In the preface to volume 2 of the catalogue of the Mingana manuscripts in Birmingham, Alphonse Mingana states (p. v) that the main collections of Arabic Christian manuscripts in the East are the library of Mt. Sinai; the library of the Catholic University of Saint-Joseph in Beirut; the Coptic Patriarchal museum and library in Cairo; and the library of Paul Sbath in Aleppo.
Searching for information on the last, often referenced in Graf’s history of Arabic literature, I found this link to the Schoyen collection. On it, there was this statement: “Paul Sbath had one of the most important collections of Arabic MSS ever formed, ca. 3000 MSS. 2000 MSS are in the Vatican Library, 1000 MSS were destroyed during the war, 2 MSS including the present one came to England.” Yet I find that the HMML expect to photograph some of the Sbath mss in Aleppo.
Fortunately this turns out to be nonsense. An enquiry on the Hugoye list brings the following information:
Sbath’s catalogue of his manuscripts (P. Sbath, Bibliotheque de manuscrits Paul Sbath, pretre syrien d’Alep: catalogue, 3 vols. Cairo, 1928-34) lists 1349 manuscripts.
Of these, nos. 1-338, 340-776 are in the Vatican (I don’t know what happened to no. 339, and I can’t remember now why I know it’s missing).
Most of nos. 777-1349 are in Aleppo, in the possession of Fondation Georges et Mathilde Salem. The manuscripts are (or were in 2001) in their office in Aziziyeh. Some of the manuscripts have gone missing; there are also a number of additional manuscripts not listed in Sbath’s catalogue. I gather from the Internet that a new catalogue of this collection is about to be published: Francisco del Rio Sanchez, Catalogue des manuscrits de la Fondation Georges et Mathilde Salem (Alep, Syrie) (Sprachen und Kulturen des christlichen Orients), Stuttgart: Reichert, 2008. — Hidemi Takahashi.
That’s more likely. I wonder how the mss ended up in the Vatican, tho. Another email from John C. Lamoreaux tells us:
Sbath himself collected around 1300 MSS — though he claimed to have more, perhaps as many as 1500. About half of these ended up in the Vatican Library (fonds Sbath). These are well preserved, and copies are easily had. Apparently, there were legal troubles getting the remaining mss out of Syria. Most of the rest of the mss, but not all, passed to his brother, and are now in the Foundation Sbath, near the Jesuit Residence in Aleppo. Hill is now said to be digitizing the mss remaining in Aleppo. For a list of the mss still in Aleppo, see the entry on the foundation in Takahashi’s bibliography on Barhebraeus (2005).
Sbath also published in the 1930s a three-volume catalogue of mss in private holdings, mostly in Aleppo. It lists about 3000 mss, most otherwise unknown. To my knowledge, none of these mss has yet to be found. I am about finished with an article arguing that Sbath was being less than honest, that he never actually saw many of these mss.
This all makes sense and gives us a little more.
I hope you will never write such a thing : “To my knowledge, none of these mss has yet to be found. I am about finished with an article arguing that Sbath was being less than honest, that he never actually saw many of these mss.”
Please remove this part of your text…because they are not true.
I am the great son of Yusif Ilyan Sarkis and I have evidences that Sbath gifted the Vatican Library with many not to say most of these manuscripts.
Thank you for modifying your text! JPF
Thanks for your note! I’d be most interested to hear more about what Sbath did.
John’s comment is his own, of course. Whether right or wrong, it should remain.
The malefactor John here …
I, too, would like to see this evidence.
Hard to see how the manuscripts could have been gifted, when Sbath did not even own them. He claimed to have seen them in private collections in Aleppo.
And I am sorry to say that it is very hard to avoid concluding that Sbath had not seen most, if not all of these manuscripts.
Like Mingana but without the talent, he was a liar, if a good one. He fooled even the great Georg Graf, though even he had to wink at Sbath’s discovery of a biography of Sergius-Buhayrah dating from the lifetime of Muhammad. Indeed, I’ll bet he kept his eyes closed from a whole week!
Evidences can be provided.
Perhaps it is time that someone shone a scholarly light on Sbath’s life and activity. Sounds like a PhD thesis to me!
What I know directly for Youssif Elian Sarkis’ personal notes, is that Father Sbath had the intention to sell his collection to the Vatican Library…He asked Youssif Sarkis (my great grand father) who was in relation with Lord Bishop Eugène Tisserant to invite him to Beirut to negotiate the deal. When the Famous Orientalist arrived to the Lebanese Capital, Father Sbath changed his mind and refused to sell his collection. Subsequently the Lord Bishop Tisserant went back to Roma with no results.
Father Sbath regretted his attitude and decided to leave the major part of his collection to the Vatican Library as a legacy. This is why a large part of his collection is in Roma in the Vatican Library.
JP Fattal
Now that is very interesting — thank you!
This is all true, Fattal. But I fear that we are talking about different things. My apologies if I am responsible for the confusion.
This is what I am saying:
Of the 1325 manuscripts in Sbath’s personal collection, 1-338 and 340-776 are currently in the Vatican Library (fonds Sbath). Of the remaining manuscripts, all but 23 are now in the Foundation G. and M. Salem in Aleppo. The present location of these 23 manuscripts are unknown.
