Christian Graeco-Arabica: Prolegomena to a History of the Arabic Translations of the Greek Church...

copy koninklijke brill nv leiden 2015 | doi 1011632212943X-00301008

Intellectual Historyof the Islamicate World 3 (2015) 188ndash227

brillcomihiw

Christian Graeco-ArabicaProlegomena to a History of the ArabicTranslations of the Greek Church Fathers

Alexander TreigerDalhousie University

atreigerdalca

Abstract

WhereasGraeco-Arabic translations of philosophical and scientific literature centeredin Baghdad have been the focus of sustained scholarly effort for over a century and ahalf Arabic translations of the Greek Church Fathers carried out by Arabic-speakingChristians for their ecclesiastical needs have received very limited attention Thiscontribution attempts to chart a history of the Arabic versions of the Greek ChurchFathers from the eighth century to the present with emphasis on the translationsproduced in themonasteries of Palestine in the eighth ninth and early tenth centuriesand in Antioch during the period of Byzantine rule It shows how philological methodsof Graeco-Arabic Studies can be successfully applied to these unduly neglected Arabictranslations of Patristic works

Keywords

GreekChurchFathers ndashGraeco-Arabic translationsndash Syro-Arabic translationsndashMiddleEastern Christianity ndash Arab Orthodox Christianity ndash Melkite Christianity ndash Palestinianmonasteries ndash Antioch during the Byzantine period

This contribution presents an important yet unduly neglected phenomenonthe large-scale translation of Christian texts from Greek (as well as SyriacCoptic and other languages) into Arabic carried outmdashfrom the late eighthcentury to the presentmdashby Arabic-speaking Christians of all denominationsfor their ecclesiastical needs1

1 I am thankful to the organizers andparticipants of the FranzRosenthal centennial conference

christian graeco-arabica 189

Intellectual History of the Islamicate World 3 (2015) 188ndash227

As a social phenomenon this specifically ecclesiastical Graeco-Arabic (aswell as Syro-Arabic Copto-Arabic etc) translation activitymdashwhat might becalled Christian Graeco-Arabicamdashis quite distinct from the better knownʿAbbāsid translationmovement of Greek philosophical scientific andmedicalliterature centered in Baghdad (notwithstanding the fact that Arabic-speakingChristian translators were also prominently involved in the latter)2 The maindifferences are the following

1 Christian Graeco-Arabica focused on Christian materialmdashBiblical bookshomiletic hagiographic liturgical and Patristic works and compilations onthe history of the Church Church councils heresies and canon law

2 Christian Graeco-Arabica served the internal needs of the Middle EasternChristian communities and so its sponsors and beneficiaries were not pri-marilyMuslims but fellow-ChristiansmdashldquoMelkitesrdquo ldquoJacobitesrdquo ldquoNestoriansrdquoMaronites and Coptsmdashwho were feeling increasingly more at home withArabic than with their traditional liturgical languages3

Though the first volume of Georg Grafrsquos magisterial Geschichte der christlichenarabischen Literatur (1944) provides ample documentation for ChristianGraeco-Arabica listing over a thousand extant translations of the ChurchFathers alone (including fragmentary versions paraphrases excerpts and flori-legia) the overwhelmingmajority (an estimated 99) of them remain unpub-lished and their critical study has barely begun4 As a result while most Ara-

at Yale especially Dimitri Gutas Sabine Schmidtke Andreacute Binggeli and Kevin van Bladelfor their helpful remarks I am also deeply grateful to Samuel Noble and Gregor Schwarb forinsightful comments on an earlier draft

2 On the ʿAbbāsid translation movement see Gutas Greek Thought Arabic Culture for theChristian context see Griffith Church in the Shadow pp 106ndash128 Stroumsa ldquoPhilosophy asWisdomrdquo

3 For an overview of the Christian communities in the Islamic world see Griffith Church in theShadow pp 129ndash140

4 Crucial updates to Graf are available in the relevant sections of Nasrallah Histoire and inMaurice Geerard and Jacques Noretrsquos Clavis Patrum Graecorum [= cpg] For an overview ofArabic translations of Patristic literature see Treiger ldquoThe Fathers in Arabicrdquo For an overviewof translations into other languages of the Christian Orient some of which (particularlythose into Syriac and to a lesser degree Coptic) served as intermediaries for translationsinto Arabic see Adam McCollumrsquos contribution to this volume Despite the vast amount oftranslated material it is important to keep in mind that many Patristic works were nevertranslated into Arabic and were consequently virtually unknown tomedieval Arabic-writingChristian authors

190 treiger


bists and certainly all Graeco-Arabists would readily recognize the names ofḤunayn ibn Isḥāq Qusṭā ibn Lūqā and other celebrated translators of philo-sophical scientific and medical literature in ʿAbbāsid Baghdad the names ofthe equally talented and prolific translators Antonios Ibrāhīm ibn Yūḥannāand ʿAbdallāh ibn al-Faḍlmdashwho translated Christian materialmdashremain rela-tively unknown

To give even a brief overview of Christian Graeco-Arabica is a challeng-ing task since translations were carried out in a number of localities over anextended period of time and in different ecclesiastical communities Becausethe Arabic-speaking Orthodox Christians the so-called ldquoMelkitesrdquo were at theforefront of this translation activity (particularly as far as translations directlyfrom Greek are concerned) in what follows I will focus on the activity of ArabOrthodox (Melkite) translators5 Translation activity carried out within otherecclesiastical communitiesmdashparticularly among the Coptsmdashwill require aseparate treatment6

1 Christian Graeco-Arabica An Overview

In the late eighth ninth and early tenth centuries the principal center ofMelkite translation activity was the monastery of Mār Sābā in Palestine Manyof the translations of Biblical hagiographic Patristic and other texts listed byJoshua Blau as part of the ldquoOld South Palestinian archiverdquo (on which his gram-mar of the Old Palestinian subdialect of Christian Arabic is based) originate atMār Sābā7Moreover Mār Sābāwas amultilingual translation center that oper-ated in no fewer than four languages Greek Syriac Arabic and Georgian Itwas there that works of the famous East-Syriac spiritual writer Isaac of Ninevehwere translated virtually simultaneously from the original Syriac into Greek(by themonks Abramios and Patrikios ca 800) Arabic and Georgianmdasha strik-ing testimony to the flourishing translation culture of this monastery8 We also

5 On Arab Orthodox Christianity see now NobleTreiger Orthodox Church6 For some preliminary remarks see Treiger ldquoThe Fathers in Arabicrdquo7 Blau A Grammar of Christian Arabic sectsect142ndash143 pp 23ndash33 It is of course quite incorrect

to see Blaursquos Grammar as being descriptive (or even worsemdashprescriptive) of all ChristianArabic Numerous Arab Christian texts particularly from the tenth century on are writtenin a literary register indistinguishable from Muslim Arabic of the same period some ArabChristian texts even deliberately employ sophisticated grammatical constructions complexvocabulary and elevated literary style eg rhymed prose (saǧʿ)

8 TheGreek translation is nowavailable in a critical editionbyMarcel Pirard Pirard Abba Isaak



know of works translated from Greek (sometimes via Syriac) into Arabic andfrom Arabic further into Georgian in this time period These extant Georgiantranslations often provide evidence for now lost Arabic intermediaries or evenfor lost Greek texts9 In addition toMār Sābā one can assume that translationsinto Arabic were carried out in other Palestinianmonasteries too as well as onMount Sinai (see below)10

Some translation activitymdashparticularly of Biblical textsmdashis reported also inArab Orthodox (Melkite) circles outside Palestine Thus in 867ad in Damas-cus the Melkite translator and homilist Bišr ibn al-Sirrī translated from Syriacinto Arabic Paulrsquos Epistles the Acts of the Apostles and the Catholic Epis-tles11 The Melkite priest from Alexandria al-ʿAlam al-Iskandarī translated intoArabic the Septuagint Greek version of the Prophets (from an ancient Greekuncial manuscript)12 The tenth-century Melkite bishop of Old Cairo Theophi-los (Tawfīl ibn Tawfīl) a native of Damascus translated into Arabic the Gospelsand John Chrysostomrsquos homily ldquoon punctual attendance of the liturgiesrdquo ( fī l-muwāẓaba ʿalā l-quddāsāt = the ninth homily on penitence cpg 43339)13

tou Syrou cf Brock ldquoFromQaṭar to Tokyordquo idem ldquoSyriac into Greekrdquo Both the oldest Ara-bicmanuscript of Isaac and the oldestGeorgianmanuscript of IsaacmdashStrasbourgOr 4226(year 886) and Sinai geo 35 (year 906) respectivelymdashwere copied atMār Sābā neither theArabic nor the Georgian translation has so far been published See now Pataridze ldquoLesDiscours Asceacutetiquesrdquo On another Arabic manuscript of the Sabaitic translation of IsaacmdashSinai ar 549 (10th century) see my ldquoSyro-Arabic Translationsrdquo On the possible identity ofPatrikios see n 60 below

9 Kim ldquoSyriac Versionrdquo idem ldquoVostochnye perevodyrdquo Pataridze ldquoChristian Literaturerdquoeadem ldquoSushrsquoestvujut li perevodyrdquo Samir ldquoHomeacuteliaires geacuteorgiensrdquo Outtier ldquoLemanuscritTbilisi a-249rdquo idem ldquoLes enseignements des Pegraveresrdquo idem ldquoAgrave propos des traductionsrdquo

10 OnMount Sinai see brief remarks in Nasrallah Histoire vol ii2 p 13 vol iii1 p 7811 Griffith TheBible inArabic pp 133ndash135 this translation has been published and translated

into English Staal Mt Sinai Arabic Codex 151 i idem Mt Sinai Arabic Codex 151 iiBišr ibn al-Sirrī is also the author of two unpublished homilies on Theophany (Sinaiar 400 fols 127rndash135r Sinai ar 401 fols 157rndash166v commissioned by Michael bishop ofDamascusmdashsee Samir ldquoMichel eacutevecircque melkiterdquo) and on Ascension (Sinai ar nf Perg46 membrum disiectum of Milan Ambr x198 supmdashsee Fumagalli ldquoArabic Manuscriptsrdquop 67 the beginning of the text is reproduced in Meiumlmaacuterēs Kataacutelogos p 94 photograph44)

12 Graf Geschichte vol 1 pp 131ndash133 and vol 2 p 483 Vollandt ldquoChristian Arabic Transla-tionsrdquo pp 30ndash31 NasrallahHistoire vol iii1 p 339 (argues that ʿAlam is not a proper nameand that the translation is therefore anonymous)

13 GrafGeschichte vol 1 p 147 and350 andvol 2 pp 51ndash52 Sauget ldquoAmbrosiennex198 Suprdquo

192 treiger


The Byzantine re-conquest of Antioch in 969ad ushered in a period of cul-tural revival for the Arabic-speaking Melkite community in that region Re-united with Byzantium and thus probably gaining access to many previouslyinaccessible Greek manuscripts (including those of Byzantine Greek works)as well as new financial resources the Arabic-speaking Melkites of Antiochlaunched a massive attempt to translate their heritage into Arabic Antioch-ene translators rendered into Arabic works of the Greek Church Fathers aswell as some contemporary or nearly contemporary Byzantine treatises (egNikon of the Black Mountainrsquos Pandeacutektēs)14 The Arab Orthodox deacon ʿAb-dallāh ibn al-Faḍl (fl ca 1050) is perhaps themost prolific translator of Patristicworks He translated into Arabic works of John Chrysostom Basil the GreatGregory of Nyssa Maximus Pseudo-Caesarius John of Damascus Andrewof Crete Isaac the Syrian (from the Sabaitic Greek version)15 and Pseudo-Maximus the Confessorrsquos sacro-profane florilegium Loci communes16 In addi-tion his Arabic translation of the Psalms became the most influential in theChristian Arab world it even features in the Psalm inscriptions of the famousldquoAleppo-Zimmerrdquo (a room from an Arab Christian house in Aleppo) currentlyat the Pergamonmuseum in Berlin17 These Arabic translations were subse-quently read copied and cited extensively by Middle-Eastern Christians of alldenominations especially the Copto-Arabic theologians of the thirteenth cen-tury18 Some of these Arabic translations together with many original Copto-Arabic works were later translated into Geʿez thus influencing Christianity inEthiopia19

pp 406ndash407 and 463 Sauget ldquoUn homeacuteliaire melkite bipartiterdquo pp 285ndash286 NasrallahHistoire vol iii1 pp 326 and 330 The translation of the Gospels is no longer extantTheophilos is also the author of a homily on the Great Lent (assigned for the Tuesdayof the first week of Lent) See Sauget ldquoUn homeacuteliaire melkite bipartiterdquo pp 255ndash256

14 Nasrallah Histoire vol iii1 pp 196ndash220 273ndash310 and 387ndash391 on Nikon of the BlackMountain see Graf Geschichte vol 2 pp 64ndash69 Nasrallah Histoire vol iii1 pp 109ndash122

15 ʿAbdallah ibn al-Faḍlrsquos translation of Isaac is therefore different from the earlier Arabicversion produced at Mār Sābā It is made from Greek rather than from the original Syriac

16 Nasrallah Histoire vol iii1 pp 196ndash220 Daiber ldquoGraeco-Arabica Christianardquo TreigerldquoGreek into Arabic in Byzantine Antiochrdquo

17 Polosin The Arabic Psalter Ott ldquoInschriftenrdquo pp 193ndash20018 Sidarus ldquoLes sourcesrdquo19 Kamil ldquoTranslations fromArabicrdquo vanLantschoot ldquoAbbā Salāmārdquo Ricci ldquoEthiopianChris-

tian Literaturerdquo pp 976ndash977 Kropp ldquoArabisch-aumlthiopische Uumlbersetzungstechnikrdquo Twoadditional examples of such translations into Geʿez can be given here (1) Nikonrsquos Pan-dektēs translated from Arabic into Ethiopic as Maṣḥafa Ḥawi (2) ʿAbdallāh ibn al-Faḍlrsquos



This burgeoning translation activity ldquospilled overrdquo also into Muslim-con-trolled territory Thus at the beginning of the eleventh century in Damascusthenunder Fāṭimid rule theMelkite translator Ibn Saḥqūn fromHoms (not IbnSaḥqūq as in previous publications) produced an Arabic version of the famouswork ofGreekPatristics theDionysian corpus20 This translationwas later usedby thirteenth-century Copto-Arabic authors such as al-Muʾtaman ibn al-ʿAssāland Ibn Kātib Qayṣar The same Ibn Saḥqūn also translated into Arabic a Greekliturgical work the Kathismatarion of the feasts (al-qāṯismāṭāt al-ʿīdiyya)21

We know relatively little about translations done in the twelfth to sixteenthcenturies Much of the relevant evidence particularly in the field of liturgicaltranslations is yet to be examined Among the Melkites liturgical translationsbetween Syriac and Arabic (the translations went both ways) as well as revi-sions of older texts seem to have continued unabated A careful analysis ofMelkite Syriac and Arabic liturgical manuscripts from the period is neededto delineate this process more precisely22 This may be the time for instancewhen the famous Greek Akaacutethistos hymn was translated into Arabic23 Some

Arabic version of Isaac of Nineveh (made from the Sabaitic Greek version) was translatedinto Ethiopic apparently in the sixteenth century (for a critical edition of the Ethiopictranslation see Berhānu Das maṣḥafa Mar Yesḥaq)

20 This translation is inferior to those produced in Antioch See Treiger ldquoNew EvidencerdquoTreiger ldquoThe Arabic Versionrdquo BonmariageMoureau ldquoCorpus DionysiacumArabicumrdquo Onthe appendix to Ibn Saḥqūnrsquos translation which includes texts by Polycrates of EphesusClement of Alexandria and Philo see ParkerTreiger ldquoPhilorsquos Odysseyrdquo

