- Arabic Dialects, Arab Christian Studies, Arabic Language and Linguistics, Arabic Literature, Manuscript Studies, Codicology, and 30 morePalaeography, Medieval Paper, Chaucer, Circulations of Texts and Books, History of the Book, Arabic Manuscripts, Ethiopian Studies, Comparative Semitic Linguistics, Syriac Christianity, Early Islam, Eastern Christianity, Syriac Studies, Oriental Studies, Syriac literature, Early Christianity, Byzantine Studies, History of Christianity, Orientalism, Early Islamic History, Arabic Dialectology, Near Eastern Studies, Syriac manuscripts, Semitic languages, Middle Eastern Christianity, Syrian Studies, Coptic Studies, Late Antiquity, Arabic-Speaking Orthodox Christianity, Muslim-Christian Relation, and Ilan Pappèedit
In this paper we propose a brief introduction to the story of the Legend of the Seven Sleepers in Easter Literatures. A critical edition of the oldest Arabic version with its Italian traslation is also proposed.
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Ten years after his disappearance, father Paolo Dall’Oglio has left us a spiritual legacy that has yet to be understood in all its complexity and depth. This brief contribution proposes a reading of the vocation of father Dall’Oglio that... more
Ten years after his disappearance, father Paolo Dall’Oglio has left us a spiritual legacy that has yet to be understood in all its complexity and depth. This brief contribution proposes a reading of the vocation of father Dall’Oglio that highlights three central aspects: the spirituality of the Community of al-Khalil, the choice of dialogue with Islam and civil and social commitment in the Arab world. Each of these aspects is intrinsically linked to the other in a completely original though not exhaustive way. In fact, there are other points of father Dall’Oglio’s vocation that are worthy of attention and reflection. For this reason, this contribution is a first attempt at reading that will require further and desirable insights.
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Amazon woman is a literary topos that has crossed a wide variety of literary and cultural traditions up to our days. In this essay, the author, starting from the classical tradition, analyses the origin of the Amazons theme, by comparing... more
Amazon woman is a literary topos that has crossed a wide variety of literary and cultural traditions up to our days. In this essay, the author, starting from the classical tradition, analyses the origin of the Amazons theme, by comparing it with the medieval Arabic epic literature, as well as detecting the similarities and differences. In light of this brief analysis, the author does not propose a philological-genealogical reading of the theme, but rather adopts the hermeneutical tools of psychoanalysis to conclude that it is a theme of the universal literature.
This article deals with the intertextual relations between Eastern Christian hagiographical traditions of Late antiquity on one hand, and some texts belonging to the early Islamic religious literature on the other. In the last two... more
This article deals with the intertextual relations between Eastern Christian hagiographical traditions of Late antiquity on one hand, and some texts belonging to the early Islamic religious literature on the other. In the last two centuries, European orientalistic literature has considered the Islamic literature as a basin where past religious traditions have been converged and passively copied. In this contribution I would stress the original activity of early Muslim writers who reworked Eastern Christian legends in order to build a new religious identity as well as to consolidate new boundaries. Accordingly, the key-figure used by wirters of pre-modern Islam is the fighter-horsemanmonk, a kind of sign and symbol of the “common semiotic koine” within the monotheistic tradition (Sizgorich). In this study, I will chose two narrative cycles: some texts relating to the instauration of Christianity in South Arabia, and the Martyrdom of Aretha and his companions in Nağrān (BHG 166). In both cases it is possible to point out mutual borrowings from one tradition to the other. In the former cycle, the Sīra nabawiyya by Ibn Hišām presents two texts whose sources have to be found in Christian hagiography of both Syriac and Geez (old classical Ethiopic) literature. In the latter, a reciprocal interference in both Christian-Muslim directions has been pointed out.
This article offer an overview of the Arabic manuscriot tradition of the Arabic Martyrion of Arethas and his companions in Naǧrān as attested in at least three different versions or redactions.
