Some reflections on the Arabic translation of the Samaritan Pentateuch

Abstract

The various Arabic translations of the Bible, Rabbinic, Karaite, Samaritan and Christian, are a vivid witness to the fact that the Bible has remained firmly roots to the civilization of the Middle East. These religious communities, with the exception of the Karaites, lived before the advent of Islam in the 7th century and continued all to exist until the present day. These religious communities called by Islamic law the people of the book, had gradually been arabicized by the end of the 11th century. The Samaritans had been speaking and writing Arabic without interruption for about a dozen of centuries. Their Arabic version of the Pentateuch is undoubtedly an important source for a better understanding of their concepts and beliefs, of their medieval exegesis and of their Aramaic and Arabic dialects.