"Printed and bound at the first Arabic printing office in Lebanon" - The Four Gospels 1861

Various artists

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• About the artwork
  Kitab al-Injil al-sharif al-tahir wa-al-misbah al-munir al-zahir muqassaman kanayisiyan madar al-sanah hasaba tartib al-Anba al-Qiddisiyin al-Sharqiyin [= Book of the liturgical Gospels].
  
  Dayr al-Shuwayr (or Dhour el Choueir, in Lebanon), Dayr Mar Yuhanna [= Monastery of Saint John the Baptist], 1861. Folio (30.5 x 21.5 cm). A Greek Melkite Evangeliary in Arabic, with each page in a border of thick-thin rules, pp. 246-301 printed in red and black, 4 lithographed plates showing the 4 Evangelists (with captions in Greek capitals), and 2 woodcuts of the Madonna and child. Bound by the Dayr al-Shuwayr Monastery in contemporary gold- and blind-tooled reddish-brown goatskin morocco, each board with a gold centrepiece.
  
  Very rare Arabic edition printed in Lebanon of the four Gospels arranged for liturgical use in the Greek Melkite Church, to make readings for services according to the day of the year: a so-called Evangeliary or Evangelion. It was intended primarily for Arabic-speaking Christians in the Middle East, rather than for missionary work. The first Arabic edition was printed and published at Aleppo in 1706. Al-Shamas Abdallah Zakher (1684-1748), son of an Aleppo goldsmith, worked at the Aleppo printing office but had to flee in 1722 because of disputes that were to lead to the 1724 schism in the Melkite Church. Zakher established the printing office of the Melkite monastery of St. John the Baptist at Dayr al-Shuwayr in the Lebanese Kisrawan mountains, where he produced a psalter in 1734. He is said to have been skilled in jewelry-making and cutting in metal and wood, and to have cut the punches for the 1734 Arabic type. The printing office produced about 70 Arabic editions before it closed in 1899.
  With manuscript notes in Arabic script on the front paste-down and in French on one damaged leaf. With a tear into the text of 2 leaves, one repaired with tape and with its margins badly damaged, water stains in the 4 plates, some browning and an occasional spot or stain, but most leaves in good condition. The binding somewhat worn. Very rare example of an Arabic liturgical work, printed and bound at the Monastery of St John the Baptist in Dayr al-Shuwayr, Lebanon.
  
  J. Nasrallah, Histoire du mouvement littéraire dans l’église Melchite (1979), 44; cf. Darlow & Moule 1661 & 1662 ; KVK & WorldCat (3 copies of 1776 ed.); Schnurrer 360; for Zakher: J.E. Kahale, Abdallah Zakher (2000); Hanebutt-Benz et al., Middle Eastern languages and the print revolution (2002), pp. 179-181.
• About the artist
  More than one artist has worked on this object.