An Early Arabic Translation of Exodus 15 from a Palestinian Melkite Psalter in the Cairo Genizah

: This article presents an Arabic translation of Exodus 15 from the Cairo Genizah, preserved in two fragments of a Christian Psalter (MSS CUL T-S NS 305.198 and T-S NS 305.210). The style of the Psalter’s Arabic script suggests that it was copied by a well-trained scribe in the late 9th or early 10th century. Such a date makes it the oldest Christian Arabic Bible translation yet found in the Genizah. Linguistic analysis further indicates that its translator had access to both the Peshitta and the Septuagint of Exodus 15 during their work. Most likely, this translator was a ninth-century Palestinian Melkite who spoke Syriac and Arabic.


Introduction 1
The Cairo Genizah is famous for preserving vast quantities of Jewish manuscripts from medieval Fustat ('Old Cairo') and the surrounding Islamicate world. 2 For decades, it has also been known to contain a small, yet significant, subset of Christian manuscripts.The best studied of these Christian manuscripts are palimpsests of the Gospels and other biblical texts in Greek and Christian Palestinian Aramaic, some of which were published more than 120 years ago. 3More recently, Christa Müller-Kessler has surveyed Genizah collections and compiled a corpus of CPA palimpsests that now numbers several dozen fragments. 4Syriac and Coptic manuscripts are also present in the Cairo Genizah in small amounts. 5The presence of 2023, Peter Tarras published another fragment, this one from Revelation 4-5, which he argues is based on a Coptic source and dates no earlier than the eleventh century. 10his article presents yet another Christian translation from the Genizah, this time of Exodus 15, preserved in two fragments of an Arabic psalter (MSS CUL T-S NS 305.198 and T-S NS 305.210).The style of its Arabic script suggests that it was copied by a well-trained scribe in the late 9th or early 10th century.Such a date makes it the oldest Christian Arabic Bible translation yet found in the Genizah.Linguistic analysis further indicates that its translator had access to the Peshitta and the Septuagint of Exodus 15 during their work.Most likely, this translator was a ninth-century Melkite Christian who spoke both Syriac and Arabic.

