Five Spiritual Works by ʿAzīz Bar Sābtā Abū ʼl-Maʿānī. Introduction, Critical Edition and English Translation.

This PhD dissertation is a critical edition of five works by the Patriarch of Ṭur ʿAbdin Ignatius the 7th, ʿAzīz Bar Sābtā Abū ʼl-Maʿānī (died in the 1480 CE), all of them dealing with mystical or religious contents, and written in Syriac, in Arabic, or in both in one case. All these works have never been critically studied, published nor translated so far, such as the other works of Abū ʼl-Maʿānī which have not been addressed here. Therefore, nothing is found about this author in the academic literature, with the exception of few instances where he is mentioned as a late writer of mystical subjects. The dissertation is divided in two parts. The first one–in Italian language–is an introduction where I first gather what we already know about Abū ʼl-Maʿānī and the historical sources I found about him, and then the details about his life are given together with a discussion about a chronological issue. After an abridged presentation of all the literary works known, I give a thorough description of the manuscript tradition: I choose to describe all the witnesses I was able to see (in person or through digital media) from a codicological perspective, with a complete list of the content of each manuscript. Finally, the tradition is discussed with a philological method, with a specific focus on the Sullāqā, which is the most copied of Abū ʼl-Maʿānī’s works, for which I also attempt to provide a stemma codicum. The second part includes the edition of the Syriac and Garšuni texts, all provided with a critical apparatus wherever required, and each followed by its English translation with linguistic notes if necessary. Even though not comprehensive, this work is the first one specifically concerning Abū ʼl-Maʿānī and his literary production, and it aims to be a first reference tool for future researches on the subject.