Su alcuni esempi di medio arabo nei testi manoscritti di tre trattati teologici di Sulayman al-Gazzi

The purpose of this article is to examine the main linguistic features of the Arabic of Sulaymn al-azz’s theological treaties. In order to give a new critical edition of these texts, we analyzed their manuscript sources. In the paper we list the numerous Middle Arabic features as Blau described them in his fundamental work (1966-1967). The question whether this language is ascribable to the Author or to the copyists, is still open. Nevertheless, according to the opinion of some scholars, the first step to describe Middle Arabic varieties is to produce a critical text in conformity with the methodology of the modern textual criticism (as it results after a long development in the ancient and medieval- European traditions). In this last fields the respect of the language as it appears in the manuscripts, is one of the basic principles which is called «criticism of forms». Accordingly, the editor will try to reconstruct, as much as possible, the language in which the Author wrote. After this preliminary research, we can maintain that Middle Arabic is not only the linguistic register that Christians Arabs used in their literature of translation, but also, in some cases, in their original works.