A Trilingual Scribe from Abbasid Egypt? A Note on CPR XXII 17

Abstract

A part of CPR XXII 17, 1b was identified in the edition as pen trial. It is, however,written in Arabic. This note argues that the Arabic part was written by the same scribe as theGreek and the Coptic passages in the papyrus. This revelation throws light on how Greek, Copticand Arabic were simultaneously used in early Islamic Egypt and suggests that there might havebeen scribes who were capable of handling all three languages very efficiently.