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Cotton Caligula A. IV

Record Id:

032-003460677

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

032-003460677

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100127436635.0x000001

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Cotton Caligula A. IV

Title:

Kitāb naẓm al-jawhar - كتاب نظم الجوهر

Additional Titles:

String of pearls

Scope & Content:

The current codex transmits a historiographic tract composed by the tenth-century Melkite patriarch of Alexandria, Saʿīd ibn Batṛīq/Eutychius of Alexandria (877-940 CE). In this tract, ibn Batṛīq drew on historical accounts in Patristic times, as well as on Muslim chronography, hagiography etc. It became popular, especially further East and the present text constitutes an early representation of the so-called Antiochian recension of it (cf. Simonsohn).

This is an early witness to the so-called ‘Antiochean recension’ of the historiographical treatise of the Melkite Patriarch of Alexandria, Saʿīd ibn Batṛīq.

The title Kitāb naẓm al-jawhar, ‘String of pearls’, (نظم الجوهر) is found on f. 1v). Also known as Kitāb al-taʾrīkh al-majmūʿ ʿalá l-taḥqīq wa-ltaṣdīq (كتاب التأريخ المجموع على التحقيق والتصديق), ‘The book of history, compiled through investigation and verification’; and as the Annales.

Begins: fol 1v, see transcription in Cureton and Rieu, Catalogus, pp. 48-49.

Ends: on 220r; later note mentioning Michael the Patriarch of Antioch on fol. 220v, see transcription in Cureton and Rieu, Catalogus, p. 49.

The manuscript lacks a colophon, and was likely copied in the 13th century CE.

Collection Area:

Oriental Manuscripts

Hierarchy Tree:

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Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-003460677

Is part of:

not applicable

Hierarchy:

032-003460677

Container:

not applicable

Record Type (Level):

Fonds

Extent:

Codex; ff. 220

Digitised Content:

Languages:

Arabic

Scripts:

Arabic

Start Date:

1200

End Date:

1299

Date Range:

13th century

Calendar:

Gregorian

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Material: Paper

Dimensions: ca 220 x 170 mm leaf [ca 170-190 mm x 120-140 mm written]

Foliation: British Museum foliation in pencil

Lines per page: normally 17 lines

Script: Naskh; different hands, the original text is to a large degree supplemented by a different hand, cf. fol. 10r.

Ink: Black ink, with rubricated headings and circles dividing text units in red

Decoration: a ribbon in black and red colors in the beginning of the tract

Binding: British Museum binding (older BM binding preserved as well)

Condition: Waterstains, wormholes, etc. Good condition

Marginalia: a few notes

Source of Acquisition:

J. W. J, July 1867.

Finding Aids:

Cureton, William and Charles Rieu, Catalogus codicum manuscriptorum orientalium qui in Museo Britannico asservantur. Pars secunda, codices arabicos amplectens (London: The British Museum, 1846-71), pp. 48-49.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Related Material:

Selected Bibliography

Breydy, Michael. Das Annalenwerk des Eutychios von Alexandrien. Ausgewahlte Geschichten und Legenden kompiliert von Saʿīd ibn Batṛīq um 935 AD, 2 vols (CSCO 471-72; Louvain, 1985).

Cheikho, Louis, et al. (eds). Eutychii Patriarchae Alexandrini Annales, 2 vols (CSCO 50-51; Paris, 1906-9).

Nasrallah, Joseph. Histoire Du Mouvement Littéraire Dans L'Eglise Melchite Du Ve Au X Xe Siècle, vol. 2, tome. 2 (Peeters 1987), pp. 26-28.

Simonsohn, Uriel. ‘Saʿīd ibn Batṛ īq’, in Christian-Muslim Relations: A Bibliographical History: Volume 2 (900-1050), edited by David Thomas, Alex Mallett, et al. (Leiden: Brill, 2010), pp. 224–233, esp. 226-233, and further references there.