The early melkite Arabic hagiography (IXth-XIth centuries): Evolution of the literary style

The article deals with the hagiographical texts written presumably in arabic by melkite authors in the period from the ixth to the xith century: martyrdoms of 'abd al-masih (al- ghassani) and antony-rawh,lives of john of edessa,john of damascus,timothy of kakhushta and christopher,patriarch of antioch. these pieces are for the first time taken together to be examined from the point of view of their stylistics. in this research we treat the early melkite arabic hagiography at the same time as a successor of the byzantine tradition and as a part of arabic literature (the greatest part of which is muslim). the analysis allowed us to arrange the texts in the succession which,according to our observations,reflects the development of the literary skills of the hagiographers.