Conexiunile românești ale primului Acatist arab tipărit
The Romanian Connections of the first Arabic printed Akathistos

Summary/Abstract: In 2018, a small Akathistos book was presented to me in Paris, printed in Arabic, with Arabic type, with no title page. The owner, a Western antiquary, had no information on the date and place of its printing. Having surveyed the volume for one hour and, later, having at my disposal a few photographed pages, I drew some conclusions from my initial research of this unique book. They led to some potential answers to the many questions connected to its origin and open new paths for the research of the unsolved mysteries that surround it. The book illustration, most of all, offers some clues on the place of printing and the persons who could have been involved in this endeavor. All these elements suggest a direct connection with a press of the Romanian lands, either the one at the Three Hierarchs Monastery in Jassy, or the emerging press at the Monastery of Saint Spyridon in Bucharest. To properly understand the historical background of Arabic printing in the East, several relevant figures and their printing achievements are briefly discussed: Antim the Iberian, Athanasios Dabbās, and Patriarch Sylvester of Antioch. This paper presents the information collected so far in connection with this Arabic Akathistos, and the unknown elements that the on-going research will survey as part of the tasks within the TYPARABIC project that I am coordinating at the Institute for South-East European Studies of the Romanian Academy.

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