(CE:30a)
ABU AL-MUNA, deacon (1663-1679). In 1663, while in Cairo, Johann Michael VANSLEB had copied for the Royal Library in Paris the large anthology of the Coptic canonical collection compiled by the priest Marcarius, monk of the monastery of Saint John Colobos (Graf, Vol. 1, pp. 560-63). This anthology was contained in two fine manuscripts that had been copied in A.D. 1372, which are now in the Vatican (Vatican Library, Arabic manuscripts 149 and 150). He entrusted the first (149) to a priest named Ghali, who completed it on 12 Kiyahk A.M. 1380/9 December 1663, and the second (150) to the deacon Abu al-Muna, who completed it on 10 Babah A.M. 1380/27 Rabi‘ A.H. 1075 (which should be corrected to read 1074/18 October 1663). The two manuscripts were then bound together in a large volume of 360 folios (National Library, Paris, Arabe 252). The section copied by Abu al-Muna (fols. 233-360) begins with the second book of the
Canons of the Kings.
Sixteen years later, a priest in Cairo named Abu al-Muna copied the life and miracles of Anba MARQUS AL-ANTUNI, which survive in a single manuscript (Coptic Patriarchate, Cairo, History 53; Graf, no. 492; Simaykah, no. 627; Graf, Vol. 1, p. 536, sec. 2 end). This manuscript was copied on commission from Father Butrus, a disciple of the 103rd Patriarch, JOHN (YU‘ANNIS) XVI (1676-1718), and is dated 10 Abib 1395/14 July 1679. Abu al-Muna may be the deacon employed sixteen years earlier by Vansleb, having in the meantime become a priest. A handwriting comparison has not yet been made.
KHALIL SAMIR, S. J.