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The Apocalypse of Paul is perhaps the most widespread Christian apocalyptic text that spread out in Middle Ages in West and East alike. Among the numerous languages in which this Christian apocryphal has been translated, the Arabic... more
The Apocalypse of Paul is perhaps the most widespread Christian apocalyptic text that spread out in Middle Ages in West and East alike. Among the numerous languages in which this Christian apocryphal has been translated, the Arabic version has the richest manuscript tradition (36 witnesses known), after the Latin version (43 witnesses for 8 different redactions). In this study the editio princeps of the oldest known witness, the Arab Sinaitic 461 (10th century), is proposed. It is a version probably taken from a Greek model, as some lexical and syntactic Hellenisms demonstrate. The edition of the Arabic text is accompanied by an annotated Italian translation. To the three redactions described and studied so far, we must therefore add this one which represent the oldest Arabic translation, the text of which offers us a further evidence of the translation activity that took place in South Palestine, between the 8th and 9th centuries..
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Chapitre sur l'edition critique et la critique textuelle du manuel Comparative Oriental Manuscript Studies: An Introduction lie au projet europeen eponyme.
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The fragments published in this article are from Parisinus Arabicus 213, a Christian Arabic manuscript belonging to the Egyptian Coptic milieu at the beginning of the 17th century. These fragments are part of a rich Christian theological... more
The fragments published in this article are from Parisinus Arabicus 213, a Christian Arabic manuscript belonging to the Egyptian Coptic milieu at the beginning of the 17th century. These fragments are part of a rich Christian theological and spiritual collection wich includes works by the ...
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Les themes et sujets du present volume d'hommages que lui dedient plusieurs de ses collegues et amis, correspondent au profil a la fois focalise et varie de Jacques Grand'Henry, Professeur emerite d'etudes arabes a... more
Les themes et sujets du present volume d'hommages que lui dedient plusieurs de ses collegues et amis, correspondent au profil a la fois focalise et varie de Jacques Grand'Henry, Professeur emerite d'etudes arabes a l'Universite catholique de Louvain. Les domaines couverts sont notamment ceux de la dialectologie arabe descriptive ou historique, de la linguistique historique et comparative, du moyen arabe ou de l'arabe melange tel qu'on le trouve dans les textes medievaux et dans les documents modernes (textes litteraires ou enonces oraux), et de la philologie arabe sous des differents aspects.
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2. Fonti del trattato 95 3. La struttura del trattato 96 4. Le citazioni bibliche 97 5. Sulaymãn al-Gazzi cita Giovanni Damasceno 97 6. Le versioni arabe della Fonte della conoscenza 99 7. L'ambiente linguistico della Chiesa melchita... more
2. Fonti del trattato 95 3. La struttura del trattato 96 4. Le citazioni bibliche 97 5. Sulaymãn al-Gazzi cita Giovanni Damasceno 97 6. Le versioni arabe della Fonte della conoscenza 99 7. L'ambiente linguistico della Chiesa melchita 100 F. Perché Sulaymãn al-Gazzï cita ...
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The novel by Al-Ṭayib Ṣāliḥ The Season of Migration to the North is a classic of the post-modern Arabic literature. The critical literature of the last century has privileged the post-colonial interpretation. One of the aims of this essay... more
The novel by Al-Ṭayib Ṣāliḥ The Season of Migration to the North is a classic of the post-modern Arabic literature. The critical literature of the last century has privileged the post-colonial interpretation. One of the aims of this essay is to reveal the inner reality of the main characters, who are not seen from an external point of view, but within a closer relationship with the reader.
