1. In early December 2025, the Union of German Academies of Sciences and Humanities gave its approval for a new long-term project on Arabic translations of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. The project, entitled “Biblia Arabica: Critical edition and comprehensive digital … Continued
by Miriam L. Hjälm 1. Among the rich manuscript treasures kept at the British Library, we find more than one hundred Christian Arabic Bible translations and Bible commentaries. [1]This work was part of a research project sponsored mainly by the … Continued
by Peter Tarras 1. Anyone who works on Arabic translations of the Bible, especially Christian translations, knows the name Georg Graf (1875–1955) very well. With the first volume of his Geschichte der christlichen arabischen Literatur, he has created a reference … Continued
by Juan Pedro Monferrer-Sala 1. Codex Sinai Arabic 1 (Sin. Ar. 1) is one of the jewels of Christian Arabic translation literature.[1]A digitised copy of the codex is available on the website Sinai Manuscripts Digital Library: https://sinaimanuscripts.library.ucla.edu/catalog/ark:%2F21198%2Fz18w4z1w. The codex contains … Continued
by Joseph Habib Introduction The great textual critic Dominique Barthélemy (1921–2002) lamented the fact that scholars of the time were too quick to render a difficult passage in the Masoretic Text as corrupt or unintelligible. The Masoretic Text refers to … Continued
by Meira Polliack Even amateur gardeners like myself recognize that plants don’t manage transitions easily. Some robust shrubs dry up in the best conditions of light or water. Yet, when transplanted in different soil, or in a discreet corner of … Continued
Fig 1. CSA f. 28r. Mt 18:11 is omitted. I thank Father Justin for giving permission to use this image. Arabic versions of the Bible have been frequently overlooked in New Testament textual criticism because of the belief that the … Continued
by Dennis Halft OP The Imāmī (Twelver) Shiʿite scholar Sayyid Aḥmad ʿAlavī (d. between 1644 and 1650) is well-known for his Persian writings against Christianity.[1] Born in the Safavid capital of Isfahan, ʿAlavī was the intellectual spearhead of the local … Continued
by Alexander Treiger An analysis of Biblical citations in an Arabic Christian text can often help determine whether this text was originally written in Arabic or translated from another language, such as Greek, Syriac, or Coptic. In the case of … Continued
by Vevian Zaki In 1892, Jūrjī Zaydān, a Lebanese historian and novelist, inaugurated from Cairo his magazine al-Hilāl or ‘the Crescent.’[1] This magazine soon reached a high rank among the educated class, attracting elite authors to write for it, and … Continued
