The Deir al-Surian Library in the news

THE MONASTERY AT DEIR AL-SURIAN is profiled in an article by Teresa Levonian Cole in Spear's Magazine, reprinted by AINA: Egypt's Mysterious Monastery Hides Ancient Secrets. I don't see anything in it that hasn't been covered in previous posts, but it's a nice overview of the Monastery, the recent renovation of its library, and the precious Coptic, Arabic, Ethiopic, and Syriac manuscripts that have been preserved in it for many centuries. Excerpt (but worth reading in full):

The sprawling suburbs of Cairo have encroached upon much of the surrounding wilderness. But follow the Desert Highway for a 90-minute drive north-west from the capital and you will reach a timeless oasis that lies behind Deir al-Surian's 40-foot blush-coloured walls.

Above these 10th-century defences peep the domes of churches, whose treasures -- including magnificent frescoes dating from the 7th century -- most visitors have come to see. Also visible are palm fronds, spires and, in the north-west corner, a squat tower complete with drawbridge, which is where this story begins.

The tower, built around AD 850, contained the monastery's original library. It might have remained a library like any other, had it not been for a decision by the new vizier to tax the monasteries in Egypt. To plead exemption for Deir al-Surian, Abbot Mushe of Nisibis made his way to the Abbasid capital of Baghdad in 927, and, while awaiting the Caliph's decision (it was favourable), embarked on a five-year spree that would yield a cache of 250 manuscripts from Syria and Mesopotamia.

This would form the core of his monastery's collection which, over the years, increased to number Syriac, Coptic, Ethiopic and Christian-Arab texts, dating from the 5th to the 18th centuries. They would include biblical, Patristic and liturgical writings, as well as early translations of philosophy, medicine and science, many of whose original Greek texts have been lost.

Of these treasures, the most ancient are the writings in Syriac (a dialect of Aramaic, the language of Christ), which include the earliest dated Old and New Testament manuscripts ever found in any language: part of the Book of Isaiah, dated AD 459/60, and a Gospel of AD 510.

Lord Curzon visited the library in the early nineteenth century and came away with some manuscripts. The British Museum purchased many of the rest, but quite a few are still there. I hope they stay safe.

Past posts on the Monastery of Deir al-Surian and its library are here, here, here, here, and here. And two posts deal with that single page recently recovered from a Syriac manuscript dated to 411 C.E. (here and here).

UPDATE (20 February): Tony Burke comments.