... Non si tratta dunque del primo poeta arabo-cristiano in assoluto, poiché nomi illustri della letteratura araba della Gahìlyyah e di epoca islamica lo ... 4.1 Trattati teologici11 Sebbene la tradizione dei trattati sia più povera di... more
... Non si tratta dunque del primo poeta arabo-cristiano in assoluto, poiché nomi illustri della letteratura araba della Gahìlyyah e di epoca islamica lo ... 4.1 Trattati teologici11 Sebbene la tradizione dei trattati sia più povera di quella del Diwan (9 mss.), l'antichità dei codici ha aiutato ...
This paper addresses the important phenomenon of contacts and influences between the various religious communities of the pre-modern Near East in the field of the written heritage, and more particularly in that of Christian Arabic... more
This paper addresses the important phenomenon of contacts and influences between the various religious communities of the pre-modern Near East in the field of the written heritage, and more particularly in that of Christian Arabic literature. The introduction discusses several examples of such interchange, on the one hand, between the various Christian communities (Melkites, Syrians, Copts) and between various language traditions (Syriac, Armenian, Coptic, Arabic) and on the other hand, between Christian and Muslim intellectual environments. The main part of the paper investigates the textual similarities that can be detected in the works of Sulaymān al-Ġazzī, Melkite bishop of Ghazza in the the tenth and eleventh centuries A.D., and the famous Epistles of the Iḫwān al-Ṣafā’ (Brethren of Purity). Some preliminary suggestions are given for the question as to how such similarities might have come about.
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2. Fonti del trattato 95 3. La struttura del trattato 96 4. Le citazioni bibliche 97 5. Sulaymãn al-Gazzi cita Giovanni Damasceno 97 6. Le versioni arabe della Fonte della conoscenza 99 7. L'ambiente linguistico della Chiesa melchita... more
2. Fonti del trattato 95 3. La struttura del trattato 96 4. Le citazioni bibliche 97 5. Sulaymãn al-Gazzi cita Giovanni Damasceno 97 6. Le versioni arabe della Fonte della conoscenza 99 7. L'ambiente linguistico della Chiesa melchita 100 F. Perché Sulaymãn al-Gazzï cita ...
The Apocalypse of Paul is perhaps the most widespread Christian apocalyptic text that spread out in Middle Ages in West and East alike. Among the numerous languages in which this Christian apocryphal has been translated, the Arabic... more
The Apocalypse of Paul is perhaps the most widespread Christian
apocalyptic text that spread out in Middle Ages in West and East alike.
Among the numerous languages in which this Christian apocryphal has
been translated, the Arabic version has the richest manuscript tradition
(36 witnesses known), after the Latin version (43 witnesses for 8 different
redactions). In this study the editio princeps of the oldest known
witness, the Arab Sinaitic 461 (10th century), is proposed. It is a version
probably taken from a Greek model, as some lexical and syntactic
Hellenisms demonstrate. The edition of the Arabic text is accompanied
by an annotated Italian translation. To the three redactions described
and studied so far, we must therefore add this one which represent the
oldest Arabic translation, the text of which offers us a further evidence
of the translation activity that took place in South Palestine, between
the 8th and 9th centuries.
apocalyptic text that spread out in Middle Ages in West and East alike.
Among the numerous languages in which this Christian apocryphal has
been translated, the Arabic version has the richest manuscript tradition
(36 witnesses known), after the Latin version (43 witnesses for 8 different
redactions). In this study the editio princeps of the oldest known
witness, the Arab Sinaitic 461 (10th century), is proposed. It is a version
probably taken from a Greek model, as some lexical and syntactic
Hellenisms demonstrate. The edition of the Arabic text is accompanied
by an annotated Italian translation. To the three redactions described
and studied so far, we must therefore add this one which represent the
oldest Arabic translation, the text of which offers us a further evidence
of the translation activity that took place in South Palestine, between
the 8th and 9th centuries.
