MINGANA, ALFONSO. - Chaldean scholar, b. in 'Irāq on 23 Dec. 1881 (?), d. on 5 Dec. 1937 in England.
He was the son of the priest Paolo and was given the baptismal name Hormizda. He studied at the Syro-Chaldean Seminary of S. Giovanni in Mossul from 1893 to 1902, the year in which he was ordained a priest under the name Alfonso. He was subsequently professor of Syro-Chaldean language and literature at the same Seminary (1902–10), and during that time published a Syriac grammar (Mossul 1905) and Narsai homiliae et carmina (2 vols., ibid. 1905). In 1907–1908 he published in Leipzig: Sources syriaques, I: Mefika Zeka. Histoire du couvent de Sabriño. Bar-Prahayé. The first Chronicle of Arbela (v.), whose historical value was overrated. In 1910 M. had serious conflicts with his patriarch and subsequently left the Catholic Church, taking refuge with a Protestant minister in Mardin, who facilitated his journey to England. There he remained until his death. In the 6 volumes of the Woodbrooke Studies (Cambridge 1927–33), M. published several interesting Syriac writings, including the version of the Catechetical Homilies of Theodore of Mopsuestia and some writings of Bar Salibi.