Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies (Volume 10) 9781463214531

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HUGOYE JOURNAL OF SYRIAC STUDIES A Publication of Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute

Volume 10 (2007)

HUGOYE JOURNAL OF SYRIAC STUDIES A Publication of Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute GENERAL EDITOR George Anton Kiraz, Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute EDITORIAL COMMITTEE Sebastian P. Brock, University of Oxford Sidney Griffith, The Catholic University of America Amir Harrak, University of Toronto Susan Harvey, Brown University Mor Gregorios Y. Ibrahim, Mardin-Edessa Publishing House Andreas Juckel, University of Münster Hubert Kaufhold, Oriens Christianus Kathleen McVey, Princeton Theological Seminary Wido T Van Peursen, The Peshitta Institute of Leiden University Lucas Van Rompay, Duke University ONLINE EDITION EDITOR Thomas Joseph, Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute BOOK REVIEW EDITOR Kristian Heal, Brigham Young University

HUGOYE: JOURNAL OF SYRIAC STUDIES (ISSN 1937-318X) Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies is a publication of BETH MARDUTHO: THE SYRIAC INSTITUTE. Copyright © 2007 by GORGIAS PRESS and BETH MARDUTHO: THE SYRIAC INSTITUTE. The Syriac word hugoye, plural of hugoyo, derives from the root hg‚ ‘to think, meditate, study’; hence, hugoyo ‘study, meditation’. Recently, hugoye became to be used for ‘academic studies’; hence, hugoye suryoye ‘Syriac Studies’. SUBSCRIPTIONS Subscription requests should be addressed to Gorgias Press, 180 Centennial Ave., Suite A, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA. Subscriptions may be made online at http://www.gorgiaspress.com. Back issues are available. NOTE FOR CONTRIBUTORS Submission guidelines and instructions are found on the Hugoye web site at http://www.bethmardutho.org. NOTE TO PUBLISHERS Copies for review should be sent directly to the Book Review Editor at the following address: Mr. Kristian S. Heal, Hugoye Book Review Editor, Brigham Young University, Stadium East House - METI, Provo, UT 84604. ADVERTISEMENTS Rates: $250 full page; includes a listing in all e-mail announcements for one year. To place ads, write to the subscription address above.

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials.

TABLE OF CONTENTS HUGOYE 10:1 Introduction to the Commemorative Issue........................................................ 3 In Memoriam William L. Petersen (1950-2006) by George A. Kiraz.................................. 5 Papers The Contribution of Departed Syriacists, 1997-2006 .............................. 7 Sebastian P. Brock Syriac Studies: The Challenges of the Coming Decade ......................... 21 Lucas Van Rompay Forty Years of Syriac Computing.............................................................. 33 George A. Kiraz Brief Article Recent Books on Syriac Topics, Part 10 .................................................. 53 Sebastian P. Brock Book Reviews ........................................................................................................ 59

HUGOYE 10:2 In Memoriam Bruce M. Metzger (1914-2007) by Ian Torrance ........................................ 79 Taeke Jansma (1919-2007) by Lucas Van Rompay .................................... 82 Papers Syriac Language and Script in a Chinese Setting..................................... 89 Majella Franzmann The Edessan Milieu and the Birth of Syriac ............................................ 99 John F. Healey Kthobonoyo Syriac: Some Observations and Remarks....................... 111 George A. Kiraz Brief Article 150 Years of Syriac Studies at the University of Toronto ................... 123 Amir Harrak Book Reviews ...................................................................................................... 127 Project Reports.................................................................................................... 144 Conference Reports............................................................................................ 147

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Volume 10 (2007)

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HUGOYE JOURNAL OF SYRIAC STUDIES A Publication of Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute

LETTER FROM THE GENERAL EDITOR

INTRODUCTION TO THE COMMEMORATIVE ISSUE GEORGE A. KIRAZ BETH MARDUTHO: THE SYRIAC INSTITUTE [1]

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It is with great pride that we celebrate this year the 10th anniversary of Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies, and the 15th anniversary of its parent Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute. The Institute grew from a one-man operation back in 1992 to become an international focus for Syriac studies, especially online. This special issue celebrates our anniversaries. Our recent activities at the Institute have focused on getting project eBethArké online, and we are pleased to launch it on the Institute’s 15th anniversary at http://www.bethmardutho.org/ebetharkelib. The site now contains half of the catalog with a few PDF samples. This digital library now contains about 2,500 books, manuscripts and archival material most of which will become accessible through this web site. Additionally, plans are underway to complete the first volume of our encyclopedia project, hopefully within the next year or so. In this special issue of Hugoye we reflect on the past, present and future of Syriac studies. In the first paper, Sebastian Brock reflects briefly on the work of Syriacists who have died during the last ten years. In the second paper, Lucas Van Rompay reflects on the present state of Syriac studies as well as on the opportunities and challenges of the future. He gives a discussion of the geographical changes in the worldwide presence of Syriac Christians and Syriac scholars, and then offers some suggestions for work to be carried out in the coming years. In the third paper, I give the history of Syriac computing in the last forty years and briefly outline the need for some future projects. Efforts are underway to publish all back issues as well as future issues of Hugoye in print—the online edition will remain free. For practical purposes, from this issue and going forward the Hugoye issues will be named Winter and Summer (in place of January and July). It is hoped that Hugoye and Beth Mardutho will continue to be the focal point of Syriac studies online ‫̈ܓ ܐܬܐ‬ ‫ ̈ܐ‬. 3

IN MEMORIAM

WILLIAM L. PETERSEN (1950-2006) GEORGE A. KIRAZ BETH MARDUTHO: THE SYRIAC INSTITUTE [1]

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It is with great sadness that we announce to Hugoye readers the passing away of William (“Bill”) Petersen at 7:30 PM, Dec. 20, 2006 of a rapidly metastasizing kidney cancer (discovered only in July). Bill was a great friend of many of us, and he served on the editorial committee of Hugoye since its inception. Those of us who knew him well will miss him. Those of us who know him from his work will miss his work. William Petersen was born in Laredo, Texas, U.S.A., in 1950. He obtained a Ph.D. from Utrecht University. A revised version of his dissertation appeared in 1985 as his first book, The Diatessaron and Ephrem Syrus as Sources of Romanos the Melodist (CSCO 475 [Subsidia 74] Peeters, 1985). “Since 1999, he was Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins in the Religious Studies Program and also Professor in the Department of Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies at the Pennsylvania State University in University Park, Pennsylvania. Earlier he was Associate Professor in both of those divisions (1993-1999 and 19951999, respectively), and Assistant Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins (1990-1993). From 1998 to 2006 he served as Director of the Religious Studies Program at Penn State. Before joining that faculty, he was Visiting Assistant (1985-1986) and Assistant Professor (1986-1990) of Early Church History and Patristics at the University of Notre Dame.”1 Bill is known to many of us from his Diatessaron studies. His knowledge of Syriac, Greek, Old High German, Old Saxon, and Middle English made him a perfect scholar for Diatessaronic studies. His major study Tatian’s Diatessaron. Its Creation, Dissemination, Significance and History in Scholarship (Leiden, New York, Cologne: Brill, 1994) will remain a standard reference for decades to come. I had contacted Bill on August 1 of last year to ask him if he can write a Hugoye obituary for his doctoral Doktorvater Gilles Quispel. His reply was long and passionate. He declined for one reason: just a week earlier he had 1 See the obituary by Eldon Jay Epp at http://www.sbl-site.org/Article.aspx? ArticleId=631.

