The Anonymous Afflicted

The Anonymous Afflicted Commentary by Chloe Cooke Cite Share Show Bible Passage This is a page from a seventeenth-century Arabic manuscript of the Four Gospels, copied in Egypt by the Coptic monk Ilyas Basim Khuri Bazzi Rahib. The Naskh calligraphy, traditionally used in the Qur’an, was designed to be easy to write and attractive to read. The hypnotic fluidity of Naskh calligraphy at times leads to a lack of clear division between words, as can be seen in this example. The written verses span the end of Matthew 12:13 (‘just as sound as the other’) to the opening clause of verse 17 (‘[t]his was to fulfil what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah’). For an Arabic-reading audience, text and image would have been received and interpreted in the same glance, creating a beautiful interplay between the pictorial and the verbal. In the illumination, Jesus stands with a cluster of his disciples in the synagogue. He is looking at a man, who extends his left hand towards him (Luke specifies the right hand, but Matthew and Mark do not identify which hand needed healing). There is no visible indication that the man’s hand is ‘withered’, though there is a clear indication of limpness in the wrist. The clothing of the man is markedly different from the surrounding figures. He wears a short tunic with long boots, which may be an indication of his occupation. This is perhaps because in the Gospel of the Nazarenes—a second-century version of the Gospel of Matthew—there is reference to the man being a stonemason. Within that context, he appeals to Jesus and asks for his hand to be restored so he can continue earning his living. In this illumination, Jesus extends his own hand and studies him closely, suggesting his willingness to heal. References Engelhardt, Jillian D. 2022. Matthew, Disability, and Stress (Lanham: Lexington Books) Mahfouz, Tarek. 2013. Arabic Calligraphy: Naskh Script (Morrisville: Lulu Press) Rossi, Maria Alessia. 2024. Visualizing Christ’s Miracles in Late Byzantium: Art, Theology, and Court Culture (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)