Gospel Lectionaries

This material is held atBritish Library Asia, Pacific and Africa Collections

  • Reference
    • GB 59 Or 6243
  • Dates of Creation
    • 1689
  • Language of Material
    • Arabic Syriac
  • Physical Description
    • Codex 124 ff Material: European paper. Dimensions: 290 x 200 mm [205 x 120 mm written]. Foliation: British Museum foliation in pencil. Lines per page: 19 lines/page. Script: Naskh. Scribe: Yeshūʿa b. Ibrāhīm. Ink: Black ink, with rubricated headings in blue and gold; stops in gold. Decoration: Decorative headings preceding the books; miniatures of biblical figures in the margins (fol. 1v; 2v;3r; 5r; 11r; 12v; 16v; 17r; 57v; 58v; 71v; 78v; 87r; 95v; 102v; 108v; 112v; 115v; 118v; 120v). The text on each page is framed with lines in black and gold. Binding: British Museum binding. Condition: Good. Marginalia: (sporadically letters are written in the margins to avoid the splitting of words between lines). Catch words: Lower left corner at the bottom of the verso. Quire marks: Quinions, new quire marked in the upper left of a recto with Arabic letters (kurrās thānī etc) and the corresponding Arabic number.

Scope and Content

This volume contains Gospel readings for Sundays throughout the year according to what is read in the Monastery of al-ʿAlá in Mosul.Lectionaries for Sundays, starting with the first Sunday which reads from the beginning of Luke 1 (liturgical rubrical notes in both Arabic and Syriac). The colophon is found on fol. 123r, in a different hand style, where it is mentioned that it was completed on ''the 27 in the month of Āb in the year 7165 according the Word Era (كون العالم), which corresponds to the year 1067 according to the Hijra,'' i.e. 1656 CE, by the deacon Yeshūʿa b. Ibrāhīm.

Access Information

Not Public Record(s)

Unrestricted

Acquisition Information

Purchased by the British Museum from Rev. P. Zimmerman on 2 July 1901.

Other Finding Aids

Ellis, A.G. and Edward Edwards, A Descriptive List of the Arabic Manuscripts Acquired by the Trustees of the British Museum since 1894 (London: British Museum, 1912), p. 69.