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In Memoriam

been diagnosed with “incurable” kidney cancer. Despite this he wrote, “Obviously I’m not happy about this, but as we both know, life is full of surprises, and we just have to accept them with as much grace and courage as we can.” He continuously updated me on his situation and I in turn updated key scholars in the field. His last good bye message came just days before he passed away. A more detailed obituary by Eldon Jay Epp can be found at http://www.sbl-site.org/Article.aspx?ArticleId=631.

The Contribution of Departed Syriacists, 1997-2006

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Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies, Vol. 10, 7-19 © 2007 by Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute and Gorgias Press

THE CONTRIBUTION OF DEPARTED SYRIACISTS, 1997-2006 SEBASTIAN P. BROCK UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD

ABSTRACT1 The 10th anniversary of Hugoye offers an opportunity to reflect briefly on the work of Syriacists who have died during these last ten years. Their contributions to the field of Syriac studies are considered under separate subject headings.

[1]

“Let me too praise men of grace, our fathers in their times; let us accord much honour to them” (Bar Sira 44:1, Peshitta).

Hugoye’s tenth anniversary offers the opportunity to reflect briefly on the past,2 as well as to look to the future. In the course of these last ten years Syriac studies have lost a number of fine workers in the field, and it is appropriate here to recall some of their contributions in different areas within Syriac studies as a whole. The selection of names, and in particular of works, mentioned below is certainly not intended to be exhaustive, though I hope that no important scholar in this field has been overlooked. Where 1 I am most grateful to Luk van Rompay for his helpful comments and for providing me with some dates; also to Christine Mason, of the Bodleian Library (Oxford), who also located an elusive date for me. 2 For the three decades slightly previous to the period covered here (19972006), an overview is given in my “Syriac studies in the last three decades: some reflections”, in R. Lavenant (ed.), VI Symposium Syriacum 1992 (Orientalia Christiana Analecta 247; 1994), pp. 13-29; see also A. de Halleux, “Vingt ans d’étude critique des Églises syriaques”, in R. Taft (ed.), The Christian East. Its Institutions and Thought (Orientalia Christiana Analecta 251; 1996), pp. 145-79.

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bibliographies of particular scholars are available, these are indicated in the notes. Otherwise, further bibliographical information can for the most part be found in my Syriac Studies: a Classified Bibliography (1960-1990) (Kaslik, 1996), and continued in Parole de l’Orient 23 (1998) and 29 (2004); a further one, covering 2001-2005, is in preparation for Parole de l’Orient 33 (2008).

THE SYRIAC BIBLICAL VERSIONS [2]

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Several patriarchs during the past century of the various Syriac Churches have been notable Syriac scholars; the most recent of them was the late Patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church, Mar Raphael Bidawid (19222003).3 In the field of biblical studies he was the editor of the Syriac version of 4 Esdras (Apocalypse of Esdras), preserved complete only in the famous Milan Peshitta manuscript (7a1); this was published in one of the earliest volumes of the Leiden Vetus Testamentum Syriace (IV.3; 1973). Michael Weitzman (1946-1998) was someone whose profound scholarship and innovative approach to the origins of the Peshitta Old Testament is evident on every page of his The Syriac Version of the Old Testament. An Introduction, published posthumously.4 Modestly described as just ‘An Introduction,’ this is an Introduction on the scale of H.B. Swete’s An Introduction to the Old Testament in Greek (1900, 2nd edn 1914), albeit of a very different character; just as Swete’s work is still invaluable a century later for certain types of information, so too it is likely that Weitzman’s Introduction will continue to be read and consulted with profit for many years to come. Besides editing a volume of essays in his memory,5 his colleagues at University College, London, Ada Rapapport-Albert and Gillian Greenberg very usefully collected together his various articles into a volume entitled From Judaism to Christianity,6 after the title of his influential contribution of 1992, which opens the volume. Although Michael Weitzman was in close contact with the Peshitta Institute (Leiden) he was never directly involved in the edition of the Vetus Testamentum Syriace (VTS). Another scholar, David Lane (1935-2005),7 however, was closely involved with the work of the Institute over many years, in particular editing Qoheleth and (with J.A. Emerton) Wisdom and the Song of Songs, all in VTS II.5 (1979), and later, Leviticus (in VTS I.2, 1991). Besides a number of different articles on the Peshitta of these books, On him see G. Kiraz in Hugoye 7/1 (2004). Cambridge, 1999. 5 Biblical Hebrew, Biblical Texts. Essays in Memory of Michael P. Weitzman (Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, Supplement Series 333; London, 2001). 6 From Judaism to Christianity. Studies in the Hebrew and Syriac Bibles (Journal of Semitic Studies, Supplement 8; Oxford, 1999). 7 On him see J. Thekeparampil in Hugoye 8/1 (2005). 3 4

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he also produced an important monograph, The Peshitta of Leviticus,8 at the end of which he offers an interesting theory concerning the origin of the standard medieval text of the Peshitta Old Testament. Among the various publications in the field of Syriac studies, J.P.M. van der Ploeg (1909-2004)9 contributed a worthwhile article on the Peshitta Old Testament in general10, and an edition of a hitherto unknown Syriac version of the Book of Judith.11 Anyone who has an interest in the Diatessaron will especially be grateful to William (Bill) L. Petersen (1950-December 2006) whose many contributions on problems surrounding the Diatessaron culminated in his Tatian’s Diatessaron. Its Creation, Dissemination, Significance, and History in Scholarship,12 which constitutes a truly masterly guide to the complex problems surrounding this famous harmony of the Four Gospels. Petersen had studied under another great Diatessaron scholar who had died earlier this year, Gilles Quispel (1916-2006), whose many stimulating contributions every now and then also touched on things Syriac.

SYRIAC LITERATURE [7]

The study of early Syriac literature and the emergence of Christianity in Edessa owes a great deal to Han J. W. Drijvers (1934-2002).13 His monograph on Bardaisan’s teaching remains a standard work on the subject, forty years on. His many incisive articles on the Odes of Solomon, the Acts of Thomas and the character of early Syriac Christianity need to be taken into account by anyone working in that area, even though some of his views (such as his third-century dating of the Odes of Solomon and his emphasis on the solely Greek background of second- and third- century Syriac Christianity) are open to dispute. Many of his articles in the Syriac field are conveniently collected in the first of his two volumes in the

Monographs of the Peshitta Institute 6; Leiden, 1994). On him see L. van Rompay in Hugoye 8/1 (2005). 10 In a volume on The Malabar Church (ed. J. Vellian; OCA 186, 1970), pp. 2332. He was the recipient of a Festschrift, Von Kanaan bis Kerala (Alte Orient und Altes Testament 211; 1982), which includes his bibliography to that date. On him see L. van Rompay in Hugoye 8/1 (2005). 11 The Book of Judith (Moran Etho 3; Kottayam, 1991); a fine study of this version, by L. van Rompay, is to be found in W.Th. van Peursen and B. ter Haar Romeny (eds), Text, Translation and Tradition. Studies in the Peshitta and its Use in the Syriac Tradition presented to Konrad D. Jenner (Monographs of the Peshitta Institute, 14; Leiden, 2006), pp. 205-30. 12 Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae 25; Leiden, 1994. 13 On him see J.J. van Ginkel in Hugoye 5/2 (2002). 8 9

