Arabic

Abstract

The chapter surveys Christian Arabic literature translated into Greek as well as “Eastern” storytelling that was mediated through Arabic and reached the Byzantine Greek tradition through translation. It thus discusses (a) texts written in the context of so-called Melkite communities in the wake of the Islamic conquests as well as, later, in the Byzantine environment of Antioch from 969 to 1084 (e.g., the Life of Ioannes Damaskenos [BHG 884]); and (b) the transmission and translation history of Barlaam and Ioasaph (the life of Buddha), Stephanites and Ichnelates (Kalīla wa Dimna), and Syntipas (The Book of Sindbad), as well as the possible links with Arabic storytelling of Digenis Akrites. It also draws attention to translations made in the courtly environment of the late Byzantine empire of Trebizond.