An Andalusian Arabic Version of the Four Gospels
(Bayer. Staatsbibl., München, cod. arab. 238)
By (author) H.E. Kassis
Within one year of the conquest of Spania (AD 711), the Muslim conquerors struck coins, with legends in Latin, demonstrating the tenets of their faith: ‘In the Name of God; there is no deity other than God, Alone, without compeer’. This proclamation was followed by a bilingual mint,drawn from the Qur’an: ‘He is God, Unique, God Everlasting, He who has not begotten, and who has not been begotten, and equal to Him is not any one’ (Qur’an 112). Then solely in Arabic, the coins replaced the legend Spania with al-Andalus. As the Christian population of Al-Andalus became increasingly arabicised, the need for translating their sacred scriptures into Arabic undoubtedly ensued. It is interesting to note that article 26 of the Fourth Council of Toledo (AD 633) had decreed that when priests were assigned to their districts (parishes), the bishops were to provide them each with a copy of the Gospels so that, having mastered the teachings of the Gospels, the priests would not err in the application of God’s law and intent. An Arabic translation of the Scriptures – particularly the Gospels – would meet that requirement and satisfy a growing need of the priesthood and the faithful laity – non-conversant in Latin – to read and hear the sacred text in the language that they comprehended best.
Within one year of the conquest of Spania (AD 711), the Muslim conquerors struck coins, with legends in Latin, demonstrating the tenets of their faith: ‘In the Name of God; there is no deity other than God, Alone, without compeer’. This proclamation was followed by a bilingual mint,drawn from the Qur’an: ‘He is God, Unique, God Everlasting, He who has not begotten, and who has not been begotten, and equal to Him is not any one’ (Qur’an 112). Then solely in Arabic, the coins replaced the legend Spania with al-Andalus. As the Christian population of Al-Andalus became increasingly arabicised, the need for translating their sacred scriptures into Arabic undoubtedly ensued. It is interesting to note that article 26 of the Fourth Council of Toledo (AD 633) had decreed that when priests were assigned to their districts (parishes), the bishops were to provide them each with a copy of the Gospels so that, having mastered the teachings of the Gospels, the priests would not err in the application of God’s law and intent. An Arabic translation of the Scriptures – particularly the Gospels – would meet that requirement and satisfy a growing need of the priesthood and the faithful laity – non-conversant in Latin – to read and hear the sacred text in the language that they comprehended best.
- By (author) H.E. Kassis
Other Titles in this Series
Religious Poetry in Vernacular Syriac from Northern Iraq (17th-20th Centuries). An Anthology
V.
Volume 628, 241
La versione siriaca della Vita di Giovanni il Misericordioso di Leonzio di Neapolis
T.
Volume 679, 263
Histoire de Zosime sur la vie des Bienheureux Réchabites
Les versions orientales et leurs manuscrits
Volume 664, 135
The Armenian Scholia on Dionysius the Areopagite. Studies on their Literary and Philological Tradition
Volume 625, 122
Mundus primus
Die Geschichte der Welt und des Menschen von Adam bis Noach im Genesiskommentar Ephräms des Syrers
Volume 641, 128
La versione siriaca della Vita di Giovanni il Misericordioso di Leonzio di Neapolis
V.
Volume 680, 264
The Syriac Versions of the Writings of Cyril of Alexandria. A Study in Translation Technique
Volume 626, 123
The Patristic “Masora”
A Study of Patristic Collections in Syriac Handbooks from the Near East
Volume 689, 265
Similar Books
Athanasius of Alexandria, Epistula ad episcopos Aegypti et Libyae
Old Slavonic Version and English Translation
Volume 261
Cyril of Alexandria’s Christological Exegesis
Explorations of Partitive Exegesis in the Dialogues on the Trinity
Volume 70
Epiphanies of the Divine in the Septuagint and the New Testament
Fifth International Symposium of the Corpus Judaeo-Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti (CJHNT), 14-17 May 2015, Nottingham
Extracanonical Traditions and the Holy Land
Texts, Rituals, and Material Culture in Late Antique Palestine
From Joseph to Jesus
The Joseph Narrative as a Compositional Template from Old Greek Esther to the Gospel of Luke
Volume 125
Paradise Lost in Transmission
The Return to Eden in the Apocalypse of Peter within Its Ethiopic and Early Christian Contexts
Punning in Odd or Elegant Constructions in Jeremiah
The Convergence of Linguistics, Rhetoric, and Textuality in the Hebrew Text of Jeremiah
Shame in the Worlds of the Hebrew Bible and Akkadian Texts
A Linguistic Study and Its Implications
Volume 33
Tabernacle, Table, Ark, and Text
Richard of Saint Victor on the Interpretation of Scripture
Volume 67
The Anglo-Norman Bible’s Books of Kings, a Critical Edition
(BL Royal 1 C III, fols 234r-274v)
Volume 37
The Biblical Tale of Judah and Tamar in Fourteenth-Century Iran
A Judeo-Persian Versified Account by Shāhīn with Scholarly Edition, Annotated Translation and Persian Transliteration
Volume 94, 951
The Body
Lived, Cultured, Adorned: Essays on Dress and the Body in the Bible and Ancient Near East in Honor of Nili S. Fox
The Compositional History of the Book of Kings
An Analysis of the Evaluative Frameworks in 1 Kings 14–2 Kings 25
The Discourse of Rites
Shaping and Reshaping the (Counter-)Priestly Rituals Conducted Outside the Tabernacle
