Recuerdo del arabista tangerino Ricardo Ruíz Orsatti en el centenario de la muerte de Galdós

Abstract

The history of Spanish Arabism is often confused with that of the academic discipline, but the role played by Arabic translators and interpreters must also be taken into account, in which the brothers Ruiz Orsatti, Ricardo and Reginaldo must be remembered. Ricardo Ruiz Orsatti played an important role in Spanish-Moroccan relations in the first half of the 20th century. But his name is especially known for the correspondence he had with the writer Benito Perez Galdos between 1901 and 1910, which would be decisive for the drafting by the novelist of two of his national episodes. Aita Tettauen y Carlos VI en la Rapita. The centenary of the death of the Canarian writer seems a propitious occasion to place this correspondence in its context and rescue the figure of Ricardo Ruiz Orsatti.