Arabic–Old French glossary

An Arabic–Old French glossary (or phrase book) occupies the final thirteen pages of the 16th-century manuscript Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Copte 43, where it functions as an appendix to an Arabic treatise on Coptic lexicography entitled al-Sullam al-ḥāwī ('the comprehensive ladder').

The glossary itself was probably compiled in the 13th century for Copts travelling in Outremer, where French was widely spoken.

[2][3] The manuscript contains two dates, 1296 and 1310, but the glossary was probably compiled before the fall of Acre in 1291, since it refers to that city and to the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem.

[7] The words and phrases are arranged thematically, the themes being religion, numerals, days of the week, occupations, metals, everyday phrases, fruits, animals, navigation, weather, musical instruments, weapons, celestial bodies and cardinal directions.

[14] The full text was edited and published by first Gaston Maspero in 1888 and subsequently by Cyril Aslanov in a 2006 monograph with commentary.