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Variorum Reprints,14 East of Antioch, Studies in Early Syriac Christianity (London, 1984). Among his last publications in the Syriac field was a photographic edition, with a study done in conjunction with his son Jan Willem, of a very early Syriac text on the Finding of the Cross.15 Considerable interest has been shown in recent years in the links between Ephrem and Jewish exegetical traditions. Here one of the most substantial contributions has been Motifs from Genesis 1-11 in the Genuine Hymns of Ephrem the Syrian,16 by Tryggve Kronholm (1939-1999), whose subtitle specifies ‘with particular reference to the influence of Jewish exegetical tradition.’ He subsequently followed this up with worthwhile articles on Ephrem’s treatment of Abraham and of Judah and Tamar (Gen. 38).17 Possible links in a different direction, between Ephrem and the Greek poet Romanos, were the topic of Bill Petersen’s stimulating The Diatessaron and Ephrem Syrus as Sources of Romanos the Melodist.18 Even though Petersen may have sometimes overstated his case for the influence of Ephrem on Romanos, nevertheless he did a great service in drawing attention to the serious possibility that Romanos, who came from Homs, could have made use (and indeed probably did) of literary sources in Syriac, as well as in Greek. What is still the only book-length study, from the point of view of literary history, of the Persian martyrdoms was produced by Gernot Wiessner (1933-1999), in his Untersuchungen zur syrischen Literaturgeschichte I. Zur Märtyrerüberlieferung aus der Christenverfolgung Schapurs II.19 For Syriacists the name of Antoine Guillaumont (1915-2000) is primarily associated with Evagrius and his discovery, followed by edition, of the lost ‘uncensored’ version of Evagrius’s Centuries on (Spiritual) His bibliography, 1961-1999, can be found in the first of two Festschrifts in his honour, edited by G.J. Reinink and A.C. Klugkist, After Bardaisan (Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 89; Leuven, 1999), pp. xv-xxxii. 15 The Finding of the True Cross. The Judas Kyriakos Legend in Syriac (CSCO 565; Subs. 93; 1997). 16 Coniectanea Biblica, Old Testament Series 11; Lund, 1978. 17 In Solving Riddles and Untying Knots... Studies in Honor of J.C. Greenfield (Winona Lake, 1995), pp. 107-15, and in Orientalia Suecana 40 (1991), pp. 149-63, respectively. 18 Patrologia Orientalis 28.1 (1959). 19 Abhandlungen der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Göttingen, phil.-hist. Kl. III.67; (1967). He was also the editor of two volumes of essays on different aspects of Syriac literature, the second of which was a Festschrift in honour of W. Strothmann: Erkenntnisse und Meinungen I-II (Göttinger Orientforschungen, I. Reihe: Syriaca 3 and 17; Wiesbaden, 1973, 1978). Wiessner also produced a series of valuable studies of church architecture in Tur Abdin: Christliche Kultbauten im Tur Abdin (4 vols, Wiesbaden, 1981-93). 14

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Knowledge.20 After publishing the text of the two forms of the Syriac text, Guillaumont set out the significance of this work in both the Greek and Syriac traditions in a masterly monograph, Les Kephalaia Gnostica d’Évagre le Pontique et l’histoire de l’origénisme chez les Grecs et chez les Syriens (Paris, 1962). Although he did not edit any further Syriac translations of Evagrius, he provided a great deal of information about their manuscript tradition in the introductions to his editions of the Greek texts of the Praktikos and Gnostikos in Sources chrétiennes, as well as in various articles. Guillaumont also wrote very illuminatingly on the early Syriac ascetic traditions, and several of his articles in this area are to be found collected in Aux origines du monachisme chrétien (Spiritualité orientale 30, 1979).21 Syriac studies owe a very great debt to François Graffin (1905-2002),22 the self-effacing editor for over half a century23 of Patrologia Orientalis [PO] (which had been founded in 1903 by his uncle, René Graffin, 18581941). In this series he brought to completion the editions, left uncompleted at his death by M. Brière, of Severus’ 125 Cathedral Homilies and of Philoxenus’ Mimre against Ḥabib-both major undertakings. He also edited the third ‘Base’ of Bar ‛Ebroyo’s Mnorat Qudshe (PO 27.4; 1957), a collection of sixth-century anonymous homilies (PO 41.4; 1984), and (with P. Harb and M. Albert) the Letter on the three stages of the monastic life, correctly ascribed to Joseph Ḥazzaya (it had previously been attributed to Philoxenus). A bibliography, but only to 1976, of his many other publications in the Syriac field can be found in Mélanges offerts au R.P. François Graffin = Parole de l’Orient 6/7 (1975/6), pp. xi-xvi. It might be noted that he was the author of a number of very useful articles on Syriac writers in the excellent Dictionnaire de Spiritualité. A scholar of great ability, but who sadly published very little, was Jost G. Blum (1944-2002): trained in Germanistik, he was able to bring a highly sophisticated approach to the study of Syriac literature, the only published example of which is his innovative article ‘Zum Bau von Abschnitten in Memre von Jakob von Sarug,’ in the proceedings of the Third Symposium

CSCO 475, Subs. 74; Louvain, 1985. His bibliography, compiled by R.-G. Coquin, can be found in Mélanges Antoine Guillaumont. Contributions à l’étude des christianismes orientaux (Cahiers d’Orientalisme XX; Geneva, 1988), pp. vii-xi. 22 For a brief note on him, see B. Outtier, Hugoye 6/2 (2003), and in Journal Asiatique 291 (2003), pp. 1-4. 23 Though his name only appeared on the title pages in 1957; in 1992 he transferred the editorship of the series to the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome. On the origins of the Patrologia Orientalis, see L. Mariès and F. Graffin, ‘Monseigneur René Graffin (1858-1941); histoire de sa famille, de sa Patrologie et de ses collaborateurs’, Orientalia Christiana Periodica 67 (2001), pp. 157-78. 20 21

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Syriacum.24 Before he turned, in later years, to the study of Yiddish he was working on a catalogue of the Syriac manuscripts and early printed books in the Bavarian Staatsbibliothek in Munich; unfortunately the money supporting this important enterprise ran out before he was able to complete the work. The death of Yusuf Habbi (1938-2000), in a car crash on the road between Baghdad and Amman, was a tragic loss above all for the Chaldean Church in Iraq, in which he was a leading intellectual figure and very active in promoting Syriac studies in the Syriac Section of the Iraqi Academy and higher education in general at Babel College, in Baghdad.25 Naturally, many of his publications in the Syriac field are in Arabic, and here mention might just be made of his many contributions to the Proceedings of the Iraqi Academy’s Syriac section, and his re-editions of the short Syriac Chronicles (Baghdad, 1983), and of Abdisho’s poem on Syriac writers (Baghdad, 1986). In European publications Habbi was a frequent contributor to journals on Canon Law and to the series of Italian volumes devoted to the Classical heritage in Middle Eastern literatures, where his papers dealt both with more general questions of transmission and with particular genres.26 Anyone who has an interest in Timothy I, Catholicos of the Church of the East under the early Abbasids, will be grateful to Mar Raphael Bidawid, whose Les lettres du patriarche nestorien Timothée I27 is an invaluable guide to this splendidly informative collection of his correspondence. The Syrian Orthodox Metropolitan of Central Europe, Mar Julius Çiçek (1942-2005) has done a great service in republishing, from his Monastery of St Ephrem in the Netherlands, a large number of important literary texts, in particular Jacob of Edessa’s Hexaemeron Commmentary (1985), Bar ‛Ebroyo’s Lamp of the Sanctuary (1997), Ethicon (1985), Nomocanon (1986), and Chronicon (1987), along with several other of his works.28 24 R. Lavenant (ed.), IIIe Symposium Syriacum (Orientalia Christiana Analecta 221; 1983), pp. 307-21. 25 On him, see P. Yousif, ‘Remembering Fr. Joseph Habbi (1938-2000): a biobibliographical report’, Orientalia Christiana Periodica 69 (2003), pp. 7-28; also G. Kiraz in Hugoye 4/1 (2001), and H. Kaufhold in Oriens Christianus 84 (2000), pp. 241-2. 26 For the former, see his ‘L’antica letteratura siriaca e la filosofia greca’, in M. Pavan and U. Cozzoli (eds), L’Eredità classica nell lingue orientali (Rome, 1986), pp. 49-56; and for the latter, his ‘Testi geoponici classici in siriaco e in arabo’, in G. Fiaccadori (ed.), Autori classici in lingue del Vicino e Medio Oriente (Rome, 1990), pp. 7792. Habbi was also the editor of an important newly discovered Arabic work, The Book of Signs, by Bar Bahlul. 27 Studi e Testi 187 (1956). 28 A bibliography of his publications is given by G. Rabo in Qolo Suryoyo 147 (2005), pp. 17-26; on him see also my articles on him in Sobornost/Eastern Churches Review 27:2 (2005), 57-62, and Qolo Suryoyo 147 (2005), 41-45.

