ABU 'L-FARAJ 'ABDALLAH IBN AT-TAYYIB. – Also called: *ibn at-Tib* and in Latin *Benat-tibus*, he was a Nestorian monk and priest of *Iraq*. He flourished in the first half of the 11th century (d. 1043) and served as secretary to the patriarch of his sect, Elia I (1029–49). He had previously been secretary to John VII of Nazuk, elected in 1013 (*Amr et Sliba*, ed. Gismondi, 1897, p. 56 of the Latin version).
His literary activity in Arabic was considerable, and he is cited by Avicenna and Averroes. Bar Hebraeus mentions his works, but Abū 'l-Barakāt, a Coptic Monophysite priest (13th–14th c.), lists more of them. He compiled a vast collection of Eastern and Western canons, of which the complete list is found in Arabic ms. 57 of the Biblioteca Medicea, reproduced in the catalogue of the same by S. Ev. Assemani with all of A.’s works at pp. 93–96. These canons appear in Vat. ar. 153, which lacks the author’s name due to mutilation, but Abū 'l-Barakāt includes it in his catalogue as A.’s work. The same collection is also attributed to A. in Vat. Borg. 199. It is known under the title *Figh an-Nasrāniyyah* (Christian Law). Vat. ar. 36 and 37 contain A.’s commentaries on the Old and New Testaments, titled *The Paradise of Christians*. Vat. Borg. 231 contains his commentaries on the Gospels, Vat. ar. 35 his commentaries on Psalms 33–60, and Vat. ar. 157 a treatise on marriage and divorce. The last two works are not mentioned by either Abū 'l-Barakāt or Bar Hebraeus; and from the Gospel commentaries, the Jacobites, according to Abū 'l-Barakāt, removed passages containing Nestorian doctrines. A. also wrote a treatise on inheritance (Vat. ar. 150 and 160), one on unity and withdrawal, and one on the Divine Persons (Vat. ar. 145, from f. 48 onward). A Nestorian doctrinal treatise by him against those who claimed that Mary was Mother of God is found in Vat. ar. 153. Elias, metropolitan of Nisibis, wrote an apologetic disputation and submitted it to A. for approval before its dissemination. This lengthy approval is found in Vat. ar. 180, ff. 120v–121r. A. “commented on Aristotle’s books on Logic and Philosophy, and on Galen’s books on Medicine,” as Bar Hebraeus states.
Of all his works, only the commentary on the Psalms was published (Cairo 1908). According to Vat. Borg. 250 and the manuscript of the Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, the *Diatessaron* (q.v.) was translated from Syriac into Arabic by A. A. Ciasca (q.v.), who published the mutilated codex Vat. ar. 14 (13th–14th c.), completing it with Vat. Borg. 250 (15th c.), also advocates this view (*A. Ciasca, Tatiani Evangeliorum Harmoniae arabicae*, Rome 1888). However, the leaves of the Library of the Catholic University of Beirut, according to some, prove that the Arabic version predates A. (cf. L. Cheikho, in *Journ. As.*, 9th ser., 10 [1897], p. 301, and *al-Masriq*, 4 [1901], pp. 100–103).
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ABU 'L-FARAJ IBN AL-'ASSAL. – A Coptic writer of the 13th century, also called *Abū 'l-Farag ibn al-'Assal*, brother of Abū Isḥāq.
He became renowned for his “Gospel Harmonies” based on Greek, Coptic, Arabic, and Syriac texts. He is also the author of a Coptic grammar, a treatise on the state of the soul after death, and the *Book of the Master and the Disciple*.
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