Cambridge, University Library, Or. 1287 + Edgbaston, University of Birmingham, Mingina Christ. Arab. Add. 150 + Beuron, Erzabtei, Showcase 46

Images: University of Cambridge; (the Mingana folio is available HERE)

Physical description: parchment and paper (fol. 12), 10.5/12.5 × 7.5/9 cm

Language(s): Syriac (lower text), Arabic (upper text and the Qur’anic portion of the lower text), Greek (lower text of fol. 11 and the Beuron fragment)

Date: 5th cent. (lower Syriac script of the Peshitta Gospels); 6th cent. (lower Syriac script of Prot. Jas. and 6 Bks. Dorm.); 7th cent. (lower Greek script); 7th/8th cent. (lower Arabic script of the Qur’ān); 9th/10th cent. (upper Arabic script);

Provenance: Sinai; three folios of the Protevangelium of James in Mount Sinai, Monē tēs Hagias Aikaterinēs, ar. 514 may belong to this manuscript

Contents:

Protevangelium of James (lower text fols. 54^r, 54^v, 78^v, 78^r, 21/17, 18^r, 18^v, 79^v, 79^r, 55^r, 55^v, 53^v, 53^r)

Six-Books Dormition of the Virgin (lower text fols. 53^r, 22^r, 22^v, 44/40, 43^v, 43^r, 23^r, 23^v, 52^v, 52^r, 20^v, 20^r, 41^r, 41^v, 42^r, 42^v, 19^v, 19^r, 65^v, 65^r, 38^r, 38^v, 76^r, 76^v, 77^r, 77^v, 39^r, 39^v, 64^v, 64^r, 16^r, 16^v, 29^v, 29^r, 13^v, 13^r, 14^v, 14^r, 30/27, 15^r, 15^v, 69/68, 1/5, 25^v, 25^r, 24^v, 24^r, 2^v, 2^r, 67/66, 74^r, 74^v, 4^r, 4^v, 3^r, 3^v, 75^r, 75^v, 36^r, 36^v, 28^r, 28^v, 31, 37^r, 37^v)

Additional Contents: homilies by Athanasius, John Chrysostom and others (upper text); portions of the Qur’ān (lower text); portions of the Peshitta Gospels (lower text); and several other fragments.

Catalogs:

Coakley, James F. A Catalogue of the Syriac Manuscripts in Cambridge University Library and College Libraries Acquired since 1901. Cambridge: Jericho Press, 2018 (pp. 85–86).

Fedeli, Alba. “The Digitization Project of the Qur’ān Palimpsest, MS Cambridge University Library Or. 1287, and the Verification of the Mingana-Lewis Edition: Where is Salām?” Journal of Islamic Manuscripts 2 (2011): 100–17.

__________. “The Qur’anic Manuscripts of the Mingana Collection and their Electronic Edition.” International Qur’anic Studies Association. Posted 18 march 2013. Online: https://iqsaweb.wordpress.com/2013/03/18/qmmc/.

__________. “Early Qur’ānic manuscripts, their text, and the Alphonse Mingana papers held in the Department of Special Collections of the University of Birmingham.” PhD thesis, University of Birmingham, 2015.

Faghihi, Yasmin. “The Irresistible Search for Hidden Scriptures. Cambridge University Library Special Collections.” Posted 21 April 2016. Online: https://specialcollections-blog.lib.cam.ac.uk/?p=12005 (the post also features an article by Alba Fedeli: “Interpreting the Qur’ānic leaves through their digital images: a hypothetical retracement”).

Mingana, Alphonse, and Agnes Smith Lewis. Leaves from three ancient Qurâns, possibly pre-`Othmânic: with a list of their variants. Cambridge: University Press, 1914.

Mingana, Alphonse. Catalogue of the Mingana Collection of Manuscripts Now in the Possession of the Trustees of the Woodbrooke Settlement, Selly Oak, Birmingham. 3 vols. Cambridge: W. Heffer & Sons, Ltd., 1936 (vol. 3, pp. 29–30).

Smith Lewis, Agnes. Apocrypha Syriaca. The Protevangelium Jacobi and Transitus Mariae with Texts from the Septuagint, the Corân, the Peshitta, and from a Syriac Hymn in a Syro-Arabic Palimpsest of the fifth and other centuries. Studia Sinaitica 11. London: C. J. Clay, 1902 (description, pp. ix–xxviii).

Vaccari, Alberto. “I Palinsesti biblici di Beuron.” Biblica, 11 (1930): 231–35.

Other online databases: Fihrist; Cambridge Digital Library

Entry created by Tony Burke, York University ([email protected]), 7 January 2023.