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Although these editions are sometimes just based on earlier printed editions, in some cases he has also made use of manuscripts known to him.

FURTHER EDITIONS OF NEW TEXTS [17]

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The edition of the large number of hitherto unpublished Syriac texts remains a constant desideratum. A number of scholars deceased within the last ten years can be mentioned under this heading. The important editions undertaken by Guillaumont and Graffin have already been mentioned in the course of the previous section. David Lane’s edition of the early seventh-century East Syriac monastic author, Shubhalmaran, was fortunately completed shortly before his unexpected death in India, though the two volumes in the Scriptores Syri series of the CSCO only came out after his death (even though they bear the date 2004). Albert van Roey (1915-2000) was an experienced editor of many difficult Syriac theological texts of the sixth to ninth centuries; in many cases his editions were accompanied by Latin translations, seeing that Latin is much better than most modern languages at reproducing the feel of the Syriac. Among his publications of Syriac texts that appeared in book form are Nonnus de Nisibe. Traité apologétique (Louvain, 1948), Eliae Epistula Apologetica ad Leonem, Syncellum Harranensem (CSCO Scr. Syri 201-2; 1985), (with P. Allen) Monophysite Texts of the Sixth Century (Louvain, 1994), and (with R. Ebied and L. Wickham) the enormous work by Peter of Kallinikos against Damian, published in the Corpus Christianorum, Series Graeca, vols 29, 32, 35, 54 (1994-2003).29 Numerous others of his text editions came out in article form.30 Besides re-publishing texts already known in print, Mar Julius Çiçek also published several new texts: among these is Daniel of Salah’s Commentary on the Psalms (2004), Dionysius bar Salibi’s Commentary on Evagrius’ Centuries (1991), Bar ‛Ebroyo’s Awsar Raze (2003), Dioscorus of Gozarto’s verse Life of Bar ‛Ebroyo’s (1985), a thirteenth-century monastic anthology (1985)31, as well as works by much more recent writers, such as Shem‛un of Tur ‛Abdin (martyred in 1740), and various important sources in both prose and verse on the massacres of 1915. In all of these he is careful to inform the reader of his manuscript sources. What is probably another part of the same work was published earlier (1981) as Orientalia Lovanensia Analecta 10. 30 His bibliography up to 1985 can be found in C. Laga, J.A. Munitiz and L. van Rompay (eds), After Chalcedon. Studies in Theology and Church History offered to Professor Albert van Roey (Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 18; 1985), pp. xxi-xxix. 31 For an analysis of this, see my ‘A monastic anthology from twelfth-century Edessa’, in Symposium Syriacum VII (OCA 256, 1998), pp. 221-31. 29

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HAGIOGRAPHY [21]

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An extremely prolific editor of texts, chiefly hagiographical, in virtually all the different Oriental Christian languages was Michel van Esbroeck (19342003).32 Time and time again in his publications he provided evidence of the interrelationship of the various Oriental Christian literatures. Although Syriac was not his main concern, he nevertheless published a number of Syriac texts, the most important of which was the Life of Gregory the Illuminator,33 the Syriac version of which plays a significant part in the very complex literary history surrounding this work. Other Syriac texts of no small significance that he edited include the Panegyric on another Gregory, the Wonderworker, by yet a third Gregory, of Nyssa, and the Syriac Acts of Andrew, attributed (no doubt falsely) to Ephrem.34 It might also be noted that he was the author of a great many short articles on Syriac writers in the second edition of the Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche (1993-2001). Although J-M. Fiey (1914-1995) died before the decade covered in the present contribution, mention should be made of his important work, Saints syriaques, which has now been published posthumously.35 Some of the material in this very useful alphabetical repertory had previously appeared in Italian, in the Enciclopedia dei Santi. Le Chiesi orientali, I-II (Rome, 1998-9), a work to which Y. Habbi had also contributed a large number of articles.

MANUSCRIPTS [23]

For anyone interested in Syriac manuscripts J.P.M. van der Ploeg’s The Christians of St Thomas in South India and their Syriac Manuscripts (Bangalore, 1983)36 makes fascinating reading, not least for the incidental light it sheds A full listing of his extensive bibliography is given in Universum Hagiographicum: Mémorial R.P. Michel van Esbroeck, s.j., published as the second volume (2006) of the new Russian patristic journal Scrinium (St Petersburg), xxxilxviii. On him, see the notices by A. Muraviev and B. Lurié (in Russian) and by S.K. Samir (in French) in Scrinium 2 (2006), xiii-xxiv, xxv-xxx; also the note by H. Kaufhold in Oriens Christianus 88 (2004), pp. 257-61, and that by L. van Rompay in Hugoye 7/1 (2004). 33 ‘Le resumé syriaque de l’Agathange’, Analecta Bollandiana 95 (1977), pp. 291358. 34 The former is edited in Symposium Syriacum VIII = Journal of Eastern Christian Studies 56 (2004), pp. 1-13; and the latter in Symposium Syriacum VII (OCA 256; Rome 1998), pp. 85-105. 35 Studies in Late Antiquity and Early Islam 6; Princeton NJ, 2004. Fiey had left the work in an incomplete state at his death, and the task of putting it all into a publishable form was undertaken by L.I. Conrad, who has also provided an introduction. 36 The dust-jacket gives a different title, The Syriac Manuscripts of St Thomas Christians. 32

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[24]

[25]

15

on the remarkable process whereby part of the Christian community went over from using the East Syriac script and liturgical tradition to the West Syriac. Good catalogues of manuscript collections are not easy to produce. An exceptionally fine example, however, is provided by Julius Assfalg (19192001)37 in his Syrische Handschriften, which appeared as volume 5 of the Verzeichnis der orientalischen Handschriften in Deutschland (Wiesbaden, 1963). Assfalg, who taught all the Oriental Christian languages at Munich (and indeed continued teaching even in retirement), was also the editor for many years of Oriens Christianus, a periodical which has served Syriac studies immensely well over its century-long existence. The handy Kleines Worterbuch des christlichen Orients (Wiesbaden, 1975), which he edited along with P. Krüger, has usefully also been translated into French (Turnhout, 1991).38 J.B. Segal (1912-2003) based his The Diacritical Point and the Accents in Syriac (London, 1953) on the wonderful collection of early Syriac manuscripts in the British Library; this is the sort of authoritative study which is not likely to be replaced for a very long time.39

INSCRIPTIONS [26]

Although a few early Syriac inscriptions had been published in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, it was J.B. Segal who paved the way, by means of a series of articles publishing new texts that he himself had discovered in the region of Urfa/Edessa, for the eventual publication of a corpus, The Old Syriac Inscriptions of Edessa and Osrhoene, by H.J.W. Drijvers and J.F. Healey (Leiden, 1999).

