959 Manuscripts From The Dominican Friars Of Mosul Are Now Available In Reading Room

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Image of a chalice from a 19th-century Chaldean liturgical manuscript

959 manuscripts from the Dominican Friars of Mosul are now available in Reading Room

Posted: 2023-01-23

Most of the collection of the Dominican Friars of Mosul, Iraq (DFM) has been available in HMML Reading Room for some time now. Recently, catalogers at HMML have completed cataloging for a new batch of manuscripts from DFM that were not previously available. These new manuscripts primarily contain texts in  Arabic, Arabic Garshuni, and Syriac, but there are also a few in Turkish, Persian, and even Swedish. Some of the manuscripts (such as DFM 00930) contain provenance notes demonstrating how the manuscripts were moved or added to the collection as a consequence of conflict.

Some highlights of the new additions include Arabic translation of the French play Fanfan et Colas (DFM 00828); new histories of the Chaldean Church (DFM 00822);  Arabic poems  by  ʻAlī Maḥmūd Ṭāhā (DFM 00820) that were turned into famous songs, and many Islamic works such as Anwār al-Bawāriq fī tartīb Sharḥ al-Mashāriq (DFM 00933), and more works of Mawlid al-nabī (DFM 00927). Among the Syriac manuscripts, there are new witnesses to neo-Aramaic poems (known as dorekyātā, see DFM 00899 and DFM 00877) and medical texts that circulated widely in the Syriac tradition (DFM 00838, DFM 00942, and DFM 00943). The collection also includes a 12th- or 13th-century copy of the Gospels according to the Harklean version (a revised translation of the New Testament from the 7th century, DFM 00829). View now

Image caption: Image of a chalice from a 19th-century Chaldean liturgical manuscript

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