As linguistic systems comprising a large variety of written and oral registers including
derivate languages and dialects Latin and Arabic have been of paramount importance for the
history of the Euromediterranean since Antiquity. Moreover due to their long-term function as
languages of administration intellectual activity and religion they are often regarded as
cultural markers of Europe and the (Arabic-)Islamic sphere respectively. This volume explores
the many dimensions and ramifications of Latin-Arabic entanglement both from macro-historical
as well as from micro-historical perspectives. Visions of history marked by the binary
opposition of Islam and the West tend to ignore these important facets of Euromediterranean
entanglement as do historical studies that explain complex transcultural processes without
giving attention to their linguistic dimension.
