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“Paladino coraçon”: Job in Aljamiado Literature and Exegetical Early Modern Islamic Texts

Publication date: 25.02.2026

Terminus, 2025, Volume 27, Issue 4 (77), pp. 437-466

https://doi.org/10.4467/20843844TE.25.022.22950

Authors

,
Pablo Trébol García-Arilla
University of Zaragoza
, Spain
https://orcid.org/0009-0006-5308-8992 Orcid
Contact with author
All publications →
Luis García-Vela
University of Zaragoza
, Spain
https://orcid.org/0009-0004-6522-0685 Orcid
All publications →

Titles

“Paladino coraçon”: Job in Aljamiado Literature and Exegetical Early Modern Islamic Texts

Abstract

Aljamiado literature, a product of the Hispanic Islamic community in Early Modern Iberia, reflects an identity in tension between cultural assimilation and religious re-sistance. Its bilingual nature and its use of Arabic script respond both to a practical necessity and an identity issue. In this context, the figure of Job (Ayyūb) appears in aljamiado literature in various forms, particularly in “explicit and focused” narratives, where he embodies patience and submission to God. The aljamiado version of the story of Job stands out for its expressiveness, symbolic elements, and emotional di-mension, which are absent from its biblical and Quranic sources. El Mancebo de Arévalo, in his Tafçira, presents an etopoeia of Job that portrays him as a model of wisdom, patience, and generosity, in a narrative that, beyond preserving Islamic iden-tity, reflects the cultural friction of the Morisco community with its Christian surroundings.

References

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Information

Information: Terminus, 2025, Volume 27, Issue 4 (77), pp. 437-466

Article type: Original scientific article

Authors

https://orcid.org/0009-0006-5308-8992

Pablo Trébol García-Arilla
University of Zaragoza
, Spain
https://orcid.org/0009-0006-5308-8992 Orcid
Contact with author
All publications →

University of Zaragoza
Spain
ROR ID:

 Research Organization Registry icon 012a91z28

https://orcid.org/0009-0004-6522-0685

Luis García-Vela
University of Zaragoza
, Spain
https://orcid.org/0009-0004-6522-0685 Orcid
All publications →

University of Zaragoza
Spain
ROR ID:

 Research Organization Registry icon 012a91z28

Published at: 25.02.2026

Article status: Open

Licence: CC BY 4.0  licence icon

Article financing:

This work is part of the activities of the i+D Project PID2021-127063NB-I00: Narremas y Mitemas: Unidades de Elaboración Épica e Historiográfica, of Spain’s Programa Estatal de Generación de Conocimiento (MICINN/AEI/FEDER, EU).

Percentage share of authors:

Pablo Trébol García-Arilla (Author) - 50%
Luis García-Vela (Author) - 50%

Information about author:

Luis García‑Vela is Researcher in Hispanophone‑Maghrebi poetry, aljamiado literature, and Aragonese poetry. BA in Hispanic Philology (University of Zaragoza, 2024), MA in Teacher Training (2025), now pursuing an MA in Arab and Hebrew Cultures (University of Granada). Member of many research projects, such as NYMUEEH and Polymathía. Founder of Corpus of Hispanophone‑Maghrebi Poetry (CoPoHiM), author of articles and a forthcoming monograph entitled Historia de voces entre orillas. Introducción a la poesía hispanomagrebí. Prepares a PhD on the Poem of Yūsuf and co‑ edits Julio Antonio Gómez’s complete poetry.

Pablo Trébol García‑Arilla is member of NYMUEEH research group at the University of Zaragoza, practicing professor at University of Zaragoza, teacher at German School of Zaragoza, and co‑ director of ZaraGuía CSO. His research covers hagiography, literary theory and medieval literature. PhD project includes all three cornerstones following the development of the figure of Job throughout the Middle Ages. Recent contributions: La anagnórisis como modulador de la emoción (Seminario Internacional Psylex VI, 2025); El episodio de la invasión de los almujuces (LEHIAL II, 2024).

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“Paladino coraçon”: Job in Aljamiado Literature and Exegetical Early Modern Islamic Texts

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