Byzantinised or Alexandrianised—Or Both? Vespers in the 13th c. Melkite Alexandrian Arabic Horologion Sinai Arabic 232

Abstract

This paper presents an annotated English translation of the rite of Vespers contained in the Melkite Alexandrian Arabic Book of Hours (Horologion) found in the 13th century Christian Arabic manuscript Sinai Arabic 232. Most of the texts comprising this service have been identified from the contemporary Greek Horologion, the Constantinople Euchologion and the Coptic Agpeya. This very unusual combination is discussed. While further research on Sin. Ar. 232 and other Arabic Horologia is necessary before we may draw more definitive conclusions, enough seems clear at this point to suggest that the Egyptian Melkites originally used a Hierosolymitan type Horologion and that this, in due time, was both Alexandrinised and Byzantinised. We can therefore say that Sin. Ar. 232 is an Egyptian redaction of a Middle Byzantine Horologion with archaic Hierosolymitan features. No other Arabic Horologia have been studied to date, and no earlier Melkite or Coptic Alexandrian Horologia are known. Considerable further research on Arabic Horologia is needed.

1. Introduction

In recent years, I have published a series of articles (Wade 2017a, 2017b, 2020) dealing with various parts and aspects of the remarkable Book of Hours, or Horologion, contained in the manuscript Sinai Arabic 232 (13th century)1. Detailed study of Matins (cf. Wade 2020), in particular, has shown that this Horologion is of Alexandrian Melkite origin, possibly adapted to the context of Sinai. Some of the prayers included near the end of Matins and Vespers are not attested in other manuscripts of the Byzantine Horologion, nor in today’s Byzantine Horologion, but are still to be found in the contemporary Coptic Horologion, the Agpeya. In addition, several offices commemorate Egyptian saints and also, prominently, Saint Mark, patron of Alexandria. These saints are not mentioned in any non-Egyptian Byzantine Horologia. In my commented translation of Vespers hereinafter, the concluding troparia also contain a list of Egyptian monastic saints, followed by an interesting series of six prayers, one of which corresponds to Prayer seven of Byzantine Vespers (of Constantinopolitan origin, from the Asmatikos Vespers (Arranz 1971, pp. 85–124, especially pp. 95–98, cf. Arranz 1979, especially pp. 39–42)) and two of which are found in the Coptic Agpeya.

Since at the time of Sin. Ar. 232, the 13th century, the process of liturgical Byzantinisation had generally attained an advanced state; the question of the Byzantinisation of the Jerusalem and Palestinian traditions is in itself a complex issue. For the Horologion, the foremost contemporary specialist is Stig Frøyshov, whose latest compendious article on the subject, forthcoming in the Catalogue of Byzantine Manuscripts volume, traces the osmosis between the rites and ritual practices in Constantinople on the one hand and in Jerusalem and Palestine on the other hand (Frøyshov, forthcoming).2 It would appear that Constantinople adopted the Jerusalem rite in parallel to its own sung office, the Asmatikos rite, and then developed it independently of Palestine, which also underwent successive developments. These parallel developments were then contaminated by mutual influences, ending in a fusion that gradually eliminated the distinctive surviving features of the Jerusalem and Palestinian rites. This definitive Byzantinisation occurred shortly before the date of the manuscript we are considering here. One would therefore expect Sin. Ar. 232 to be mostly a redaction of a Byzantine Horologion.

We do not possess early Egyptian Horologia and, importantly, even the non-Melkite (non-Chalcedonian) Coptic tradition has no earlier preserved manuscripts, but it is probable that Melkite Christians in Egypt adopted the Daily Office of Jerusalem at some point before the ninth century3. It has been shown that the eighth–ninth century Tropologion of Sinai, which follows the rule of the Anastasis cathedral of Jerusalem, is of an Egyptian redaction (Nikiforova 2016). Given the interdependence of liturgical books of any Daily Office, it is safe to assume that this hymnal was necessarily used together with the Horologion of the same pre-Byzantinised rite. In fact, Sin. Ar. 252 possesses features that belong to this Hierosolymitan, pre-Byzantinised Horologion and therefore confirms that it was used by the Melkite Church of Egypt or at least a part of it. The strongest such feature is the tri-ode system of canticles in the Matins service (Wade 2020, pp. 293–97)4; another, as we shall see, is cathisma 18, written out in full in the rite of Vespers (despite the fact that the first part of the same manuscript is a complete Psalter). Sinai Arabic 232 nevertheless contains several archaic features, as we have already pointed out, which point to conservatism in the Arabic language Melkite tradition of Alexandria. Of course, the “Coptic” prayers preserved at the end of Matins and now also discovered at the end of Vespers are further evidence of survivals of an earlier Alexandrian rite in this Horologion that combines elements from Jerusalem, Constantinople and Alexandria. In our concluding discussion, we shall sift the various pieces and elaborate the characterisation of our Horologion.

