The Journey of Ibn al-ʿAssāl’s Introduction to the Four Holy Gospels and the Ten Canons from Cairo to Ethiopia: New Codicological Evidence

What is it about?

Al–Asʿad ibn al–ʿAssāl was a member of an important Coptic family in the 13th century and is best known for translating the Gospels into Arabic. He added a detailed introduction to his translation that provided valuable historical information, which is often missing in studies of the New Testament. This introduction also discusses how early Christian traditions and rules for copying texts were followed. Researchers are now looking at new manuscripts to gather more information about how this introduction was shared and used in places like Egypt, Ethiopia, and Eritrea. They found that this introduction was sometimes used on its own as a preface for other Arabic Gospel translations. The study also compares it to a similar introduction in the ancient Gǝʿǝz language, suggesting that al–Asʿad’s introduction was the original that was later edited and translated by a Coptic bishop named ibn al–Khabbāz.

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