Page:The travels of Macarius, Patriarch of Antioch - Volume I.djvu/13



Arabic Manuscript, of which the Translation, under the auspices and at the expense of the, is here, in part, laid before the Public, was purchased, many years ago, at Aleppo, by the late and, in 1824, placed in my hands by his Lordship, to be translated into English. Meeting with those numerous errors of transcription which are found more or less in all Manuscripts, I became desirous to provide myself with other copies, for the purpose of collation; and, in my progress through the Eastern Countries, sought for them, but without success, at Constantinople, Smyrna, and Cairo. Reduced, therefore, to the employment of my single copy, I have had to contend with great difficulties, amidst the erroneous and diversified readings continually presenting themselves, both in the narrative and in the names of places; but most of all in the Greek words, so defectively written in the Arabic Character, that some of them it has been impossible satisfactorily to decipher. With the obliging help of the Rev., late of Constantinople, whose excellent knowledge of the Greek Language, and extensive acquaintance with the Uses and Ceremonies of the Greek Church, have enabled him to be of great assistance to me, I have, notwithstanding these difficulties, been able to render most of them, I believe correctly, in their proper form; and should have been glad to have had leisure fully to explain them. I have been surprised at the hallucination which their Arabic appearance has sometimes occasioned me, even where the reading might, upon a more leisurely view, seem perfectly easy: as in one instance, where Ancient Greek is mentioned, and Ἑλληνιϰὰ might naturally occur, I have been led to take the first syllable of الينكاء for the Arabic article, and rendered the word "of Yenika."

Another and more serious difficulty, which has much retarded me in my prosecution of the work, is the perpetual recurrence of Church Ceremonies, Rh