DOI Artikel:
Crum, Walter E.: Progress of Egyptology, [10]: Coptic Studies
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.10057#0071
Coptic Studies.
59
the enumeration of adverbs and other particles. The actual require-
ments of the priesthood, and the example of preceding writers have
secured for the Bohairic (i.e. the Alexandrine) dialect almost a monopoly
of the illustrative examples, although the author professes to draw also
upon the Sa'idic and Fayvumic. In the second volume, the rules are
interspersed with reading lessons taken from Budge's "Isaak of
Tiphre." A third part, dealing with the syntax, is presumably to follow
later on.
The work which it remains to speak of has only an indirect claim
to a notice here. Mr. Evetts has edited, for the Oxford series of
Anecdoia, the " Tarikh ash-shaikh Abi Salih," and given a transla-
tion under the title of " The Churches and Monasteries of Egypt,"
while Mr. A. J. Butler, probably the best living authority on the subject,
has supplemented the translation with exhaustive notes.1 The references
so often made to Abn Selah (as he used to be called) by Quatremere,
were of themselves sufficient to make all those interested in mediseval
Egypt desirous of seeing the text published. Now that we have before
us this excellent edition, expectations may perhaps be somewhat
disappointed ; for neither are the available MSS. complete, nor, if they
were, would they give us more than a mediocre abridgment of the
original composition. Internal evidence points to the opening years
of the Xlllth century as the date of Abu Salih's work, so that it
was possible for him to make use of the chronicles of Severus of
Eshmunain and others who had recorded the history of the Christians
and their Patriarchs. But when will an editor be found for Severus
himself ? MSS. of his work and of that of his continuators are to be
found in several libraries ; and yet, since Benaudot's time, no one has
thought it worth while to print the text which that scholar made the
basis of his history. A very welcome appendix to Mr. Evetts's edition
is the fresh translation of the corresponding portions of Makrizi's
" Kkitat," of which work a full translation is now in course of publica-
tion by M. Bouriant.
W. E. Crum.
P.S.—M. Amelineau Las not disappointed us. Since this notice was
sent to press, announcements have appeared of two works by him; (1) a
volume of miscellaneous patristic texts (Hems, de la Miss, au Caire) and
(2) a notice of certain biblical MSS. in the Bibliotheque Nationale (Paris;
Klincksieck).
1 Aneedota Oxoniensia; The Churches and Monasteries of Egypt, by 13. T. A. Evetts
and A. J. Butler. Oxford, 1895.
59
the enumeration of adverbs and other particles. The actual require-
ments of the priesthood, and the example of preceding writers have
secured for the Bohairic (i.e. the Alexandrine) dialect almost a monopoly
of the illustrative examples, although the author professes to draw also
upon the Sa'idic and Fayvumic. In the second volume, the rules are
interspersed with reading lessons taken from Budge's "Isaak of
Tiphre." A third part, dealing with the syntax, is presumably to follow
later on.
The work which it remains to speak of has only an indirect claim
to a notice here. Mr. Evetts has edited, for the Oxford series of
Anecdoia, the " Tarikh ash-shaikh Abi Salih," and given a transla-
tion under the title of " The Churches and Monasteries of Egypt,"
while Mr. A. J. Butler, probably the best living authority on the subject,
has supplemented the translation with exhaustive notes.1 The references
so often made to Abn Selah (as he used to be called) by Quatremere,
were of themselves sufficient to make all those interested in mediseval
Egypt desirous of seeing the text published. Now that we have before
us this excellent edition, expectations may perhaps be somewhat
disappointed ; for neither are the available MSS. complete, nor, if they
were, would they give us more than a mediocre abridgment of the
original composition. Internal evidence points to the opening years
of the Xlllth century as the date of Abu Salih's work, so that it
was possible for him to make use of the chronicles of Severus of
Eshmunain and others who had recorded the history of the Christians
and their Patriarchs. But when will an editor be found for Severus
himself ? MSS. of his work and of that of his continuators are to be
found in several libraries ; and yet, since Benaudot's time, no one has
thought it worth while to print the text which that scholar made the
basis of his history. A very welcome appendix to Mr. Evetts's edition
is the fresh translation of the corresponding portions of Makrizi's
" Kkitat," of which work a full translation is now in course of publica-
tion by M. Bouriant.
W. E. Crum.
P.S.—M. Amelineau Las not disappointed us. Since this notice was
sent to press, announcements have appeared of two works by him; (1) a
volume of miscellaneous patristic texts (Hems, de la Miss, au Caire) and
(2) a notice of certain biblical MSS. in the Bibliotheque Nationale (Paris;
Klincksieck).
1 Aneedota Oxoniensia; The Churches and Monasteries of Egypt, by 13. T. A. Evetts
and A. J. Butler. Oxford, 1895.