Orthodox Breviary, in Arabic on Western paper, decorated manuscript on paper [Near East (probably Byzantium or Mount Carmel), dated 14 March 1777]

Orthodox Breviary, in Arabic on Western paper, decorated manuscript on paper [Near East (probably Byzantium or Mount Carmel), dated 14 March 1777]

145 leaves, catchwords on every leaf, wanting a few leaves from beginning, else complete, single column of 22 lines of black naskh, red rubrics, headings in larger ornamental script, watermark indistinct and partial but involving large capital P in Roman script, occasional marginalia, modern pencil foliation in correct right-to-left direction (and followed here), tears to edges of a few leaves, some small stains and scuffs, else good condition, 165 by 111mm.; contemporary tooled leather over pasteboards, scuffed and split at extremities, but strong in binding

This strange codex was most probably produced in the Byzantine world by a scribe for whom Arabic was a second language. The Arabic here is competent but clumsy in places, and the date is given in Arabic script following the Christian Calendar not the Hijri. The watermark is European (see above), and the copyist or his patron presumably took his paper-stock to the Near East with him (for an example of such use of Western paper for a book that was sent back to Europe, see our sale, 4 December 2018, lot 35). The content here is highly suggestive that it was used for practical preaching to the Arabic speaking populace of the region. While a connection to the Carmelite Order cannot be established with certainty, they returned to Mount Carmel in modern Israel only a few decades before the present book was written, and were involved in just such activity.

The text is that of the Orthodox Breviary, and contains prayers and liturgical readings for the Calendar year. It opens with weekly prayers, beginning imperfectly with prayers for midnight on Saturday, and followed by prayers for midnight on Sunday and the other days of the week. The Breviary proper then begins, with liturgical readings for various dates following the Calendar from September onwards. To this is attached the liturgical office of the Sacred Weeks for the last ten Qanun. This last word translates as law, and this may mean the Ten Commandments. The volume ends with prayers for the canonical hours, and for all the months of the year.