"Babiloine" vs. "Baldach" en ancien français d’outremer et d’en-deçà la mer

Abstract

In Old French, two interrelated processes of semantic shift occurred: first, the antonomasia whereby Cairo was called Babiloine ‘Babylonia’; second, the use of the toponym Baghdad either in the primary sense of Bagdad or as a metonymy for Babylonia. More precisely, I would like to elaborate on a specific form of the name Baghdad, namely Baldach, that appears in the Fleur does Estoires de la terre d’Orient by Hethum of Corycus instead of the more common form Baudac. This form could constitute a missing link in the process of adaptation of the toponym […] Baghdad into Old French.