21 Sinai ar 252 (possibly Ibn Saḥqūnrsquos authographmdashsee colophon on fol 163v both thiscolophon and the colophon of the Arabic translation of Dionysius in Sinai ar 268 clearlygive the name as Ibn Saḥqūn) The text contains Psalm sections (kathiacutesmata) sung duringVespers services on the eve of the major feasts

22 For a survey of Syriac and Arabic Melkite liturgical manuscripts see Nasrallah Histoirevol iv1 pp 261ndash273

23 The earliest datedmanuscripts known tome are Sinai ar 534 (year 1225) fols 1rndash11v and thebilingual Greek-Arabic Akathist in Sinai ar 170 (year 1285 scribe Gerasimos) fols 206vndash194v [at the back of the Arabic manuscript running in the opposite order of folios] (seephotograph in Ševčenko ldquoManuscript Productionrdquo p 256)mdashthe translation could then bea 12th or early 13th-century one For othermanuscripts see GrafGeschichte vol 1 p 631 towhich Sinai ar 239 (ca 13th century) fols 82vndash87v (bilingual Greek-Arabic also includesbilingual Canon of St Andrew of Crete) and Sinai ar 442 (ca 13th century) fols 6rndash16vshould be added an edition is available in Peters ldquoArabische Uumlbersetzungrdquo Relatedly astill unpublishedMelkite Syriac translation of the Akathist hymn is extant in Saint Peters-burg National Library of Russia Syriac New Series 11 (10th or 11th century originally fromSinaimdashsee Smelova ldquoBiblical Allusionsrdquo) Sinai syr 12 (year 1255) fols 127vndash136r Sinai syr91 (year 1286) Sinai syr 146 (year 1235) fols 99vndash104r (I am grateful to Samuel Noble for

194 treiger


works of canon law civil law and Church history seem to have been translatedin the second half of the twelfth or the first half of the thirteenth century Thismight be the case for instance with the Proacutekheiros Noacutemos24 We also know ofan Arabic translation of the Typikon ofMār Sābā carried out in December 1335in Cairo by a certain Abū l-Fatḥ Qusṭanṭīn ibn Abī l-Maʿālī ibn Abī l-Fatḥ wholater became a monk at Mount Sinai with the name Antonios25

Translation activity intensified in the seventeenth century26 Themetropoli-tan of Aleppo Meletius Karmā (r 1612ndash1634 in 1634 installed as patriarch ofAntioch under the name of Euthymius ii d 1635) conducted a systematicre-translation and revision of Arab Orthodox liturgical books adapting themto contemporary Greek models (typically Greek liturgical books printed inVenice)27 The patriarch of Antioch Macarius iii ibn al-Zaʿīm (r 1647ndash1672)togetherwith his son archdeaconPaul ofAleppo (Būluṣ al-Ḥalabī) and anothertranslator Yūsuf al-Muṣawwir (d between 1660 and 1667) translated two con-temporary Greek histories by Pseudo-Dorotheus ofMonemvasia andMatthewKigala running from the creation of the world until Sultan Murād iv (r 1623ndash1640)28 Another Patriarch of Antioch Athanasius iii Dabbās (r 1685ndash1694 and1720ndash1724) translated from Greek acts of Church councils thirty-four homiliesof John Chrysostom and even a theological work of the contemporary Mol-davian prince Dimitrie Cantemir (1673ndash1723) entitled The Divan or The Wise

this reference) and Sinai syr nf x26n (13th or 14th century [] a bilingual Syriac-Arabicmanuscript the Arabic text being the same as that published by Peters)

24 Pahlitzsch ldquoProcheiros Nomosrdquo though Pahlitzsch tentatively identifies the place of trans-lation as Palestine (p 24) it is muchmore likely that it was done in Antioch or in anotherlocation in Syria (Damascus) Pahlitzschrsquos critical edition of this importantworkDerara-bische Procheiros Nomos Untersuchung und Edition der Uumlbersetzung eines byzantinischenRechtstextes is forthcoming

25 Nasrallah Histoire vol iii2 pp 148ndash150 Samir ldquoQusṭanṭīn ibn Abī al-Maʿālīrdquo cf GrafGeschichte vol 1 pp 630ndash631 The translation is preserved in Sinai ar 264 (year 1335[not 1355]) which is the translatorrsquos autograph and in another 16th-century manuscriptQusṭanṭīn ibn Abī al-Maʿālī is also the author of a lost work al-Hādī fī maʿrifat al-samādī(read al-sanādī ldquosynodsrdquo)

26 On the early Ottoman period see also Mavroudi ldquoTranslationsrdquo27 Nasrallah Histoire vol iv1 pp 70ndash86 NobleTreiger Orthodox Church p 3528 Graf Geschichte vol 3 pp 106ndash107 Serikoff Descriptive Catalogue c357 and c358 (here

and below I am deeply grateful to Nikolaj Serikoff for generously sharing with me therelevant entries) OnMacarius and Paul of Aleppo see NasrallahHistoire vol iv1 pp 87ndash127 and 219ndash224 Serikoff rsquos and Feodorovrsquos chapters in NobleTreiger Orthodox Churchpp 236ndash251 and 252ndash275 Kilpatrick ldquoMakariyusrdquo Feodorov Relations On Yūsuf al-Muṣawwir (also an important iconographer) see Nasrallah Histoire vol iv1 pp 206ndash209



Manrsquos Parley with theWorld or The Judgement of the Soul with the Body (printedin Romanian and Greek in Iași in 1698) Patriarch Athanasiusrsquo Arabic trans-lation produced from the Greek version is entitled Ṣalāḥ al-ḥakīm wa-fasādal-ʿālam al-ḏamīm (Salvation of the Wise Man and Corruption of the WretchedWorld) and is misascribed to Basil the Great29 Another interesting exampleof a translation from this period is Yuwāṣaf ibn Suwaydānrsquos version (translatedfrom Greek al-luġa al-rūmiyya) of the Vita of St Basil the New (bhg 264dndashf)made in Jerusalem in 169330 The same Yuwāṣaf ibn Suwaydān translated intoArabic a twelfth or thirteenth-century Byzantine prose narrative about Alexan-der the Great31

To summarize we can distinguish between three main periods of ChristianGraeco-Arabica

1 the early period (the late eighth32 ninth and early tenth centuries) whenthe most important center of this translation activity was the monastery ofMār Sābā in Palestine though translations were possibly carried out also atother Palestinian monasteries as well as on Mount Sinai

2 the medieval period when the most significant translation center was Anti-och (especially during the period of Byzantine rule 969ndash1084) though sometranslations originate from other localities (eg Damascus and Cairo)

3 the early modern period (particularly the seventeenth and eighteenth cen-turies) when contemporary Greek treatises were translated into Arabic andliturgical and Patristic works were revised or translated anew33

29 Graf Geschichte vol 3 pp 131ndash132 Nasrallah Histoire vol iv1 pp 137ndash144 esp 139ndash140Nasrallah ldquoDossier araberdquo pp 42ndash43 for a critical edition and English translation of theArabic version by Ioana Feodorov see Cantemir Salvation

30 Commissioned by the patriarch of Jerusalem Dositheus ii (r 1669ndash1707) this translationis preserved in the unicum manuscript Damascus Orthodox Patriarchate 227 [old shelf-mark 1639] (year 1790) On the translator see Nasrallah Histoire vol iv1 pp 210ndash212A critical edition and English translation of the Greek original has just appeared Sulli-vanTalbotMcGrath Saint Basil the Younger The Arabic version remains unpublished

31 The translation is dated to 1669 and was produced at Sinai and in Constantinople SeeNasrallah Histoire vol iv1 pp 211ndash212 (to the list of manuscripts given there one can addthe 18thndash19th centuryGaršūnī copyMunich Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Cod arab 1152)Gero ldquoLegendrdquo p 5n22 Assfalg ldquoDer christliche Orientrdquo p 97

32 As we shall see the earliest dated translation was produced in 772ad though of coursethere may be earlier undated ones

33 Samuel Noble has kindly drawn my attention to the large number of Latin Italian andFrench works of Catholic theology translated in Melkite Catholic circles in this periodsome of which are very important for the Arabic reception of scholasticism This subjectrequires a separate study

196 treiger


To these three periods a fourth one can of course be added

4 the modern period (the nineteenth century to the present) when old andcontemporaryChristianworks continued to appear in new translations pro-duced not only from Greek but also from a variety of modern vernacularsparticularly FrenchGerman Italian English andRussian newArabic trans-lations of Patristic works from the original Greek have also appeared inprint34

In what follows I shall discuss the first and second periods of the Christiantranslation activity each of which forms a distinct unit On account of their pri-mary locations I shall refer to them as Palestinian translations and Antiochenetranslations respectively Since the subject is vast I will focus on only one sub-set of translations Arabic translations of Patristic works Here we have manyhundreds of relevantmanuscripts with about a thousand Patristic works largeand small in Arabic translations These translations link Arabophone Chris-tians to their Patristic heritage it is therefore not surprising that they arewidelycited in Arab Christian theological works Moreover a number of these trans-lations reflect Greek originals that are no longer extant They therefore provideunique access to otherwise lost Patristic sources35

What we need is to extract a sense of history from this vast body of materialThis is a challenging task Since the first volume of Graf rsquosGeschichte is arrangedby genres authors and works rather than by translators or periods of transla-tion it gives very little sense of the chronology and the social dynamics of thistranslation activity Another crucial flaw of Graf rsquos Geschichte (of which schol-ars working outside Christian Arabic Studies are largely unaware) is that itscoverage of the Sinai collectionmdasharguably the single most important reposi-

34 For instance in the 1980s and 1990s the Melkite Catholic archimandrite Adrianos Chac-cour (Šakkūr) translated John ofDamascusrsquoExposition of theOrthodox Faith (John of Dam-ascus al-Miʾamaqāla) andTheodoret of CyrrhusrsquoHistoriaReligiosa (Theodoret of CyrrhusTārīḫ aṣfiyāʾ Allāh) Many more examples of modern translations can be given

35 A good example is furnished by the fascinating ascetic textTheNoetic Paradise (al-Firdawsal-ʿaqlī) originally written in Greek probably in Palestine in the eighth or ninth centuryTheGreek original is lost No other translations are known so it is only through the Arabicversion that we have access to this Patristic masterpiece The title of the treatise refersto the angelic realm out of which the human mind (nouacutes ʿaql) was expelled after theFall For a first English translation of excerpts from the Noetic Paradise see NobleTreigerOrthodox Church pp 188ndash200 I am currently preparing a critical edition and a completeEnglish translation of this important text



tory of Christian Arabic manuscripts in the worldmdashis quite deficient Graf hadto rely on two nineteenth-century checklistsmdashby Nikolaj Krylov and Faḍlal-lāh Ṣarrūf (members of the Russian bishop Porphyry Uspenskyrsquos team whichvisited Sinai in 1850) andbyMargaretDunlopGibson36 Additionally Graf obvi-ously had no knowledge of the Sinai New Finds which were only discovered in1975 twenty years after his death37 Even today despite the appearance ofmoredetailed cataloguesmdashnotably Aziz Suryal Atiyarsquos (unfortunately only partiallypublished) Catalogue Raisonneacutemdashmuch of the Sinai collection has not beenadequately documented and examined38

Moreover we have no primary historical sources describing the activityof Palestinian and Antiochene translators nothing comparable to Ḥunaynibn Isḥāqrsquos checklist of his and his teamrsquos Syriac and Arabic translations ofHippocrates and Galen and nothing equivalent to Ibn al-Nadīmrsquos Fihrist themonumental tenth-century catalogue of Arabic literature with precious infor-mation on the ʿAbbāsid translations of philosophical scientific and medicalworks39 We only have the translations themselves To make things worse forthe Palestinian translations we normally do not even have the names of thetranslators The only Palestinian translator we know by name is Anbā Yannahibn Iṣṭifān al-Fāḫūrī from Mār Sābā (early tenth century) who translated intoArabic Leontius of Damascusrsquo Life of St Stephen of Mār Sābā (in 903)40 andworks of Barsanuphius of Gaza (before 925)41 Other than this we have verylittle historical information to go on

36 Syrku Catalogus Gibson Catalogue Sinaitic manuscripts sold to European collectionseg via Constantin von Tischendorf were also known to Graf

37 For a catalogue of the Arabic New Finds see Meiumlmaacuterēs Kataacutelogos38 Atiya Catalogue Raisonneacute cf Naššār Fahāris39 However it is important to mention that many Arabic translations of the Church Fathers

are listed in chapter 7 of Abū l-Barakāt Ibn Kabarrsquos (d 1324) Miṣbāḥ al-ẓulma wa-īḍāḥal-ḫidma See Riedel ldquoDer Katalogrdquo Ibn Kabar Miṣbāḥ al-ẓulma pp 287ndash326 an Englishtranslation by Adam McCollum is available at httpwwwtertullianorgfathersabu_l_barakat_cataloguehtm

40 On this work see Lamoreaux ldquoLeontius of Damascusrdquo (ldquoms SinaimdashAr 409rdquo on p 408should be corrected to ldquoms SinaimdashAr 496rdquo) For an edition and English translation of theArabic version see Lamoreaux Life (the same correction should be made there)

41 Anbā Yannah ibn Iṣṭifān al-Fāḫūrī translated Barsanuphiusrsquo works jointly with anothermonk (and namesake) Anbā Yannah al-Raqqīmdashsee the colophon in Sinai ar 370 (ca 12thcentury) fol 240r Sinai ar 384 (year 1221) fol 174v two other manuscripts have the textbut omit the colophon Sinai ar 353 (ca 12th century) fols 281Arndash388r Saint PetersburgInstitute of Oriental Manuscripts b1217 (year 1178) fols 223vndash340v the translation is still

198 treiger


Still not everything is lost In what follows I shall suggest some avenues ofinquiry which will shed much-needed light on the history of the Palestinianand the Antiochene translations There is admittedly nothing new about themethods I propose These are the same methods that have been successfullyapplied to the ʿAbbāsid translation movement for over a century and a half asystematic analysis of the availablemanuscript evidenceGraeco-Arabic philol-ogy and close attention to the Sitz im Leben of the translations However thesemethods have not yet been systematically applied to the material at handmdashthe Arabic translations of Patristic worksmdashand so in this regard I hope to offersome new insights I shall now consider the Palestinian and the Antiochenetranslations in this order

2 Palestinian Translations

To obtain a good sense of Palestinian translations of Patristic works we need toconduct a systematic survey of all the extant manuscripts from the ninth andtenth century with Patristic content (there are a few dozen of them mostlyat Mount Sinai)42 as well as those later manuscripts that demonstrably trans-mit earlier material43 We also need to systematically analyze the translationmethodsmdashthe so-called ldquotranslation grammarrdquo (Uumlbersetzungsgrammatik)mdashofthese translations so as to identify ldquocomplexesrdquo of translation or even individ-ual translators and to assign anonymous translations to these complexes orindividuals based on strict philological criteria44 (More on this below)

unpublished From the colophon we know the exact place within Mār Sābā where thetranslation was made the so-called hermitage (sīḫastīrī = Gr hēsykhastḗrion) of St Johnthe Hesychast on which see Patrich ldquoHermitagerdquo Anbā Yannah al-Raqqī is also listedas the commissioner of David al-Ḥimṣīrsquos manuscript Leipzig Universitaumltsbibliothek gr2 (ldquocodex Tischendorf rescriptusrdquo) + Saint Petersburg National Library of Russia gr 26 +Sinai ar nf Perg 66 (I amgrateful toAndreacuteBinggeli for this information) significantly thismanuscript also includes the Arabic translation of the Life of St Stephen ofMār Sābā (onlythe closing section is preserved in Sinai ar nf Perg 66 fols 1rndash2v) Later Anbā Yannahal-Raqqī became the abbot of Mār SābāWe know this from the colophon of the Georgianmanuscript Sinai geo 36 (year 925 copied at Mār Sābāmdashsee Garitte Catalogue p 143)

