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], [1776]. Folio (31.5 x 22.5 cm). A Greek Melkite Evangeliary in Arabic, with each page in a border of thick-thin rules, pp. 245-300 printed in red and black, and a woodcut Madonna and child. The title-page has been sophisticated, probably in the 18th-century, and appears to be a badly inked proof that has been touched up in manuscript. 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 second Arabic edition (the first to be 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 marginal manuscript notes in Arabic script, the stamp of a Diyarbakir (in Anatolia, eastern Turkey) library in the margin of the last page. With the title-page sophisticated as noted, some mostly marginal water stains, an occasional small stain, a tiny and unobtrusive worm hole in the second half, but mostly in good condition and with large margins. The binding rubbed and slightly chipped, with the front hinge and fore-edge corners restored and the inside front hinge reinforced. Very rare early example of an Arabic liturgical work, printed and bound at the Monastery of St John the Baptist in Dayr al-Shuwayr, Lebanon.
Darlow & Moule 1661; KVK & WorldCat (3 copies); 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.
