ABU SALIH YU’ANNIS (late 10th or early 11th c.)

A Canonist. Abu Salih Yu’annis (or Yunis) ibn ‘Abdallah prepared a collection of canon law (in 48 headings) by gathering materials from (probably) Coptic sources and translating them into Arabic. This work was incorporated into the canonical compendium of the monk Maqara (active before 1350), who reports that he found it in a manuscript dated to 1028. If this is correct, then Abu Salih becomes one of the pioneers of Copto-Arabic canonical literature, a figure marking the beginning of a trajectory that finds its culmination in the work of al-Safi ibn al-‘Assal or of Maqara, two and three centuries later respectively.

GAWDAT GABRA