Note sur un manuscrit arabo-berbère découvert à Djerba

In addition to the Arabic text, there are commentaries in Berber, which makes this manuscript also important for the study of Berber languages. The Berber used in this work seems to be more refined and more literary than the spoken dialects, and it may be supposed that it goes further back in time than the introduction of Khārijism in North Africa. Perhaps it is a kind of Berber that was understood in Ibāḍī areas as far from each other as Mīzāb, Oued Rīgh, Nefzaoua, Jerba and the Jabal Nafūsa. Motylinski established that the Berber used in this manuscript, which was almost ununderstandable for the Ibāḍīs of Jerba, was better understood by those of the Jabal Nafūsa and of Mīzāb. It seems to be a kind of intermediary language between the Berber dialects of the sea side and those of the Sahara, Tamazir’t of the Jabal Nafūsa, Chaouia of the Aurès, and Zenatia of the K’sours and Mīzāb.