42 In Treiger ldquoSyro-Arabic Translationsrdquo I do this for the important Patristic collection Sinaiar 549 (10th century)

43 Joseph-Marie Saugetrsquos studies of such later manuscripts (ldquoAmbrosienne x198 Suprdquo ldquoUnhomeacuteliaire melkite bipartiterdquo and others) are exemplary in this regard

44 On ldquotranslation complexesrdquo within the ʿAbbāsid translation movement see Gutas Greek



As far as the Sitz im Leben of the Palestinian translations is concernedthey are part and parcel of the intellectual life of the Palestinian monasteriesin the early Islamic period insightfully and meticulously analyzed by SidneyH Griffith45 Though Griffithrsquos publications have focused more on the originalChristian theological production in Arabic than on translations many of thefeatures of the Christian Palestinian milieu highlighted by Griffith are evidentin the Palestinian translations as well

Thus for example we have a very strong sense of the importance of localmaterial The early tenth-century manuscript of the Arabic translation of Cyrilof Jerusalemrsquos Catechetical Orations and John of Jerusalemrsquos Mystagogical Cate-cheses was copied at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalemmdashthe verycenter of Cyrilrsquos and Johnrsquos preachingmdashand we can reasonably assume thatthey were also translated in Jerusalem or its vicinity46 (Significantly Cyril ofJerusalemrsquos Catechetical Orations had also been translated into Christian Pales-tinian Aramaicmdasha testimony to the fact that the local Palestinian factor hadbeen at play in Christian translation activity even before the shift to Arabic)47Likewise as alreadymentioned Leontius ofDamascusrsquoLife of St StephenofMārSābāwas translated atMār Sābā by Anbā Yannah ibn Iṣṭifān al-Fāḫūrī in 90348By the same token it seems likely that John Climacusrsquo Book of the Ladder andworks of Anastasius of Sinai were first translated into Arabic on Mount Sinaiitself49 The Syriac and Arabic translations of monk Ammoniusrsquo Report on theMartyrdom of the Monks of Sinai and Raithu (cpg 6088) (and possibly also ofAnastasius of Sinairsquos Narrationes) were executed in 767 and 772 respectively

ThoughtArabicCulture pp 141ndash150 For an exemplary investigationof one such translationcomplex see Endress Proclus Arabus

45 Griffith Arabic Christianity Griffith Beginnings46 Sinai ar 309 (year 9256mdashfor the date see Swanson ldquoSome Considerationsrdquo p 141) The

Arabic translation (which ascribes the Mystagogical Catecheses to John of Jerusalemrather than to Cyril) remains unpublished

47 Muumlller-KesslerSokoloff Catechism From a preliminary investigation I have conductedit would seem that the Arabic translation was likely produced directly from Greek ratherthan from Christian Palestinian Aramaic

48 See n 40 above49 Significantly the Melkite Syriac translation of the Book of the Ladder preserved in an

eighth-century Sinaitic manuscript (Sinai syr 56) is thought to have been executed onSinai See Brock ldquoSyriac on Sinairdquo p 108 cf Teule ldquoLrsquoEacutechelle du Paradisrdquo (based on a laterSyriac manuscript Leiden Or 4795 [olim Or 2346] [13th century]) It is also preservedas the upper writing of the ldquoCodex Climaci Rescriptusrdquo (formerly in Agnes Smith Lewisrsquopossession then kept at Westminster College in Cambridge in 2010 purchased by TheGreen Collection in Oklahoma City) The Syriac translation is still unpublished

200 treiger


also almost certainly on Mount Sinai itself50 Significantly Ammoniusrsquo Reportis the earliest dated Christian Arabic translation of a Patristic work (772ad)

The liturgical factor is also important particularly for homiletic materialIn a number of manuscripts (the ninth-century Sinai ar nf Perg 35 is a goodearly example) we have a selection of Patristic homilies arranged according tothe liturgical year51 It is a fair assumption that at least some of them werealso translated together and that the reason they were translated was litur-gical as well to provide handy material for sermons or readings for specificliturgical occasions Such manuscripts therefore play the role of an abridgedMenologion or Synaxarion and indeed some of the Patristic homilies con-tained therein became incorporated in twelfth thirteenth and fourteenth-century Arab Christian Menologia and Synaxaria52

Themonastic factor was of course central to the choice of translatedworksSome Patristic texts were translated precisely because they offer instructionin the monastic way of life This is the case with works of ldquoEphraem Graecusrdquo

50 Binggeli ldquoLa version syriaquerdquo esp pp 171 and 175 cf Binggeli ldquoLrsquohagiographierdquo pp 169ndash170 Griffith ldquoArabic Accountrdquo pp 337ndash342 Pataridze ldquoSignaturesrdquo p 17 and p 32n36Caner History pp 141ndash171 (an annotated English translation of Ammoniusrsquo Report) espp 143 The Syriac translation is preserved in Vat syr 623 (year 886 originally from Sinaion amembrum disiectum see Geacutehin ldquoManuscritsrdquo pp 33ndash34) and London British LibraryAdd 14645 (year 936) fols 110ndash118 It is still unedited but see Pierre ldquoChristianismesrdquoThe Christian Palestinian Aramaic version has been editedMuumlller-KesslerSokoloff FortyMartyrs (this edition is superior to Agnes Smith Lewisrsquo original edition of 1912)

The Arabic translation is preserved in Sinai ar 542 fols 8rndash15r (9th century) Sinai arnf Perg 1 (the translation is datedmistakenly to 255ah instead of 155ah) Sinai ar nf Perg3 (year 650 but definitely 9th century ie 6350am [Alexandrian era] = 8589ad copiedat Mār Khariton then bought for Mount Sinai as we read in what looks like a sale notewritten in a later handmdashassuming my conjectural reading in brackets is correct ىرتشا[

نمسدقلاةنیدمنمانیسروطبةوخ983559روفطسرخاوبهارلاامو]ـت[نبابهارىمسملاسایلاكر]ابملا[نكیرتابلااذ]ـه

نيماhellip]ه[ـعمسنملوهیفارقنملوهبتكنملعیمجلاهللارفغقحساسیسقلانباميهربا I amdeeply grateful to JackTannous for photographs of this and the precedingmanuscript) Sinai ar 557 fols 111rndash144r(ca 13th century) [revised recension] and London British Library or 5019 fols 51vndash58v(11th century see vanEsbroeck ldquoUn recueilrdquo pp 154ndash155) Both theArabic translation andthe very early Georgian version (produced from Arabic between 772ndash864 presumably atMār Sābā) have been editedmdashsee Gvaramia Amoniosis (I am grateful to Andreacute Binggelifor this reference) cf van Esbroeck Review of Gvaramia

51 For a later example see Sauget ldquoAmbrosienne x198 Suprdquo52 These Menologia and Synaxaria are preserved in a whole series of Sinaitic manuscripts

(Sinai ar 395 to Sinai ar 423 with the exception of Sinai ar 411) See Sauget Premiegraveresrecherches



Evagrius (transmitted among theMelkites under the nameofNilus ofAncyra)John Chrysostom Mark the Monk Diadochus of Photike Barsanuphius ofGaza John Moschus (under the name of Sophronius of Jerusalem) John Cli-macus Anastasius of Sinai and others Arabic translations of Greek authorsare frequently combined with those of Syriac ones such as Isaac the Syrian53and John of Apamea54 As a result of these translations from Greek and Syriacwe see a full-fledgedmonastic curriculumemerging inArabic in the late eighthninth and early tenth centuries

Finally we need to consider the possible linguistic factor It is a strikingfeature of the Palestinian translation activity that certain ldquoadvancedrdquo theo-logical textsmdashsuch as works of Dionysius the Areopagite and Maximus theConfessormdashwere not for all we know translated into Arabic in this time pe-riod (With the exception of one or two short texts apparently translated atthe end of the tenth century in Antioch Dionysius was first translated intoArabic in the early eleventh century in Damascus55 The earliest translationsof Maximus also seem to originate in Antioch)56 The question is why Doesthis mean that monks in the Palestinianmonasteries and onMount Sinai wereunfamiliar with these works This is rather improbable if one is allowed toextrapolate from the case of John of Damascus who was intimately familiarwith both Dionysius andMaximus it seems likely that Palestinian and Sinaiticmonks in the eighth ninth and tenth centuries were also acquainted withthese authors It is therefore more reasonable to assume that Dionysius andMaximus were being read but in the original Greek These authors might havebeen left untranslated not because they did not attract attention but becausethose who took interest in them would have been advanced enough to readthem in Greek

The issue of Graeco-Arabic bilingualism in the Caliphatemdashand how late itsurvivedmdashhas been somewhat contested57 In this connection I would like topoint to a hitherto unnoticed piece of evidence on the linguistic situation atthe Palestinian laura of Mār Khariton ca 900ad It comes from the pen of the

53 See n 8 above54 Treiger ldquoSyro-Arabic Translationsrdquo55 See n 20 above56 Nasrallah Histoire vol iii1 pp 206ndash207 See also n 76 below57 As Gregor Schwarb has kindly pointed out to me Graeco-Arabic bilingualism existed

in Palestinian monasteries at least until the 13th century (eg Yaʿqūb ibn SiqlābmdashseeKohlbergKedar ldquoA Melkite Physicianrdquo) Maria Mavroudirsquos eagerly awaited monographBilingualism in Greek and Arabic in the Middle Ages Evidence from the Manuscripts willshed much-needed light on the subject Cf Mavroudi ldquoGreek Language and Educationrdquo

202 treiger


little-known author Michael of Mār Khariton58 In the introduction to his (stillunpublished) homily on the second Sunday of Lent he writes as follows

I know my brothers that you are sages in your spiritual insight (maʿrifaGr gnṓsis) that you are knowledgeable regardingwhat youhave inherited[ie the tradition] that you have understanding of what you have readthat you have a good grasp of what you have heard that you are cognizantof what you have lived through that you are philosophers in virtue ofthe wondrous things you have experienced Yet there are now in theaudience those who have not reached your level in reading ecclesiasticalbooks and interpreting thedivine scrolls Theyhaveno [knowledge] of thehidden meanings of fasting prayer abstinence and [spiritual] struggle(ǧihād Gr agṓn) similar to yours This is why we need to mention a tinyselection of the vast materialmdashwhatever presently comes [tomind]mdashonthe virtues of the Holy Lent [and we need to have it] translated intoArabic so that everyone [here present] can understand59

This passage indicates that Michael was preaching to a mixed audience ldquoex-pertrdquo monks bilingual in Greek and Arabic as well as ldquobeginnersrdquo who under-

58 GrafGeschichte vol 1 p 376 NasrallahHistoire vol iii1 pp 332ndash333 Sauget ldquoUnhomeacuteli-aire melkite bipartiterdquo pp 162ndash163 cf Sauget ldquoAmbrosienne x198 Suprdquo pp 438ndash439(transmitted anonymously or attributed to John Chrysostom) In addition to the homilydiscussed belowMichael ofMārKhariton is also knownas the copyist of twomanuscriptsone in Greek (Psalter Sinai gr 32 copied onMount Sinai with a colophon in Arabic I amgrateful to Father Justin Sinaites and Jack Tannous for a copy of the colophon) and onein Arabic (Gospels Sinai ar nf Perg 7 copied at Mār Khariton in 289902 the colophonis reproduced in Meiumlmaacuterēs Kataacutelogos p 77 photograph 9) In the first colophon (writtenin Arabic despite the fact that the manuscript is in Greek) Michael calls himself al-ḫāṭīMīḫāyil tilmīḏ Anbā Fīlūṯ[āwus] In the second colophon he refers to himself as al-ḫāṭīMīḫāyil al-šammās al-maʿrūf bi-tilmīḏ al-Ṭabarānī aḫ al-bāsilīqār (al-Ṭabarānī is proba-bly the bishop of Tiberias possibly identical to the Anbā Fīlūṯ[āwus] mentioned abovebāsilīqār corresponds to the Greek term basilikaacuterios = Latin basilicarius ldquothe person incharge of a basilicardquo cf the Life of St Stephen ofMar Saba (Lamoreaux Life sect241) whereSt Stephenrsquos disciple Eustratius is said to be basilicarius of the Church of the Holy Sepul-chre The handwriting in both colophons is identical

59 Saint Petersburg Institute of Oriental Manuscripts a509 fol 60v امكحمكنايتوخا983565انملعدق

ن983559عم984049ايفناريغمتربخامنسحبةفسالفمتیوحدقامبدامتعمسدقاملامهفمتارقامباهقفهبمتلحنادقامباملعمكتفرعمب

تاولصلاومایصلايناعمزونكنممهدنعالومتنامتغلبامةیهل983559فحاصملاريسافتوةیعیبلابتكلاةارقيفاوغلبیملاس983563ا

ةغلل983560سدقملاموصلالیاضفنمن983563983559رضحدقريثكنمريسیركذىلاانجتحا984044984045فمكدنعاملثمداهجلاوكاسم983559و

لكلاهمهفیلارسفمةیبرعلا



stood only Arabic (and possibly Aramaic or Georgian) This kind of educa-tional and linguistic stratificationof themonastic population and significantlyexpert knowledge of Greek on the part of some (perhaps even the majority) ofthe monks is thus attested for Mār Khariton as late as 900ad This may helpexplain why there was no need to translate particularly ldquoadvancedrdquo theologicaltexts (such as Dionysius and Maximus) into Arabic in this period those inter-ested in them would have still been comfortable to read them in the original

Finally I would like to raise a hitherto unexplored yet promising avenue ofinquiry the possible connections between the Palestinian translation activityand the ʿAbbāsid translation movement in Baghdad with which it is contem-porary Are there parallels in how the two groups of translators treated theGreek originals with which they worked Is there an overlap andor mutualinfluence between the two translation activities (in terminologyUumlbersetzungs-grammatik etc) and were there individuals involved in both60 There arecurrently no answers to these important questions but even so it is evidentthat Palestinian translation activity is part of the context in which the ʿAbbāsidtranslation movement emerged It is even possible that some of the patronsof Graeco-Arabic translations in ʿAbbāsid Baghdad (eg the Muslim philoso-pher al-Kindī) would have deliberately recruited translators who had gainedprior experience with Graeco-Arabic translations in Palestine These transla-tors would often have had a considerable theological education with links toLate Antique theological and philosophical trends (eg Origenism) that stillremain to be explored61

3 Antiochene Translations

For Antiochene translations we are somewhat better served with historicalinformationpreserved in their titles and colophonsWeare especially fortunate

60 Could for instance the translator al-Biṭrīq active at the time of Hārūn al-Rašīd (r 786ndash809) be identical to the monk Patrikios who collaborated with Abramios on the Greektranslation of Isaac the Syrian ca 800 at Mār Sābā (see n 8 above) This is an especiallytempting hypothesis because it would explain howworks of Isaac the Syrian reachedMārSābā al-Biṭrīq Patrikios could have brought them with him from Baghdad On al-Biṭrīqand his son Yūḥannā ibn al-Biṭrīq see Dunlop ldquoTranslationsrdquo

61 For an attempt to unravel these links in the case of the Christian translator of PlotinusrsquoEnneads into Arabic ʿAbd al-Masīḥ ibn Nāʿima al-Ḥimṣī (fl 830s) see Treiger ldquoPalestinianOrigenismrdquo

204 treiger


to know the names of several distinguished translators to whom dozens oftranslations are securely ascribed in the manuscript tradition

It is appropriate to begin our discussion of Antiochene translations with thetwelfth-centurymanuscript of the old Palestinian translation of JohnClimacusrsquoBookof the Ladder now in Saint Petersburg Depending onhow it is interpretedthe colophonof thismanuscriptmay shed light on thebeginnings of translationactivity inAntioch The copyist Yūḥannā ibnSawrus [or Sawīrus] (an importantEgyptian Christian theologian probably a Copt who himself visited Antiochand evidently copied the text while there) says the following62

