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This paper aims to categorize early (c. ninth-early tenth century) Arabic psal-ters based on their codicology as a means to discuss their possible functions inthe Christian Arabic communities. It takes special interest in the many bilin-gual psalters that have survived from this era and suggests that they primarilyserved scholarly and didactical functions and/or that they may have been usedas templates to produce psalters in Arabic only, which in turn were intended forpersonal use. In addition to the philological approach, the paper elaborates onthe concept of ‘linguistic hospitality’, as developed by Emmanuel Levinas andPaul Ricœur, as a means to think about the strong bilingual trends in the sourcematerial together with philosophical-hermeneutical theories.

The purpose of the present paper is to revisit the interface between biblical studies, reception exegesis, and reception theory. In the first part of the paper, we discuss what we believe to be the most important lessons learned from recent scholarship on the relationship between these fields and highlight what we think is still an underestimated conclusion: if we assume that “meaning” is contextual rather than essential, the full(er) capacity of a biblical text is not discoverable until we have examined how it has appeared in various contexts. Related to this is the question of why and how texts survive and even thrive in new contexts and in what way later authors utilize the “capacity” of the biblical texts, because even if “meaning” is ultimately brought to texts by their readers, texts are in some senses agents as well. To exemplify these discussions and the connection between reception exegesis and biblical criticism, two short examples from the reception of Psalms 110 and 137 in medieval Christian Arabic and Judeo-Arabic sources are presented. In the first example, we recapitulate findings on how inner-biblical reception generates a complex web of potential interpretations but also how the ambivalence created in the process may be the greatest asset of that text. It is also an example of where interpretation may teach us about the life and thought of ancient and medieval communities and how they interacted with one another over the meaning of the biblical text. In contrast, the second example is more centered on the “capacity” of the text and in what sense communities exploit that potential for their larger purposes.

The present work contains records of the Christian Arabic Bible translations and Bible commentaries that are kept at the Department of Asian and African Studies at the British Library. Many of these manuscripts have previously been described in various catalogues, yet with different levels of detail. The main problem, however, for those interested in the material is to navigate through all these printed Arabic, Syriac, and Coptic catalogues, as well as the handwritten acquisition registers, in order to get an overview of the corpus. As a means of enabling access to such an overview, this catalogue aims at systematizing and updating codicological and content-related information about these valuable sources, many of which have previously been described only by title and approximate date and some, which have not yet been catalogued. Based on recent research findings, it also provides information regarding the biblical versions transmitted in these translations as well as sample images of the manuscripts it describes and indices over scribes, commissioners, dating systems, immediate sources of acquisition, etc

Among the rich manuscript treasures kept at the British Library, we find more than one hundred Christian Arabic Bible translations and Bible commentaries. So far, information about them has been dispersed in a dozen manuscript catalogues. This dispersion of information has made it rather difficult—even for experts in the field—to navigate through the corpus and locate relevant material. As a means to increase accessibility to these valuable objects, I have for several years had the pleasure to re-examine these manuscripts, select some for digitization, write a few blogs on them (here and here), and finally gather all the data into a new catalogue. This blog post is about that process.

The present article discusses the Muslim legal scholar and theologian `Al & amacr;' alDin al-B & amacr;ji (631-714/1233-1314) and his polemic against the Pentateuch, which he read in at least two Christian Arabic translations that were in use among R & umacr;m Orthodox Christians (Melkites). It aims to identify the recensions of the Pentateuch that al-B & amacr;ji had access to, and to understand how the differences between these recensions contributed to his view that the shared Jewish and Christian scripture had undergone changes. The article suggests that alB & aacute;ji used a combination of arguments to undermine especially the Christian reception of divine revelation, pointing out apparent inconsistencies and illogicalities in the biblical stories themselves as well as text -critical cruxes caused by discrepancies between different versions that circulated side by side within the Eastern Christian communities. Finally, some of the "irrationalities" he describes seem to be particular of the copies of the texts he had in front of him.

This paper provides a number of cases where early Christian Arabic Bible translators resorted to qur'anic-sounding language and (later) also a qur'anic aesthetic in their production of biblical codices. The main purpose of the paper is to discuss various reasons as to why they went so far into the "realm of the other" when producing these translations. The answer to that question is most likely connected to the little-known function of these Bible translations, a topic also addressed in the paper. The adoption of qur'anic language results in a comparatively high level of intertextuality and the use of codicological features associated with Mamluk Qur'ans also tend to blur religious borders. Thus, the paper also explores the possibility to view a portion of the Christian Arabic Bible endeavour as part of the broader process of "religious co-production."

The Book of Daniel was translated into Arabic by and for Near Eastern Christians around the ninth century, as evident from extant manuscript sources. Approximately a dozen early (9th–13th centuries) Christian Arabic translations of this book have survived until today. With a few exceptions, these manuscripts contain independent translations. In the present study I aim at classifying the early translations and describing salient translation features attested in two of these manuscripts, MSS Sinai 1 and 2, in depth. A less detailed survey of translation techniques in all early Daniel translations and samples from various other Christian Arabic Old Testament translations will also be included. 

The survey indicates that the early Christian Arabic Daniel translations were not standardized and shows that they are characterized by many non-literal techniques. We may therefore surmise that they were not composed in order to replace the Greek and Syriac Bible texts but to explain them and make the main events of the biblical narrative available to the Arabic-speaking audience while the traditional texts were still in use and served as the measuring-standard. The supplementing function played by these translations explains their extensive omission of repetitive information and explication of elliptic material extant in the source texts. The Arabic translated texts are further subjected to an adjusting process wherein source units are sporadically altered in the target texts and brought in line with liturgical material, Bible commentaries, and wider cultural settings. They are written in clear and idiomatic Arabic, exhibit some Middle Arabic traits, and the vocabulary has an ‘Islamic cast’ to it. The student of Judaeo-Arabic translations immediately recognizes many of the translational features identified in these texts. Especially interesting is the relation between these Christian-Arabic versions and Saadiah Gaon’s tafsīr on Daniel. Just like Saadiah, the Christian Arabic translators aimed at producing translations that were suitable for an audience acquainted with the norms of Classical Arabic and their interpretational framework was not confined to the biblical corpus itself but took into consideration the larger scope of the Christian Orthodox and Oriental traditions.