The Scala Magna of Shams al-Ri'asah Abu al-Barakat. Volume I

by MACOMBER W.F.

Among the different kinds of "ladders", there was the classifiedvocabulary, of which several anonymous examples have survived in themanuscripts. These "ladders" group together Bohairic words relating to,for example, geographical features, meteorological phenomena, birds,beasts, creeping things, palm trees, fruits, vegetables and so on. Withineach section the words were listed without special order. These "ladders",too, follow examples set by Arabic lexicographers. The "ladder" editedhere is an example of this category. It alone is ascribed in themanuscripts to a named author, Shams al-Ri'asah Abu al-Barakat Ibn Kabar(died 10 May, 1324 A.D.). He is presumably identical with the priest ofthe church called al-Mu'allaqah in Old Cairo, al-Shams Ibn Kabar, who alsobore the name Barsauma, who is mentioned in the colophon of Berlin Arabic10173. He served as secretary to the Mamluk official Baybars al-Mansuri.Besides this "ladder", he composed an ecclesiastical encyclopedia, "TheLamp (that Illuminates) the Darkness and the Elucidation of the Liturgy",and a collection of sermons for feasts and special occasions. His "ladder"is commonly called the Great Ladder, presumably because it is the mostcomplete example of the classified vocabulary. In addition, it attempts toorganize the different classifications in a more logical order than isusual for the anonymous classified vocabularies. It is divided into tenbooks.