20-24 septembrie 2009 - Biblioteca Metropolitana Bucuresti

180 Geoffrey Roperpress to print in Arabic in the Arab world itself, at Aleppo in Syria. It is notnecessary here to enter into more detail on this subject, because it has beencovered in the publications of several Romanian and other researchers. 39One of them, Dr Ioana Feodorov, has contributed a paper on the topic tothis Symposium.Forty years later, in the 1740s, some more Arabic books were printedin Romania, at Iaşi in Moldavia. These included another liturgical book, amissal of 1745 40 , and a Psalter of 1747 41 . They were commissioned by thesuccessor of Dabbās, Patriarch Silbastrus (Silvester). He was strongly anti-Catholic, and he needed another Orthodox Arabic press, since the Aleppopress had ceased operation in 1711. Later, in 1751, he set up a new press inBeirut, which, however, published only two books before ceasing in 1753. 42After that, Orthodox Arabic printing did not resume until the foundation ofthe Holy Sepulchre press in Jerusalem in 1849.Meanwhile, in the late 18 th century, Anthimos, the Orthodox Patriarchof Jerusalem, commissioned a lavish edition of the Arabic Psalms, with hisown commentary, from the Orientalist printer Joseph Kurzböck in Vienna. 43He modestly included, as a frontispiece, a magnificent engraved portraitof himself, seated in majesty on the patriarchal throne. Anthimos was ofcourse very much a Greek Orthodox prelate, but, unlike his predecessors,he sought to promote education and literacy among his Arabic-speakingclergy and laymen. This, and other Arabic books which he wrote, wereintended for this purpose.But since the demise of the Arabic presses in Romania, and those ofAleppo and Beirut, he had no Orthodox press under his control, nor evenaccessible to him. So he was obliged to turn to Catholic Habsburg Austriato get these books printed. The Habsburgs for their part had always beeninterested in Palestine and the Holy Places. Indeed, the Emperors had fromtime to time added to their long list of titles that of "König von Jerusalem".Previously they had supported Catholic, especially Franciscan, institutionsthere; but in the second half of the 18 th century, there was an Orthodox39Bianu & Hodoş, 1903: 423-445; Simonescu, 1967; Kurdgelashvili, 1969;Cândea, 1982; Balagna, 1984: 96-97; Gdoura, 1985: 133-137; Nasrallah, 1986; Cândea,1989; Malādhī, 1996; Bădără, 1998; Falangas, 2000; Walbiner, 2001: 11; Glass & Roper,2002: 178-179; Dabbās, 2008.40[Liturgies: Greek Orthodox / Melkite.] Al-Qindāq, 1745, Iaşi: Mănăstirea Sf.Sava.41[Bible: O.T.: Psalms.] Kitāb al-Zabūr al-Sharīf, 1747, Iaşi: Mănăstirea Sf. Sava.42Gdoura, 1985: 183-185.43Kitāb Tafsīr al-Zabūr al-Ilāhī al-Sharīf, 1792, Wien: Joseph Kurzböck. Fordetails of the book, and the background to its publication, see Roper, 2009.