The Book of the Cave of Treasures in Syriac and Arabic

This Syriac and Arabic edition of the text of the Book of the Cave of Treasures was produced by Carl Bezold and published by him in Leipzig in 1888. Budge’s English translation of 1927 was made from a single manuscript in the British Museum which he deemed superior to all other available manuscripts. However, the Syriac text of that manuscript was not reproduced in Budge’s edition. In his introduction Budge refers to Bezold’s edition as being “an eclectic text constructed from at least three manuscripts”. In fact, Bezold made use of four manuscripts, including the same British Museum manuscript used by Budge. It is unclear why Budge would refer to Bezold’s attempt at a critical edition as an “eclectic” text, but in the absence of an edition of the British Museum manuscript, Bezold’s edition is reprinted here.