private collections and enabling more accurate transcriptions of ambiguous kharjas. Such tools, already applied to other ancient scripts like the Dead Sea Scrolls, could address interpretive uncertainties while integrating kharjas into global comparative studies of medieval vernacular poetry.

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