2. English Translation of Vespers in Sin. Ar. 232

Vespers begins immediately after the mesorion of None in the middle of f. 269r.

 

f. 269r

 

>X< Prayer of al-Asbārīnūn5>X<

 

Holy God and what follows it and he says

Come let us worship and bow down to Christ our King and our God6

three times, and he says psalm one hundred and three

(ΩΡOΛOΓΙOΝ ΤO ΜΕΓA 1993, pp. 146–48)

 

f. 269v—271r: Ps 1037.

 

and if he wishes he says cathisma <…> of the night [?]8

and also he says the gradual psalms9. Psalm one hundred and nineteen. To the Lord in tribulation I cried…

 

f. 271v

 

psalm one hundred and twenty

psalm one and twenty and hundred10

 

f. 272r

 

psalm one hundred and twenty-two

 

f. 272v

 

psalm one hundred and twenty-three11

 

f. 273r

 

psalm one hundred and twenty-four

psalm one hundred and twenty-five

 

f. 273v

 

psalm one hundred and twenty-six

 

f. 274r

 

psalm one hundred and twenty-seven

psalm one hundred and twenty-eight

 

f. 274v

 

psalm one hundred and twenty-nine12

 

f. 275r

 

psalm one hundred and thirty

psalm one hundred and thirty-one

 

f. 275v

 

f. 276r

 

psalm one hundred and thirty-two

 

psalm one hundred and thirty-three

 

f. 276v

 

[end of psalm 133:] who created the heaven and the earth. Dukṣā kā nīn

and if he wants, he says the cathisma that is for that night that13you are in14and after it we say

psalm one hundred and forty15

 

O Lord, I have cried to you, hear me, be attentive to the voice of my supplication when I cry to you, may my prayer rise like incense before you at the raising of my hands, an evening sacrifice.16 Place, o Lord…

 

f. 277r

 

psalm one hundred and forty-one

 

f. 277v

 

f. 278r

 

psalm one hundred and twenty-nine17

psalm one hundred and sixteen

Dukṣā kā nīn and he says18

 

f. 278v

 

I want tears to do away with my falls written by my hand and for what remains of my life with repentance to be pleasing to you, but the enemy has beguiled me and attacked my soul, o Lord: before I perish to19 the end, save me.20 Istīkhun21 Because mercy is from the Lord and great is his salvation, and he will redeem Israel from all his sadnesses.22 And we say O initiator of the universe, I have squandered all my life with prostitutes and publicans, so, o healer of illnesses, I confess to you inasmuch as I have sinned, o Lord, albeit in old age before I perish to the end, save me.23 Istīkhun Praise the Lord, all nations, laud him, all peoples.24 I have become weighed down with the heavy burdens of sin, and I have become stuck in the mire, and I have perished by the shot of the opponent25, and I have blackened

 

f. 279r

 

my image, o you who restore the feeble and save the fallen, o Lord, before I perish to the end, save me.26 Istīkhun Because mercy is strengthened upon us and the truth of the Lord remains forever.27 I have become a stumbling-block for men, I have been born a child of laziness28 and from the natural commandment I have married, and I have defiled my couch. O you who created me from the earth, do not reject your creation, o Lord, before I perish to the end, save me.29

 

Dukṣākā nīn O only pure one,

and the undefiled virgin, the God-bearer without seed, intercede for the salvation of our spirits.

 

f. 279v

 

and he says O beautiful, holy light, the glory of the heavenly Father who does not die, the holy, good Jesus Christ! When comes the setting of the sun, let us see the light of the evening. We praise the Father and the Son and the Spirit of holiness, God, who is worthy in all times to be praised by just voices, o Son of God giver of lasting life, on account of you the world glorifies you.30

 

>X< Ibrūkīmīn31of the night of Sunday32>X< The Lord has reigned and has put on fine beauty, the Lord has put on power and he girds himself with it. Because he has set up the universe so that it may not shake.33 The night of Monday34 Behold now, bless

