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Armenian, Coptic, Arabic and other Eastern writers

Writers and chroniclers of the Armenian, Coptic, Arabic and Ethiopic churches, in older public-domain English translations.

15 authors26 works All authors A–Z

Martyrdom of Isaac of Tiphre

c. AD 399 · The golden age of the Fathers

A Coptic account of the martyr Isaac of Tiphre in Egypt.

1 work

Life of Shenouda

5th–7th century · The later Fathers

A Syriac version of the life of the Coptic abbot Shenouda of Atripe.

1 work

Ananias of Shirak

c. AD 610–685 · The later Fathers

Armenian mathematician and writer on the calendar and the church year.

3 works

Coptic texts (anonymous)

5th–8th century · The later Fathers

Anonymous lives, homilies and apocryphal writings that survive in Coptic, the language of Egyptian Christians, many of them put under the names of famous Fathers and some translated from Greek.

7 works

Apocalypse of Samuel of Kalamoun

7th century · The later Fathers

A Coptic apocalypse put under the name of Samuel, abbot of Qalamun.

1 work

John of Nikiu

fl. c. AD 690 · The later Fathers

Egyptian bishop whose chronicle survives in Ethiopic.

1 work

Paulician Church of Armenia

7th–18th century · The later Fathers

The Paulicians were a movement of Armenian Christians, active from the seventh century, who rejected the cult of the Virgin, the cross and the Church’s hierarchy and held an adoptionist view of Christ. Their manual, the Key of Truth, was copied in 1782 and survives in a single manuscript.

1 work

Hunayn ibn Ishaq

AD 809–873 · The early Middle Ages

Nestorian physician and translator of Greek works into Syriac and Arabic at Baghdad.

1 work

Yahya ibn Adi

AD 893–974 · The early Middle Ages

Syriac Orthodox philosopher and translator in Baghdad, who wrote in Arabic.

3 works

Severus of al-Ashmunein

10th century · The early Middle Ages

Coptic bishop whose History of the Patriarchs is the main source for the Coptic church.

2 works

Abu al-Khayr ibn al-Tayyib

11th century · The early Middle Ages

Christian Arabic writer of Baghdad.

1 work

Abdallah ibn al-Tayyib

d. AD 1043 · The early Middle Ages

Physician, philosopher and priest of the Church of the East in Baghdad.

1 work

Abu al-Majdalus

medieval, date uncertain · The early Middle Ages

Arabic Christian writer who commented on the Nicene Creed.

1 work

Gerasimos

medieval, date uncertain · The early Middle Ages

Arabic Christian writer; an extract of his Apology is translated here.

1 work

Kebra Nagast

c. 14th century · The later Fathers

The ‘Glory of the Kings’, the national epic of Ethiopia, which tells how the Queen of Sheba visited Solomon and how their son Menyelek brought the Ark of the Covenant to Ethiopia; it was put into its present form in the early fourteenth century.

1 work

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