LITURGY [27]

W. de Vries (1904-1997) was the author of two important surveys of Syriac literature on the Sacraments in both the Eastern and Western Syriac traditions, Sakramententheologie bei den syrischen Monophysiten and Sakramententheologie bei den Nestorianern.40 Although these works were organised very much against the background of western sacramental 37 On him see H. Kaufhold in Hugoye 4/1 (2001) and especially in Oriens Christianus 85 (2001), pp. 1-22. 38 Assfalg’s bibliography (covering from 1954 to 1990) can be found in R. Schulz and M. Görg (eds), Lingua Restituta Orientalis. Festgabe für J. Assfalg (Ägypten und Altes Testament 20; 1990), pp. xiii-xxv. 39 In a subsequent article, in the Journal of Semitic Studies 34 (1989), pp. 483-91, he deals with two further ‘diacritical points’, qushshaya and rukkaka. On him see G. Khan in Hugoye 7/1 (2004); also the memoir, by E. Ullendorff and S.P. Brock, in the Proceedings of the British Academy 130 (2005), pp. 204-12. 40 Orientalia Christiana Analecta 125 and 133 (1940, 1947).

16

[28]

[29]

[30]

[31]

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theology, they remain extremely useful in view of their use of many as yet unpublished texts.41 One of the great names in the history of scholarship on Eastern liturgy is Juan Mateos (1917-2003). Although he is best known for his work on the Byzantine liturgical tradition, he also did work of fundamental importance on Syriac liturgy. His monograph Lelya-Sapra: Essai d’interprétation des matines chaldéennes (Orientalia Christiana Analecta 156, 1959) is a magisterial study based on an intimate knowledge both of the living tradition and of the source materials. His many articles on both East and West Syriac liturgical tradition are essential reading for anyone with a serious interest in Syriac liturgy.42 Whereas Mateos worked with the primary sources, I-H. Dalmais (19142006) was a very different sort of liturgical scholar, his gift being primarily one of haute vulgarisation, based on a very wide knowledge of all the Eastern liturgical traditions. His many articles on different aspects of Syriac liturgy perform a good service in making them better known to a wider public. Not surprisingly, among Mar Julius Çiçek’s numerous text editions are many liturgical texts. Needless to say, these are primarily for practical use, but quite a number of them should also be of interest to liturgical scholars, since they provide texts of services not otherwise available in print. Thus, for example, his Anafura (1985) provides ten anaphoras, several of which are not easily accessible, or indeed sometimes not otherwise available at all in print.43 Also of particular importance in this respect are his editions of the Shebitho (1993) and Beth Gazo Rabo (1992). His Gospel Lectionary (1987), reproduced from his own beautiful handwriting and accompanied by reproductions of thirteenth-century illuminated manuscripts in Tur Abdin, stands out as almost certainly the finest example of his calligraphy. Francis Acharya (François Mahieu; 1912-2002),44 Superior of Kurisumala Ashram in Kerala, undertook the large task of making an adapted English translation, for practical monastic use, of the main parts of On them, see T. Bou Mansour, ‘W. de Vries et la sacramentologie syriaque: soixante ans plus tard’, Parole de l’Orient 29 (2004), pp. 161-97, where references to his various articles in this field can be found. For his bibliography, see V. Poggi in Orientalia Christiana Periodica 64 (1998), pp. 5-38. 42 His bibliography is given by R. Taft at the end of his memoir in Orientalia Christiana Periodica 71 (2005), pp. 265-97, esp. 287-96. 43 Details can be found in my ‘Two recent editions of Syrian Orthodox Anaphoras’, Ephemerides Liturgicae 102 (1988), 436-45. 44 On him see J. Thekkeparampil in Hugoye 5/2 (2002); also The Harp 14 (2001) [appeared 2002], 111-2. There is an interesting biography of him, by his niece, Marthe Mahieu–de Praetere, Kurisumala. Francis Mahieu Acharya: un pionnier du monachisme Chrétien en Inde (Cahiers Scourmontois 3, 2001). 41

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the Syrian Catholic Fenqitho, published in Mosul (1886-96) in seven volumes. This appeared under the title The Crown of the Year I-III (19821986), which formed vols. II-IV of his Prayer with the Harp of the Spirit, the first volume of which was an adapted translation of the Shehimo, or Weekday Office (1982).45 Though this is not, of course, an academic publication, Fr. Francis nevetheless had a good knowledge of Syriac and, in particular, a sensitive feeling for the Syriac liturgical tradition; as a result he was able to produce a very successful example of liturgical aggiornamento which deserves to be followed elsewhere too. Among his last works was a translation of, and commentary on, the West Syriac Ritual of the Clothing of Monks.46

HISTORY [32]

[33]

One of the most significant events in the history of Syriac scholarship in the last half century was the publication of J.B. Segal’s Edessa, ‘the Blessed City’ (Oxford, 1970; repr. Piscataway NJ, 2005), subsequently translated into both Turkish and Arabic. This work, along with Robert Murray’s Symbols of Church and Kingdom (1975), could be said to have provided the main impetus and inspiration for the revival of interest in Syriac studies that the last three decades or so have witnessed. Segal’s knowledge of the Syriac sources for the history of Edessa (which he takes down to 1144) was unrivalled, as was his ability to weave them together into a highly readable narrative history. Though academic readers will find his deliberate avoidance of footnotes giving precise sources somewhat frustrating, it was probably this very feature that has ensured the book’s wide circulation. Segal also produced several very valuable articles on aspects of history based on Syriac sources, notably ‘Mesopotamian communities from Julian to the rise of Islam’ and ‘Arabs in Syriac literature before the rise of Islam.’47 Han Drijvers’ contributions on early Syriac Christianity have already been mentioned under Literature. Another scholar who has done important work in this field was Yusuf Habbi, author of a fine History of the Church of the East in Arabic (Baghdad, 1988); his articles on the origins of the Chaldean Church and on relations between the Chaldean Church and India

An earlier translation, reflecting the Syriac text much more closely, was made by Dom Bede Griffiths (this has recently been republished by the Gorgias Press, 2005). 46 Moran Etho 13 (Kottayam, 1999). 47 The former in Proceedings of the British Academy 41 (1955), pp. 109-39, and the latter in Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 34 (1989), pp. 483-91. 45

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in the nineteenth century both contribute important new insights.48 Though little known, since it was written in Dutch and published during World War II, J.P.M. van der Ploeg’s Oud-Syrisch Monniksleven (Leiden, 1942), based on an excellent knowledge of the sources, remains a good presentation of Syriac monasticism in the fifth and sixth centuries.

