Preliminaries on an Unknown Greek Translation of the Covenant of Muḥammad by Sophronios of Kilis

Abstract

Abstract This study offers preliminary remarks on a hitherto unknown Greek translation of the Covenant of Muḥammad by the Patriarch Sophronios of Kilis. The translation is preserved in a single miscellaneous codex entitled Sarakēnika, which was compiled between 1770 and 1780 by the renowned Phanariot scholar and bibliophile Nikolaos Karatzas, a former official of the Patriarchate of Constantinople (MS Gr. 112, Princeton University Library). As the inclusion of the translation in the codex is representative of the cultural transfers that took place between the Arabic-speaking and the Greek peoples during the 17th- and 18th-century Ottoman Empire, this study examines, in particular, the knowledge regimes for the production of the text. In the Appendix, an editio princeps of the translation is provided.