Stephen of Ramlah and the Christian Kerygma in Arabic in Ninth-Century Palestine

Abstract

In the period of time between the Islamic conquest and the coming of the crusaders to Palestine in 1099, Christian pilgrims from East and West continued to visit the Holy Land, and particularly Jerusalem, by the licence of the Islamic government. Among the western visitors during this period at least half a dozen of them published accounts of their journeys. However, these accounts tell one virtually nothing about the life of the local Church, beyond the occasional list of shrines, churches, monasteries and the number of personnel assigned to them. As one modern scholar has remarked, ‘In the Patriarchate of Jerusalem the indigenous element is always half-hidden behind the crowds of pilgrims of every nationality…In the Holy City the resident aliens often outnumbered the Christian natives of Jerusalem, but in Palestine taken as a whole, the Syrians must always have been a majority.’

A Byzantine Book on Dream Interpretation

“…80 Fahd's research facilitated enormously all future examination of the connection between the Greek Oneirocriticon and Arabic dream interpretation. In his Divination arabe and in a number of articles, 81 Fahd examined the 76 Ibid., beginnings of Arabian dream interpretation and the development of the literary genre of dreambooks, and contributed an inventory of lost and surviving Arabic dreambooks 82 based on existing bibliographical compilations 83 and especially on years of research in Turkish manuscript collections. He recorded 158 Arabic titles and 23 Turkish and Persian works that seem to be translations from the Arabic, for a total of 181 titles of works, some lost, some still extant.…”

“…The influence of biblical texts is evident in the grammar, as well. The author uses classical grammatical constructions current in New Testament Greek, such as passive verbs accompanied by nouns in the accusative 81 and subjects in the neuter plural construed with verbs in the third-person singular (Attic syntax). Examples of the first are: Et µev E:crn pamA.Eu~.…”

“…116. tradition of the Mediterranean, which was likely to have been influenced, even to a limited degree, by its equivalent Arabic tradition. 81 A direct comparison of the additional interpretations in Pascalis Romanus listed by Collin-Roset with the Greek texts in their most recent critical editions reveals that eight of the eighteen, including the two matched by passages in the dreambook of 'Abd al-Raqman b. Na~r, can be found in either the Oneirocriticon or Artemidoros. 82 A ninth interpretation corresponds to a passage from Vat.…”

“…It should therefore be used in any future critical edition of the Greek text. 81 Collin-Roset, "Le Liber Thesauri Occulti," p. 137. 82 See Appendix 2.…”

“…Therefore, the dreams of sovereigns are the most truthful ones, as was proven by the two dreams dreamt by the pharaoh and interpreted by Joseph. 80 The dreams of other people should also be interpreted according to their station in life(~ J..::...J ~ ~-'.9.JJ ~->-" ~ ), 81 but if they do not appear to be appropriate for them, their fulfillment applies to somebody else close to the dreamer: 82 If a slave has a dream that does not befit his station, this dream will be fulfilled for his master, because the master owns him. And if a woman dreams of something that does not befit her station, then the dream is for her husband, for she was created from his rib.…”