It has been copied by the wretched sinner Yūḥannā ibn Sawrus who isasking Christ to have mercy on his weakness and on all those who [will]read hear copy or commission a copy of [this manuscript] [Let them]pray that this miserable copyist may obtain grace and forgiveness Maythe Lord have compassion over all His intelligent creatures by the prayersof Our Lady the Virgin who is the Mother of Salvation of St John theBaptist and of all His pious disciples excellent martyrs and pure saintsAmen It was written on the 14th of the Coptic month Abīb 895 of the eraof theMartyrs corresponding to 20Muḥarram 574ah [= 8 July 1178ad]63This took place [hellip]64 This bookwas copied from amanuscript at the endof which the [original] copyist (khnyh = kātibuhu)65 says as follows

Maḥfūẓ ibn ⟨U⟩sṭāṯ copied this noble and profound codex at the mo-nastery ofOur LadyMary (MartMaryam)Dafnūnā [on] theBlack [Moun-tain] (al-Lukkām)66 in July 1242 according to the era of Alexander [theGreat]67 or Raǧab 319 according to the era of the Arabs [= 20ndash31 July931ad]68

Whoever reads this copy and finds that it has an addition (ziyāda)in comparison to [other] copies in peoplersquos possession in monasteriesand elsewhere let him know that Anbā Abrāmī the disciple of AnbāSarābiyūn has collated this copy with the Syriac and discovered that the

62 On Yūḥannā ibn SawrusSawīrus see Awad ldquoYūḥannā ibn Sawīrusrdquo (no mention of theSaint Petersburg manuscript)

63 Both dates fully coincide64 This is the end of fol 221v Something seems missing in the text65 The text seems corrupt here66 From the Syriac ukkāmā ldquoblackrdquo67 Ie according to the Seleucid era (ldquoAnno Graecorumrdquo)68 Raǧab 319ah began on 20 July 931ad



old copy had a gap (nuqṣān) so he had [the missing part] translated69and completed with Christrsquos help amending also many words that wereat variance [with the Syriac] Christ helped him to accomplish this70

Evidently as part of his own colophon Yūḥannā ibn SawrusSawīrus repro-duced the colophon of his Vorlagemdasha now lost tenth-century manuscriptcopiedat themonasteryofOurLadyDafnūnāon theBlackMountainnearAnti-och71 It is quite likely (though not entirely certain) that not only the secondbut also the third paragraph (ldquoWhoever reads hellip accomplish thisrdquo) belongs tothe original tenth-century colophon From this third paragraph we learn thata certainAnbāAbrāmī Abramios (who is otherwise unknown as is his teacherSarābiyūn Serapion) revised (or asked someone to revise)72 theoldPalestiniantranslation of John ClimacusrsquoBook of the Ladder This revision involved restora-tion of amissing section andmild editing of the Arabic with a view to bringingthe text into conformity with the Syriac version of the Ladder73

When did this revision take place Evidently if the third paragraph belongsto theoriginal tenth-century colophon thismust havehappenedbefore the year

69 Reading fa-stanqala ḏālika in lieu of the somewhat problematic fāsīl naqala ḏālika ( fāsīlcould conceivablymean ldquoBasilrdquo but this spelling of the name is rather uncommon thoughsee Fāsiliyūs in Saint Petersburg Institute of Oriental Manuscripts a993 fol 30v)

70 Saint Petersburg Institute of Oriental Manuscripts b1217 (year 1178) fols 221vndash222r بتكو

عبراةنـسمرحملانمنیرشعللقفاوملاادهشللةیامنمثونيعستوسمخةنـسطبقلاروهشنمبیبانمرشععبارلايف

اذهبتكوdaggerهینهكdagger984052قناماهرخا⟩يف⟨دجوةخسننمباتكلااذهلقن|]hellip[يف984045ذوةرجهللةیامسمخونيعبـسو

زومتيفردنكس983559نينـسيف984045ذوماكلا983563ونفدميرمترمریديفتاطس⟩ا⟨نبظوفحمكردیالي984043افیرشلافحصملاةخسنلاهذهيفىرقنمفرشعةعستوةیامثلثةنـسبجريفبرعلانينـسنمونيعبراونينثاونيتیاموفلاةنـس

لباقنویبارسابناذیملتيمارباابناناملعیلفاهريغوةرید983559يفسانلايدیايف)(ي984043اةخسنلاىلعةد983565زاهيفدجوو

نوعب984045ذممتو984045ذdaggerلقنلیـسافdaggerناصقنةقیتعلاةخسنلايفدجوف]ين983565رسل983560ةخسنلايفدجوف[ين983565رسل983560ةخسنلا

حیـسملا984045ذىلعهناعاي984043اوريغتمم984033ريثكحالصاعمحیـسملا (Serikoff Descriptive Catalogue b1217a photo of fol 221v is available in Khalidov Arabskie rukopisi vol 2 p 255mdashI have takenthe liberty to insert the diacritical points missing in the manuscript the bracketed partis evidently due to dittography and has therefore been omitted in translation on لیـساف

لقن see n 69 above) On this manuscript see also Frantsouzoff ldquoFeuillets transposeacutesrdquo Asmentioned in n 41 above it also contains Anbā Yannah ibn Iṣṭifān al-Fāḫūrīrsquos translationof Barsanuphius

71 On this monastery see Nasrallah Histoire vol iii1 pp 305ndash306 ldquoDafnūnārdquo points to thelocation of themonastery at the ancientDaphne (= the present-dayBayt al-Māʾ) fivemilessouth of Antioch where in Pagan times there was a grove and a sanctuary dedicated toApollo

72 On the verb istanqala see Treiger ldquoNew Evidencerdquo p 23273 On the Syriac version of the Ladder see n 49 above

206 treiger


931ad probably at that same monastery of Our Lady Dafnūnā If this inter-pretation of the colophon is correct it shows that some monasteries aroundAntioch had undertaken occasional revisions of Palestinian translations evenprior to the Byzantine re-conquest of the city in 969ad There is of coursealso an alternative reading that the third paragraph belongs to Yūḥannā ibnSawrusSawīrusrsquo twelfth-century colophon In that case Anbā Abrāmī mayhave lived after 931admdashperhaps even close to Yūḥannā ibn SawrusSawīrusrsquotime Oneway or the other this Anbā AbrāmīmdashanAntiochenemonk presum-ably from the monastery of Our Lady Dafnūnāmdashrevised (or asked someoneto revise) the Palestinian Arabic translation of the Book of the Ladder basedon the Syriac version It would thus seem certain that occasional revisions ofPalestinian translations were taking place at Antiochenemonasteries and thatthis activity may have begun quite early on possibly before 931ad Interest-ingly in the case under discussion the revision was made on the basis of anearlier Syriac translationmdasha striking testimony to the importance of Syriac inthe Antiochene Melkite monastic milieu74

It is significant that among the Antiochene translators involved in Graeco-Arabic (and Syro-Arabic) translations of the Church Fathers at least threewereabbots of monasteries on the Black Mountain The first is Gregory the abbotof the same monastery of Our Lady Dafnūnā in the second half of the tenthcentury who translated several Patristic works from Syriac (rather that Greek)into Arabic Pseudo-Severian of Gabalarsquos Homily on the Nativity (cpg 4290)Pseudo-Isaac the Syrianrsquos Response to Symeon (= Philoxenos of Mabbugrsquos Let-ter to Patrikios)75 and probably Maximos the Confessorrsquos Chapters on Love76His Syro-Arabic translation activity correlates well with Anbā Abrāmīrsquos afore-mentioned revision of the Arabic translation of John Climacus based on theSyriac version Another abbot Kyr Chariton of the monastery of Our LadyAršāyā was a translator from Greek into Arabic he translated sections fromTheodore the Studitersquos Little Catechesis77 Finally Antonios the abbot of the

74 Brock ldquoBlack Mountainrdquo75 This text is also preserved in Greek in the Sabaitic Greek translation of Isaac However

Gregoryrsquos translation seems to have been done directly from the original Syriac (specif-ically from a Melkite Syriac version where the text was attributed to Isaac rather thanPhiloxenos)

76 Damascus Orthodox Patriarchate 162 (19th century) No 1 (entitled 983565اصولايفةفیرشلاةبحملا

983559ةیلیجن ) On Gregoryrsquos translations see Nasrallah Histoire vol iii1 pp 305ndash30877 On Kyr Chariton and the monastery of Our Lady Aršāyā see Nasrallah Histoire vol iii1

pp 308ndash310 To the manuscripts mentioned there one should add Sinai ar nf Paper 30 +Sinai ar nf Paper 50 (two parts of the same manuscript) and probably Sinai ar 593 (13thcentury)



famousmonastery of St Symeon theStylite theYounger on theBlackMountaintranslated intoArabicworks of JohnofDamascus (theDialectica the Expositionof the Orthodox Faith and six shorter treatises) as well as certain other worksincluding his near-contemporary Paul ofMonemvasiarsquos Beneficial Tales78Morewill be said about Antonios below

Three other translators on the other hand seem to have belonged to theurban elites of Antioch The first is Ibrāhīm ibn Yūḥannā (d ca 1030) who heldthe Byzantine honorific title of ldquoprotospathariosrdquo (Ar ubrūṭusbaṯār) He trans-lated into Arabic selectOrations of Gregory of Nazianzus79 as well as DionysiustheAreopagitersquosOnGoodandEvil (=DivineNames chapter 4 sectsect18ndash35) He alsoauthored several hagiographical works of which only the life of the patriarchof Antioch Christopher (martyred in 967) is extant80

The second ldquourbanrdquo translator is Yānī ibn al-Duks (JohnDoukas John son ofthe dux [of Antioch]) a deacon at the (patriarchal) cathedral of Antioch (al-kanīsa al-ʿuẓmā bi-Anṭākiya) Only one Arabic translation by him is currentlyknown Germanos of ConstantinoplersquosHomily on the Sash of the Theotokos (cpg8013 bhg 1086) it is preserved in the thirteenth-centuryArabicMenologion forthe month of August (31 August) and has not yet been studied81

The third ldquourbanrdquo translator is ʿAbdallāh ibn al-Faḍl al-Anṭākī who was alsoan important Arab Christian theologian82 Like Yānī ibn al-Duks he was alsoa deaconmdashwhether at the patriarchal cathedral or at another church in thecity we do not know On the other hand we are relatively well informed abouthis social connections owing to the fact that he often prefaced his translationsand theological works with artful introductions in which he provides detailson the individuals who commissioned them Thus we learn that his Expositionof the Orthodox Faith (Šarḥ al-amāna al-mustaqīma) was commissioned by thebishop JohnofManbiǧ the translation of the Psalmsby a certainAbūZakariyyāibn Salāma83 the translation of John Chrysostomrsquos Homilies on the Gospel of

78 On Antonios see Nasrallah Histoire vol iii1 pp 273ndash28979 GrandrsquoHenry ldquoDiscours 24rdquo GrandrsquoHenryVersio i TuerlinckxVersio ii GrandrsquoHenryVer-

sio iii GrandrsquoHenryVersio iv cf Tokay ldquoContinuityrdquo For a database ofmanuscripts ofAra-bic translations of Gregory of Nazianzus see httppot-pourrifltruclacbemanuscritsnazianze_arabedefaultcfm

80 Lamoreaux ldquoIbrāhīm ibn Yūḥannārdquo NobleTreiger Orthodox Church pp 26ndash2781 Sinai ar 408 (year 1258) fols 159vndash163v Sinai ar 409 (13th century) fols 195rndash198v cf Graf

Geschichte vol 1 p 377 and Nasrallah Histoire vol ii1 p 11382 NobleTreiger ldquoChristian Arabic Theologyrdquo Treiger ldquoʿAbdallāh ibn al-Faḍlrdquo83 NewHaven Beinecke Library 349 fol 181v seems to provide instead two names Zaḫariyyā

and Yūḥannā ibn Salāma (I am grateful to Samuel Noble for this information)

208 treiger


Matthew by ldquomaster Abū l-Faḍl Salāma ibn al-Muʿarraǧ the deacon koubouk-leiacutesios84 and doctorrdquo85 the translation of John of Thessalonicarsquos Encomium toSt Demetrios (cpg 7925 bhg 547h) by a certain Abū l-Fatḥ ʿĪsā ibn Idrīs86 andthe translation of Isaac of Nineveh (made as mentioned above from an earlierGreek version produced at Mār Sābā ca 800) by the kouboukleiacutesiosNikephoros(Nīkūfūr) Abū l-Naṣr ibn Buṭrus87 Though nothing can be ascertained aboutthese individuals even a list of their names can give an idea of the social circlesinterested in and evidently sponsoring ʿAbdallāhrsquos translations and theologi-cal works We also know that ʿAbdallāh ibn al-Faḍl had contacts with Christianand Muslim intellectuals across the border in Muslim-controled lands As welearn from a casual remark he left in one of his works he even studied Arabicgrammar (specifically Ibn al-Sikkītrsquos book Iṣlāḥ al-manṭiq) with no less of anexpert than the great poet and freethinker Abū al-ʿAlāʾ al-Maʿarrī (d 1058)88

Clearly ʿAbdallāh ibn al-Faḍlrsquos Sitz im Leben is not monastic his patrons areinstead members of the Antiochene Christian nobility and intelligentsia aswell as professionals (eg doctors)89 who in some cases held low Church ranks(deacons like ʿAbdallāh himself) andor honorific posts at the patriarchateof Antioch (kouboukleiacutesioi) In only one case is the commissioner a bishopand perhaps significantly not from Antioch itself but from ldquoacross the bor-derrdquo from the Muslim-controled northern Syrian city of Manbiǧ (Hierapolisor Mabbug)mdashthough he might have been of course a native of Antioch90 Aswith Palestinian translations a systematic analysis of each Antiochene trans-latorrsquos translation methods (Uumlbersetzungsgrammatik) and social milieu is anurgent desideratum

84 On kouboukleiacutesios a honorific title of a member of the patriarchrsquos (here the patriarchof Antiochrsquos) cubiculum bestowed by the emperor or the patriarch see Darrouzegraves Re-cherches pp 39ndash44 NobleTreiger ldquoChristian Arabic Theologyrdquo pp 374ndash375n14 TodtldquoRegionrdquo p 261

85 Sinai ar 76 fol 8r86 Sinai ar 350 fols 237vndash270v Sinai ar 352 fols 98rndash114r This translation which also in-

cludes ʿAbdallāh ibn al-Faḍlrsquos own intriguing commentary has not been investigated87 Abū al-Naṣr is evidently theArabic equivalent of theGreekNikephoros Sinai ar 350 fol 4r

and Sinai ar 351 fol 5v provide also the names of his two brothers Abū l-Ḥasan Simʿān andAbū l-Ḫayr Mīḫāʾīl

88 NobleTreiger ldquoChristian Arabic Theologyrdquo pp 375ndash37689 Interestingly the Arabic translation of the Dionysian corpus produced in 1009 in Damas-

cus was also commissioned by a doctor Ibn al-Yabrūdī See Treiger ldquoNew Evidencerdquo90 The case of Agathon of Homs (12th century) shows that educated Christian laymen

from Antioch could be invited to become bishops across the border See NobleTreigerOrthodox Church pp 201ndash215



4 Guidelines for Philological Analysis

As shown above research into Christian Graeco-Arabica is hampered by adearth of historical sources There is therefore no substitute for the carefulphilological analysis of these translations which will go a long way towardsestablishing their provenance identifying translation ldquocomplexesrdquo or even in-dividual translators and thus piecing togethermdashfor the first timemdasha history ofChristian Graeco-Arabica

