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 A team from Greece are photographing thousands of fragile
manuscripts, including some of the earliest copies of the
Christian gospels, using a complex process that includes taking
images in red, green and blue light and merging them with
computer software to create a single high-quality color picture.
There is a tangible sense of urgency to the mission.
Although the monastery has survived centuries of warfare, it
lies in a region where Islamist militants have destroyed
countless cultural artifacts and documents in Syria and Iraq.
Egypt's Christian churches have also been targeted by an
Islamist insurgency in the rugged and thinly populated northern
Sinai.
'The Holy Monastery of the God-Trodden Mount Sinai' - which is
part of the Eastern Orthodox church - lies in the safer southern
half of the Sinai Peninsula. But in 2017, Islamic State claimed
responsibility for an attack on a nearby Egyptian police
checkpoint, in which one officer was killed.
"The upheaval of our times requires a rapid completion of this
project," Archbishop Damianos of Sinai, Faran and Raitho, and
Abbot of St. Catherine's Monastery, told Reuters by email.
The aim is to create the first digital archive of all 4,500
manuscripts in the library, starting with around 1,100 in the
Syriac and Arabic languages, which are particularly rare.
The task could take more than a decade, using digital cameras
and computer arrays alongside sophisticated cradles designed to
support the more fragile manuscripts.
The project began last year and is being undertaken by the
non-profit research organization Early Manuscripts Electronic
Library (EMEL), in collaboration with the monastery and the
Library of the University of California, Los Angeles. UCLA
Library said it will start publishing the manuscripts online, in
full color, from the fall of 2019.
"This library is an archive of the history of Christianity and
its neighbors in the Mediterranean world, and therefore is of
interest to communities all over the world who find their
history here," Michael Phelps, Director of the Early Manuscripts
Electronic Library, told Reuters.
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WHERE MOSES TROD
The monastery lies at the foot of Mount Sinai, by tradition the site
where Moses received the Ten Commandments.
UNESCO has listed the area as a World Heritage site, citing its
sacred status in Christianity, Islam and Judaism. It says St.
Catherine's was founded in the 6th century, and is the oldest
Christian monastery still in use for its original function.
The most famous manuscript in the library is the 4th century 'Codex
Sinaiticus' - a Greek manuscript of the Bible which contains the
oldest surviving complete New Testament. Its pages are divided
between several institutions.
Another is the Codex Syriacus, an ancient copy of the Gospels in
Syriac. Other manuscripts cover science, medicine and the Greek
classics.
The digitization of the first stage alone, the Syriac-Arabic
manuscripts, will take around three years and cost a projected $2.75
million, said Phelps.
"Throughout the centuries, monks have lived here in prayer, in
dedication to spiritual goals, a witness to God's revelation to
mankind... in that sense especially, the Sinai Monastery is an ark,
a spiritual ark in the wilderness," said Father Justin of Sinai, the
monastery’s librarian.
The project will provide a more complete record than partial
microfilming carried out decades ago by the U.S Library of Congress,
and also by the National Library of Israel. The two institutions are
making their records available to the new digitization effort, the
project organizers said.
(Additional reporting by Ahmed Fahmy and Mohamed Abd El Ghany in
Sinai, Rinat Harash in Jerusalem and Michele Kambas in Athens;
Writing by Rinat Harash; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)
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