Please note … When I say that Sbath was not being honest, I am referring specifically to his Fihris, his three volume catalogue of manuscripts in private collections, mostly in Aleppo. I am not referring to his own collection of manuscripts.
I think it can be shown, quite clearly, that many of the manuscripts that he claimed to have seen did not exist. Rather, he took citations of these manuscripts from a number of medieval works and pretended that he had seen them. It is very unfortunate, and I don’t know why he would have done such a thing: he was actually not a bad scholar. He certainly knew well the history of Syriac and Christian Arabic literature.
If you are willing, I would enjoy the opportunity to correspond with you. Roger Pearse, the director of this website, can forward to you my email address.
Regards, John
Thannk you for the clarification, John. Fattal, if you want to give me an email address, perhaps via my form, I will forward John’s email to you.
I am actually in Cairo at the Dominican Institute IDEO. We have still many copies of Sbath Fihrist (not the Catalogue of his own MSS), as fr. Sbath left them all here in the Dominican monastery. I am more then 35 years involved in Christian Arabic Studies, but I never came across any of these “Fihrist MSS”. So, my conclusion is quite the same: we should forget about these MSS and not mention them anymore… I have no idea why this could happen.
prof. E. Platti (KULeuven-Ideo/Cairo)
Thank you for the update. This confirms what people are saying, then.
It is also useful to know that this material is in the Dominican monastery in Cairo.
About the syriac manuscripts collection( around 1500 manuscripts) of father Paul Sbath, it is true to say that Cardinal Eugène TISSERAND purchased for the Vatican Library, exactly 988 manuscripts of this collection.The contrat was signed in Beirut during the year 1926, between Cardinal Tisserand and Father Sbath.
Happy Easter
R.M.
Many thanks indeed for this info! This is most interesting!
Can I ask where the info comes from? What is your source?
Raymond emailed me the following reply:
Many thanks indeed! With so much hearsay going around, a solid reference is good news. Pity it isn’t online, but you can’t have everything!
If anyone is interested, here’s the text, from p. 803: (Between March 17 and 31, 1926) “Au Caire, où je me proposais d’acheter la collection des manuscrits arabes du P. Paul Sbath, je profitai de mon séjour pour faire une étude systématique des anciennes mosquées,” and then, “Le 5 avril, je quittais Jérusalem pour Beyrouth, où je réussis à conclure avec le P. Sbath un contrat d’achat de 988 manuscrits.”
Thank you very much – useful!
I discussed the point off line with Dr. Raymond Melki. An agreement was actually reached on behalf of Lord Bishop Tisserant and while he was still in Roma, between Yusif Ilyan Sarkis and Father Sbath where the latter agreed to sell the manuscripts.
What must be acknowledged is that when Lord Bishop Tisserant has come to Beirut to take the manuscripts back with him to Roma, Father Sbath has changed his mind and decided not to let them leave. Following is an extract of the personal notes of my grand-uncle who is reporting the facts :
“Le 30 mars 1926, mon père (Yusif Ilyan Sarkis) fait un voyage à Beyrouth avec Mgr. Eugène Tisserant, directeur de la Bibliothèque Vaticane, pour ce que j’appelle « l’affaire Sbath ». Le Père Paul Sbath, prêtre syrien-catholique, avait réuni un bon nombre de manuscrits arabes que la Bibliothèque Vaticane aurait souhaité acquérir.
Mon père s’était occupé de faire l’intermédiaire et obtient du P. Sbath l’assentiment de vendre ces manuscrits à un prix convenable. Mgr. Tisserant vient spécialement en prendre livraison. Arrivé à Beyrouth, le P. Sbath se récuse et refuse de céder les manuscrits. Mon père veut lui intenter un procès, mais Mgr. Tisserant ne désire pas créer de scandale et il repart pour Rome, alors que mon père rentre le 27 avril au Caire.
C’est à la suite de cette « affaire » que Mgr. Tisserant demande et obtient pour mon père le titre de Chevalier de St. Grégoire, en récompense de ses services rendus à la Bibliothèque Vaticane et envers la chrétienté.
Par la suite, le père Sbath se repentira et avant sa mort, en 1946, il envoit à la Bibliothèque Vaticane les trois quarts de sa collection de manuscrits.”
I guarantee the authenticity of this text.
J-P. Fattal
Dear Gentlemen,
This discussion is very interesting indeed! I am currently trying to locate if there is in fact a Sbath MS 663, which would correspond to the Ottoman apocalyptic text known as the Tree of Nu’man (al-Shajarah al-nu’maniyyah).
When I was last at the Vatican, I can no longer recall if I managed to check the existence of a Sbath 663. At least, my notes to not indicate I found one, but it does not state that I did not find it either. The online digitized list of mss from Sbath collection does not contain MS 663.
Might any of you kind sirs have either a) a copy of the relevant manuscript catalogue volume for Sbath mss at the Vatican or b) any insight into the issue generally speaking?
I would be most thankful.
Sincerely,
Sasson