 

f. 280r

 

the Lord, o all you servants of the Lord. Who stand in the house of the Lord in the courts of our God.35 The night of Tuesday36 The Lord heard me when I cry to him. When I called, he heard me, the God of my righteousness.37 The night of Wednesday38 Your mercy, o Lord, shall protect me all the days of my life. The Lord shepherds me and I shall lack nothing.39 The night of Thursday40 O God, save me in your name and judge me in your power. O God, hear my prayer and be attentive to the voice of my mouth.41 The night of Friday42 My help is from the Lord, the creator of heaven and earth. I have lifted my eyes to the mountains, whence shall come my help.43 The night of Saturday44 God is my helper, your mercy shall overtake me. Deliver me from my enemies, o God.45 And he says

 

f. 280v

 

Make us able, o Lord, in this evening to keep ourselves not sinning, because you are blessed, o Lord, the God of our fathers, and praised and glorified is your name for ever, amen. May, o Lord, your mercy be upon us as we have hoped in you. You have been blessed, o Lord, teach me your statutes. You have been blessed, you o master, enlighten me by your statutes. Blessed are you, o holy one, illumine me by your statutes. O Lord, your mercy is lasting for ever, o Lord, do not reject the works of your hands. To you behoves praise, to you behoves lauding, to you belongs rightly glory, to the Father and the Son and the Spirit of holiness, now and at all times and to the age of the ages, amen. Cf. (ΩΡOΛOΓΙOΝ ΤO ΜΕΓA 1993, p. 153). And he says46

 

f. 281r

 

I have sinned against you, o Saviour, like the prodigal son, but receive me, o Father, o Lord, o God, and have mercy on me47. Istīkhun. To you I have lifted up my eyes, o you who dwell in the heaven, like the eye of the servants on the hands of their masters and like the eyes of the servant woman on the hands of her mistress, thus are my eyes towards the Lord our God until he shows magnanimity.48 And he says To you I cry, o Saviour, with the voice of the publican: purify me like that one and have mercy on me.49 Istīkhun Have mercy on us, o Lord, have mercy on us, because we have been filled much with reproach and our souls have been filled with much reproach for those who prosper and contempt for the proud.50 And also Those who strove, who did not yearn for earthly comfort51,

 

f. 281v

 

for that were made worthy of heavenly delight and became dwellers with the angels, o Lord, by their intercession, save us and have mercy on us.52 Dukṣā kā nīn Save from tribulations your flock, o God-bearer, because we all have recourse to you after God, as a powerful bastion interceding with him53.

We say for Monday and Tuesday Come let us hasten to repentance, let us refrain from disobeying God, because fear is over all the earth on account of our sins, and we do not know whether we can run. The people of Nineveh were not able to run away, but they held fast to repentance in fasting and weeping, crying to you: O holy One, have mercy on us.

On Wednesday and Friday:

 

f. 282r

 

By the triumph of your cross, o Christ, fight him who fights me and calm the thoughts that defile me, o Son of God, and crush the head of the wily serpent whose vicious might you know and disregard our faults, o only tender One, long in spirit and abundant in mercy.

On Thursday and Saturday: In you, o grace-filled one, rejoices all creation, and the assembly of the angels and the human race, o holy altar and rational paradise, o boast of virgins, from you God became incarnate and became man, our God who is before the ages, because he made your womb a throne, wider than the heavens >X< o exceeding wonder greater than any wonder, for before giving birth you are virgin and after giving birth you are virgin, so we ask you to intercede

 

f. 282v

 

for our souls54. The night of Saturday O martyrs of Christ, clothed in the struggle, the rational flock and spiritual holocausts, acceptable sacrifices pleasing to God, the earth did not conceal you and heaven received you and you became companions of the angels that, with them, we ask you to intercede to the Saviour our God who gives peace to the world and our souls. It is indeed worthy of praise for the saints because they inclined their necks to the sword for your sake, o you who inclined the heavens and came down; they shed their blood for you, o you who poured out your blood on the cross and humbled themselves unto death, imitating your humbling, who, by their intercession,

 

f. 283r

 

according to the abundance of your mercy, o God, have mercy on us. The prayer of Symeon the priest Now, o Master, let your servant depart in peace according to your word because my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared before the face of all the peoples, a light has revealed to the nations and glory for your people Israel (ΩΡOΛOΓΙOΝ ΤO ΜΕΓA 1993, p. 154)

And he says Holy God and what follows it55 and he says

Rejoice o Virgin, on whom has been bestowed grace, Martmaryam56 the God-bearer, the Lord is with you, blessed are you57 among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb because you have given birth to the saviour of the world [the world: crossed out] our souls.58 Duksā O Baptiser of Christ, Māry59 John, remember all of us so that we may be saved from our faults because you have been given authority to intercede for us (ΩΡOΛOΓΙOΝ ΤO ΜΕΓA 1993, p. 155). And he says

