An Arabic Account of the Miracle of the Holy Fire (1634) / Introductory Study, Edition of the Arabic Text and English Translation

Abstract

This study announces the discovery of a previously unknown Arabic account of the miracle of the Holy Fire that took place on Holy Saturday 1634. The Arabic text is preserved in two recensions: the Sinai recension (compiled shortly after the event: the manuscript dates to December 1634) and the Jerusalem recension (which is later than the Sinai recension and is attested in a manuscript from the first half of the nineteenth century). The article argues that the well­known Greek text on the miracle of the Holy Fire on Holy Saturday 1634, Διήγησις θαύματος περὶ τοῦ Ἁγίου Φωτὸς γεγονότος ἔτει 1634, published by A. Papadopoulos­Kerameus in 1894, is, in fact, a Greek translation of the Sinaitic recension of the Arabic text. The article includes a critical edition of both Arabic recensions with an English translation.