TWO ANCIENT BOOKS

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 234, 1 July 1939, Page 10

TWO ANCIENT BOOKS

Manuscript Koran Of 12th Century

AN EARLY IRISH BIBLE

Two ancient and interesting Bibles have been added to the remarkable collection of the New Zealand headquarters of the British and Foreign Bible Society. They are a manuscript copy of the Koran, holy book of Islam, believed to date back to the twelfth century, and a first edition of the Irish Bible, in the Erse script and tongue, of about 1681.

The Koran is the sacred scripture of the Mohammedan religion. It is believed by all true Muslims to be the Word of God, dictated by Him to the angel Gabriel, who transmitted it to Mohammed, the prophet. It tells of the joys of Heaven, the horrors of Hell, and lays down the laws of behaviour to be followed by all true believers.

This copy, presented by Mrs. E. F. Denton Leech, Dunedin, has been in possession of her family since 1887, when a major in a Punjab regiment found it wrapped in a green cloth bag in a deserted hut on the Indian North-West-Frontier, during a rising of the hill tribes.

It is hand-written on a yellow paper or papyrus brittle with age, patched and repatched, and is bound in curious fashion with leather. Like all books in Arabic, it reads from the back forward, according to western notions of book format-starts at the wrong end. Its original green bag with a shoulder cord of stitched rag, is still with it.

Recently it was examined by the Rev. Father Michel Bardaouil, secretary to the Metropolitan of Beyrouth. He said it was a beautiful example of old Arabic script, probably of the twelfth century. Some rough notes at the beginning, he said, were a recent addition, rehearsing the attributes of Allah. The other book is a seventeenth century Irish Bible. The Bible was printed in English in 1535-39; but it was not translated into Erse till 1642, or printed in that language till 40 years after. This copy is one of the original edition of 500, printed with Erse type, presented by the Hon. R. Boyle, who paid most of the' cost of the edition. Eighty copies were sent to Scotland, for the Gaelic-speaking Highlanders, but owing to the hazards of communication at that time few reached their destinations. Some six are still in the parishes to which they were presented. ' • The translation of the Old Testament is by the Rt. Rev. IJy. William Bedel, Bishop of KHmore, and the New Testament rendering is by the Most Rev. William Daniel, Archbishop of Tua m.

The volume is a gift to the New Zealand headquarters from the London committee of the Bible Society.