The Arabic Typicon-Tradition before Meletios Karma

The liturgy of the Orthodox Christians (“Melkites”) in the patriarchates of Alexandria and Antioch underwent a process of Byzantinization which led to a successive adaptation of the Byzantine Greek liturgical books, often at least partially translated into Arabic and/or Syriac and retaining proper rites. Different manuscript traditions of the Arabized liturgical books existed side by side until the so-called “Melkite Renaissance”, when Meletios Karma prepared new and full Arabic translations of Greek liturgical books, designated to be printed and thus to supplant the existing manuscript tradition. The paper will focus on the manuscript tradition of the Arabic Typicon before Meletios Karma and identify the different families and relationships between the manuscripts as well as the institutions behind the translations.