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This essay offers an edition of a very fragmentary Epistle, attributed to the Palestinian bishop of Gaza Sulaymān al-Ġazzī (10th-11th century). Actually, the Epistle is a free reworking of some of the theological treatises by the same... more
This essay offers an edition of a very fragmentary Epistle, attributed to the Palestinian bishop of Gaza Sulaymān al-Ġazzī (10th-11th century). Actually, the Epistle is a free reworking of some of the theological treatises by the same author recently re-edited in a critical edition (CSCO 648). The Epistle published here for the first time, is attested in a very recent Copto-Arabic manuscript (19th century) of Egyptian origin, in the Bibliothèque National de France (Par. Ar. 6981). The main interest of this short fragment lies not in the text itself, written in a very clumsy Arabic, but most of all in the fact that it witnesses a late - and so far the only one - Egyptian reception of the work of the Palestinian poet and theologian, who lived in the shadow of the Fatimid caliphate of al-Ḥākim bi ʾAmr Allāh (d. 1021). This late witness, however, does not fall by chance. In fact, between 19th and 20th century, the Churches of Syria and Egypt knew a cultural renaissance thanks to the interest of some members of the ecclesiastical hierarchy. After a century of submission to the Greek culture imposed by Constantinople, the new Arabic speaking patriarchs began to reclaim their cultural heritage. During the same period, scholars and writers such as Jurjī Zaydān (1861-1914) founded the al-Hilāl magazine, through which Zaydān divulged the glorious history of the pre-modern Arabs.
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This chapter deals with early Palestinian Arabic manuscripts from South Palestinian monastic collections now kept in the library of St Catherine's Monastery , Egypt. The aim of this study is to demonstrate that in the early Arabisation... more
This chapter deals with early Palestinian Arabic manuscripts from South Palestinian monastic collections now kept in the library of St Catherine's Monastery , Egypt. The aim of this study is to demonstrate that in the early Arabisation process of the Melkite Palestinian Church (8 th-9 th century), it is possible to find palaeographic, linguistic and layout features testifying to inter-faith interaction. Accordingly, the text of the holy book of Islam might have played an important role for the Arabised Melkite communities of Palestine. The early activity of translating the Bible and the Patristic and ascetic heritage into Arabic proved to be an important stage in the acquisition of the Arabic writing technique by Melkite monks living in the Caliphate. By comparing Islamic and Christian sources, I try to cross the all too narrow confessional boundaries in which 'Christian Arabic studies' have been confined for the last two centuries.
This article deals with the intertextual relations between Eastern Christian hagiographical traditions of Late antiquity on one hand, and some texts belonging to the early Islamic religious literature on the other. In the last two... more
This article deals with the intertextual relations between Eastern Christian hagiographical traditions of Late antiquity on one hand, and some texts belonging to the early Islamic religious literature on the other. In the last two centuries, European orientalistic literature has considered the Islamic literature as a basin where past religious traditions have been converged and passively copied. In this contribution I would stress the original activity of early Muslim writers who reworked Eastern Christian legends in order to build a new religious identity as well as to consolidate new boundaries. Accordingly, the key-figure used by wirters of pre-modern Islam is the fighter-horseman- monk, a kind of sign and symbol of the “common semiotic koine” within the monotheistic tradition (Sizgorich). In this study, I will chose two narrative cycles: some texts relating to the instauration of Christianity in South Arabia, and the Martyrdom of Aretha and his companions in Nağrān (BHG 166). In both cases it is possible to point out mutual borrowings from one tradition to the other. In the former cycle, the Sīra nabawiyya by Ibn Hišām presents two texts whose sources have to be found in Christian hagiography of both Syriac and Geez (old classical Ethiopic) literature. In the latter, a reciprocal interference in both Christian-Muslim directions has been pointed out.
