Alphonse Mingana
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Alphonse Mingana (born as Hurmiz Mingana, 1878 Sharansh, village near Zakho, Ottoman Empire (present day Iraq) - 3 December 1937 Birmingham, England) was an Assyrian theologian, historian, orientalist, and a former priest. Like the majority of Assyrians in Zakho, his family belonged to the Chaldean Catholic Church. Alphonse was born to Paolus and Maryam Nano, and had 7 syblings. Alphonse was born as Hurmiz Mingana, but changed his name after becoming a Chaldean priest.
He collected and preserved the famous Mingana Collection of ancient Syriac and Arabic manuscripts which he obtained in the Middle East between 1924 and 1929.
The collection is made up of:
- 660 Syriac Christian manuscripts including church documents, gospels, works on liturgy, lives of saints and homilies. Among the earliest items are a number of important fragments originating from St. Catherine's Monastery, Sinai.
- 270 Arabic manuscripts including a fragment of the oldest known text of the Acta Thomae, and a very early copy of some works by St. Ephrem.
- 2000 Islamic manuscripts mainly on religious subjects. There are several copies of the Qur'an, besides two collections of fragments of Kufic Qur'ans, dating from the 8th and 9th centuries AD. Other works include Qur'an commentaries, Hadith, law, literature, science and mysticism.
The manuscripts in the collection have provided significant evidence that disproves widely held assertions as to the origins and authenticity of the Qu'ran and other religious scriptures.[citation needed]Some Islamic advocates have sought to discount the examination of Alphonse Mingana's work as it undermines a great deal of assumptions in their religious community.[citation needed]
Some of Mingana's studies are included in The Origins of The Koran: Classic Essays on Islam’s Holy Book edited by Ibn Warraq. Alphonse lived for 17 years in Manchester, where he had two children, John and Marie.
