Between arabic and coptic in a bilingual manuscript of the Pentateuch: The case of la’alla لعلّ

The Arabic version of the Pentateuch in MS Paris BN copte 1 (14th century) was basically translated from the Bohairic Coptic version which is set in parallel columns to it. The comparison of the two versions is sometimes very instructive regarding the transition period in which the main language for the Copts in Egypt was Arabic, but Coptic was not completely forgotten. The translation choices of the Arabic word are examples of changes in meanings, connotations and functions of that word in Middle Arabic in general, and under the influence of Coptic in particular. The studies of Joshua Blau on Christian-Arabic and Judaeo-Arabic of the Middle Ages, and of Ariel Shisha-Halevy on the Bohairic dialect are extremely important for establishing any study of this kind

“What is This Which …” in a Bilingual (Coptic and Arabic) Manuscript of the Pentateuch

The Arabic version of the Pentateuch in MS Paris BN copte 1 (14th century) was basically translated from the Bohairic Coptic version which is set in parallel columns to it. Previous articles published here earlier (Livne-Kafri 2009b; 2011a) were dedicated to a specific a phenomenon. In this article the relative interrogative clause is studied in relation to the Coptic parallel goγ πε ϕλι ετλ-. Although similar constructions are quite frequent in Middle-Arabic, the instances quoted here are literal translations from the Coptic. The different approaches represented by J. Blau and A. Shisha-Halevy (whose works are essential to such a study) point to a unique Relative construction

A note on the energicus in a Coptic-Arabic translation of the Pentateuch

The Energicus is an important emphatic form in Classical Arabic “that survived rarely [and] came to be rare or completely absent” in Mediaeval Judaeo-Arabic and Christian-Arabic. In this article I shall discuss some cases of the Energicus in a Christian-Arabic version of the Pentateuch from the 14th century (MS Paris BM copte 1 ) which is set in parallel columns with the Coptic version. The choices of the Arabic structures similar to the Coptic ones (such as the functions of the Energicus parallel to the Coptic optative and the causative imperative) show the skills of the translator in finding suitable translation solutions. As far as the Energicus is concerned, its usage (although rarely) is also a part of the general trend to cling to classical norms in this Arabic version. The findings of T. Zewi concerning the Energicus in Saadya Gaon’s translation of the Pentateuch fit well into our discussion, both in the methodology and in the conclusions

Tautological infinitive. The reflection of Coptic in Arabic (MS Paris BN copte 1)

The subject of this article is language contact between Coptic and Arabic as reflected in the so-called “tautological infinitive”. The corpus is the bilingual (Coptic and Arabic) MS Paris BN copte 1, and the starting point is Ariel Shisha-Halevy’s observations on the matter based on this manuscript. Focus is on the Arabic text: The Arabic “inner object”, al-maf’ūl al-muṭlaq, generally parallels a prepositional phrase in Coptic in a ηєn-oγ- pattern. Sometimes, following the Coptic, the traditional word order in the Arabic is changed (such differences are generally documented earlier in Biblical texts). In other cases the translation choices were to create a stylistic change that does not reflect the tautological infinitive in the Coptic text. Contact language here (the tautological infinitive), as reflected by the Arabic translation, seems to be ‘quite convenient’ for the translator into Arabic, contrary to other cases where more variety of choices is offered

A note on some hypothetical clauses in a Coptic and Arabic MS of the Pentateuch: The case of لولا

The following article deals with the ‘hypothetical particle’ لولا in the Arabic version of the Pentateuch in MS Paris BN copte 1 (14th century). This Arabic version was translated from a Coptic version which is set parallel to it; the instances of لولا are very indicative of the work of a translator in a period of lingual transition

Some observations on the migration of apocalyptic features in Muslim tradition

The most basic eschatological conceptions of Islam are found already in the Qur’ān. The expansion of the Qur’ānic picture in the ḥadīth includes new materials and conceptions and it reflects various religious, social and political processes in Muslim society in the first centuries to the hijra . This article offers explanations for some matters that seem to represent the migration of apocalyptic issues from non-Muslim sources into the ḥadīth . It seems that the interpretation of Muslim apocalyptic traditions often requires a search of the parallel Jewish and Christian literatures, and the issues chosen here might serve as a methodological model to demonstrate this. We see here (as in other studies) that the Muslim apocalyptic traditions and the Jewish and Christian apocalypses evince similarity in basic ideas, perceptions, attitudes, terminology, structures, and other features of the genre; still, the Arabic traditions already reflect the Islamic system of values; they were created against the background of social, religious and political settings of early Muslim society. This also attests to a certain similar cultural background of Jews, Christians and Muslims, to similar responses and interpretations they gave (in form and content) to their fears, agonies and hopes, in time of crisis, political disorder, military confrontations or civil wars