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in the 20th century the French national Library purchased new arabic manuscripts of both christian and Muslim provenance. as yet, most of them are not described in details, but we have only an index published in 1987 by Sauvan,... more
in the 20th century the French national Library purchased new arabic manuscripts of both christian and Muslim provenance. as yet, most of them are not described in details, but we have only an index published in 1987 by Sauvan, balty-Guesdon, Tamari. Here one can find the main contents of the 19th century arabic 6981 which is actually an important collection of the most famous christian arabic writers of the Middle ages, as well as the witness of anonymous unknown works. The aim of this article is to provide a detailed description of this manuscript by paying special attention to it contents. accordingly a full list with incipit and desinit of each treatise has been drawn up, without forgetting to present some codicological and palaeographic features of this neglected codex.
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The MS. Sinai Arabic 154 is a codex in parchment dating back to the 8th century. This manuscript is divided into two sections: the first section contains an Arabic version of some parts of the New Testament; the second section contains... more
The MS. Sinai Arabic 154 is a codex in parchment dating back to the 8th century. This manuscript is divided into two sections: the first section contains an Arabic version of some parts of the New Testament; the second section contains what is still considered as the oldest apology of Christianity originally written in Arabic. This text was edited and translated by Gibson with the title The Triune Nature of God (Gibson 1899). After a codicological exam of the original codex, Gibson argued that both the sections that constitute the extant Sinai Arabic codex, originally belonged to two different manuscripts (Gibson 1899, VI). The present essay starts from these codicological considerations, in order to discuss some conclusions, which had been the outcome of previous studies mainly carried out on the Apology. Here is also proposed a critical edition of the Arabic text of the first paragraph of the Apology with its Italian translation.
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The purpose of this article is to examine the main linguistic features of the Arabic of Sulaymān al-Ġazzī’s theological treaties. In order to give a new critical edition of these texts, we analyzed their manuscript sources. In the paper... more
The purpose of this article is to examine the main linguistic features of the Arabic of Sulaymān al-Ġazzī’s theological treaties. In order to give a new critical edition of these texts, we analyzed their manuscript sources. In the paper we list the numerous Middle Arabic features as Blau described them in his fundamental work (1966-1967). The question whether this language is ascribable to the Author or to the copyists, is still open. Nevertheless, according to the opinion of some scholars, the first step to describe Middle Arabic varieties is to produce a critical text in conformity with the methodology of the modern textual criticism (as it results after a long development in the ancient and medieval-European traditions). In this last fields the respect of the language as it appears in the manuscripts, is one of the basic principles which is called «criticism of forms». Accordingly, the editor will try to reconstruct, as much as possible, the language in which the Author wrote. After this preliminary research, we can maintain that Middle Arabic is not only the linguistic register that Christians Arabs used in their literature of translation, but also, in some cases, in their original works.
The fragments published in this article are from the Parisinus Arabicus 213, a Christian Arabic manuscript belonging to the Egyptian Coptic milieu at the beginning of the 17th century. These fragments are part of a rich Christian... more
The fragments published in this article are from the Parisinus Arabicus 213, a Christian Arabic manuscript belonging to the Egyptian Coptic milieu at the beginning of the 17th century. These fragments are part of a rich Christian theological and spiritual collection which includes works by the greatest Fathers of the Oriental Church. In this important Coptic Arabic collection are to be found passages that unambiguously derive from two different Epistles of the Brethren of Purity’s Encyclopaedia, namely, the Epistle of the Man as Microcosm and the Epistle of Meteorology. The fragments are edited synoptically with the 1957 Beirut edition of the Epistles of the Brethren of Purity, so as to highlight gaps and variants. This discovery should allow us to better understand the diffusion, circulation and success of the Epistles even within a Christian Arabic milieu.
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The Martyrium Arethae and His Companions in Naǧrān (BHG 166) is one of the best known and most widespread texts of the Christian Eastern martyrological literature. Written in Greek in the second half of the 6th century, probably from a... more
The Martyrium Arethae and His Companions in Naǧrān (BHG 166) is one of the best known and most widespread texts of the Christian Eastern martyrological literature. Written in Greek in the second half of the 6th century, probably from a Syriac model, it was translated into several languages, including Arabic, Ethiopian, Armenian and Georgian. Modern scholars studied this work since the 19th century, when the first editions of the texts connected with the tragic events of Naǧrān appeared.