HISTORICAL THEOLOGY; ECCLESIOLOGY [34]

[35]

[36]

W. de Vries’s two volumes on Sacramental Theology have already been mentioned. Among his other writings in the Syriac field his articles on Oriental Patriarchates and on the fifth-century Councils all make important contributions, both from the point of view of Church history and from that of ecclesiology in the modern ecumenical context. His article on the Council of Ephesus 44949 might be singled out here as an admirably fairminded reassessment of a Council that has regularly been denigrated in western historiography. The name of Alois Grillmeier (1910-1998) will always be associated with the series of volumes of fundamental importance for the study of christology, entitled Jesus der Christus im Glauben der Kirche (in the English translation, Christ in Christian Tradition), very ably continued after his death by Theresia Hainthaler. The coverage of writings surviving in Syriac in the various parts of Volume 2 that have appeared so far is truly excellent, and the section ‘Ad Fontes’ of Volume 2/1 is a most useful guide.50 Grillmeier was also the author of a good study of Philoxenus’s baptismal theology.51 An Indian theologian who also wrote a considerable amount on the christological controversies was V.C. Samuel (1912-1998). His The Council of Chalcedon Re-examined: a Historical and Theological Survey,52 together with Karekin Sarkissian’s The Council of Chalcedon and the Armenian Church (2nd edn, London, 1975), are the only serious academic treatments of the Council of Chalcedon, from both a historical and a theological point of view, by Oriental Orthodox theologians.

48 In L’Orient Syrien 11 (1966), pp. 99-132, 199-230, and Oriens Christianus 64 (1980), pp. 82-107, respectively. Also important for nineteenth-century Chaldean history is his article in Parole de l’Orient 2 (1971), pp. 121-43, 305-27. 49 Orientalia Christiana Periodica 41 (1975), 357-98. 50 In the latest Part to appear, 2/3 (2002), his contributions include the chapter on the Tritheist controversy of the sixth century. 51 Published in Fides Sacramenti, Sacramentum Fidei. Studies in Honour of P. Smulders (Assen, 1981), pp. 137-75. 52 Indian Theological Library 8; Madras, 1977.

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OTHER TOPICS [37]

[38]

A leading expert writing on Modern Aramaic dialects (including Modern Syriac) was the distinguished Georgian scholar Konstantin Tsereteli (19212004).53 His Grammar of Modern Syriac (‘Assyrian;’ 1964), written in Russian, has been translated into English (1978), German (1977) and Italian (1970). He also published several collections of texts in various Modern Syriac dialects which are of folkloristic as well as linguistic interest. Helga Anschütz (1928-2006) was one of the first European scholars since Gertrude Bell to take an interest in the Syrian Orthodox community in Tur ‛Abdin (south east Turkey).54 Her Die syrischen Christen vom Tur ‛Abdin55 remains one of the most informative works on this region which has always played an important part in the history of the Syrian Orthodox Church. In subsequent years she continued, together with her husband, Dr Boulos Harb, to help make better known this community, with its large diaspora in Germany, Sweden and Holland, through the broadcasting and television media.

53 His bibliography can be found in R. Contini, F.A. Pennacchietti and M. Tosco (eds), Semitica. Serta Philologica C. Tsereteli Dicata (Torino, 1993), pp. xv-xxiv. On him see T.V. Gamkrelidze and G. Chikovani, in Oriens Christianus 89 (2005), pp. 221-24. 54 On her contributions, see A. Juckel, in Hugoye 9/2 (2006). 55 Das östliche Christentum nF 34; 1984 (also republished by the Monastery of St Ephrem in the Netherlands, 1985). There is an informative review by H. Kaufhold in Oriens Christianus 70 (1986), pp. 205-11.

Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies, Vol. 10, 21-31 © 2007 by Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute and Gorgias Press

SYRIAC STUDIES THE CHALLENGES OF THE COMING DECADE LUCAS VAN ROMPAY DUKE UNIVERSITY

ABSTRACT In response to an invitation by the General Editor, the paper reflects on the present state of Syriac studies as well as on the opportunities and challenges of the future. In addition to a brief discussion of the geographical changes in the worldwide presence of Syriac Christians and Syriac scholars, some suggestions are offered for work to be carried out in the coming years. The paper closes with some thoughts on the academic study of Syriac.

[1]

[2]

The Syriac Institute, Beth Mardutho (formerly: The Syriac Computing Institute), and the web-based journal Hugoye will forever be remembered as marking the entrance of Syriac studies into the electronic age. The elegant Meltho fonts produced by Beth Mardutho and their Unicode application bring Syriac texts to our computer screens daily; now, it is hard to imagine what our lives would be like without them. For middle-aged Syriac scholars—like the present writer—who had to overcome their initial skepticism and fear of change, these quite radical developments took place in the last two decades. What remains to be expected, wished or dreamed for in the coming decade? Which other advancements does the future have in store for us? How will the technological progress impact our scholarship, and, likewise, how will our scholarship impact the developing technology? In this time of rapid change, it is an impossible task to make predictions about the future. Instead, I would prefer to share with the 21

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Hugoye readers some thoughts about the developments in our field, and some suggestions about what could be achieved in the coming years. Once in a while it is useful to look back and ahead; Hugoye’s tenth anniversary is an excellent opportunity to do just that.1 I will briefly discuss three topics. First, the geographical and sociological changes taking place among Syriac Christians as well as among students and scholars. Second, I will highlight tools for teaching and research that need to be created. And third, I will speak in a more general way about the present state of the academic study of Syriac Christian culture.

CHANGING GEOGRAPHY: CHANGING EXPERIENCES AND CHANGING INTERESTS [3]

[4]

There can be no doubt that geographical changes will further mark the development of Syriac studies in the coming years. In addition to a number of universities in Europe, North America, South Africa, and Australia, important centers of study and culture have always existed in the Middle East, the home of Syriac Christianity. Housed in monasteries or institutes of education, and often having important manuscript collections at their disposal, these Middle Eastern centers played an important role in the intellectual and cultural emancipation of Syriac Christians throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. They also contributed to the development of Syriac studies in Europe. The names of Ignatius Ephrem Barsom (d. 1957), Philoxenus Yuhanon Dolobani (d. 1969), Addai Scher (d. 1915), and Ignatius Ephrem Rahmani (d. 1929) come to mind, among many others: important leaders and scholars within their respective communities, they also interacted and collaborated with Western scholars. Their work, as well as their living example, remains important today. While active centers producing fine scholars and important publications still exist in the Middle East, there has been a setback in recent years, mainly for two reasons. First, due to the political instability in the Middle East, local working conditions are often far from ideal and contacts with the West sometimes difficult. Second, Christians from the various Syriac traditions continue to leave the Middle Eastern countries for destinations in For earlier overviews, see S. Brock, “Syriac Studies in the Last Three Decades,” in R. Lavenant (ed.), VI Symposium Syriacum 1992. Orientalia Christiana Analecta 247 (Rome: Pont. Institutum Orientalium Studiorum, 1994), 13-29; A. de Halleux, “Vingt ans d’étude critique des Églises syriaques,” in R. F. Taft (ed.), The Christian East. Its Institutions and Its Thoughts. A Critical Reflection. Orientalia Christiana Analecta 252 (Rome: Pont. Institutum Orientalium Studiorum, 1996), 145-179; H. Teule, “Current Trends in Syriac Studies,” in J.P. Monferrer-Sala (ed.), Eastern Crossroads. Essays on Medieval Christian Legacy (Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2006), 143-156. 1