I shall now offer an example of how this can be done As a first step it seemsadvisable to begin with texts whose translator and time and milieu of transla-tion are known and see what kind of information on Uumlbersetzungsgrammatikcan be gleaned from them Let me take Antoniosrsquo translation of John of Dam-ascusrsquoExposition of the Orthodox Faith produced in Antioch in the second halfof the tenth century I have deliberately chosen chapter 8 [i8] of the Expositionof the Orthodox Faith because it has multiple cases of alpha privativum Alphaprivativum is of course highly characteristic of Patristic textsmdashas a glance inGWH Lampersquos Patristic Greek Lexicon will readily show This is extremely sig-nificant for the Graeco-Arabist as there are numerous ways to render alphaprivativum into Arabic Thus the way a given translator chooses to render itconstitutes his ldquofingerprintrdquo readily discernible in the translation (Other suchldquofingerprintsrdquo will be discussed below) Here is the text in question91

Greek original ed B Kotter vol ii p 18 Antoniosrsquo translation

η´ Περὶ τῆς ἁγίας Τριάδος سدقملاثولاثلايفةنماثلا984039اقملا

Πιστεύομεν τοιγαροῦν εἰς ἕνα Θεόν μίανἀρχὴν ἄναρχον ἄκτιστον ἀγέννητονἀνόλεθρόν τε καὶ ἀθάνατον αἰώνιον ἄπειρονἀπερίγραπτον ἀπεριόριστον ἀπειροδύναμονἁπλῆν ἀσύνθετον ἀσώματον ἄρρευστονἀπαθῆ ἄτρεπτον ἀναλλοίωτον ἀόρατον

نوكتناةميدعةدحاوةس983565ردحاو983560984051اذانمون

ناةميدعةنوكمواةقولخمنوكتناةمداعةیدتبم

نوكینازجتحيةیرهدةتیمواةكلاهنوكت

ربتختناةميدعاهتوقةدودحمواةروصحمواةروبـشم

نمةبیاخ92ةبكرمنوكت|ناةميدعةطیـسب

اوداريث983561نمةیج984040983563یاسنوكتناةمداعمسج

وا984040یحتـسمواةبلقتمنوكتناةميدعمزعلا

ةظوحلم

91 Sinai ar 318 fols 115vndash116r (online httpwwwe-corpusorgnotices99998gallery) For avery similar list of negations see chapter 2 [i2] fol 103r

92 Illegible in the digital copy but the reading is virtually certain (cf fol 103r)

210 treiger


πηγὴν ἀγαθότητος καὶ δικαιοσύνης φῶςνοερόν ἀπρόσιτον δύναμιν οὐδενὶ μέτρῳγνωριζομένην μόνῳ δὲ τῷ οἰκείῳ βουλήματιμετρουμένηνmdashπάντα γάρ ὅσα θέλειδύναταιmdash πάντων κτισμάτων ὁρατῶν τε καὶἀοράτων ποιητικήν πάντων συνεκτικὴν καὶσυντηρητικήν πάντων προνοητικήν πάντωνκρατοῦσαν καὶ ἄρχουσαν καὶ βασιλεύουσανἀτελευτήτῳ καὶ ἀθανάτῳ βασιλείᾳ

زجتحتةوقالوقعماوضلدعلاوحالصلاعوبنی

ریداقملانمرادقمبالوةفورعمتسیل93اهتبراقم

هلكهدیرتامىلعةرداقاهنالاهدحواهتدار983560ةردقم

ةماضةظوحلملاريغوةظوحلملااهلك983565اربلاةقلاخ

اهتـسیاسواهلكاهبةینتعماهتنیاصواهلكاه983565ا

نوكینااميدعاكلماهتكلمواهتـسیرواهلكاهتطباض

اتیمواایضقنم

It is evident that Antonios has a highly distinctive way of rendering the GreekalphaprivativumMost commonly he uses the constructions ʿādimanyakūnaXand ʿadīm an yakūna Xmdashand interestingly presumably to avoid repetition heswitches from the one to the other and back Another idiosyncratic renderingof alpha privativum is the construction yaḥtaǧizu an yakūna X (or yaḥtaǧizu +maṣdar)94 Occasionally he also uses the constructions nāǧin min X and ḫāʾibmin X What (from our perspective) would be the most obvious rendering ofalpha privativummdashġayr Xmdashis used only once

What I suggest to do now is to write out a summary of the most distinctivefeatures of Antoniosrsquo translation method (This process is analogous to ldquofinger-printingrdquo) The features I suggest to focus on are the following (1) Divisionsof the text and other formal features (2) Greek prefixes (3) Greek particlesnegations etc (4) Greek adverbs and adverbials (5) Significant (ie distinc-tive) Arabic vocabulary (6) Significant Arabic syntactic features95

It will be easier to prepare such a summary if we compare Antoniosrsquo trans-lation of John of Damascus and another Arabic translation of the same textExamining parallel translations of the same Greek original is always helpfulbecause it throws each set of translation methods and distinctive vocabularyinto a sharper relief Fortunately one chapter of John of DamascusrsquoExpositionof the Orthodox Faithmdashchapter 86 [iv13]mdashis preserved in an earlier anony-

93 My emendation based on the Greek ms اهتنراقم 94 The verb iḥtaǧaza (ldquoto be blockedrdquo) is a quasi-passive of ḥaǧaza (ldquoto blockrdquo) in much the

same way as imtanaʿa (ldquoto be prevented to be impossiblerdquo) is a quasi-passive of manaʿa(ldquoto preventrdquo) Hence the vocalization yaḥtaǧizu rather than yuḥtaǧazu

95 Many more features can of course be examined eg Greek compounds Greek compara-tivesuperlative Greek genitive absolute etc



mous Palestinian translation96 Let us now set the two translationsmdashthe oldPalestinian translation and Antoniosrsquo ownmdashin parallel columns together withthe Greek original97

Old Palestinian Greek original ed B Kotter Antoniosrsquo translationtranslation vol ii p 191

دوجلايفقیافلادوجلانا

هلكوهي984043ادوجلايفلضافلاو

لجنم)(توه983559ينعادوج

اضریمللضافلاهدوجانغ)(

ينعاهدحودوجلانوكینا)(

هنمدحانوكی983559هتعیبط

الوانتم

Ὁ ἀγαθὸς καὶ πανάγαθοςκαὶ ὑπεράγαθος Θεός ὁὅλος ὢν ἀγαθότης διὰ τὸνὑπερβάλλοντα πλοῦτοντῆς αὐτοῦ ἀγαθότητος οὐκἠνέσχετο μόνον εἶναι τὸ ἀγαθὸνἤτοι τὴν ἑαυτοῦ φύσιν ὑπὸμηδενὸς μετεχόμενον

983559هماهواةفاكيفحلاصلاانه

لزیملي984043احلاصلاىلعقیافلا

طارفااقلتنمحالصلاروهمج

نوكینالمتحاامهحالصةورث

ياهحالصمهاسیالهدحو

دحاومهاسمالوهتعیبط

ةیلقعلاتاوقلا983565دبقلخ984044984045ف

ملاعلا984045ذدعبوةیوامسلا

984045ذدعبواریي984043اسوسحملا

983559سوسحمويلقعنمناسن

Τούτου χάριν ἐποίησε πρῶτονμὲν τὰς νοερὰς καὶ οὐρανίουςδυνάμεις εἶτα τὸν ὁρατὸν καὶαἰσθητὸν κόσμον εἶτα ἐκ νοεροῦκαὶ αἰσθητοῦ τὸν ἄνθρωπον

الواعدباىنعملااذهىلعف

قلخمثةیوامسلاةیلقعلاتاوقلا

عدباوسوسحملاظوحلملاملاعلا

لوقعمنمناسن983559دعب983909ف

سوسحمو

96 The ldquooldrdquo (Palestinian) translation of this chapter is preserved in Sinai ar 549 (10th cen-tury) fols 84vndash92v and is cited by the Copto-Arabic author Abū Šākir ibn al-Rāhib in hisKitāb al-Burhān 8th question chapter 5 Vat ar 104 (year 1282 Ibn al-Rāhibrsquos autograph)fols 72rndash74v See Graf Geschichte vol i pp 378ndash379 and vol ii p 431 Samir ldquoAl-AsʿadIbn al-ʿAssālrdquo Sidarus ldquoLes sourcesrdquo pp 138ndash139 and 143ndash144 Treiger ldquoSyro-Arabic Trans-lationsrdquo pp 85ndash86 and 109

97 For the Arabic the following manuscripts are used Sinai ar 549 (10th century) fols 84vndash85r (old Palestinian translation) Sinai ar 318 fols 345rndash346r (Antoniosrsquo translation)

212 treiger



هدوجكراشیوهفقلخاملكف

نووكملاهنالنایكلاهجوىلع

984051يهایـش983559ناليشلكل)(

نایكريغنمهسفنلاهبلجهنال

ظفحي984051اعفنكلوطقفةنونیكىلا

هنمناكاملكطبضیو

Πάντα μὲν οὖν τὰ ὑπrsquo αὐτοῦγενόμενα κοινωνοῦσι τῆςαὐτοῦ ἀγαθότητος κατὰ τὸ εἶναι(αὐτὸς γάρ ἐστι τοῖς πᾶσι τὸεἶναι ἐπειδὴ ἐν αὐτῷ εἰσι τὰὄντα οὐ μόνον ὅτι αὐτὸς ἐκτοῦ μὴ ὄντος εἰς τὸ εἶναι αὐτὰπαρήγαγεν ἀλλrsquo ὅτι ἡ αὐτοῦἐνέργεια τὰ ὑπrsquo αὐτοῦ γενόμενασυντηρεῖ καὶ συνέχει)

اهنوكيتلااهلك983565اربلانال

ىلعهحالصكراشتاهعدبا⟩و⟨

984004دوجولاوههنالاهدوجوة

اموهیفيهتادوجولاذافاهلكل

ادوجومنكیملاممطقفا984004رخا

984045ذعم984052عفنكلدوجولاىلا

اهنوكوهيتلا983565اربلاطوحي

اهيوحيو

كراشتاهنالناویحلا984045ذرثكاو

ةكراشمونایكلاهجوىلعدوجلا

ةایحلا

ἐκ περισσοῦ δὲ τὰ ζῷα (κατάτε γὰρ τὸ εἶναι καὶ κατὰ τὸζωῆς μετέχειν κοινωνοῦσι τοῦἀγαθοῦ)

يحلافونصيرمعلطوحيو

اهنالاهریدقتادیازةطایح

دوجولاىنعميفحلاصلاكراشت

ةایحلاةكراشميفو

لضفايـهفةقطانلاناویحلااماف

نمفلساملثمىلعسیل

هجوىلعنكالوطقفلوقلا

صخاوبرقااهنالقطنملا

البلكقوفیوهناكناوهب

ةنراقم

τὰ δὲ λογικὰ καὶ κατὰ τὰπροειρημένα μέν οὐ μὴν ἀλλὰκαὶ κατὰ τὸ λογικόν καὶ ταῦταμᾶλλον οἰκειότερα γάρ πώςεἰσι πρὸς αὐτόν εἰ καὶ πάντωνὑπέρκειται ἀσυγκρίτως

983909فهكراشتةقطانلا983565اربلاو

984045ذعمهكراشتوهركذانمدق

هذهوةقطانلاةصاخلايف

يهتاهجلانمة984004ىلع

ىلعقوفیناكذاوهبصخا

توفیاقووف983565اربلاریاس

ةسیاقملا

Based on this comparison as well as the preceding analysis of the alpha priva-tivum in chapter 8 the following observations can be made



Old Palestinian translation Antoniosrsquo translation

1 Divisions of the text and other formal features

chapter na [normally in Palestiniantranslationsmīmar is used forchapters]

maqāla

2 Greek prefixes

ἀ- bi-lā X ʿādim an yakūna Xʿadīm an yakūna Xyaḥtaǧizu an X (ormaṣdar)nāǧin min Xḫāʾib min Xġayr Xyafūtu X

παν- al-fāʾiq fī X X fī kāffat awhāmihiπρο- radics-l-f radicq-d-mὑπερ- al-fāḍil fī X al-fāʾiq ʿalā X

3 Greek particles negations etc

δέ wala-ʿamrī [characteristic of Antoniosoften stands for other particles too]

οὐ+past verb lam (yafʿal) mā ( faʿala)τοιγαροῦν na iḏan

4 Greek adverbs and adverbials

ἀσυγκρίτως bi-lā muqārana (mafʿūl muṭlaq+) yafūt al-muqāyasaἐκ περισσοῦ akṯar ḏālika zāʾidan taqdīruhāπως omitted ʿalā ǧiha min al-ǧihāt

214 treiger



5 Significant Arabic vocabulary

ἀγαθ- radicǧ-w-d radicṣ-l-ḥ(τὸ) εἶναι kaynūna kiyān [archaic term

akin to the Syriac kyānā]98wuǧūd

(τὰ) ζῷα al-ḥayawān [archaism used asa collective noun]99

ṣunūf al-ḥayy

μετέχω tanāwala tasāhama(τὰ) ὄντα al-ašyāʾ al-wuǧūdātὁρα- radicr-ʾ-y radicl-ḥ-ẓπειρ- na radicḫ-b-r

6 Significant Arabic syntactic features

hendiadys οἰκειότερα ~ aqrabu wa-aḫaṣṣu γενόμενα ~ kawwanahā⟨wa-⟩abdaʿahā

mafʿūl muṭlaq na frequently used for Greek adverbsand adverbials ἐκ περισσοῦ[συντηρεῖ] ~ yaḥūṭu ḥiyātatanzāʾidan taqdīruhā (combinedwith naʿt sababī ) ὑπέρκειταιἀσυγκρίτως ~ yafūqu hellip fuwūqanyafūtu l-muqāyasa

Middle Arabicfeatures

frequent eg lam yarḍā na

98 In translations produced in Baghdad the term kiyān normally stands for the Greek physis(as in the common Arabic title of Aristotlersquos Physics Samʿ al-kiyān rendering Physikḗakroacuteasis) In Arab Christian trinitarian discourse kiyān often renders ousiacuteamdashsee GrafSchriften Index sv pp 175ndash176 Samir ldquoUn traiteacute nouveaurdquo

99 This usage is attested for instance in the title of the Arabic translation of Aristotlersquos Deanimalibis Kitāb al-Ḥayawān and in the ninth-century Arabic adaptation of PlotinusrsquoEnneads ivndashvi the Pseudo-Aristotelian Theology of Aristotle (see Badawī Aflūṭīn p 206)Cf Dietrich ldquoIslamic Sciencesrdquo p 61



It is obvious that doing this kind of groundwork properly will often makepossible identification of translators even when they are left unnamed in themanuscripts Let me consider the case of John Climacusrsquo Book of the LadderIn a recent article the Russian scholar Serge Frantsouzoff has pointed outthat in the Saint Petersburg manuscript of the Book of the Laddermdashthe sametwelfth-century manuscript whose colophon has been discussed abovemdashanacephalous copy of an ldquooldrdquo translation of the Book of the Ladder (the ldquotra-duction anciennerdquo) is completed by a later copyist who supplied the missingbeginning of the text from the secondmore recent Arabic translation (the ldquotra-duction reacutecenterdquo) However due to the transposition of folios in the old sectionof the manuscript this later copyist also copied some of the text which hemistakenly thought missing but which in reality is found in the old section ofthe manuscript albeit later on As a result the manuscript uniquely preservestwo short passages of John Climacusrsquo Book of the Ladder in both translationsFrantsouzoff helpfully presents the two translations of a short fragment fromchapter 15 synoptically Here are the texts in question100

ldquoTraduction anciennerdquo Greek original ldquoTraduction reacutecenterdquomīmar 15 pg 88 col 900 maqāla 15

ناردقیي984043اىلاخرصا

فسلفتملام984034ل983560سیلصلخي

عضتمناسلظفلبنكلو

يف)(لوقيشلكلبقو

ينافبر983565ينمحراrdquo101كتالص

102ldquoفیعض

βόησον πρὸς τὸν δυνάμενονσῶσαι μὴ ἐν σεσοφισμένοιςῥήμασιν ἀλλ᾿ ἐν ταπεινοῖςφθέγμασι πρὸ πάντωνἘλέησόν με ὅτι ἀσθενής εἰμιπροοιμιαζόμενος

