medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
My apologies for a somewhat off-list topic, but your collective minds are too tempting a target to resist.
I have encountered a phrase in Sir Richard F. Burton's "Pilgrimage to Medina" (1853) whose provenance I cannot determine. The
context is the Muslim description of Mohammed's daughter Fatima as a virgin even though she bore children. The phrase used by Burton
to describe her state of purity may, perhaps, have its origin in Catholic Marian teachings. Hence my present inquiry.
The phase is part Latin and part Greek. Since I can't replicate Greek in an e-mail message, I have transliterated and bracketed it
to indicate that it's a transliteration rather than the original text: "virginem [ta katamenia] nescientem". The "ta katamenia" ("e"
signifying eta rather than epsilon) refers, as I gather, to a woman's menses. Beyond that -- and perhaps even *in* that -- I'm
clueless. Any thoughts would be most welcome.
--Christopher
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