Description
The two Genizah fragments of interest here are Cambridge University Library, Taylor-Schechter New Series (T-S NS) 305.198 and T-S NS 305.210.Together they make up the innermost bifolium of a parchment quire, measuring 15.3cm x 20.1cm (see figs.1-2).Citations from the reconstructed manuscript in this article will take the format 1r.1 (folio 1 recto, line 1).Each leaf is about 10 cm wide, and both are torn, with several pieces missing from the middle of f1 and the bottom of f2.Each page has 13-14 lines of Arabic text in a monochrome brownblack ink (most likely iron gall, given the fading on 2v.13-14).A heading appears in red ink on 1v.6-7, and small red circles separate short textual units (approximately half-verses) throughout the manuscript.Most of the text is also badly rubbed, in some places to the point of illegibility, with 1r being practically indecipherable.Due to the extensive damage to the text, previous attempts to identify these fragments have been unsuccessful.Avihai Shivtiel and Friedrich Niessen described the contents as a "theological text with allusions to qur'anic [sic] verses". 12Consequently, Aleida Paudice reproduced that description in her studies of Qurʾanic material in Genizah collections, and Ronny Vollandt did not examine this manuscript in his work on Christian Arabic Bible translations. 13more accurate description is that these fragments are part of a Melkite Christian Arabic psalter, specifically the beginning of the section containing the nine 'canticles' or 'biblical odes' that appear at the end of such psalters in the Orthodox Church.14 The canticle that occupies most of this article begins with the red heading on 1v.6-7, which reads: "The first song by Miriam, the sister of Aaron, and Moses."This title indicates the "Song of the Sea," which Moses and the people of Israel sing first in Exodus 15:1 before Miriam joins them in Exodus 15:20.15 The rest of 1v.7-14, 2r, and 2v are the the text of Exodus 15:1-16, which breaks off in the middle of verse 16 (2v.14).This text presumably continued on the next leaf of this codex through the end of the song in verse 19, which was followed by the "second song" of Moses from Deuteronomy 32:1-43.The discussion below focuses only on the Exodus translation.
The damage to the manuscripts has prevented me from deciphering and positively identifying the other texts which precede the Song of the Sea (i.e.1r.1-14 and 1v.1-5).Lines 1r.1-14 may be the Arabic text of Psalms 149 and 150 (or 150 and 151), with the green circle in the margin marking the division between the two.The five lines before the rubricated heading (1v.1-5) would then be a colophon marking the end of the book of Psalms (including one of the few legible phrases, in 1v.4,‫ا‬ 'the resurrection').This layout would correspond to the arrangement of other Arabic psalters, with the Song of the Sea also following a colophon at the end Psalm 150/151 in Bryn Mawr College MS BV 47, ff.71v-72r (916-17 CE), Sinai Arabic 32, ff.116v-117r (ca.eleventh century), and Sinai Arabic 52, ff.221v-222r (ca.twelfth century).Such psalters also tend to have rubricated headings that label each canticle with the ).The First Song of Moses is also attested as the First Song of Miriam (as in these Genizah fragments and Bryn Mawr College Library BV 47, f. 72r). 15"Then Miriam, the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women went out after her with tambourines and dancing.And Miriam sang to them…" (Exodus 15:20-21, ESV).See edition below for the Arabic text of the heading.
term (calqued from Syriac ‫)ܬ‬ and often use dots or red circles to separate verses. 16The Genizah fragments accordingly exhibit all of these features.
There are no vocalisation signs in the manuscript, no hamzas, no diacritics like shadda or sukūn, no ihmāl signs, and only sporadic diacritic dots.Despite what has been suggested for other Christian Arabic manuscripts in the Genizah, the absence or inconsistent application of consonantal diacritics in medieval Arabic manuscripts is so common that it should be expected regardless of whether a manuscript is copied in Qurʾanic, Classical, or 'Middle' Arabic.17Consequently, the absence of a diacritic feature in a manuscript cannot be taken as evidence for the absence of a phonological feature in speech.Therefore, the absence of many dots (as well as signs like shadda and hamza) in this psalter does not tell us anything about the scribe's Arabic dialect.The one diacritic system that is somewhat useful for dating is this scribe's consistent use of a single supralinear dot for fāʾ and a pair of supralinear dots for qāf.This system only became widespread among Arabic scribes during the ninth century.The other diacritics that are present do not demonstrate any of the older Arabic practices -such as the qāf with a single dot -that can be used to date manuscripts to the period before the 9th century. 18As such, we must rely on palaeographic analysis to estimate a date of production after that.Such analysis in comparison with other dated Christian Arabic manuscripts suggests that these fragments were copied in the late ninth or early tenth century.

