I’m currently looking at an English translation of a later part of this long work in Arabic, which has transliterations of Arabic words in the middle of it. Some Greek words also appear.
Some are interesting: “al kurban” is the offering of the mass, i.e. holy communion.
Another is “al-Ka‘k” – cakes!
I wish I could work out what Egyptian copyright is. These were all published in Cairo, at a time when Egypt had no copyright law. I suspect that legally these are either orphan or public domain works.
Actually, to be more accurate, “al kurban” is the bread and wine that are offered to become holy communion. We (I’m a Copt) refer to Holy Communion as “The Body and Blood” since it is no more “kurban” but the Body and Blood of Christ through transubstantiation. (by the way, “al” in Arabic is the definite article = “the”)
Thank you – this is very interesting.