The Copy-Text

Recently read: W. W. Greg, "The Rationale of the Copy Text" (1951). Though devoted to the editing of early printed texts in English, this essay has much to recommend itself to the editor of early Christian Arabic texts. It draws an important distinction between the accidentals of a text (spelling, punctuation, etc.) and its substantive readings. It then explores the proper manner of using the copy text, that is, the base manuscript, which "appears likely to have departed least in wording, spelling, and punctuation from the author's manuscript." The author strives to find a balance between maintaining the integrity of the copy-text and giving it undue deference ("falling subject to its tyranny"). (14 May 2009)

Index of MSS Cites in Graf

I am currently trying to finish a number of AWK scripts that will allow me to post (here) an index to the manuscript cites in Graf's GCAL. The question I shall then have to answer is what to do with the remaining parts of the index. I have finished indexing Nasrallah, and around 1200 books and articles.

I figure this is about 75% of the most important publications in the field since Graf finished his work. The index is especially strong on the Vatican library. It includes, e.g., all of Sauget's articles and books.

The index currently includes around 130,000 entries. One of the really nice things about it is that it allows one, while reading a manuscript, quickly to determine where in the secondary literature a particular manuscript or the works it contains have been been discussed. In effect, it constitutes a reverse engineered catalogue of the entire repertoire of studied Christian Arabic manuscripts. I suspect that it is shaping up to be a valuable tool. I certainly use it on a daily basis. (12 May 2009)

Typing the New Testament (Part 1)

I have just finishing typing Stahl's edition of the Acts of the Apostles. (This is part of a larger project of compiling a database of early Christian Arabic texts.) This translation is found in MS Sinai ar 151, from the second half of the ninth century. The edition is in many respects quite well done. It is certainly free from the typographical errors that mar too many editions. On the other hand, the author has tacitly corrected the language of the text, and in the process much material for the history of Arabic has been lost.

Still, the translation is fascinating from the perspective of the history of Christian-Muslim dialogue. The Sadducees become Zanadiqah. The Pharisees become Mu'tazilites. Paul's polemic on the law becomes a polemic against the shariah and the sunnah. The translator certainly seems to have been at least passingly familiar with the Muslim tradition. He even uses many Muslim names for the Biblical characters -- including Saul, who becomes Talut. (10 May 2009)

Hunayn Ibn Ishaq on His Galen Translations

I recently found out that METI will be publishing my edition and translation of Hunayn Ibn Ishaq's Epistle on his Galen Translations. I started this project over ten years ago, while living in Istanbul and doing research among the manuscripts there. I worked on it fitfully over the years, and finally returned to it in earnest last year. An end is finally in sight.

The project turned out to be far more difficult than I had imagined. The fault was not Hunayn, who writes well and clearly. The problem was Galen. I had to read too many pages of his turgid prose in order to ensure that I was understanding Hunayn correctly. Thank the gods for the TLG and Diogenes. To them I also pray that I'll never again have to read Galen. (8 May 2009)

More Reading on the History of Arabic

Just finished K. Versteegh, The Arabic Language (Edinburgh, 1997). It is a delightful book, and taught me much about the history of dialects. Chapter 8 offers a concise introduction to Middle Arabic. Using broad strokes, Versteegh analyzes its various forms, including those found in texts written by Christians.

He has a few criticisms of J. Blau's work on Middle Arabic, mostly that he treats Middle Arabic as an intermediate state between Old Arabic and the Modern Arabic dialects. In fact, Versteegh argues, Middle Arabic has existed alongside higher register forms of the language from the very beginning: indeed, up until the present day. Veersteegh also argues that some forms of Middle Arabic are really "special languages" (not unlike Christian Latin), with boundaries that were communally defined. (4 May 2009).

An Arabic version of the Life of Malchus

I've recently been reading around in a tenth-century Christian Arabic manuscript. It contains a lot of interesting texts, most still unedited. I am currently working on editions of a number of these: a dialogue between a Christian and a Jew in late Umayyad Hims and a series of letters exchanged between the Melkite patriarchs of Antioch, Jerusalem, and Alexandria, in the late ninth century. My friend Abdul-Massih Saadi (Notre Dame) is working with me on the corpus of Melkite letters.

At any rate, the manuscript also contains a Life of St. Malchus, made famous by Jerome. Recensions of the life are also extant in Greek and Syriac. This Arabic version, which was not known to G. Graf, seems to stand closest to the Greek recension. It is a beautiful translation of a beautiful little text. It deserves further attention, if alone for its lexical curiosities. (1 May 2009)