Syriac Studies

[5]

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the West, thus depriving the local communities of much of their human and intellectual capital. Throughout the twentieth century, Syriac Christian communities paid a disproportionate price in turbulent Middle Eastern areas, and—it is sad to say—they continue to do so in the first years of the twenty-first century. One hopes that the centers of Syriac Christian culture in Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq will be able to recover and to regain some of their historical role; one hopes, too, that the monuments, libraries, and manuscript collections will be preserved and receive the attention they badly need. Syriac Christians and scholars alike will never give up their focus on the historic homelands of Syriac Christianity, but it has to be admitted that the presence of Syriac Christianity has significantly weakened. Quite interestingly, in Turkey there seem to be the first signs that the tide may be turning. Some Christians who left their homeland several years ago are beginning to return and to rebuild their lives there. In many ways there now seem to be new and better opportunities for Syriac Christianity as well as for the historical study of the Syriac monuments and manuscript resources.2 From the viewpoint of students and scholars, the decline of Syriac Christianity in the Middle East has been compensated (to a degree) by developments elsewhere. First, there are the flourishing communities in Kerala, India. Not only do these communities fully take up the historic legacy of Syriac Christianity, but they also have developed a number of important initiatives for the preservation and study of the Syriac traditions. The St. Ephrem Ecumenical Research Institute (SEERI) at Kottayam, Kerala, continues to play a vital role in these developments. Second, there is much activity in the Diaspora communities of Europe, North and South America, and Australia. As some of these communities include people of the second, third, or fourth generation, patterns of religious and cultural life are already well-established. In addition, contacts and fruitful interaction between the Diaspora communities and the homelands are maintained.3 The hierarchies of the historic churches have learned to deal with the Diaspora situation, adjusting their policies in order to improve communication with their faithful in far-off lands, and to make full use of the new opportunities. The global landscape of Syriac Christianity will continue to change in the coming years. It is to be expected, however, that in the process of shaping their own religious and cultural identity, the Diaspora communities will continue to cherish their historic heritage and to 2 For a discussion of some recent publications on Syriac Christianity by Turkish scholars, see H. Teule, “Current Trends,” 153-154. 3 For an overview of Syriac religious and cultural life in the Diaspora communities, see S. Brock a.o., The Hidden Pearl. The Syrian Orthodox Church and Its Ancient Aramaic Heritage (Rome: Trans World Film Italia, 2001), esp. III, 99-103 (the focus is on the Syrian Orthodox presence).

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[6]

[7]

[8]

Lucas Van Rompay

study it. Links between Diaspora communities and academic centers in Western countries have been forged in the past—Beth Mardutho and Hugoye are illustrations of this—and such links are likely to grow in the coming years. New centers of Syriac studies are emerging in some of the countries of the former Soviet Union: in Russia and in several East European countries. In some cases, earlier centers of Oriental or Early Christian studies are being brought to new life, making use of the existing manuscript and library resources; in other cases it is just the curiosity and enthusiasm of students and professors that led to the discovery, or rediscovery, of Syriac Christianity, and to the modest beginnings of an appropriate academic infrastructure.4 None of these new developments—in the Middle East, Turkey, India, the Diaspora communities, or Russia and Eastern Europe—will leave the traditional study in Western academic centers unaffected. New research interests will develop, hitherto neglected fields will be explored, and, hopefully, new forms of interaction and international cooperation will be established. Hugoye, with its easy access to readers and contributors everywhere on earth, will not only reflect these changes but help to shape them. The potential of Syriac studies, therefore, may be said to be richer than ever before. New students and new researchers, having geographic, cultural, and educational backgrounds and experiences quite different from those of the traditional mestaryonê, will find their own topics and their own methodologies, and they will infuse new blood into our discipline. History will have its course and does not need to be predicted or guessed at here. Let us only express the wish that we will find the best possible ways of dealing with the new challenges and the new opportunities.5

SYRIAC STUDIES: THE CORE FIELDS, AND THE BASIC TOOLS FOR THE STUDY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE [9]

To whatever new research questions and new methodologies these recent developments will lead, the core of Syriac scholarship will remain the study of the language—our only means of communication with Syriac Christians See H. Teule, “Current Trends,” 152-153. Teule mentions the 1999 rebirth of the Russian periodical (1910-1926) Christianskiy Vostok (“The Christian East”) and further focuses on new developments in Moscow and Romania. New initiatives could be mentioned for other countries as well, esp. Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic. 5 To the geographical areas listed above we should add the growing interest in Syriac and in Syriac Christianity among students and scholars from Japan and South Korea. 4

Syriac Studies

[10]

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of earlier days—and the interpretation of texts. Admittedly, an impressive number of new texts have been published and translated in recent decades, but when it comes to the basic tools of language and literature, it is difficult to argue that the present-day student is much better off than her or his fellow students of eighty or hundred years ago. Eighty-five years after A. Baumstark’s Geschichte der syrischen Literatur (1922), we still don’t have an updated history of Syriac literature. And the best we can do in the fields of grammar and lexicography is to put our hands on the works of the masters of old, which often exist in beautifully executed reprints: Theodor Nöldeke’s grammar,6 and the dictionaries by Carl Brockelmann (second edition, 1928), Robert Payne Smith (1879-1901, with a Supplement posthumously published in 1927), and Jessie Payne Smith (first published in 1903). I am not suggesting that no significant progress has been made. As a matter of fact, we now have a number of excellent concordances, in particular for the Old Testament and New Testament Peshitta, to which most recently A Key-Word-in-Context Concordance of the Old Syriac Gospels, by J.S. Lund (in collaboration with G.A. Kiraz), was added (2004). Much more, however, can and should be done, in particular when we consider the fact that the new technologies allow the manipulation of large amounts of data. Here I would like to single out three concrete projects, for each of which important steps have already been taken. My suggestions concern the Syriac lexicon, textual corpora, and an encyclopedic project. For some decades, considerable knowledge and experience in Aramaic and Syriac lexicography have been built up within the Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon project, presently based at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, Ohio. It is within the framework of this project that we soon will have at our disposal a new edition of C. Brockelmann’s Lexicon Syriacum, translated into English, revised, and slightly updated by Michael Sokoloff. Along with two other outstanding dictionaries by Sokoloff, covering the neighboring fields of Jewish Palestinian Aramaic and Jewish Babylonian Aramaic—both of direct relevance to students of Syriac!—the new Brockelmann & Sokoloff will pave the way for the creation of new and up-to-date tools in the field of Syriac lexicography. Discussions for new projects are also in the works.7 On the 2001 publication of the reprint of the English translation of the 1898 second edition of the Kurzgefasste syrische Grammatik, see L. Van Rompay, in Hugoye 4/2 (July 2001). 7 An “International Syriac Language Project” has been set up by Terry Falla (University of Melbourne), with the collaboration of several scholars. On the second ISLIP meeting, see I. Ramelli, “Session on Syriac Lexicography, International Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, Groningen, The Netherlands, July 25-28, 2004,” Hugoye 7/2 (July 2004). Some papers of an earlier conference on Aramaic lexicography were published in Aramaic Studies 1.2 (2003). 6

26 [11]

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[13]

