Christian literature extant in Arabic translation
Roger Pearse
translated into Syriac in late antiquity. Sometimes the Syriac
translation is all that survives. After the Moslem conquest, Syriac
literature was translated into Arabic, which is how Greek science got
to
the Arabs.
Most people are much less aware of Christian and patristic literature
in
Arabic translation. A 13th century Arabic Christian writer, Abu'l
Barakat, included in one of his books a list of texts that existed.
I have just had this translated into English, and placed it in the
public domain. You can find it here:
http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/abu_l_barakat_catalogue.htm
or here:
http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/abu'l%20barakat/Abu%20l-Barakat's%20Ca
talog%20(trans).pdf
Some of the character set is easier to read in the PDF form.
I hope this will be of use to people who would like some idea of what
was known in those parts at that date. I suspect that much of the
literature in that language remains to be exploited.
The complete collection is here:
http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/
If anyone would like to help support the site and buy a CDROM of the
Fathers collection, you can do so from here:
http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/all_the_fathers_on_cd.htm
All the best,
Roger Pearse
++
How nice of you to order this translation and make it open source,
Roger. You exemplify the best practices of the internet with your
loving acts. It really gives a picture of some of what was
circulating in the Syro-Byzantine area in much the same way taht one
extant work of Patriarch Photius gives a sense of which ancient pagan
works were still extant at his time.
The Syrian monasteries in Turkey hold great treasures but are
unfortunately endangered. Who knows what else is out there.
AGG
> On Feb 9, 3:12�ｿｽpm, Roger Pearse <roger.pea...@googlemail.com> wrote:
> > Probably many readers of this list are aware that Greek literature
> > was translated into Syriac in late antiquity. �ｿｽSometimes the Syriac
> > translation is all that survives. �ｿｽAfter the Moslem conquest, Syriac
> > literature was translated into Arabic, which is how Greek science
> > got to
> > the Arabs.
> >
> > Most people are much less aware of Christian and patristic
> > literature in
> > Arabic translation. �ｿｽA 13th century Arabic Christian writer, Abu'l
> > Barakat, included in one of his books a list of texts that existed.
> >
> > I have just had this translated into English, and placed it in the
> > public domain. �ｿｽYou can find it here:
> >
> > http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/abu_l_barakat_catalogue.htm
> >
> > or here:
> >
> > http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/abu'l%20barakat/Abu%20l-Barakat's%
> > 20Ca talog%20(trans).pdf
> >
> > Some of the character set is easier to read in the PDF form.
> >
> > I hope this will be of use to people who would like some idea of
> > what was known in those parts at that date. �ｿｽI suspect that much of
> > the literature in that language remains to be exploited.
> >
> > The complete collection is here:
> >
> > http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/
> >
> > If anyone would like to help support the site and buy a CDROM of the
> > Fathers collection, you can do so from here:
> >
> > http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/all_the_fathers_on_cd.htm
> >
> > All the best,
> >
> > Roger Pearse
>
> How nice of you to order this translation and make it open source,
> Roger.
***Open source? Explain.
Al
Roger Pearse
Yes, my feeling is that the best thing I can do for this neglected
area of study is to make stuff freely available. There's no money in
all this -- if there was, someone like Rupert Murdoch would already
have commissioned translations of everything and copyrighted them! So
let's not trip each other up over pennies.
> It really gives a picture of some of what was
> circulating in the Syro-Byzantine area in much the same way taht one
> extant work of Patriarch Photius gives a sense of which ancient pagan
> works were still extant at his time.
It does, doesn't it! And especially the way in which material such as
Gregory of Nyssa was circulating in this period in Arabic. Despite
the language barrier, there was this commonality.
> The Syrian monasteries in Turkey hold great treasures but are
> unfortunately endangered. Who knows what else is out there.
I think it is a very good question! I wish there was some way to get
their holdings online.
Roger Pearse
> > > Probably many readers of this list are aware that Greek literature
> > > translation is all that survives. After the Moslem conquest, Syriac
> > > literature was translated into Arabic, which is how Greek science
> > > got to
> > > the Arabs.
>
> > > Most people are much less aware of Christian and patristic
> > > literature in
> > > Barakat, included in one of his books a list of texts that existed.
>
> > > I have just had this translated into English, and placed it in the
>
> > >http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/abu_l_barakat_catalogue.htm
>
> > > or here:
>
> > >http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/abu'l%20barakat/Abu%20l-Barakat's%
> > > 20Ca talog%20(trans).pdf
>
> > > Some of the character set is easier to read in the PDF form.
>
> > > I hope this will be of use to people who would like some idea of
> > > the literature in that language remains to be exploited.
>
> > > The complete collection is here:
>
> > >http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/
>
> > > If anyone would like to help support the site and buy a CDROM of the
> > > Fathers collection, you can do so from here:
>
> > >http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/all_the_fathers_on_cd.htm
>
> > > All the best,
>
> > >Roger Pearse
>
> > How nice of you to order this translation and make it open source,
> > Roger.
>
> ***Open source? Explain.
I'm not sure what the confusion is. The translation is public domain,
and so you can use it for anything. You can certainly treat it as
open source, if you like.
++
The Patriarch of Constantinople initiated a kind of We are in this
together level of cooperation with the Armenian and Syriac
communities. Access to the Syrian monasteries has been difficult, not
only internally but because of the Iraq War and the instability of the
border areas. The communities, to an extent, are online and perhaps
because of Turkey's desire for accession, some kind of project or
related group of projects might be hobbled together with international
funds to protect this world class heritage with scholars, digitizing
of holdings and etc.
We ought be digitizing all Orthodox, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist
heritage worldwide to make it available to scholars before it degrades
or is destroyed. When I consider alone what got destroyed in the
bombing and burning of the Sarajevo Library, it is a caution. The
heritage of Aghanistan, too, of Iraq....
AGG
***Thanks. the only time I've run across "open source' is with software
designed to be altered for specific needs...such as the excellent
substitute for Microsoft Office called OpenOffice.
Al
Roger Pearse
> Roger Pearsewrote:
No hassle!
I have read stuff from people who were trying to get something similar
going for texts, although I don't know quite what happened -- which
sort of suggests it didn't!
Certainly this file could perfectly well be so adapted legally,
anyway.
Roger Pearse
If I had any contacts in the Turkish government, I'd do something.
Indeed I know of somewhere that some "lost" manuscripts may be
hidden. I need to ask some specialists whether it's a false trail,
tho.