‘Long’ Greek Notes in Literary Arabic Manuscripts

As has been noted on several occasions, medieval Arabic manuscripts contain numerous ‘traces’ of Greek. The most recent studies (D’Ottone and Potenza 2025; Roberts forthcoming) highlight the wide variety of forms that Greek could take, both in the margins and in the body of Arabic manuscripts. Signatures, glosses, reading indications and numerous subscriptions have thus been identified. In this presentation, I will focus on longer texts, such as colophons and Greek marginalia left by copyists that engage directly with the content of the Arabic text. I would like to introduce two Arabic manuscripts to the discussion that, to my knowledge, have never been studied before. One contains homilies by John Chrysostom, while the other is a collection of ascetic texts. These manuscripts will be examined as evidence of the copyists’ detailed knowledge of Byzantine and Arabic traditions, as well as their activity in Egypt and Syria during the 12th and 13th centuries.