O our fathers, saints Anṭūniyūs and Maqāriūs

 

f. 283v

 

and Maqāriūs and Bāḫūmiyūs and Tadrus and Arsāniyūs60, intercede for us that we may be delivered from tribulations and sadnesses, because we have acquired you as intercessors with Christ. Kā nīn O God-bearer, we have taken refuge under the protection of your tenderness, do not disregard our petitions in tribulations, but deliver us from disasters, o61 only pure, blessed one.62 And he says Kuriyālays, 40; Dukṣā kā nīn, and he says:

In the name of the Lord, bless, o saints, bless master.

And he says the dismissal: We thank you, o tender Master, because you have granted us to pass through the day in safety and justice and have brought us to the evening

 

f. 284r

 

with thanks, and have made us worthy to view the evening light; receive, o Lord, these our present glorifications and deliver us from all wiles of the evil one, and destroy every snare of his against us and grant us the coming night in safety, without pain and without anxiety and without phantasy, so that, when we have passed it in safety and protection, we may rise up to praise and prayers, for in every hour and in every time your all-holy name is glorified, with the Father who is incomprehensible and without beginning and the Holy Spirit the giver of life, from now and ever and to the age of the ages.63

Another prayer: O great, exalted God, who alone are without death, who abide in unapproachable light, creator of all creation in his wisdom, who separates the light from the darkness, who created the sun to reign

 

f. 284v

 

over the day and the moon and the stars to reign over the night, who has made me worthy, me the sinner, in this present hour to come before your face in confession and to offer you the evening service, you, o Lord who love mankind, receive our prayers like perfume in your hands, like incense of fragrance, and grant us this evening with the coming night to be safe and clothe us with the weapon of light, and save us from the fear of the night, from everything that moves in the darkness, and give us the sleep that you have given us in your grace as rest for our weakness, free of all diabolical wiles. Yes, o Lord, bestower of good things, so that we may commemorate in the night your holy name, as we experience compunction upon our beds,

 

f. 285r

 

and may we be illuminated as we recite your commandments, and with spiritual joy may we rise up for the glorification of your goodness and offer intercession and request to your lovingkindness for our own sins and the sins of all your people, we ask you, o Master, to overlook them and to vouchsafe them mercy by the intercession of the God-bearer because you are the lover of mankind and to you belong sovereignty and might and glory, o Father and Son and Spirit of holiness, now and ever and to the age of the ages Amen.64

>X< Another prayer >X<

O Lord our God, who have bestowed life on mankind, day and night so that we may pursue it and thank your lasting sovereignty and magnify your great gifts, and now we offer you the thanksgiving

 

f. 285v

 

of the evening with fear, receive it in your goodness and incline your holy hearing to hear our requests, which65 we have dared without having the right to raise up to you, and turn away from us in wrath on account of our sins, but grant us forgiveness for the sins we have committed until this present hour, for you know the weakness of our nature, and make us worthy to pass this day without sin, and deliver us with your guidance from all the ambushes of the evil one, and from every fall into contention or secrecy. O tender, gracious Master, who have illuminated us and beatified us with the light of the day of your luminous birth, and have given us the joy of being the sons

 

f. 286r

 

of light and of the day, make us to keep your parables without rebellion and to look to you always without restraint, and may not the darkness be able to overcome us nor our eyes be sleepy, but transfer us also, vigilant, from the day of this life that is there where there is no end to it and no finish, and raise us up before the light of your face from which we shall never tire, by the intercession of the pure Lady, the God-bearer, and all the saints Amen.

>X< another prayer >X< O fearful, holy, good Lord, who can do every thing, who has given us the creation, rational, natural laws: you, o Lord, designed the sun and the moon and the stars and created them at the beginning and ordered that they be head of the day and the night; you,

 

f. 286v

 

o our God, we thank you for having rendered us worthy to pass all along this day and you have brought us to the beginning of the night; let us pass, o Lord, though this other night, illumine our hearts, o Lord, with the light of your knowledge so that, as from them we may walk in the day upright and pleasing to you, the good and gracious God, and you may give rest to our bodies from all the sin of the night, glory to your name, and honour to this, your Christ, to whom behoves glory and honour, to you, and to him, and to the Holy Spirit, the giver of life, until the ages of the ages Amen. And he says: We thank you [in the margin: o Lord and Son and Holy Spirit], o holy Trinity, because you have freely given us this day in safety and have brought us to the evening