كملسینارداقلاىلافتهاو

نكلةمكحتاوذظافل983560سیل

لبقيدتبم984040یلذ984040ماختاملكب

983565ينمحراrdquoالیاقلیاسولالك

ldquo983563افیعضينافبر

100 Saint Petersburg Institute of Oriental Manuscripts b1217 (year 1178) fols 116v and 110r(ldquotraduction anciennerdquo) and fols 109rndashv (ldquotraduction reacutecenterdquo) cf Frantsouzoff ldquoFeuilletstransposeacutesrdquo p 213 and Plates 1ndash3 on pp 214ndash216 In the notes below I have collatedthe ldquotraduction anciennerdquo with Sinai ar 329 (10th century) fols 64rndashv [siglum S] whichexhibits a slightly different revision of the text A number of inaccuracies in Frantsouzoff rsquostranscription have also been tacitly corrected

101 S om كتالصيف 102 S ضیرم

216 treiger


ldquoTraduction anciennerdquo Greek original ldquoTraduction reacutecenterdquomīmar 15 pg 88 col 900cndashd maqāla 15

ةوقةبرجتذخ983561ذینیحو

الي984043اودعلارهقتو103يلعلا

اليتلاةیفخلاةنوعمل104983560ىری

105ىرت

Τότε πειρασθήσῃ Ὑψίστουδυνάμεως καὶ ἀοράτωςἀοράτους διώξεις δι᾿ Ἀοράτουβοηθείας

درطتويلعلاةردقربتختذینیحف

زجتحتةوقباورینانيميدعلا

دق⟩ا⟨درطةضماغةنوعمباهتنیاعم

اظوحلم)(ىروینامدع

ةعرسبفىذكهلتاقیي984043اف

ةالصل983560ادع983559هنععفدی

يههللانمةبهومفةیناسفنلا

نيلامعلل984039و983559لمعتةیناثلا

106قحبوطاشنلا

Ὁ οὕτως σεσυνηθικὼςπολεμεῖν ταχέως καὶ τῇ ψυχῇμόνῃ τοὺς ἐχθροὺς ἐκδιώκεινἄρξεται ἀντίδωρον γὰρ τοῦπροτέρου τὸ δεύτερον παρὰΘεοῦ τοῖς ἐργάταις καὶδικαίως

ىلعبراحيناداتعادقنمف

درطینايدتبیـسةهجلاهذه

نالاعیرساهدحوهسفنبهادعا

هللانمةافاكمةیناثلاةبهوملا

ىلو983559ةداعلانملدب

There is no doubt that the ldquotraduction anciennerdquo is of Palestinian origin Ituses the standard Palestinian term ldquomīmarrdquo for chapters (while the ldquotraductionreacutecenterdquo uses maqāla)107 More significantly it is extant in at least one tenth-century manuscript from Mount Sinai it cannot therefore be later than theearly tenth century108 Because the manuscript witnesses are at variance withone another a critical edition would be necessary to determine the exact his-tory of this translation and its recensions

As for the ldquotraduction reacutecenterdquo it is I think quite obvious that it exhibits thesame translation method and vocabulary (the same ldquofingerprintsrdquo) as Anto-niosrsquo translation of John of Damascus examined above Let me focus on thesentence

103 S 983561هللاةوقكیت 104 S om ىریالي984043ا 105 S om ىریاليتلا 106 S قحبنيلامعللهللانمةبهوميت983561ذینیحوةیناسفنلاةالصل983560ادع983559كنععفدتنوكتةعرسبوةالصللةداعينتقتاذكهو 107 It should be noted however that the term mīmar is used in several Antiochene transla-

tions as well108 Sinai ar 329 (10th century) where the passage in question occurs on fol 63rndashv See also

Sinai ar 331 (year 1227) fol 97r Sinai ar 352 (ca 13th century) fol 261r



Τότε 1πειρασθήσῃ Ὑψίστου δυνάμεως καὶ 4ἀοράτως 2ἀοράτους 4διώξεις 3δι᾿Ἀοράτου βοηθείας

The ldquotraduction reacutecenterdquo renders it into Arabic as

fa-ḥīnaʾiḏin 1taḫtabiru qudrata l-ʿalī wa-4taṭrudu 2l-ʿadīmīna an yuraw3bi-quwwa taḥtaǧizu muʿāyanatuhā wa-bi-maʿūna ġāmiḍa 4aṭard⟨an⟩qad 4bʿadima an yūrā () 4cmalḥūẓan

(Correspondences between theGreek and theArabic are indicated bynumbersand letters in superscript The discussion below is subdivided according tothese indications)

1We see first of all that the verb πειρασθήσῃ is translated as taḫtabiru (contrastthis with taʾḫaḏu taǧriba in the ldquotraduction anciennerdquo) If we look back to ouranalysis of Antoniosrsquo translation method we will see that Antonios translatedἀπειροδύναμος as quwwatuhā ʿadīma an tuḫtabara (John of Damascus Exposi-tion of the Orthodox Faith chapter 8) Thus he uses the same verb iḫtabara forthe stem πειρ- as does the ldquotraduction reacutecenterdquo

More importantly the ldquotraduction reacutecenterdquo exhibits the same idiosyncraticway of translating the Greek alpha privativum as does Antoniosrsquo translation ofJohn of Damascus

2 ἀοράτους is translated as al-ʿadīmīna an yuraw which is characteristicallyldquoAntonianrdquo

3 δι᾿ Ἀοράτου βοηθείας is translated as bi-quwwa taḥtaǧizu muʿāyanatuhā wa-bi-maʿūna ġāmiḍa Obviously the translator did not understand Ἀοράτου as asubstantivized adjective referring to God (ldquoby the help of the Invisiblerdquo) but asan adjective that modifies βοηθείας (ldquoby invisible helprdquo) He uses a hendiadys torender it The first half of the hendiadys (bi-quwwa taḥtaǧizumuʿāyanatuhā) isparticularly significant in that it exhibits the characteristically ldquoAntonianrdquo formyaḥtaǧizu + maṣdar to render the Greek alpha privativum (compare taḥtaǧizumuqārabatuhā in John of Damascus chapter 8)

4 Finally the expression ἀοράτως hellip διώξεις is translated as taṭrudu hellip ṭard⟨an⟩qad ʿadima an yūrā () malḥūẓan The following observations are in order

a Herewe have amafʿūlmuṭlaq (taṭruduhellip ṭardan) with a dependent clausemdashthis is Antoniosrsquo characteristic way of rendering adverbs and adverbials

218 treiger


(compare ὑπέρκειται ἀσυγκρίτως ~ yafūqu fuwūqan yafūtu l-muqāyasa inJohn of Damascus chapter 86)

b ʿadima an yūrā is of course again a characteristically ldquoAntonianrdquo way ofrendering the Greek alpha privativum (the only difference is that we nowhave the verbal form ʿadima in lieu of the active participle ʿādim or theadjective ʿadīm)

c Moreover the translator also addsmalḥūẓan using the root radicl-ḥ-ẓ which ischaracteristic of Antoniosrsquo rendering of the verb ὁράω

We may also note that the ldquotraduction reacutecenterdquo renders the adverb οὕτως (inthe sentence immediately following Ὁ οὕτως σεσυνηθικὼς πολεμεῖν etc) as ʿalāhāḏihi l-ǧiha This is in line with Antoniosrsquo way of rendering the indefiniteadverb πως as ʿalā ǧiha min al-ǧihāt

All these features leave little room for doubt that the translator of the ldquotra-duction reacutecenterdquo of John ClimacusrsquoBook of the Ladder is none other than Anto-nios A critical edition of Antoniosrsquo translation of John Climacus based on allthe availablemanuscripts is an important desideratum109 Even a casual exam-ination of a given manuscript will be suffient to determine whether it exhibitsthe ldquotraduction anciennerdquo (the old Palestinian translation) or the ldquotraductionreacutecenterdquo (Antoniosrsquo translation) as already mentioned the former uses thetermmīmar while the latter uses the termmaqāla for chapter divisions

5 Agenda for Future Research

In light of the foregoing discussion it seems evident that the field of Graeco-Arabic Studies ought not to limit itself to the ʿAbbāsid translationmovement inBaghdad Its momentous significance for the history of philosophy and sciencenotwithstanding the ʿAbbāsid translationmovement was not the only attemptto translateGreekworks intoArabic TheChristian translation activity outlinedabove matched it in scope It has also lasted for considerably longer havingbegun in the eighth century it is still in progress today

The methods successfully employed in the scholarly analysis of the ʿAb-bāsid translation movementmdasha systematic analysis of manuscript evidence

109 Many manuscripts of the ldquotraduction reacutecenterdquomdashwhat we now know is Antoniosrsquo trans-lationmdashof John Climacusrsquo Book of the Ladder are known I have consulted Sinai ar 343(year 1612) where the passage in question appears on fol 84r This translation is partiallypresent also in Sinai ar 557 (ca 13th century) though there the text is slightly editedmod-ified and the section under discussion is absent



(with particular attention to marginal notes colophons etc) a careful philo-logical study of translation techniques and a close investigation of the socialcontextmdashshould now be applied to the unpublished and barely studied Arabictranslations of Christian works particularly Arabic translations of the ChurchFathers with a view to establishing their relative chronology and social his-tory A sustained investigation of the availability of Arabic Patristic translationsto the various Christian communities (with attention to translation prioritiesmonastic and theological curricula the diffusion of manuscripts within eachcommunity locality and time period) is an important desideratum

A sustained effort is also needed to compile a fully searchable computerdatabase of these translations as well as to critically edit as many of them aspossible This will surely lead to the recovery of Christian texts lost in theGreekoriginals and preserved in these Arabic translations110 New editions will stim-ulate interest in the significance of Christian Graeco-Arabica for the Christiancommunities of theMiddle East as well as the neighboring landsmdashByzantiumGeorgia and Ethiopia

They will hopefully also encourage research in yet another crucially impor-tant area which is still very much a terra incognita the possible influence ofChristian Graeco-Arabica onMuslim and Jewish theological activity in Islamiclands Did the early Ṣūfīs have access to Evagrius John Climacus and Isaacof Nineveh whose works were translated into Arabic in Palestine as early asthe ninth and tenth centuries DidMuslim and Jewish theologians have accessto Antoniosrsquo Arabic translations of John of Damascusrsquo works particularly hisDialectica and Exposition of the Orthodox Faith produced in the second half ofthe tenth century in AntiochWere Arabic translations of the Greek and SyriacChurch Fathers available to the ldquoBrethren of Purityrdquo (Iḫwān al-ṣafāʾ) and didthey influence their theological synthesis By addressing and answering theseand similar questions the study of Christian Graeco-Arabica has the potentialto bring about a comprehensive and much-needed reassessment of the possi-ble links between Islamic and Jewish thought in theMiddle Ages and theGreekand Syriac Patristic tradition and to enrich our understanding of the crosspol-linations between Christians Muslims and Jews in the Islamicate world

110 While these lost texts will often be extant also in other ldquoOriental Christianrdquo versions(on which see Adam McCollumrsquos contribution to this volume) sometimes the ChristianArabic translation will be the only one preserved For an important Patristic text lost inGreek and preserved only in Christian Arabic see n 35 above

220 treiger


Bibliography

Assfalg Julius ldquoDer christliche Orient Literaturen und Handschriften Kat Nr 27ndash52rdquoin Das Buch im Orient Handschriften und Kostbare Drucke aus Zwei JahrtausendenAusstellung 16 November 1982ndash1985 Februar 1983 (Ausstellungskataloge BayerischeStaatsbibliothek) Wiesbaden L Reichert 1982 pp 67ndash98

Atiya Aziz S Catalogue Raisonneacute of the Mount Sinai Arabic Manuscripts CompleteAnalytical Listing of the Arabic Collection Preserved in the Monastery of St CatherineonMt Sinai al-Fahāris al-taḥlīliyya li-maḫṭūṭāt Ṭūr Sīnāal-ʿarabiyya Fahāris kāmilamaʿa dirāsa taḥlīliyya li-l-maḫṭūṭāt al-ʿarabiyya bi-dayr al-qiddīsa Kātirīna bi-ṬūrSīnā Arabic translation by Joseph N Youssef vol 1 (mss 1ndash300) Alexandria GalalHazzi amp Co 1970 [the only volume published]

Awad Wadi ldquoYūḥannā ibn Sawīrusrdquo in Christian-Muslim Relations A BibliographicalHistory eds David Thomas and Alex Mallett vol 4 Leiden Brill 2012 pp 73ndash77

Badawī ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Aflūṭīn ʿind al-ʿarab Cairo Maktabat al-nahḍa al-miṣriyya1955

Berhānu Dāwit Das maṣḥafa Mar Yesḥaq von Ninive Einleitung Edition und Uumlberset-zung mit Kommentar Hamburg Kovač 1997 [not seen]

bhg = Bibliotheca Hagiographica GraecaBinggeli Andreacute ldquoLrsquohagiographie du Sinaiuml arabe drsquoapregraves un recueil du ixe siegravecle (Sinaiuml

arabe 542)rdquoParole de lrsquoOrient 32 (2007) pp 163ndash180Binggeli Andreacute ldquoLa version syriaque des Reacutecits drsquoAnastase le Sinaiumlte et lrsquoactiviteacute des

moines syriaques au Mont Sinaiuml aux viiiendashixe siegraveclesrdquo in Les syriaques transmet-teurs de civilisations Lrsquoexpeacuterience du Bilacircd El-Shacircm agrave lrsquoeacutepoque omeyyade al-Suryānnaqalat ḥaḍārāt ḫibrat Bilād al-Šām fī l-ʿaṣr al-umawī 2 vols Anteacutelias Markaz al-Dirāsāt wa-l-Abḥāṯ al-Mašriqiyya 2005 vol 1 pp 165ndash177

Blau Joshua A Grammar of Christian Arabic Based Mainly on South-Palestinian Textsfrom the First Millennium 3 vols Louvain Secreacutetariat du CorpusSCO 1966ndash1967

Bonmariage Ceacutecile and Seacutebastien Moureau ldquoCorpus Dionysiacum Arabicum Eacutetudeeacutedition critique et traduction des Noms Divins iv sect1ndash9rdquo Le Museacuteon 1241ndash2 (2011)pp 181ndash227 and 1243ndash4 (2011) pp 419ndash459

Brock Sebastian ldquoFrom Qaṭar to Tokyo by Way of Mār Sābā The Translations of Isaacof Bēth Qaṭrāyē (Isaac the Syrian)rdquo aram 11ndash12 (1999ndash2000) pp 475ndash484

Brock Sebastian ldquoSyriac intoGreek atMār Sābā TheTranslation of St Isaac the Syrianrdquoin The Sabaite Heritage in the Orthodox Church from the Fifth Century to the Presented Joseph Patrich Leuven Peeters 2001 pp 201ndash208

Brock Sebastian ldquoSyriac Manuscripts Copied on the Black Mountain near Antiochrdquoin Lingua Restituta Orientalis Festgabe fuumlr Julius Assfalg eds Regine Schulz andManfred Goumlrg Wiesbaden Harrassowitz 1990 pp 59ndash67

Brock Sebastian ldquoSyriac on Sinai The Main Connectionsrdquo in Eukosmia studi miscel-



lanei per il 75 di Vincenzo Poggi sj eds Vincenzo Ruggieri and Luca Pieralli SoveriaMannelli Rubbettino 2003 pp 103ndash117

Caner Daniel F History andHagiography from the Late Antique Sinai Liverpool Liver-pool University Press 2010