Palaeography and Dating
The script of T-S NS 305.198/T-SNS 305.210 is a relatively unadorned semi-cursive style with features of several different scripts that Miriam Hjälm has identified in her classification of Christian Arabic palaeography.Some of these features are characteristic of her "semi-angular" groups as well as the "cursive" subtype of New Style.For example, the script in this Genizah psalter exhibits significant horizontal extension, particularly in the letters kāf and ṣad/ḍād, typical of the scripts that Hjälm calls "semi-angular" Group A. Yet the psalter script is also less angular than Group A, somewhat resembling Group B and more cursive styles. 19It further exhibits certain letter forms typical of a cursive New Style -including an s-shaped independent alif and ṭāʾ with a rightward-leaning shaft that extends far past its belly -but it lacks the vertical extension characteristic of the New Styles. 20As Hjälm and others have shown, all of these related script types are attested in Christian manuscripts already in the late 9th and early 10th centuries. 21he best comparison for the Genizah psalter is what Hjälm designates "plain" scripts, represented by just a few manuscripts which lack the typical features of angular scripts, yet do not appear to be based on New Style developments: Sinai Arabic 2 (dated 939/40), Sinai Arabic 151 (dated 867), and Sinai Arabic 597 (dated before 1002). 22Of these three, Sinai Arabic 2 is the only one whose date has not been called into doubt.Sinai Arabic 151 is often regarded as the earliest dated Christian Arabic Bible, but some scholars question whether the colophon dating it to 867 might be a copy of an earlier manuscript.Noting the similarities between its script and Sinai Arabic 2, Alexander Treiger has proposed that Sinai Arabic 151 should be redated to the early tenth century. 23Additionally, he has shown that the 1002 CE date commonly cited for Sinai Arabic 597 does not belong with the original 'plain' script hand in that manuscript.He thus also redates that manuscript to the early 10th century based on its palaeographic similarities to Sinai Arabic 2. 24 More recent analysis by Vevian Zaki suggests that Sinai Arabic 151 is likely not a copy of an earlier manuscript, 25 and therefore the extant colophon is original to the codex in which it appears.Hjälm thus accepts its 867 date.She also stresses the differences between Sinai Arabic 151 and the other two manuscripts in this group, suggesting that even if they belong to the first half of the tenth century, it is plausible that Sinai Arabic 151 is earlier.One detail she highlights is that Sinai Arabic 151 lacks the top stroke of final kāf, whereas the stroke appears more often in Sinai Arabic 2 and 597. 26This is a feature that Sinai Arabic 151 shares with the Genizah psalter: Sinai Arabic 597 The shape of alif varies considerably in the plain scripts.Some demonstrate the s-shape typical of NS scripts, but others have only a slight righthand return at the baseline or no return at all.There is also significant variation in the height of alif, but in general, the plain style lacks the vertical extension seen in the ascending strokes of NS.Like kāf in initial and medial positions, ṣād/ḍād consists of two parallel lines that make up a narrow belly with considerable horizontal extension.In some cases, especially in Sinai Arabic 151 (and to a lesser extent, the Genizah psalter), the belly may be pinched short instead.Tails also tend to be short and the typical lefthand denticle is minimal or absent.Ṭāʾ/ẓāʾ has a similar horizontal extension to ṣad and kāf, and the belly of the letter may also be pinched short.The shaft curves slightly and leans heavily to the right.This obliqueness is present in all four 'plain' manuscripts, but it is most extreme in the Genizah psalter, where the shaft can extend far past the belly of the letter.The head of initial fāʾ is frequently lifted off the baseline, with a small counter that is often closed or nearly closed.The fī ligature is consistent throughout the script type, with a sharp downward stroke that that connects the head to a far-right extended return.Based on the comparisons here, it seems that Sinai Arabic 2 is the latest of the four manuscripts in this group.It has notably less horizontal extension (particularly with initial kāf), a more modern final kāf shape, a less oblique ṭāʾ, and is generally more curvilinear than the other hands.This assessment concurs with Treiger's conclusion that Sinai Arabic 597 predates Sinai Arabic 2 and can be placed earlier in tenth century, before 939/940.It is also relevant that both Sinai Arabic 2 and 597 are made of paper, whereas Sinai Arabic 151 and the Genizah psalter are parchment.While not proof of their chronology, paper only gained widespread adoption in Iraq, Syria, and Egypt in the ninth and tenth centuries. 29Paper Arabic manuscripts thus tend to be later than parchment manuscripts in this period, so the Genizah psalter is likely older than both Sinai Arabic 2 and Sinai Arabic 597.Hjälm's survey suggests a general shift 29  among Arabic monastic scribes from parchment to paper after about 920 CE. 30 We therefore estimate that the Genizah psalter was produced between 867 and 920 CE.