 

f. 287r

 

and have made us see its light. Receive this, our present glorification, and give us during this coming night safety, without pain and without fatigue and without phantasy so that we may also pass it safely so that we may rise to praise and prayer, because in every time you are worthy of praise and honour and adoration, to the Father and to the Son and to the Spirit of holiness, now and ever, and to the age of the ages Amen.66

And he says: O Lord, all that we have sinned in this day, whether it were by word or by thought or by action or by all the feelings, leave, efface, have mercy and forgive for the sake of your name, and give us, o God, a safe sleep, free of all anxiety, and send us the angel of safety to protect us from all evil and from all strikes of the evil one, by the grace and the mercy of your only Son and by the gift of your all-holy Spirit,

 

f. 287v

now and ever and to the age of the ages Amen.67

>X< Another prayer >X<

O our Lord Jesus Christ our God, the maker of all things, beyond what we ask and what we understand, we thank you for having had mercy on us in safety throughout the past day and raised us up from our beds to speak glory and adoration to your holy name. We ask you, receive the fruits of our lips like rational first fruits and noble prayers and direct us to every wish of yours so that we may come early to you without laziness and without impediment and may also appear before you, awaiting your coming representing glory with readiness and care for good works, so that we may enter into your holy place

 

f. 297r

 

with praises that represent glory, for to you belong glory with your immaculate Father and your Holy Spirit to the eternity of the eternities Amen.

>X< Another prayer >X<

O our Master, the Lord God omnipotent, the Father of our Lord and God and King and Saviour Jesus Christ, who has brought me into this holy prayer: give me perseverance to support the tribulations that encounter me, you who brought me out of the primordial matter of this world and made me to be perfect so that I may be found delighting with the angels in your kingdom, for yours is the glory to eternity Amen. And he says: Strengthen, o God, our king, yes, o Lord, and give honour to his years and preserve, o God, his Christian faith to the age of the ages68 Amen.

End [?] of the prayer of the Asbârînûs69 and the praise < [illegible]>.

3. Concluding Remarks

This order of Vespers is of considerable interest for several reasons. It contains the body of standard Byzantine Vespers, but it inserts stichera of a penitential character drawn from the penitential hymns of the Oktōēchos and from the Vespers preceding the Matins of the Great Canon of Saint Andrew of Crete during Lent. It is probable that this choice of hymns was made to suit the monastic context in which the Horologion was to be used, either for an Arabic-speaking community that did not have the whole set of compendious liturgical books required for the annual cycle or for the use of individual Arabic-speaking monks who would be unlikely to possess all the hymnographical books. The inclusion of cathisma 18 written out in full is an interesting archaic feature, maybe modified by the note in the margin.

The Egyptian saints added to the troparia at Vespers show the non-Byzantine context of this Melkite Alexandrian office.

However, the most remarkable feature is the series of six prayers at the end of Vespers, two of which are to be found in the Coptic Agpeya and one of which derives from the vesperal prayers of the Constantinopolitan Euchologion. The other prayers also have an Egyptian flavour to them, although I have not been able to find them in the Coptic service books.

Finally, the office is concluded with a prayer for the Emperor (of Constantinople), which, of course, underlines the Melkite character of the manuscript.

We must now attempt to synthesise the various observations about Sinai Arabic 232 with regard to the question of Byzantinisation. Primarily, this Horologion is of a Byzantine type datable to the 11th to 13th centuries: its type of Mid-Hours appeared only in the 11th century and the cursus beginning with Matins was no longer used in the Greek Byzantine rite from the 13th century onwards. Thus we may envisage that a Byzantine Horologion was adopted from a central region, probably Constantinople, in this period. However, the Egyptian Melkites did not receive it without resistance, in that they preserved some ancient features of the Horologion that they had been using previously (system of canticles, cathisma 18).

However, as we have seen, Sin. Ar. 232 also adopted some Egyptian features, such as the prayers attested in the Coptic Book of Hours. If we should venture a neologism, we could say that it was to some degree Alexandrinised. In other words, our Arabic Horologion received both Byzantine and Egyptian influences.

While further research on Sin. Ar. 232 and other Arabic Horologia is necessary before we may draw more definitive conclusions, enough seems clear at this point to suggest that the Egyptian Melkites originally used a Hierosolymitan type Horologion and that this, in due time, was both Alexandrinised and Byzantinised. We can therefore say that Sin. Ar. 232 is an Egyptian redaction of a Middle Byzantine Horologion with archaic Hierosolymitan features.