Case 7: Middle Eastern Manuscripts 3: Languages
While Arabic and Persian dominate St John’s collection of Middle Eastern manuscripts, other languages of the region are represented. This includes a Turkish letter in Arabic script sent from Constantinople to James I of England (MS 253*, fols 6v-7r) and an incomplete 16th-century copy of the anonymous Syriac encyclopaedic work known as Causa causarum (MS 70) in the Syriac script. The College’s only Hebrew manuscript shall be discussed in the next section, as it was produced in the context of medieval Christian Bible studies rather than being a product of the Middle East.
*The Turkish letter is represented by a photograph in the exhibition, because MS 253 cannot be displayed here. The manuscript also contains a 17th-century advertisement for the exhibition of a tattooed Philippine slave in London, which has inspired the artist Pio Abad to create a new artwork. His To Those Sitting in Darkness, first exhibited at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford from 9 February to 8 September 2024, has been shortlisted for the prestigious Turner Prize. The artwork, together with St John’s College’s MS 253, can be viewed at London’s Tate Britain until 16 February 2025. The winner of the Turner Prize is announced on 3 December 2024.