Linguistic Evidence of Source Text
As we will see, the translation of Exodus 15 that appears in this psalter is most likely based on a Syriac source mediated by the Septuagint.Ronny Vollandt has identified four of the most attested Syriac-based Arabic Pentateuch text types from roughly the period of the Genizah psalter.He designates them Arab Syr 1, Arab Syr 2, Arab Syr 3, and Arab Syr_Hex 1a. 31 The first three -Arab Syr 1, Arab Syr 2, and Arab Syr 3 -are all based on the Syriac of the Old Testament Peshitta, itself originally translated from a Hebrew vorlage in the second century CE.None of them match the translation that appears in the Genizah psalter. 32In contrast to these Peshitta types, Arab Syr_Hex 1a is an Arabic translation based on the Syriac of the "Syro-Hexapla."Paul of Tella, a Syriac Orthodox bishop, produced the Syro-Hexapla in the early seventh century by translating the Greek Septuagint version from Origen's Hexapla into Syriac.Then, sometime before 956 CE, the Melkite al-Ḥ arith ibn Sinan ibn Sunbaṭ al-Ḥ arranī translated the Syro-Hexapla into Arabic, producing Arab Syr_Hex 1a. 33His version of Exodus 15 also does not match the Genizah psalter. 34The present author has also compared the Genizah translation to five additional Arabic Psalter manuscripts containing the nine canticles which date between the tenth and twelfth centuries.While all five have considerable lexical and syntactic similarities to the Genizah psalter fragments in their versions of the Song of the Sea, they are nevertheless separate translations.The rubricated heading of the Genizah psalter, with its reference to "Miriam, the sister of Aaron," is most similar to that of Bryn Mawr College Library BV 47 (f.72r), a Melkite psalter dated 916-17 CE. 35 Further research is needed to understand the relationships between these related canticle translation traditions and the Genizah psalter.
Even though the Genizah psalter does not correspond to any of these text types, two circumstantial details support the hypothesis that it is based on a Syriac source.First, the earliest dated example of the "plain" script style (see "Palaeography" above), Sinai Arabic 151, is itself a biblical translation for several books from the New Testament.Its colophon specifies that it was copied from a Syriac vorlage. 36Second, Sinai Arabic 2, the example of the "plain" script type dated to 939/40 CE, is one of the oldest witnesses to the Arab Syr 1 translation type. 37extual correspondences between various versions of Exodus 15:1-16 and the Genizah psalter further suggest that its translator had access to both the Peshitta and the Septuagint.Due to the damage in the manuscript, it is often difficult to reconstruct the syntax of entire sentences, so this analysis relies on the comparison of individual words in the Peshitta, Syro-Hexapla, Septuagint, and Masoretic Hebrew Bible.This discussion abbreviates these sources with the sigla P (Peshitta), S-H (Syro-Hexapla), LXX (Septuagint), MT (Masoretic text), and GP (Genizah psalter).An edition of Exodus 15:1-16 from the psalter fragments and parallel translations from these potential source versions appear in Table 9. Linguistic observations follow below.
MT states that Pharaoh's army drowned "in the sea of reed" ‫וּף(‬ ‫ם-סֽ‬ ‫יַ‬ ‫.)בְ‬The P adapts this phrase directly into Syriac, giving ‫ܦ‬ ‫ܕ‬ 'in the sea of reed'.The S-H, however, follows the LXX ἐν ἐρυθρᾷ θαλάσσῃ 'in the red sea', glossing it as 'in the red sea'.The GP matches the S-H and LXX here: ‫ا‬ ‫ا‬ ] [ '[in] the red sea' (2r.1-2).Then, while the GP does match the syntax of the MT and P regarding 'the leaders of Moab' (see above), it calls those leaders ‫ارا‬ (2v.12), using an Arabicised broken plural form of the LXX's ἄρχοντες 'archons'.This loan is unrelated to the equivalent Syriac glosses (P: ̈ ; S-H: ‫ܖ̈‬ ‫ـ‬ ‫ـ‬ ) and can only have come from the translator knowing a Greek version of this verse.The combination of Greek and Syriac sources is a hallmark of Melkite Bible translation, 39 and these lexical connections support the conclusion that the translator of the Genizah psalter was a multilingual Melkite Christian.

