DOI Artikel:
Crum, Walter E.: Progress of Egyptology, [10]: Coptic Studies
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.10057#0070
58
Progress op Egyptology.
the former can be compared for length to even the shorter of these
latter texts; instead of extending to 200 lines, no continuous text in
the new publication has more than 40. In collections such as that in
Professor Krall's hands, the task of assigning each piece to its exact
dialect is a very difficult one. We are given a table at the end of the
volume, from which we can judge of the decisions to which the editor
has come, and we see that the division has been made almost equally,
only a small majority of the texts being classed as Sa'idic. In one
fragment indeed (no. cxvi.) we see an example of what may almost be
regarded as a new dialect; though a recollection of the amazing laxity
in the orthography of almost all Middle-Egyptian texts must make us
hesitate to assign too much weight to the evidence of a single mutilated
papyrus. We can but look forward eagerly to the succeeding volumes
of the Corpus, which are to give us the strictly literary texts, and, before
all, that priceless Akhmimic IIS. of the Lesser Prophets, of which a
specimen facsimile has already appeared in the Rainer Fuhrer.
The second work which we have to notice is due to a native of Egypt.
Claudius Johannes Labib, professor in the college of the Coptic clergy
at Cairo, has published two small volumes of a Coptic Grammar, for the
use of his compatriots, and written, of course, in Arabic, under the
patronage of the reigning Patriarch, Cyrill the Fifth.1 The author, in
his preface, states that he "has examiued the books upon this language
composed by Europeans, in order to had a new method, and a succinct
and profitable course which might simplify the difficulties" hitherto
encountered in teaching. The authorities referred to range from Young
and Champollion to Stern, and the constant citations show that
their works have been profitably studied. Nor have the older gram-
marians, such as Ibn 'Assal, Ibn Zahiri (as he is here always
called), and Ibn Katib Kaisar, been neglected. Professor Lablb's
work is a considerable advance upon the somewhat unmethodical primer
of his predecessor, Barsum Effendi Bahib, from whom he nevertheless
quotes here and there. Indeed, this is, so far as I know, the first
attempt that has been made in Egypt to teach native students their
ancient language upon Western methods, and it ranks, therefore, beside
the hieroglyphic publications of Kama! Effendi. The grammar is
arranged upon the plan familiar to us, and proceeds, from chapters upon
the article, substantive and pronoun, to the conjugation of verbs and
1 Kitdb ad-durus an-ndhwiyyah fy ma'rifat al-luyat al-Kuhtiyydh al-Mi riyyah
&c. Bi-Misr al-Kahirab, A.M. 1610 (= a.d. 1894).
Progress op Egyptology.
the former can be compared for length to even the shorter of these
latter texts; instead of extending to 200 lines, no continuous text in
the new publication has more than 40. In collections such as that in
Professor Krall's hands, the task of assigning each piece to its exact
dialect is a very difficult one. We are given a table at the end of the
volume, from which we can judge of the decisions to which the editor
has come, and we see that the division has been made almost equally,
only a small majority of the texts being classed as Sa'idic. In one
fragment indeed (no. cxvi.) we see an example of what may almost be
regarded as a new dialect; though a recollection of the amazing laxity
in the orthography of almost all Middle-Egyptian texts must make us
hesitate to assign too much weight to the evidence of a single mutilated
papyrus. We can but look forward eagerly to the succeeding volumes
of the Corpus, which are to give us the strictly literary texts, and, before
all, that priceless Akhmimic IIS. of the Lesser Prophets, of which a
specimen facsimile has already appeared in the Rainer Fuhrer.
The second work which we have to notice is due to a native of Egypt.
Claudius Johannes Labib, professor in the college of the Coptic clergy
at Cairo, has published two small volumes of a Coptic Grammar, for the
use of his compatriots, and written, of course, in Arabic, under the
patronage of the reigning Patriarch, Cyrill the Fifth.1 The author, in
his preface, states that he "has examiued the books upon this language
composed by Europeans, in order to had a new method, and a succinct
and profitable course which might simplify the difficulties" hitherto
encountered in teaching. The authorities referred to range from Young
and Champollion to Stern, and the constant citations show that
their works have been profitably studied. Nor have the older gram-
marians, such as Ibn 'Assal, Ibn Zahiri (as he is here always
called), and Ibn Katib Kaisar, been neglected. Professor Lablb's
work is a considerable advance upon the somewhat unmethodical primer
of his predecessor, Barsum Effendi Bahib, from whom he nevertheless
quotes here and there. Indeed, this is, so far as I know, the first
attempt that has been made in Egypt to teach native students their
ancient language upon Western methods, and it ranks, therefore, beside
the hieroglyphic publications of Kama! Effendi. The grammar is
arranged upon the plan familiar to us, and proceeds, from chapters upon
the article, substantive and pronoun, to the conjugation of verbs and
1 Kitdb ad-durus an-ndhwiyyah fy ma'rifat al-luyat al-Kuhtiyydh al-Mi riyyah
&c. Bi-Misr al-Kahirab, A.M. 1610 (= a.d. 1894).