Cantemir Dimitrie The Salvation of the Wise Man and the Ruin of the Sinful World Ṣalāḥ al-ḥakīm wa-fasād al-ʿālam al-ḏamīm ed and tr Ioana Feodorov BucharestEditura Academiei Romacircne 2006

cpg = Clavis Patrum GraecorumDaiber Hans ldquoGraeco-Arabica Christiana The Christian Scholar ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Faḍl

(11th c ad) as Transmitter of GreekWorksrdquo in Islamic Philosophy Science Cultureand Religion Studies in Honor of Dimitri Gutas eds David C Reisman and FelicitasOpwis Leiden Brill 2012 pp 3ndash9

Darrouzegraves Jean Recherches sur les ΟΦΦΙΚΙΑ de lrsquoEacuteglise byzantine Paris Institut fran-ccedilais drsquoeacutetudes byzantines 1970

Dietrich Albert ldquoIslamic Sciences and theMedievalWest Pharmacologyrdquo in Islamandthe Medieval West Aspects of Intercultural Relations ed Khalil I Semaan AlbanyState University of New York Press 1980 pp 50ndash63

Dunlop Douglas M ldquoThe Translations of al-Biṭricircq and Yaḥyacirc (Yuḥannacirc) b al-BiṭricircqrdquoJournal of the Royal Asiatic Society 913ndash4 (1959) pp 140ndash150

Endress Gerhard Proclus Arabus Zwanzig Abschnitte aus der ldquoInstitutio Theologicardquoin Arabischer Uumlbersetzung Beirut Orient-Institut der deutschenmorgenlaumlndischenGesellschaft 1973

Feodorov Ioana (ed) Relations entre les peuples de lrsquoEurope Orientale et les chreacutetiensarabes au xviie siegravecle Macaire iii Ibn al-Zaʿīm et Paul drsquoAlep (Actes du ier Colloqueinternational le 16 septembre 2011 Bucarest) Bucharest Editura Academiei Romacircne2012

Frantsouzoff Serge A ldquoLe pheacutenomegravene des feuillets transposeacutes dans les manuscritsarabes chreacutetiens de St Peacutetersbourgrdquo in Actes du Symposium International ldquoLe LivreLaRoumanie LrsquoEuroperdquo (BibliothegravequeMeacutetropolitaine deBucarest 4egraveme eacutedition 20ndash23Septembre 2011) vol 3 Bucharest Biblioteca Bucureștilor 2012 pp 210ndash220

Fumagalli Pier Francesco ldquoThe ArabicManuscripts of the Ambrosiana and the Homil-iariumAmbr x 198 suprdquo in Arabic Homilies on the Nativity eds Sergio Noja Nosedaand Pier Francesco Fumagalli Milan Veneranda Biblioteca Ambrosiana 2000 pp55ndash73

Garitte Geacuterard Catalogue des manuscrits geacuteorgiens litteacuteraires du Mont Sinaiuml LouvainL Durbecq 1956

Geacutehin Paul ldquoManuscrits sinaiumltiques disperseacutes i Les fragments syriaques et arabes deParisrdquo Oriens Christianus 90 (2006) pp 23ndash43

Gero Stephen ldquoThe Legend of Alexander the Great in the Christian OrientrdquoBulletin ofthe John Rylands University Library of Manchester 75 (1993) pp 3ndash9

222 treiger


GibsonMargaret Dunlop Catalogue of the Arabicmss in the Convent of S Catharine onMount Sinai London CJ Clay 1894

Graf Georg Die Schriften des Jacobiten Ḥabīb ibn Ḫidma Abū Rāʾiṭa Louvain L Dur-becq 1951

Graf Georg Geschichte der christlichen arabischen Literatur 5 vols Vatican BibliotecaApostolica Vaticana 1944ndash1953

GrandrsquoHenry Jacques (ed) ldquoLa version arabe du Discours 24 de Greacutegoire de NazianzeEacutedition critique commentaires et traductionrdquo in Versiones orientales repertoriumibericumet studiaadeditiones curandas ed BernardCoulie Turnhout Brepols 1988pp 197ndash291

GrandrsquoHenry Jacques (ed) Sancti Gregorii Nazianzeni Opera Versio arabica antiqua iOratio xxi (arab 20) Turnhout Brepols 1996

GrandrsquoHenry Jacques (ed) Sancti Gregorii Nazianzeni Opera Versio arabica antiquaiii Oratio xl (arab 4) Turnhout Brepols 2005

GrandrsquoHenry Jacques (ed) Sancti Gregorii Nazianzeni Opera Versio arabica antiquaiv Orationes xi xli (arab 8 12) Turnhout Brepols 2013

Griffith Sidney H ldquoThe Arabic Account of ʿAbd al-Masīḥ an-Naǧrānī al-Ġassānīrdquo LeMuseacuteon 98 (1985) pp 331ndash374 [reprint Griffith Arabic Christianity Essay x]

Griffith Sidney H Arabic Christianity in the Monasteries of Ninth-Century PalestineAldershot Variorum 1992

Griffith SidneyH The Beginnings of Christian Theology inArabic Aldershot Variorum2002

Griffith Sidney H The Bible in Arabic The Scriptures of the ldquoPeople of the Bookrdquo in theLanguage of Islam Princeton Princeton University Press 2013

Griffith Sidney H The Church in the Shadow of the Mosque Princeton PrincetonUniversity Press 2008

Gutas DimitriGreekThought ArabicCulture TheGraeco-ArabicTranslationMovementin Baghdad and Early ʿAbbāsid Society (2ndndash4th8thndash10th Centuries) LondonNewYork Routledge 1998

Gvaramia Rusudan Amoniosis ldquoSina-Raitʿis cmida mamatʿa mosrvisrdquo arabul-kʿartʿuliversiebi ixndashxi xiii da xvii ss xelnacerebis mixedvitʿ Tbilisi Mecʿniereba 1973

Ibn Kabar Abū l-Barakāt Šams al-Riʾāsa Miṣbāḥ al-ẓulma fī īḍāḥ al-ḫidma ed SamīrḪalīl Samīr [vol 1] Cairo Maktabat al-Kārūz 1971

John of Damascus Die Schriften des Johannes von Damaskos eds Bonifatius Kotter andRobert Volk 8 vols in 7 Berlin W de Gruyter 1969ndash2013

John of Damascus [Yūḥannā al-Dimašqī] al-Miʾa maqāla fī l-īmān al-urṯūḏuksī trArchimandrite Adrianos Chaccour [Šakkūr] Beirut Manšūrāt al-Maktaba al-Būlu-siyya 21991

Kamil Murad ldquoTranslations from Arabic in Ethiopic Literaturerdquo Bulletin de la SocieacuteteacutedrsquoArcheacuteologie Copte 8 (1942) pp 61ndash71



Khalidov Anas Bakievich Arabskie rukopisi instituta vostokovedenija kratkij katalog 2vols Moscow Nauka 1986

Kilpatrick Hilary ldquoMakariyus Ibn al-Zaʿim (ca 1600ndash1672) and Bulus Ibn al-Zaʿim (Paulof Aleppo) (1627ndash1669)rdquo in Essays in Arabic Literary Biography ii (1350ndash1850) edsJoseph E Lowry and Devin J Stewart Wiesbaden Harrassowitz 2009 pp 262ndash273

Kim Serge [Sergey] ldquoThe Syriac Version of the lsquoCaput 13rsquo of Diadochus of PhoticeStudied alongside the Arabic and Georgian Versionsrdquo Parole de lrsquoOrient 40 (2015)(forthcoming)

Kim Sergey ldquoVostochnye perevody lsquoSotnitsrsquo blazh Diadokha FotikijskogordquoBogoslovskijVestnik (forthcoming)

Kohlberg Etan and Benjamin Z Kedar ldquoAMelkite Physician in Frankish JerusalemandAyyūbid Damascus Muwaffaq al-Dīn Yaʿqūb b SiqlābrdquoAsian and African Studies 22(1988) pp 113ndash126

Kropp Manfred ldquoArabisch-aumlthiopische Uumlbersetzungstechnik am Beispiel der ZenaAyhud (Yosippon) und des Tarikauml Waumlldauml-ʿAmidrdquo Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgen-laumlndischen Gesellschaft 136 (1986) pp 314ndash346

Lamoreaux John C ldquoIbrāhīm ibn Yūḥannā al-Anṭākīrdquo in Christian-Muslim RelationsA Bibliographical History eds David Thomas and Alex Mallett vol 2 Leiden Brill2010 pp 611ndash616

Lamoreaux John C ldquoLeontius of Damascusrdquo in Christian-Muslim Relations A Bibli-ographical History eds David Thomas and Barbara Roggema vol 1 Leiden Brill2009 pp 406ndash410

Lamoreaux John C The Life of Stephen of Mar Sabas 2 vols Louvain Peeters 1999Mavroudi Maria ldquoGreek Language and Education in Early Islamrdquo in Islamic Cultures

Islamic Contexts Essays inHonor of Professor Patricia Crone eds Behnam Sadeghi etal Leiden Brill 2015 pp 295ndash342

Mavroudi Maria ldquoTranslations from Greek into Arabic at the Court of Mehmed theConquerorrdquo in The Byzantine Court Source of Power and Culture eds Ayla OumldekanNevra Necipoğlu and Engin Akyuumlrek Istanbul Koccedil University Press 2013 pp 195ndash207

Meiumlmaacuterēs Yiannis E Kataacutelogos tōn neacuteōn arabikṓn kheirograacutephōn tēs hieraacutes monḗshagiacuteas Aikateriacutenēs tou oacuterous Sinaacute Athens Ethnikoacuten Iacutedryma Ereunṓn 1985

Muumlller-Kessler Christa and Michael Sokoloff (eds and trs) The Catechism of Cyril ofJerusalem in theChristianPalestinianAramaicVersion Groningen StyxPublications1999

Muumlller-Kessler Christa and Michael Sokoloff (eds and trs) The Forty Martyrs of theSinai Desert Eulogios the Stone-Cutter andAnastasia Groningen Styx Publications1996

Nasrallah Joseph ldquoDossier arabe des œuvres de saint Basile dans la litteacuterature mel-chiterdquoProche-Orient Chreacutetien 29 (1979) pp 17ndash43

224 treiger


Nasrallah Joseph Histoire du mouvement litteacuteraire dans lrsquoEacuteglise melchite du ve au xxesiegravecle 3 vols in 6 Louvain Peeters 1979ndash1989 and Damascus Institut franccedilais deDamas 1996

Naššār al-Sayyid al-Sayyid Fahāris al-maḫṭūṭāt al-ʿarabiyya bi-maktabat Dayr SāntKātirīn Dirāsa taḥlīliyya Alexandria Dār al-ṯaqāfa al-ʿilmiyya 2000

Noble Samuel and Alexander Treiger ldquoChristian Arabic Theology in Byzantine Anti-och ʿAbdallāh ibn al-Faḍl al-Anṭākī andHisDiscourse on theHoly TrinityrdquoLeMuseacuteon1243ndash4 (2011) pp 371ndash417

Noble Samuel and Alexander Treiger (eds) The Orthodox Church in the Arab World(700ndash1700) AnAnthology of Sources DeKalb Northern Illinois University Press 2014

Ott Claudia ldquoDie Inschriften des Aleppozimmers im Berliner Pergamonmuseumrdquo LeMuseacuteon 1091ndash2 (1996) pp 185ndash226

Outtier Bernard ldquoAgrave propos des traductions de lrsquoarabe en armeacutenien et en geacuteorgienrdquoParole de lrsquoOrient 21 (1996) pp 57ndash63

Outtier Bernard ldquoLe manuscrit Tbilisi a-249 un recueil traduit de lrsquoarabe et sa phys-ionomie primitiverdquoBedi Kartlisa 35 (1977) pp 97ndash108

Outtier Bernard ldquoLes enseignements des Pegraveres Un recueil geacuteorgien traduit de lrsquoaraberdquoBedi Kartlisa 31 (1974) pp 36ndash47

Pahlitzsch Johannes ldquoThe Translation of the Byzantine Procheiros Nomos into ArabicTechniques and Cultural ContextrdquoByzantinoslavica 65 (2007) pp 19ndash29

Parker Emily and Alexander Treiger ldquoPhilorsquos Odyssey into the Medieval Jewish WorldNeglected Evidence from Arab Christian Literaturerdquo Dionysius 30 (2012) pp 117ndash146

Pataridze Tamar [Tamara] ldquoChristian Literature Translated fromArabic intoGeorgianA ReviewrdquoAnnual of Medieval Studies at ceu 19 (2013) pp 47ndash65

Pataridze Tamara ldquoLes Discours Asceacutetiques drsquo Isaac de Ninive Eacutetude de la traditiongeacuteorgienne et de ses rapports avec les autres versionsrdquo Le Museacuteon 1241ndash2 (2011)pp 27ndash58

Pataridze Tamara ldquoLes signatures des cahiers unilingues et bilingues dans les manu-scrits sinaiumltiques (geacuteorgiens arabes et syriaques)rdquoManuscriptaOrientalia 181 (2012)pp 15ndash35

Pataridze Tamara ldquoSushrsquoestvujut li perevody s sirijskogo jazyka na gruzinskijrdquo [AreThereTranslations fromSyriac intoGeorgian] inMiscellaneaChristianaOrientalia Vostochnokhristianskoe raznoobrazie eds Nikolai Seleznyov and Yury ArzhanovMoscow Institut vostochnykh kulrsquotur i antichnosti rggu 2014 pp 185ndash206

Patrich Joseph ldquoThe Hermitage of St John the Hesychast in the Great Laura of SabasrdquoLiber Annuus Annual of the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum Jerusalem 43 (1993)pp 315ndash337

Peters Curt ldquoEine arabische Uumlbersetzung des Akathistos-Hymnusrdquo Le Museacuteon 53(1940) pp 89ndash104



pg = Patrologiae Cursus Completus Series GraecaPierreMarie-Joseph ldquoChristianismes orientaux Eacutetude du texte syriaque drsquoAmmonios

lsquoLes Quarante martyrs du Sinaiuml et de Raiumlthoursquo drsquoapregraves les mss Vat Syr 623 etbl 14645rdquo Annuaire de lrsquoephe Section des sciences religieuses 110 (2001ndash2002) pp341ndash344

Pirard Marcel (ed) Abba Isaak tou Syrou Logoi Askētikoi kritikē ekdosi Mount AthosIviron Monastery 2012

Polosin Valerij V et al The Arabic Psalter A Supplement to the Facsimile Edition ofManuscript a187 ldquoThe Petersburg Arabic Illuminated Psalterrdquo from the Collections ofthe Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences (St PetersburgBranch) Saint Petersburg Kvarta 2005

Ricci Lanfranco ldquoEthiopian Christian Literaturerdquo in The Coptic Encyclopaedia vol 3New York Macmillan 1991 pp 975ndash979

Riedel Wilhelm ldquoDer Katalog der christlichen Schriften in arabischer Sprache vonAbū ʾl-BarakātrdquoNachrichten von der Koumlniglichen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zuGoumlttingen Philologisch-historische Klasse 5 (1902) pp 635ndash706

Samir SamirKhalil ldquoAl-Asʿad Ibn al-ʿAssāl copiste de JeanDamascegravene agraveDamas en 1230rdquoOrientalia Christiana Periodica 44 (1978) pp 190ndash194

Samir Samir Khalil ldquoMichel eacutevecircquemelkite deDamas au 9e siegravecle agrave propos de Bišr ibnal-Sirrīrdquo Orientalia Christiana Periodica 53 (1987) pp 439ndash441

Samir Samir Khalil ldquoLes plus anciens homeacuteliaires geacuteorgiens et les versions patristiquesarabesrdquo Orientalia Christiana Periodica 42 (1976) pp 217ndash231

Samir Samir Khalil ldquoQusṭanṭīn ibn Abī al-Maʿālī ibn Abī l-Fatḥ Abū l-Fatḥrdquo in TheCoptic Encyclopedia vol 7 New York Macmillan 1991 pp 2046ndash2047

