(CE:2138a)
SIMAN IBN ABI NASR AL-TAMADA’I, thirteenth-century
copier of a manuscript now in the Coptic Museum, Cairo. It is a text
of the four Gospels in Bohairic Coptic, beautifully decorated in
black, red, and gold, with numerous miniature letters of pharaonic
inspiration. The manuscript (Bible 92) contains 327 large-format
sheets (34 x 25 cm), with twenty-three lines to the page. The first
two sheets are missing. The colophon (fol. 327b) gives some
interesting information, which is translated in Horner (p. 104).
Sim‘an was a priest from Tamada. He copied the manuscript
when he was living in Cairo in the quarter of Qasr al-Sham‘. He
probably lived in the residence of the donor of the manuscript, the
shaykh al-Ra’is al-Amjad Abu al-Majd, son of the shaykh al-Akram
Abu al-Muffaddal. Al-Amjad donated this manuscript to the Church
of the Mu‘allaqah, situated in the Qasr al-Sham‘ in Old Cairo.
KHALIL SAMIR, S. J.
