The Gospels

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

  • Reference
    • GB 59 Or 1315
  • Dates of Creation
    • 1208
  • Language of Material
    • Arabic Coptic
  • Physical Description
    • 1 item 447 ff Material: Oriental paper. Dimensions: 340 x 250/260 mm [250 x 190 mm written]. Foliation: British Museum foliation in pencil. Lines per page: 22-24 lines/page. Script: Naskh.Ink: Black ink, with rubricated headings and text dividers in red. Decoration: A cross on fol. 2v; illuminated headings (cf. bāb). Decorative figures in the margins, in red, green, and black. Binding: British Museum binding. Condition: Good. Sometimes outer margins restored. Marginalia: Many comments. Quire marks: Independent quiring and pagination for each gospel (Crum, Catalogue, 322). Other: On fols. 137v, 218v, 350v waqfiyya notes to the Church of St George at Dayr al-Ṭīn in 1257 (cf. Crum, Catalogue, 323).

Scope and Content

This bound volume contains the four Gospels in Coptic with an Arabic translation in two columns, preceded by the Eusebian sections and canons. Contents :. (Fihrist, fol. 1v, fly-leaf). (Fol. 1r blank). Decoration (cross), fol. 2v. Eusebius' Letter to Carpianus, Eusebian Canons, fols. 3r-12v. Prologue to Mark, fols. 13r-16v. Matthew, 17r-137r. Waqfiyya, fol. 137v. Prologue to Mark, fols. 138r-140v. Mark, fols. 141r-214r. (Fol. 214v blank). Prologue to Luke, fols. 215r-218v. Luke, fols. 219r-350r. Waqfiyya, fol. 350v. Prologue to John, fols. 351r-v. John, fols. 352r-447v. For text samples, see Rieu, Supplement, 7. The colophon is found on f 447v. We read that the gospel of John was completed in the month of Amshīr in the year 924 Anno Martyrum (1208 CE; see transcribed in Rieu, Supplement, 7).

Access Information

Not Public Record(s)

Unrestricted

Acquisition Information

Bequeathed by Sir Charles A. Murray to the British Museum on 12 June 1875.

Other Finding Aids

Rieu, Charles, Supplement to the Catalogue of the Arabic Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: The British Museum, 1894), Item 6, p. 7; Crum, Walter Erwing, Catalogue of the Coptic Manuscripts at the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1905), item 734, pp. 322-323.

Related Material

For more information, see Kashouh, Hikmat, The Arabic Versions of the Gospels (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2021), p. 208.