The Nag Hammadi Library
B I B L I O T H È Q U E D E N A G H A M M A D I
Introduction from « The Gnostic Gospels »
by Elaine Pagels
In December 1945 an Arab peasant made an astonishing archeological discovery in Upper Egypt.
Rumors obscured the...
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The Nag Hammadi Library
B I B L I O T H È Q U E D E N A G H A M M A D I
Introduction from « The Gnostic Gospels »
by Elaine Pagels
In December 1945 an Arab peasant made an astonishing archeological discovery in Upper Egypt.
Rumors obscured the circumstances of this find--perhaps because the discovery was accidental,
and its sale on the black market illegal.
For years even the identity of the discoverer remained
unknown.
One rumor held that he was a blood avenger; another, that he had made the find near
the town of Naj Hammádì at the Jabal al-Tárif, a mountain honeycombed with more than 150
caves.
Originally natural, some of these caves were cut and painted and used as grave sites as
early as the sixth dynasty, some 4,300 years ago.
Thirty years later the discoverer himself, Muhammad Alí al-Sammán; told what happened.
Shortly before he and his brothers avenged their father s murder in a blood feud, they had saddled
their camels and gone out to the Jabal to dig for sabakh, a soft
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