A palimpsest consisting of the Palestinian Talmud, Peʾa 18d and 20b-c, written over a Syriac text, The Life of St Anthony by Athanasius of Alexandria. Edited in Lewis (1902: 146-149) as text XXXV.Condition: Badly torn, holes, stainedLayout: 24 lines
Palimpsest, with Palestinian Talmud, Šeqalim, 44a-b; 46b, written over a Syriac text, The Life of St Anthony by Athanasius of Alexandria. Edited in Lewis (1900: 98-105) as text XXIX.Condition: Torn, holes, stainedLayout: 32-34 lines
F. 1r: writing exercise consisting of a Syriac hymn ‘The pure and exalted one’. The hymn can be found in the Book of Beth Gazo under the genre ‘Supplications of Rabula’, melody no. 2. The melody of this hymn is now presumed to be lost. F. 1v: writing exercise of a Syriac hymn ‘The Virgin gave birth to a wonder’. The hymn is copied on f. 1v, and again on f. 2r. This hymn is found in the Book of Beth Gazo and falls under the Qolo ‘I have examined everything,’ melody no. 1. The hymn occurs during the Nativity liturgy and is particularly practised at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem during Christmas celebrations. Ca. 16th-17th century.Condition: Torn, holes, rubbedLayout: 11 lines (f. 2v is blank)
Garshuni Palm Sunday sermon titled ܬܪܓܐܡ ܥܝܕ ܐܠܣܥܐܢܝܢ / ترجام عيد السعانين beginning with ܐܠܚܡܕ ܠܠܗ / الحمد لله. A box is drawn at the bottom of recto, under ‘In the name of the Father...’. Ca. 16th-17th century.Condition: Torn, stainedLayout: 8 lines (recto); 15 lines (verso)
Alphabet writing exercise in Syriac and Garshuni, as well as exercises with phrases such as (on f. 1r) ‘from the Lord’, ‘from the Lord God’, ‘in the name of God the Father, ‘have mercy upon us, O Lord’, ‘from the Israelites’, and ‘bless my Lord’; (on f. 1v) two exercises of the start of the Lord’s Prayer (the first stops at ‘forgive us our debts’, and the second ‘as on earth’) according to the Peshitta (Matthew 6:9–13); (on f. 2r): ‘God’ and ‘Christ’; (on f. 2v) ‘from God’, ‘to come’, ‘Luke’, ‘his name’, ‘Jesus’, ‘bless my Lord’, ‘the glorified saints’, ‘our God’, ‘the saints’, and ‘heaven and earth’. Ca. 16th-17th century.Condition: Torn, stainedLayout: various lines
Syriac homily on Palm Sunday, covering the restoration of sight to the blind, the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, and the cleansing of the temple. Heading in Garshuni. Ca. 16th-17th century.Condition: Torn, stainedLayout: 17 lines (recto; verso is blank)
Small Garshuni fragment with barely any text preserved apart from the words ‘the Lord’ and ‘all the countries’ on recto. The rest of the recto and verso is blank apart from ink transfer. Ca. 16th-17th century.Condition: Cut, tornLayout: various lines
F. 1r: liturgical excerpt from Psalms 1:6-2:3 from the Syriac Peshitta, though with several variants that suggest it was copied from a recitation or from memory rather than from a written text. F. 1v: alphabet is written with a mnemonic in a grid (ʾabgad hawwaz ḥaṭṭī kalaman saʿfaṣ qaršat; i.e. using each letter in sequence), though an extra yūdh is written after lāmadh. F. 2r: alphabet exercise in which the letters ālaph to ṭēth are written with the vowel pthaha (a) and then mīm is repeated 22 times. Ca. 16th-17th century.Condition: Torn, stainedLayout: 7-8 lines (f. 2v is blank)