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Coptic Language

Coptic-Arabic Lexicography

Coptic-Arabic glossaries preserved knowledge of Coptic through Arabic translations, helping readers understand biblical and liturgical texts and providing resources for later linguistic scholarship.[^1][^2]

Also known as: Coptic-Arabic dictionaries · Coptic-Arabic glossaries · Salalim · Scalae

Published 10/1/2026Updated 2 revisionsPage history

Purpose and terminology

Coptic-Arabic lexicography developed as Arabic gradually superseded Coptic in everyday speech, literature, and business. Bilingual word lists and grammatical summaries were prepared to preserve knowledge of Coptic, including Bohairic as the language of the church.1

The Arabic name for a Coptic-Arabic dictionary is sullam, meaning “ladder,” with the plural salalim. Its Latin equivalent is scala. The name refers to the arrangement of Coptic words on the left and their Arabic equivalents on the right, producing the appearance of a ladder.2

Medieval compilers and methods

Anba Yuhanna al-Samannudi, bishop of Samannud in the western Delta in the middle of the thirteenth century, compiled Al-Sullam al-Kana’isi, also known as Scala Ecclesiastica. The work survives in Sahidic and Bohairic versions, both represented in numerous manuscripts.3

Rather than a dictionary in the modern sense, this work is a glossary intended to help readers understand religious texts. It supplies Arabic translations of words from the New Testament, part of the Old Testament, and liturgical texts, following their order of occurrence while omitting repetitions. It begins with the Gospel of Saint John because of its easy style.3

Al-Mu’taman Abu Ishaq Ibrahim ibn al-‘Assal employed a different arrangement in al-Sullam al-Muqaffa wa-l-Dhahab al-Musaffa, translated as “The Rhymed Dictionary and the Purified Gold.” Following a method used in Arabic dictionaries, he classified words first by their final letter, then by their first and second letters.4

These medieval works belonged to a longer history of bilingual vocabulary collection. Earlier Coptic glossaries included Greek-Coptic and Latin-Greek-Coptic materials; the oldest surviving Coptic glossary is a Mesokemic manuscript apparently dating to the second half of the third century.5

Scholarly value and limitations

Coptic glossaries were valued in the Middle Ages and later because they enabled readers to understand the Scriptures in Coptic. Modern scholars have preferred original texts for documenting religious vocabulary, while continuing to consult ordered lexicons containing everyday words, particularly for natural history, geography, and dictionary compilation.6

The lexicons also require care as evidence for linguistic contact. They were compiled when Sahidic and Bohairic had undergone substantial phonetic and lexical changes, yet the scalae appear to contain relatively few Arabic-derived words despite the extensive Arabic vocabulary found in other late Coptic material.6

Later reception

Athanasius Kircher’s Lingua Aegyptiaca Restituta appeared in 1643 and was later used by Champollion in deciphering hieroglyphs. It is important for early European Coptic studies but does not meet modern scholarly standards.7

Later Coptic efforts to revive Bohairic continued the tradition of the thirteenth- and fourteenth-century grammarians. Works by Barsum, published in 1882, and Labib, cited under 1915, are among the principal lexicons associated with this activity.8

References

Sources

  1. 1.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 2 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 732)
    A new phase in Coptological studies began after the ARAB CONQUEST OF EGYPT, when Coptic was gradually superseded by Arabic as the colloquial language and the language of literature and business. To preserve the knowledge of the Coptic language, including Bohairic as the language of the church, Coptic-Arabic word lists (scalae) and grammatical summaries were prepared, which were to be of the greatest importance for the next phase of Coptological studies.
  2. 2.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 8 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 450)
    The Arabic term for a Coptic-Arabic dictionary is sullam (ladder; plural salalim), because the words are arranged to the left (Coptic) and the right (Arabic) in a manner that gives the impression of a ladder (Latin scala; Coptic mouki B, twrter or [loo[e S).
  3. 3.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 8 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 450)
    Anba Yuhanna, who was bishop of Samannud (western Delta) in the middle of the thirteenth century, wrote Al-Sullam al-Kana’isi (or Scala Ecclesiastica), of which two versions survive, Sahidic (Munier, 1930, pp. 1-43) and Bohairic, both found in many manuscripts (Graf, 1947, pp. 372-74). It is not a dictionary but a glossary of terms in biblical and liturgical books, mainly the New Testament, a portion of the Old Testament, and some liturgical texts. The words are given with their Arabic translation in the order in which they occur, except repetitions. The sullam begins with the Gospel of St. Jo
  4. 4.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 8 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 450)
    Abu Ishaq ibn al-‘Assal (full name al-Mu’taman Abu Ishaq Ibrahim ibn al-‘Assal), a member of the famous ‘Assal family (Mallon, 1906-1907), wrote a “rhymed” dictionary called al-Sullam al-Muqaffa wa-l-Dhahab al-Musaffa (The Rhymed Dictionary and the Purified Gold; Kircher, 1643, pp. 273-495, not quite complete). Words are classified by the last letter, as in Arabic dictionaries (e.g., the Sihah of al-Jawhari; Sidarus, 1978, p. 129). The order is last letter, then first letter, and then second letter
  5. 5.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 8 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 228)
    The oldest extant Coptic glossary is in a manuscript in the MESOKEMIC dialect that seems to be from the second half of the third century (Bell and Thompson, 1925). Later, if use certainly continued to be made of such glossaries (Bell and Crum, 1925, manuscript of the sixth century, idiolectal S = Sa or S1) there may have been need also of Latin-Coptic or Latin-Greek-Coptic glossaries; one of them has been preserved by a manuscript of the first half of the sixth century (apparently Coptic language S; cf. Schubart, 1913).
  6. 6.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 8 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 455)
    Coptic glossaries were highly appreciated in the Middle Ages and even in modern times as they permitted their readers access to the sense of the Holy Scriptures in Coptic. The situation is however somewhat different for modern scholars. They prefer to collect words in religious sources from original texts and not from secondhand glossaries. But ordered lexicons containing words from daily life are constantly referred to, mainly for natural history, geography, and, of course, dictionaries (Crum, 1939; Vycichl, 1983). These lexicons were written at a time when Coptic, both Sahidic and Bohairic,
  7. 7.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 8 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 455)
    In this context one must mention Kircher’s Lingua Aegyptiaca Restituta (1643). Although it certainly does not meet modern standards, it was for its time excellent and marks the very beginning of Coptic studies in Europe. Champollion used it 180 years later for deciphering the hieroglyphs.
  8. 8.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 8 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 230)
    However, parallel with the development of Coptic studies in Europe, and no doubt also encouraged by the contacts established in Egypt between the Egyptologists and the Copts, several Coptic personalities attempted to revive this ancient language in the form of its Bohairic variety. Their work essentially stands in the tradition of the autochthonous grammarians of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, but it could also render service to European Coptologists. The chief lexicons published within the frame of this genuinely Coptic activity appeared at the end of the nineteenth century and the

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