Fun with colophons

[Lev Weitz]

Can anyone help me out here? I don't deal with literary texts much and I'm trying to nail down this colophon from Vatican Arabic 157, a collection of East Syrian legal texts. The beginnings of lines 1 and 3 have me stumped.

ولله ول... العقل الحمد وكتب هبة الله بن ملكا النصراني

المتطبب التكريتي بتكريت ولنفسه بخطه وذلك بتاريخ

 ...... ثالث عشرين شوال من سنة سبع عشرة وستماية

وصلوته على ساير امنائه (ابنائه؟) ورسله الذين اصطفى

[Alexander Treiger]

Dear Lev,

The first line is definitely: ولله واهب العقل الحمد, "glory to God, the Giver of intellect".

In the last line, maybe the correct reading is أنبيائه, "His prophets" (which would go well with رسله).

Hope this helps!

Alexander

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[Lev Weitz]

Ah, of course on both counts! Many thanks, Alexander. Is the opening acclamation a standard formula, especially the wāhib al-ʿaql part?

Any ideas for line three? The day of the week often follows بتاريخ in documentary sources, and if I have the date right one way to open line three would be يوم الاثنين ثالث عشرين الخ. But I'm having a hard time seeing that fitting. Do we ever find a title of the calendar/era following bi-tarikh, so something like بتاريخ المسلمين?

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[Alexander Treiger]

The wāhib al-ʿaql part is not uncommon - I have seen it somewhere (though probably in book prefaces rather than colophons).

As for the third line, الاثنين (Monday) is possible.

Alternatively, تاريخ in colophons often means "indiction". The date 23 Shawal 617 would convert to 21 December 1220.

In Byzantine years, this is 1220 + 5509 (because it's December) = 6729 AM.

6729 is supposed to be ninth indiction. However, what we see on the screenshot is not التاسع. Maybe الثامن (or ثامن) assuming the copyist forgot that a new indiction year had begun in September?

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[Lev Weitz]

Interesting. An East Syrian in thirteenth-century Iraq using Byzantine indictions strikes me as odd, but I don't deal with literary manuscripts much. Perhaps the bigger issue is that taʾrīkh is indefinite, for which an iḍāfa with the day of the week works better. Here's the reading I'll go with:

ولله واهب العقل الحمد وكتب هبة الله بن ملكا النصراني

المتطبب التكريتي بتكريت ولنفسه بخطه وذلك بتاريخ

 الاثنين ثالث عشرين شوال من سنة سبع عشرة وستماية

وصلوته على سائر انبيائه ورسله الذين اصطفى

Many thanks again, Alexander.

Best,

Lev

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