Petrova Yulia

The Kiev manuscript of “Beirut church chronicle”: general survey

Abstract

The article deals with the manuscript version of the well-known source on the history of the Antiochian Orthodox Church, named in original Muhtaṣar tārīh al- ’asāqifa al-lazīna raqū martabat ri’āsat al-kahanūt al-ğalīla fī madīnat Bayrūt, preserved at the Manuscript Institute of the V. I. Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine (fund І, No. 25709). This text that has reached us in several manuscript versions, is written in the genre of chronicle and was compiled during the 18th — 19th centuries mostly in the Arab Orthodox milieu of Beirut. The present Kiev manuscript, acquired by A. Krymsky in Lebanon, was copied by Khalīl Fayyāḍ between 1885 and 1891. Comparison of the textological peculiarities of the Kiev manuscript and the manuscript version from the library of the Patriarchate of Antioch, used as a basis for the critical edition by Nā’ila Qā’idbeyh (2002), demonstrates a high degree of similarity between them. At the same time, the Kiev manuscript, not taken into account in the critical edition, contains a number of variant readings, representing more archaic language forms and fi lling some gaps in the manuscript of the library of the Patriarchate of Antioch. This may be an evidence of its direct connection with the original version that had been lost.

Keywords

Arab Orthodox chronicles, Lebanon, Syria, the Antiochian Orthodox Church, Beirut diocese, ‘Abdallāh Ṭrād, Khalīl Fayyāḍ, A. Krymsky, N. Qā’idbeyh

References

1. Bin Ṭrād ‘A. (2002). Muhtaṣar tārīh al-asāqifa al-lazīna raqū martabat ri’āsat al-kahanūt al-ğalīla fī madīnat Bayrūt / taḥqīq wa-taqdīm Nā’ila Qā’idbeyh [“Brief History of the Bishops who Ascended the High Episcopal See of the City of Beirut” / Nā’ila Qā’idbeyh (ed.)]. Beirut (in Arabic).
2. Konstantinopol’skii I. (2013) “Beirutskaia letopis’ Abdallaha ibn Mihaila Trada” [“The Beirut Chronicle by ‘Abdallāh ibn Mīhā’īl Ṭrād”], in N. Golovnina (ed.) Araby-hristiane v istorii i literature Blizhnego Vostoka [“Arab Christians in the History and Literature of the Middle East”], Мoscow, pp. 150–161 (in Russian).
3. Konstantinopol’skii I. (transl.) (2013) “Kratkaia istoriia episkopov, voshodivshih na vysokuiu arhiereiskuiu kafedru goroda Beiruta” [“Brief History of the Bishops who Ascended the High Episcopal See of the City of Beirut”], in N. Golovnina (ed.) Araby-hristiane v istorii i literature Blizhnego Vostoka [“Arab Christians in the History and Literature of the Middle East”], Мoscow, pp. 162–201 (in Russian).
4. Krachkovskii I. (1925) “Otchet o komandirovke v Kiev letom 1925 goda” [“Report on the Academic Visit to Kiev in Summer of 1925”]. Izvestiia Akademii nauk SSSR. Ser. VI, vol. ХIХ, pp. 996–1005 (in Russian).
5. Panchenko K. (2002) Beirutskaia tserkovnaia letopis’ [“Beirut Church Chronicle”], in Pravoslavnaia entsiklopediia [Orthodox Encyclopaedia], vol. 4, pp. 457–458 (in Russian).

Information about the author

Petrova Yulia

Academic Degree: Candidate of Sciences* in Philology;
Place of work: A. Krymsky Institute of Oriental Studies, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine; 4 Grushevskogo str., Kiev 01001, Ukraine;
ORCID: 0000-0002-5130-232X;
Email: j.arabic2011@gmail.com.

*According to the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) 2011, the degree of Candidate of Sciences (Cand.Sc.) belongs to ISCED level 8 — "doctoral or equivalent", together with PhD, DPhil, D.Lit, D.Sc, LL.D, Doctorate or similar.