Samir Samir Khalil ldquoUn traiteacute nouveau drsquoEacutelie de Nisibe sur le sens des mots kiyānet ilāhrdquo Parole de lrsquoOrient 14 (1987) pp 109ndash153 [reprint Samir Khalil Samir Foiet culture en Irak au xie siegravecle Eacutelie de Nisibe et lrsquo Islam Aldershot Brookfield vtVariorum 1996 Essay ix]

Sauget Joseph-Marie ldquoLrsquohomeacuteliaire arabe de la BibliothegravequeAmbrosienne (x198 Sup)et sesmembra disiectardquoAnalecta Bollandiana 88 (1970) pp 391ndash475

Sauget Joseph-Marie ldquoUn homeacuteliaire melkite bipartite Le manuscrit Beyrouth Biblio-thegraveque Orientale 510rdquoLe Museacuteon 101 (1988) pp 231ndash290

Sauget Joseph-Marie Premiegraveres recherches sur lrsquoorigine et les caracteacuteristiquesdes synax-aires melkites (xiendashxviie siegravecles) Brussels Socieacuteteacute des Bollandistes 1969

Sidarus Adel Y ldquoLes sources drsquoune somme philosophico-theacuteologique copte arabe(Kitāb al-Burhān drsquoAbū Šākir Ibn al-Rāhib xiiie siegravecle)rdquo Miscellanea BibliothecaeApostolicae Vaticanae 17 (2010) pp 127ndash164

SwansonMarkN ldquoSomeConsiderations for theDating of Fī taṯlīṯ Allāh al-wāḥid (SinaiAr 154) and al-Ǧāmiʿ wuǧūh al-īmān (London British Library or 4950)rdquo Parole delrsquoOrient 18 (1993) pp 115ndash141

226 treiger


Serikoff Nikolaj (ed) Valerii Polosin Vladimir Polosin and Sergey Frantsouzoff ADescriptive Catalogue of the Christian Arabic Manuscripts of the Institute of OrientalStudies of the Russian Academy Louvain Peeters (forthcoming)

ŠevčenkoNancyP ldquoManuscript ProductiononMount Sinai from theTenth to theThir-teenthCenturyrdquo in Approaching theHolyMountainArt andLiturgyat St CatherinersquosMonastery in the Sinai eds Sharon EJ Gerstel and Robert S Nelson Turnhout Bre-pols 2010 pp 233ndash258

Smelova Natalia ldquoBiblical Allusions and Citations in the Syriac Theotokia according toms Syr New Series 11 of the National Library of Russia St Petersburgrdquo in The Bible inArab Christianity ed David Thomas Leiden Brill 2006 pp 369ndash392

Staal Harvey (ed and tr) Mt Sinai Arabic Codex 151 i Pauline Epistles 2 vols LouvainPeeters 1983

Staal Harvey (ed and tr) Mt Sinai Arabic Codex 151 ii Acts of the Apostles CatholicEpistles 2 vols Louvain Peeters 1984

Stroumsa Sarah ldquoPhilosophy as Wisdom On the Christiansrsquo Role in the Translation ofPhilosophical Material into Arabicrdquo in Exchange and Transmission across CulturalBoundaries PhilosophyMysticism andScience in theMediterraneanWorld eds Hag-gai Ben-Shammai Shaul Shaked and Sarah Stroumsa Jerusalem Israel Academy ofSciences and Humanities 2013 pp 276ndash293

Sullivan Denis F Alice-Mary Talbot and StamatinaMcGrath The Life of Saint Basil theYounger Washington dc Dumbarton Oaks 2014

Syrku Polikhronij Agapievich Catalogus librorum manuscriptorum et impressorummonasterii S Catharinae in Monte Sinai ad fidem codicis Porphyriani iv Б 18135Saint Petersburg 1891 [an extract from Polikhronij Agapievich Syrku ldquoOpisaniebumag episkopa Porfirija Uspenskago pozhertvovannykh im v Imperatorskuju Aka-demiju nauk po zaveshrsquoanijurdquo Zapiski Imperatorskoj Akademii Nauk 64 (1891) pp325ndash352]

Teule Herman ldquoLrsquoEacutechelle du Paradis de Jean Climaque dans la tradition syriaquepremiegraveres investigationsrdquoParole de lrsquoOrient 20 (1995) pp 279ndash293

Theodoret of Cyrrhus Tārīḫ aṣfiyāʾ Allāh tr Archimandrite Adrianos Chaccour [Šak-kūr] Jounieh al-Maṭbaʿa al-Būlusiyya 1987 [not seen]

Todt Klaus-Peter ldquoRegion und griechisch-orthodoxes Patriarchat von Antiocheia inmittelbyzantinischer ZeitrdquoByzantinische Zeitschrift 94 (2001) pp 239ndash267

Tokay Elif ldquoContinuity and Transformation in the Arabic Translation of Gregory Na-zianzenrsquos Oration on Baptism (Oration 40)rdquo in Origenes und sein Erbe in Orient undOkzident ed Alfons Fuumlrst Muumlnster Aschendorff 2011 pp 227ndash253

Treiger Alexander ldquoʿAbdallāh ibn al-Faḍl al-Anṭākīrdquo in Christian-Muslim Relations ABibliographicalHistory edsDavidThomas andAlexMallett vol 3 Leiden Brill 2011pp 89ndash113 vol 5 Leiden Brill 2013 pp 748ndash749

Treiger Alexander ldquoThe Arabic Version of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagitersquos MysticalTheology Chapter 1rdquoLe Museacuteon 120 (2007) pp 365ndash393



Treiger Alexander ldquoThe Fathers inArabicrdquo inTheWiley-Blackwell Companion to Patris-tics ed Kenneth Parry (forthcoming)

Treiger Alexander ldquoGreek into Arabic in Byzantine Antioch ʿAbdallāh ibn al-FaḍlrsquosBook of the Garden (Kitāb al-Rawḍa)rdquo in Monks Merchants and Artists [provisionaltitle] eds Johannes Pahlitzsch and Vasiliki Tsamakda Mainz Veroumlffentlichungendes WissenschaftsCampus Mainz (forthcoming)

Treiger Alexander ldquoNew Evidence on the Arabic Versions of the Corpus DionysiacumrdquoLe Museacuteon 118 (2005) pp 219ndash240

Treiger Alexander ldquoPalestinian Origenism and the Early History of the MaronitesIn Search of the Origins of the Arabic Theology of Aristotlerdquo in Ideas in MotionPhilosophical and Theological Exchanges between Christian and Muslim Thinkersfrom the Eighth to the Thirteenth Centuries ce [provisional title] ed Damien JanosLeiden Brill (forthcoming)

Treiger Alexander ldquoSyro-Arabic Translations in Abbasid Palestine The Case of John ofApamearsquos Letter on Stillness (Sinai ar 549)rdquoParole de lrsquoOrient 39 (2014) pp 79ndash131

Tuerlinckx Laurence (ed) Sancti Gregorii Nazianzeni Opera Versio arabica antiqua iiOrationes i xlv xliv (arab 9 10 11) Turnhout Brepols 2001

van Esbroeck Michel ldquoUn recueil preacutemeacutetaphrastique arabe du xie siegravecle (Brit MusAdd 26117 et Or 5019)rdquoAnalecta Bollandiana 85 (1967) pp 143ndash164

van Esbroeck Michel [Review of Gvaramia Amoniosis] Bedi Kartlisa 32 (1974) pp299ndash302

van Lantschoot Arnold ldquoAbbā Salāmā meacutetropolite drsquoEthiopie (1348ndash1388) et son rolede traducteurrdquo Atti del Convegno Internazionale di Studi Etiopici (Roma 2ndash4 aprile1959) Rome Accademia nazionale dei Lincei 1960 pp 397ndash401

Vollandt Ronny ldquoChristian-Arabic Translations of the Pentateuch from the 9th to the13th Centuries A Comparative Study of Manuscripts and Translation TechniquesrdquoDPhil Dissertation Cambridge University 2011



As a social phenomenon this specifically ecclesiastical Graeco-Arabic (aswell as Syro-Arabic Copto-Arabic etc) translation activitymdashwhat might becalled Christian Graeco-Arabicamdashis quite distinct from the better knownʿAbbāsid translationmovement of Greek philosophical scientific andmedicalliterature centered in Baghdad (notwithstanding the fact that Arabic-speakingChristian translators were also prominently involved in the latter)2 The maindifferences are the following

1 Christian Graeco-Arabica focused on Christian materialmdashBiblical bookshomiletic hagiographic liturgical and Patristic works and compilations onthe history of the Church Church councils heresies and canon law

2 Christian Graeco-Arabica served the internal needs of the Middle EasternChristian communities and so its sponsors and beneficiaries were not pri-marilyMuslims but fellow-ChristiansmdashldquoMelkitesrdquo ldquoJacobitesrdquo ldquoNestoriansrdquoMaronites and Coptsmdashwho were feeling increasingly more at home withArabic than with their traditional liturgical languages3

Though the first volume of Georg Grafrsquos magisterial Geschichte der christlichenarabischen Literatur (1944) provides ample documentation for ChristianGraeco-Arabica listing over a thousand extant translations of the ChurchFathers alone (including fragmentary versions paraphrases excerpts and flori-legia) the overwhelmingmajority (an estimated 99) of them remain unpub-lished and their critical study has barely begun4 As a result while most Ara-

at Yale especially Dimitri Gutas Sabine Schmidtke Andreacute Binggeli and Kevin van Bladelfor their helpful remarks I am also deeply grateful to Samuel Noble and Gregor Schwarb forinsightful comments on an earlier draft

2 On the ʿAbbāsid translation movement see Gutas Greek Thought Arabic Culture for theChristian context see Griffith Church in the Shadow pp 106ndash128 Stroumsa ldquoPhilosophy asWisdomrdquo

3 For an overview of the Christian communities in the Islamic world see Griffith Church in theShadow pp 129ndash140

4 Crucial updates to Graf are available in the relevant sections of Nasrallah Histoire and inMaurice Geerard and Jacques Noretrsquos Clavis Patrum Graecorum [= cpg] For an overview ofArabic translations of Patristic literature see Treiger ldquoThe Fathers in Arabicrdquo For an overviewof translations into other languages of the Christian Orient some of which (particularlythose into Syriac and to a lesser degree Coptic) served as intermediaries for translationsinto Arabic see Adam McCollumrsquos contribution to this volume Despite the vast amount oftranslated material it is important to keep in mind that many Patristic works were nevertranslated into Arabic and were consequently virtually unknown tomedieval Arabic-writingChristian authors

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ةظوحلم



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الوانتم

















سوسحمو



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ةایحلا











ةنراقم








ةسیاقملا







maqāla

2 Greek prefixes








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ةظوحلم



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الوانتم

















سوسحمو



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اهيوحيو



ةایحلا











ةنراقم








ةسیاقملا







maqāla

2 Greek prefixes








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ةظوحلم



210 treiger


























الوانتم

















سوسحمو



212 treiger

















اهيوحيو



ةایحلا











ةنراقم








ةسیاقملا







maqāla

2 Greek prefixes








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ṣunūf al-ḥayy


















102ldquoفیعض









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ةظوحلم



210 treiger


























الوانتم

















سوسحمو



212 treiger

















اهيوحيو



ةایحلا











ةنراقم








ةسیاقملا







maqāla

2 Greek prefixes








214 treiger







ṣunūf al-ḥayy


















102ldquoفیعض









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ةظوحلم



210 treiger


























الوانتم

















سوسحمو



212 treiger

















اهيوحيو



ةایحلا











ةنراقم








ةسیاقملا







maqāla

2 Greek prefixes








214 treiger







ṣunūf al-ḥayy


















102ldquoفیعض









216 treiger






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ةظوحلم



210 treiger


























الوانتم

















سوسحمو



212 treiger

















اهيوحيو



ةایحلا











ةنراقم








ةسیاقملا







maqāla

2 Greek prefixes








214 treiger







ṣunūf al-ḥayy


















102ldquoفیعض









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210 treiger


























الوانتم

















سوسحمو



212 treiger

















اهيوحيو



ةایحلا











ةنراقم








ةسیاقملا







maqāla

2 Greek prefixes








214 treiger







ṣunūf al-ḥayy


















102ldquoفیعض









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ةظوحلم



210 treiger


























الوانتم

















سوسحمو



212 treiger

















اهيوحيو



ةایحلا











ةنراقم








ةسیاقملا







maqāla

2 Greek prefixes








214 treiger







ṣunūf al-ḥayy


















102ldquoفیعض









216 treiger






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Bibliography
































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206 treiger




















208 treiger


























ةظوحلم



210 treiger


























الوانتم

















سوسحمو



212 treiger

















اهيوحيو



ةایحلا











ةنراقم








ةسیاقملا







maqāla

2 Greek prefixes








214 treiger







ṣunūf al-ḥayy


















102ldquoفیعض









216 treiger






105ىرت


































218 treiger

















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Bibliography
































222 treiger





































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206 treiger




















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ةظوحلم



210 treiger


























الوانتم

















سوسحمو



212 treiger

















اهيوحيو



ةایحلا











ةنراقم








ةسیاقملا







maqāla

2 Greek prefixes








214 treiger







ṣunūf al-ḥayy


















102ldquoفیعض









216 treiger






105ىرت


































218 treiger

















220 treiger


Bibliography
































222 treiger





































224 treiger




































226 treiger







































208 treiger


























ةظوحلم



210 treiger


























الوانتم

















سوسحمو



212 treiger

















اهيوحيو



ةایحلا











ةنراقم








ةسیاقملا







maqāla

2 Greek prefixes








214 treiger







ṣunūf al-ḥayy


















102ldquoفیعض









216 treiger






105ىرت


































218 treiger

















220 treiger


Bibliography
































222 treiger





































224 treiger




































226 treiger











































ةظوحلم



210 treiger


























الوانتم

















سوسحمو



212 treiger

















اهيوحيو



ةایحلا











ةنراقم








ةسیاقملا







maqāla

2 Greek prefixes








214 treiger







ṣunūf al-ḥayy


















102ldquoفیعض









216 treiger






105ىرت


































218 treiger

















220 treiger


Bibliography
































222 treiger





































224 treiger




































226 treiger




























210 treiger


























الوانتم

















سوسحمو



212 treiger

















اهيوحيو



ةایحلا











ةنراقم








ةسیاقملا







maqāla

2 Greek prefixes








214 treiger







ṣunūf al-ḥayy


















102ldquoفیعض









216 treiger






105ىرت


































218 treiger

















220 treiger


Bibliography
































222 treiger





































224 treiger




































226 treiger






































الوانتم

















سوسحمو



212 treiger

















اهيوحيو



ةایحلا











ةنراقم








ةسیاقملا







maqāla

2 Greek prefixes








214 treiger







ṣunūf al-ḥayy


















102ldquoفیعض









216 treiger






105ىرت


































218 treiger

















220 treiger


Bibliography
































222 treiger





































224 treiger




































226 treiger




























212 treiger

















اهيوحيو



ةایحلا











ةنراقم








ةسیاقملا







maqāla

2 Greek prefixes








214 treiger







ṣunūf al-ḥayy


















102ldquoفیعض









216 treiger






105ىرت


































218 treiger

















220 treiger


Bibliography
































222 treiger





































224 treiger




































226 treiger

































maqāla

2 Greek prefixes








214 treiger







ṣunūf al-ḥayy


















102ldquoفیعض









216 treiger






105ىرت


































218 treiger

















220 treiger


Bibliography
































222 treiger





































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214 treiger







ṣunūf al-ḥayy


















102ldquoفیعض









216 treiger






105ىرت


































218 treiger

















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Bibliography
































222 treiger





































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102ldquoفیعض









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Christian Graeco-Arabica: Prolegomena to a History of the Arabic Translations of the Greek Church...

Documents

Transcript of Christian Graeco-Arabica: Prolegomena to a History of the Arabic Translations of the Greek Church...