**ABU 'L-BARAKAT** (Sams ar-Ri'asah ibn Kabar). - A Coptic Monophysite theologian of the 13th–14th centuries, died before 1327. He was a priest and perhaps a physician, serving as secretary and assistant to the emir Rukn ad-din Baybars.
He left several encyclopedic collections, the principal of which is entitled *Lampada delle tenebre e Esposizione del servizio divino* [Lamp of Darkness and Exposition of Divine Service], a veritable manual of ecclesiastical sciences for the clergy, divided into 24 chapters. More important is his *Risposta ai Musulmani e agli Ebrei sul significato delle credenze cristiane in Dio Padre, Figlio e Spirito Santo e nella divinità di Gesù, figlio di Maria* [Reply to Muslims and Jews on the Meaning of Christian Beliefs in God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and in the Divinity of Jesus, Son of Mary], a kind of apologetic treatise in three chapters. These works are written in Arabic. He also compiled an Arabic-Coptic dictionary for ecclesiastics, which he titled *Scala Magna*. This lexicon was fortunate enough to be published by A. Kircher in his work *Lingua aegyptiaca restituta* (Rome 1643, pp. 41–272). Apart from some chapters of the *Lampada delle tenebre*, the other works remain unpublished, preserved in manuscripts in the Arabic collection of the Vatican Library. They constitute the best source for understanding the history and institutions of the Coptic Monophysite Church, which have been drawn upon by notable Coptologists such as M. Vansleb and E. Renaudot.
**