Center for the Preservation of Ancient Religious Texts

Middle Eastern Texts Initiative

Renewing and enlarging cultural memory by publishing texts from the late antique and medieval Middle Eastern and Mediterranean worlds.

Home of the Islamic Translation Series, the Eastern Christian Texts series, the Library of Judeo-Arabic Literature, and the Medical Works of Moses Maimonides. 

Collected Works of Narsai

This is a collaborative effort to produce a complete translation of the 81 surviving memre by Narsai, the great fifth century East Syriac (dyophysite) theologian and exegete. Each translation will include a concise introduction and annotations. The complete translation of Narsai will be published in four volumes by Brigham Young University Press. Editors: Aaron M. Butts, Kristian S. Heal & Robert A. Kitchen

Dead Sea Scrolls

An electronic library of texts, translations, images and additional resources to facilitate research on the Dead Sea Scrolls.

CPART has been actively involved in Dead Sea Scrolls research and publications since 1996. A major milestone was reached in 2006 with the publication of a fully revised and updated version of the non-biblical texts from Qumran (DSSEL). This powerful research tool provides unprecedented access to images, texts, grammatical analysis and translations of these unique documents. The publication is prepared under the direction of the editor, Professor Emanuel Tov (Hebrew University).

Digitized Manuscripts

Digitized microfilms from the BYU Christian Oriental Microfilm collection, along with other manuscripts imaged by, or in collaboration with CPART.

Syriac Electronic Corpus

An electronic corpus of Syriac texts to enhance the study of Syriac literature and create tools for Syriac studies research.

Syriac Reference Library

Critical bibliography of essential Syriac reference works available online.

A selection of the following bibliography of essential out-of-copyright reference works was digitized for the BYU-CUA Syriac Studies Reference Library. The volumes scanned in CUA’s Semitics/ICOR library are now supplements by PDF versions produced in other projects.