ት Tergwame Greek · Coptic · Ethiopic · Syriac · Armenian · Georgian · Latin

Book of Demonstration

Kitāb al-Burhān (kalām theology) · Abu Shakir Butrus ibn al-Muhadhdhab, known as Ibn al-Rahib, d. c. 1290s · 13th century · treatise

Coptic · domain: copto-arabic · researched 2026-11-13

no English translation located. No published English translation of this text was located in the catalogues and series checked. Where only a non-English rendering or a translation of a daughter version exists, it is recorded below and does not close the gap. Treat this as a gap candidate, not as proof that no translation exists; the evidence names every source checked.

Why this is in the register

The only edition-translation is German: Cyrill Zeus Wellnhofer, Die Kalām-Theologie im Kitāb al-Burhān von Ibn al-Rāhib (13. Jh.): Edition, Übersetzung, Rezeption und Quellen (Córdoba: UCO Press, 2018) — the HOLLIS record's language fields are 'ger; ara', i.e. a German translation facing the Arabic, with no English counterpart: https://hollis.harvard.edu/discovery/search?query=any,contains,Die%20Kalam-Theologie%20im%20Kitab%20al-Burhan%20von%20Ibn%20al-Rahib&tab=Everything&search_scope=MyInst_and_CI&vid=01HVD_INST:HVD2&offset=0 . HOLLIS query 'Ibn al-Rahib' shows no English-language record for any of his works: https://hollis.harvard.edu/discovery/search?query=any,contains,Ibn%20al-Rahib&tab=Everything&search_scope=MyInst_and_CI&vid=01HVD_INST:HVD2&offset=0 . No English excerpt located in the Brill/Gorgias/Peeters Copto-Arabic lists or in the Cistercian/ACW/FOTC catalogues, which do not carry Copto-Arabic authors.

A systematic theology in the Islamic kalām idiom, one of the most philosophically ambitious Copto-Arabic works; its only modern translation is German, so English readers depend on Sidarus' 1975 monograph and on secondhand summaries.

Existing translations recorded

Edition / series
Die Kalām-Theologie im Kitāb al-Burhān von Ibn al-Rāhib (13. Jh.): Edition, Übersetzung, Rezeption und Quellen (German translation with Arabic text) · Cyrill Zeus Wellnhofer · 2018

Electronic text

No open electronic text was verified for this work. The Greek/Coptic/Geʿez may exist only in a print or subscription edition (Migne, CSCO, TLG, CMCL).

Scanned witnesses

Scan search: no scan located. No scan of the work itself (Arabic text or any translation) was located. Internet Archive advancedsearch for title:(kitab al-burhan) returns 9 items, none by Ibn al-Rahib; the two 'The Book of the demonstration (Kitab al-burhan)' items (bookofdemonstrat0000euty, bookofdemonstrat0209euty, Louvain: Secretariat du CorpusSCO, 1960) are a MISATTRIBUTION TRAP - their metadata creator is 'Eutychius, Patriarch of Alexandria, 877-940', i.e. the 10th-century Melkite Kitab al-Burhan (CSCO 209/210), a different author and work. title:(ibn al-rahim) returns only 'Islamic Book of the Dead'; q="Ibn al-Rahib" returns petrusibnrahibch0046buru, 'Petrus ibn Rahib: Chronicon orientale' (1955) - his Chronicle, not the Kalam theology. BnF SRU 'Ibn al-Rahib' returns only Chronicon editions (Ecchellensis/Assemani/Cheikho) and Sidarus' 1975 monograph 'Ibn ar-Rahibs Leben und Werk'; no al-Burhan edition exists in the catalogue. DigiVatLib cannot be content-searched from here (/mss/search returns 403 for every query, with or without a browser UA) and its IIIF manifests carry only Shelfmark+Title, with the Title field empty for the eight Vat.ar. shelfmarks sampled (145, 149, 150, 153, 154, 93, 97, 99), so no Vatican Arabic witness can be tied to this work without guessing a shelfmark. BnF MS catalogue SRU returns no manuscript record either. Google Books API is quota-blocked (HTTP 429 'Quota exceeded ... Queries per day'), and the UCO repository (helvia.uco.es, publisher of the 2018 Wellnhofer edition) answers with a JS challenge page that yields no record. The only modern edition (Cyrill Zeus Wellnhofer, Die Kalam-Theologie im Kitab al-Burhan von Ibn al-Rahib, UCO Press 2018, German+Arabic) is an in-copyright print with no digital surrogate located.

Harvard Hollis

Hollis query: "Book of Demonstration" — 2 record(s); match basis title_only.

RecordCitation
Classical Arabic philosophy : an anthology of sources
· ©2007 · eng
"Classical Arabic philosophy : an anthology of sources." Indianapolis : Hackett Pub. Company, ©2007. https://hollis.harvard.edu/permalink/f/1s5nto6/990111902610203941
Avicenna's theory of science : logic, metaphysics, epistemology
Strobino, Riccardo · 2021 · eng
Strobino, Riccardo. "Avicenna's theory of science : logic, metaphysics, epistemology." Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2021]. https://hollis.harvard.edu/permalink/f/1s5nto6/99155750261603941

Sources checked

Cite: Tergwame, “Book of Demonstration” (coptic gap dossier), 2026. https://naxiai.com/christian/gaps/copto-arabic-ibn-al-rahim-kitab-al-burhan