Most likely Miaphysite
Most likely ca. 637 C.E.
Probably the earliest, clearly the most dramatic, and arguably the most frustratingly incomplete of early Syriac references to the rise of Islam was likely written in 637. At that time, an anonymous author used a blank page in the front of his Bible to jot down a brief commemoration of the events he had just seen. Like most ancient books, at some point this one lost its cover, leaving the note unprotected. As a result, the opening page has been substantially damaged, and the ink is often unreadable. Nevertheless, this five-by-nine-inch piece of parchment with poorly preserved jottings constitutes the world’s oldest surviving artifact to mention Muḥammad and likely refers to the most important battle of the Islamic conquests.
British Library Additional 14,461 contains a Syriac translation of the Gospels of Matthew and Mark. On paleographic grounds, William Wright dated the original manuscript to the sixth century. The Gospel of Matthew begins on the codex’s second page and thus left the first page blank. On this flyleaf appears the brief Account ad 637. Because of its fragmentary state of preservation, several scholars have produced editions of the text, including Theodor Nöldeke in 1875 and Ernest Walter Brooks in 1904. In 1993, Andrew Palmer published a partially transliterated version based on notes made by Sebastian Brock.
British Library Additional 14,461 appears to be a Miaphysite Bible, and the scribblings on its flyleaf most likely came from a Miaphysite. The note refers to a battle that took place near the town of Gabitha in August of the year ——seven (the first two numbers are not fully preserved but most likely were nine and four). The year 947 in the Seleucid calendar that most Syriac Christians used corresponds to 636 C.E. Indeed, in August 636, just south of Gabitha, Arab troops decisively defeated Byzantine forces in an engagement more commonly known as the Battle of Yarmuk. The author claims to have been an eyewitness to some of the events he describes, and at one point he explicitly uses the first person to state that “we saw . . . .” By the seventh century, Syriac Christians already had a tradition of using the opening blank pages in a Bible for writing commemorative notices. The combination of biblical flyleaf and messy handwriting lends credence to the text’s authorial claims. Because the last line of partially preserved text refers to the year following the battle near Gabitha, most modern scholars date the note’s composition to circa 637.
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Because of its extremely poor state of preservation, the Account ad 637 remains quite fragmentary. Below are two translations of the same text. The first more stringently reflects the manuscript’s current state. This translation includes only those words that remain clear in the manuscript or are very easily reconstructed.
. . . Muḥammad . . . [p]riest, Mār Elijah . . . and they came . . . and . . . and from . . . strong . . . month . . . and the Romans . . . And in January. . . of Emesa received assurances for their lives. Many villages were destroyed through the killing by . . . Muḥammad and many people were killed. And captives . . . from the Galilee to Bēt . . . Those Arabs camped by . . . we saw . . . everywhe[re] . . . and the . . . that they . . . and . . . them. On the tw[enty-si]xth of May, . . . went . . . from Emesa. The Romans pursued them . . . on the tenth . . . the Romans fled from Damascus . . . many, about ten thousand. The following [ye]ar, the Romans came. On the twentieth of August in the year n[ine hundred and forty-]seven [636 C.E.] there assembled in Gabitha . . . the Romans and many people were ki[lled], from the R[omans] about fifty thousand . . . In the year nine hundred and for[ty-] . . .
This second translation of the same text attempts to fill in a few of the lacunae. It includes in braces those words that other scholars have conjectured as likely to have been in the document prior to its decay.
. . . Muḥammad . . . priest, Mār Elijah . . . and they came . . . and . . . and from . . . strong . . . month . . . and the Romans {fled} . . . And in January {the people} of Emesa received assurances for their lives. Many villages were destroyed through the killing by {the Arabs of} Muḥammad and many people were killed. And captives {were taken} from the Galilee to Bēt . . . Those Arabs camped by {Damascus}. We saw . . . everywhere . . . and the {olive oil} that they {had brought} and . . . them. On the twenty-sixth of May, {the sacellarius} went . . . from Emesa. The Romans pursued them . . . On the tenth {of August} . . . the Romans fled from Damascus . . . many, about ten thousand. The following year, the Romans came. On the twentieth of August in the year nine hundred and forty-seven [636 C.E.] there assembled in Gabitha . . . the Romans and many people were killed, from the Romans about fifty thousand . . . In the year nine hundred and forty-{eight} . . .