Conclusion: Melkite Provenance and the Cairo Genizah
The combination of paleographic, codicological, and linguistic evidence indicates that the manuscript made up of T-S NS 305.198 and T-S NS 305.210 is a Melkite psalter produced in the late ninth or early tenth century.The translator's primary source text was the Syriac Peshitta, but, like the Genizah Gospel fragment published by Monferrer-Sala, 40 their translation was mediated by Greek sources, specifically the Septuagint.At the very least, the translator was aware of alternate glosses from the Septuagint and incorporated them into their Arabic translation of the Peshitta.The psalter's script style is most similar to Sinai Arabic 151 (dated 867 CE), another Arabic Bible manuscript that belongs to a Melkite liturgical tradition and contains a translation based on a Syriac source. 41It is thus most likely that the Genizah psalter comes from from a multilingual Melkite monastery in Palestine that was active during the ninth century. 42This origin would be consistent with other Christian material in the Genizah, particularly the Greek and Christian Palestinian Aramaic palimpsests, that are suspected to come from Palestinian Christian communities between the seventh and ninth centuries CE. 43 However, since the psalter does not show any signs of erasure or reuse, it is also plausible that it came from a Melkite community in the immediate area of Fustat before ending up in the hands of Cairo's Jews. 44he question of why Egyptian Jews would have obtained Christian material and deposited it into a Cairene genizah is one that remains unresolved.While the surviving psalter fragments show no signs of recycling, it is possible that Jewish bookmakers repurposed the rest of the quire as a palimpsest or to reinforce other bindings.It is also possible that an Arabic-speaking Jew simply wanted a professional copy of the Song of the Sea in Arabic and was not picky about who produced it.The same can be said for many Arabic scientific and medical works produced by Christians and Muslims that now reside in Cairo Genizah collections. 45On the other hand, one of the numerous collectors who acquired manuscripts for the Cambridge Genizah Collections could have purchased the psalter fragments from dealers in Egypt or Palestine, with only tenuous connections to the Jews of Fustat. 46Regardless of their exact provenance though, these fragments represent new data for the study of Christian Arabic paleography, material history, and Bible translation in the ninth and tenth centuries.El estilo de la escritura del salterio árabe sugiere que fue copiado por un escriba bien entrenado en el siglo IX o principios del X. Esta fecha se convierte en la traducción árabe cristiana de la Biblia más antigua que se ha encontrado hasta ahora en la Genizah.El análisis lingüístico indica que el traductor tuvo acceso a Éxodo 15 tanto de la Peshitta como de la Septuaginta durante su trabajo.Lo más probable es que este traductor fuera un melquita palestino del siglo IX que hablaba siríaco y árabe.
the 'gamma' shaped lām-alif, even though this ligature is often considered a later feature.28It can lean right or left, though the degree of obliqueness varies between manuscripts.

Final
bāʾ and its homographs display a typical 'half-bowl' shape that usually lacks a finishing band, although this feature is less common in Sinai Arabic 597.Final/independent bāʾ/tāʾ/thā' T-S NS 305.198/T-SNS 305 lacks the top serif typical of Early Abbasid script styles.It often appears as a simple semicircle.dāl T-S NS 305.198/T-SNS 305.

Abstract:
This article presents an Arabic translation of Exodus 15 from the Cairo Genizah, preserved in two fragments of a Christian Psalter (MSS CUL T-S NS 305.198 and T-S NS 305.210).The style of the Psalter's Arabic script suggests that it was copied by a well-trained scribe in the late 9th or early 10th century.Such a date makes it the oldest Christian Arabic Bible translation yet found in the Genizah.Linguistic analysis further indicates that its translator had access to both the Peshitta and the Septuagint of Exodus 15 during their work.Most likely, this translator was a ninth-century Palestinian Melkite who spoke Syriac and Arabic.Resumen: En este artículo se presenta una traducción árabe de Éxodo 15 de la Genizah de El Cairo, conservada en dos fragmentos de un salterio cristiano (MSS CUL T-S NS 305.198 and T-S NS 305.210).

13 Aleida Paudice, 'On Three Extant Sources of the Qur'an Transcribed in Hebrew', European Journal of
Adam Gacek, Arabic Manuscripts: A Vademecum for Readers (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2009), p. 186; François Déroche et al., Islamic Codicology: An Introduction to the Study of Manuscripts in Arabic Script, ed.