HMML recently completed cataloging manuscripts from the Monastery of Mor Gabriel in Tur ‘Abdin, Turkey.  Digitization of the 250 manuscripts was completed in 2010. While the manuscripts from this collection have been available on vHMML, the collection is now fully searchable because of the work of HMML cataloger, Josh Mugler.

“This collection is significant not so much because of its age--the oldest seem to be from the 15thcentury-- but because they bear witness to the Syriac region’s rich cultural tradition of producing very fine manuscripts,” explains David Calabro,  HMML’s curator of eastern Christian and Islamic manuscripts. “An example of this can be seen in MGMT 52, an Evangelion (a book of liturgical readings from the Gospels) dated to 1867. The manuscript is gorgeously decorated and illustrated. Take a look at the very end of the manuscript. You may be surprised to see an image commemorating the then-recent construction of a telegraph line from Istanbul to Baghdad!”

To see more examples from the collection go to vHMML.org Reading Room and type MGMT in the HMML Project Number Field (Syriac is read right to left, so click on arrow to left to view the manuscript). For questions about the collections, contact Dr. David Calabro.