This new book, free to download in open access here, provides an Arabic edition and English translation of letters written in the circle of Orthodox churchmen and intellectuals around the secretary of the Patriarch Sylvester of Antioch. Taken alongside Mihai Țipău's monograph on Sylvester, published last year and available in open access here, we now have a vastly richer understanding of the life of the Patriarchate of Antioch in the immediate aftermath of the Melkite Schism.
The Correspondence of Mūsā Ṭrābulsī (1732-1787)
Critical Edition, English Translation, and Introduction
Habib Ibrahim, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Germany
The correspondence of Mūsā
Ṭrābulsī preserved in the unique MS 300 of the Orthodox Syriac
Patriarchate in Homs is a collection of 71 letters (+1 repeated)
received mainly by Mūsā from various correspondents during his tenure as
a secretary of Patriarch Sylvester of Antioch (1724-1766) and his
travels in the Patriarch's company. The letters exchanged by Yūsuf Mark
and Mūsā Ṭrābulsī illustrate the help that Sylvester received in
Moldavia and Wallachia and his efforts to secure the printing of
Christian Arabic books there in 1745–1747, and in Beirut in 1750–1753.
Other letters connect Ilyās Fakhr and Sophronios of Kilis with this
circle of Syrian intellectuals who supported many of Patriarch
Sylvester’s projects. The volume contains the Arabic edition of
the letters, an English translation, an introduction presenting the
biography of Mūsā Ṭrābulsī and key figures in the letters, a
codicological study of the manuscript, and indexes. Through various
sources, the editor was able to gather new bibliographical material.
Thanks to these findings, we now have a deeper knowledge of the Nawfal
family members, Mūsā himself, the books that interested him, and his
translation activity. The present edition demonstrates that Mūsā was an
exceptional figure in the history of the Antiochian patriarchate during
the challenging period following the 1724 division. Although he did not
attain higher ecclesiastical ranks, he was held in special esteem by the
clergy of the patriarchate.