Paolo La Spisa's study provides the critical edition of all the Arabic versions known so far. The Arabic manuscript tradition has transmitted to us ten witnesses, whose in-depth analysis has allowed him to identify three distinct recensions (labelled in the present edition Ar1, Ar2, Ar3). This study intends to offer an updated and corrected edition of some Arabic versions that had already been published in the first decade of the 2000s (Ar1, Ar2), as well as to offer the standard edition of a still unpublished version (Ar3). The edition of each recension is accompanied by an Italian translation and by a historical-philological commentary in which the parallel passages within the Arabic tradition and the intertextual relations with non-Arabic versions are highlighted. In the introduction, not only the criteria for the edition of the texts have been outlined, but the importance and originality of the Arabic versions are highlighted with respect to the previous and subsequent versions, Greek and Ethiopic respectively. Eventually, a brief presentation of the linguistic features of the manuscript texts belonging to the Middle Arabic spectrum, is offered. (Text in Arabic/Italian)
Paolo La Spisa's study provides the critical edition of all the Arabic versions known so far. The Arabic manuscript tradition has transmitted to us ten witnesses, whose in-depth analysis has allowed him to identify three distinct recensions (labelled in the present edition Ar1, Ar2, Ar3). This study intends to offer an updated and corrected edition of some Arabic versions that had already been published in the first decade of the 2000s (Ar1, Ar2), as well as to offer the standard edition of a still unpublished version (Ar3). The edition of each recension is accompanied by an Italian translation and by a historical-philological commentary in which the parallel passages within the Arabic tradition and the intertextual relations with non-Arabic versions are highlighted. In the introduction, not only the criteria for the edition of the texts have been outlined, but the importance and originality of the Arabic versions are highlighted with respect to the previous and subsequent versions, Greek and Ethiopic respectively. Eventually, a brief presentation of the linguistic features of the manuscript texts belonging to the Middle Arabic spectrum, is offered. (Text in Arabic/Italian)
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The article discusses the novel ʿAzāzīl by the Egyptian writer Yūsuf Zaydān. Published in 2009, ʿAzāzīl is both a historical novel set in ancient Egypt and an allegorical representation of Modernity along the lines of Nağīb Maḥfūẓ’s... more
The article discusses the novel ʿAzāzīl by the Egyptian writer Yūsuf Zaydān. Published in 2009, ʿAzāzīl is both a historical novel set in ancient Egypt and an allegorical representation of Modernity along the lines of Nağīb Maḥfūẓ’s fictional works. In ʿAzāzīl, however, Zaydān does not evoke the glory of the Pharaohs, but rather the social and religious turbulence of the fifth century, which marked a turning point in Egyptian history. The struggle between Christians and Pagans described in the novel alludes to the present-day clash between lay scientific thought and religious fanaticism. The heated debate raised by this novel in Egypt and the scorching criticism directed at Zaydān by the
Coptic Egyptian Church demonstrate that the struggle is not over yet.
Coptic Egyptian Church demonstrate that the struggle is not over yet.
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This contribution presents the work of Abū al-Nūrī, a mystic who lived in Baghdad between the 9th and 10th centuries. Large excerpts from The Stations of Hearts, his most famous work, are presented in Italian translation. Eventually, some... more
This contribution presents the work of Abū al-Nūrī, a mystic who lived in Baghdad
between the 9th and 10th centuries. Large excerpts from The Stations of Hearts, his most
famous work, are presented in Italian translation. Eventually, some comparisons
with other authors of the mystical Arabic literature are proposed.
between the 9th and 10th centuries. Large excerpts from The Stations of Hearts, his most
famous work, are presented in Italian translation. Eventually, some comparisons
with other authors of the mystical Arabic literature are proposed.