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Related to this is the need for searchable textual corpora for different purposes: lexical, linguistic, and thematic. Would it not be wonderful to be able to search the writings of Ephrem, Jacob of Serug, Narsai, Jacob of Edessa, and Isho‛dad of Merv? The Leiden Armenian Lexical Database, created by Jos Weitenberg at Leiden University, and the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae, based at the University of California at Irvine, come to mind as obvious models. The third type of database I would like briefly to mention is of a quite different nature. For several years students of Syriac have been talking about the need for a Syriac Encyclopedia,8 and concrete steps have been taken towards creating an “Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage,” as a publication within the Beth Mardutho program. Although much work has been done, and a considerable number of entries have been submitted, final execution of the work has been delayed. While it is true that the field of Syriac is partly covered in a number of existing encyclopedias— dealing with Late Antiquity, Early Christianity, Eastern Christianity, or Near Eastern studies—none of these do justice to our field as a whole, and in its own right. There can be no doubt that an encyclopedia, created by a team of Syriac scholars, and aimed at students and scholars of Syriac as well as at a larger readership, will serve as an indispensable frame of reference, will inspire and guide young students, and will greatly enhance the visibility of our field. The existing, though somewhat dormant project, therefore, should be awakened urgently and forcefully. The encyclopedia should cover the earlier as well as the later and contemporary periods, and should include ample references to adjacent fields and disciplines, as the strength of Syriac studies lies in its multidisciplinarity and in its interconnectedness with other fields, rather than in its isolation. In order to make the project manageable, short- and long-term goals should be set. On the one hand, we should work towards the publication of a modest encyclopedic dictionary containing between three and four hundred entries. This could be published within a year or so, as many of the entries already are available and need only minor updates. On the other hand, we should keep working on a larger electronic database, in which many of the existing articles can be introduced as a starting point, but which should be expanded in the coming years. The more comprehensive electronic database can be more detailed and can include discussion of existing scholarship, whereas the printed dictionary will be more succinct and only provide basic information. 8 If my memory is correct, it was W. Witakowski, of Uppsala University, who first suggested the idea of a Syriac encyclopedia to the Business Meeting of the 1988 Syriac Symposium at Louvain. He referred to the example of the impressive Coptic Encyclopedia.

Syriac Studies [14]

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The “Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage,” in its two phases as proposed here, is not one of the many desiderata in the field of Syriac studies; rather, it is a concrete project that already has been created and waits to be carried out. There is no justification for further delay.

SYRIAC STUDIES: TEXTS, AUTHORS, OPPORTUNITIES AND LIMITATIONS [15]

[16]

[17]

In 1947, the Belgian Syriac scholar Jacques-Marie Vosté, who then was professor at the Angelicum in Rome, published a paper, entitled “De la besogne pour les jeunes syriacisants.”9 In it he listed what he regarded as— and mainly within his own field of expertise—the most urgent tasks for young Syriac scholars. This publication turned out to be Vosté’s spiritual testament, for he died one year later (at the age of 66). For us, reading it sixty years later, the paper is an important historical piece. Not only is it interesting to see which items in Vosté’s list have received scholarly attention and which have not, it is also worthwhile to notice the different conditions that prevailed in Syriac studies in Vosté’s day. Throughout the paper, Vosté’s enthusiasm is moving: to the young scholars he promises a life full of excitement and happiness; to the universities supporting them, he promises fame, the whole world’s gratitude, and even some financial gain. I wish we could share in more of Vosté’s optimism! Given his background in biblical and exegetical studies, it is no surprise that editions of biblical texts rank high on Vosté’s wish list. He singled out as most urgent the need for an edition of the Old Testament Peshitta and of the New Testament Harklean version. In both areas Vosté’s suggestions were taken up by later scholars. The Old Testament Peshitta edition, begun by the Leiden Peshitta Institute not long after Vosté wrote, is expected to be completed in the next couple of years. The project thus will have lasted fifty years, rather than “a few years” (quelques années), as Vosté predicted (p. 175). The study of the Harklean New Testament has been integrated within the work of the Institute for New Testament Research of the University of Münster. Here again, the problems turned out to be much more complex than first could be anticipated. As Syriac scholars we may wholeheartedly agree with Vosté’s prediction that the universities that would undertake such editions “would cover themselves with glory” (p. 174), but present-day university administrators tend to look elsewhere for their glory. Vosté calculated that the universities would fully recover their financial investment in the form of the royalties they would earn from the unique publications that were going to be produced (p. 175). Experience has taught us otherwise! Universities no J.-M. Vosté, “De la besogne pour les jeunes syriacisants,” Le Muséon 60 (1947), 171-186. 9

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[18]

[19]

[20]

Lucas Van Rompay

longer want to assume a Maecenas role for the arts and the humanities; instead, they have become business enterprises in which Syriac studies are seen as marginal at best. Projects in Syriac studies, as in the humanities in general, have to go through cumbersome procedures and heavy competition in order to get external funding. Successful projects normally are not limited to Syriac, but are embedded in much broader, multidisciplinary frameworks. Perhaps now even more than in Vosté’s day Syriac studies owe their strength to the commitment and perseverance of individuals. Apart from the two aforementioned team projects, in which the universities of Leiden and Münster were—and to a certain extent still are—directly involved, other editions that Vosté suggested were subsequently carried out by individuals. This is the case for the edition of the Old Testament Commentary by Isho‛dad of Merv, to which Vosté himself gave much of his last strength. The first volume, containing the Syriac text of the Genesis Commentary, was published in 1950, co-authored by Vosté and his much younger Louvain confrère Ceslas Van den Eynde. Van den Eynde continued on his own and completed the work in a series of splendid editions and translations (1955-1981).10 Another East-Syriac exegetical compilation, the Gannat Bussâmê (“The Garden of Delights”), arranged according to the periods of the liturgical year, which Vosté saw as a veritable gold mine—promising “la plus grande satisfaction” to those who would study it (p. 180)—has been meticulously explored by G.J. Reinink (University of Groningen), who now is in the process of producing a full edition with translation, the first volume of which appeared in 1988. Other texts recommended by Vosté for publication and translation have received little attention so far. This is true for the writings of the Syrian Orthodox author Jacob (Severus) bar Shakko (p. 183), who worked a few decades before Barhebraeus, as well as for a number of liturgical texts (pp. 184-185). Other areas referred to by Vosté in a more general way are hagiographical, ascetical, and mystical literature. In poetry Vosté singles out Narsai, Jacob of Serug, and Giwargis Warda: several of Narsai’s Mêmrê remain unpublished, and, while Jacob of Serug has fared better than Narsai (especially after the 2006 expanded reprint of Bedjan’s five-volume edition), Giwargis Warda remains very little studied to this day. Vosté’s selection of texts was clearly determined by his work on the collections of East-Syriac manuscripts in Iraq, which suffered losses and destruction during and after World War I. In the course of his work in Iraq, he located and briefly described a number of manuscripts (namely those of 10 Vosté strongly argues that Syriac texts need to be accompanied with translations. Publishing texts without translation would be “multiplier l’inédit” (p. 178). Van den Eynde’s publications show to what extent his translations and notes are an integral part of his creative work.

Syriac Studies

[21]

[22]

29

Alqosh, Kirkuk, and ‛Aqra), lamented the definitive loss of others, and rescued some to the Vatican Library. Unfortunately, the Syriac manuscripts of Iraq are still not secure. Their proper documentation and preservation are badly needed. Moreover, in the last decade of the twentieth century as well as in the first years of the twenty-first century new catastrophes do not cease to threaten them. L’histoire se répète—sadly and almost unbearably! The lack and desirability of editions, translations, and studies are not limited to the texts listed by Vosté. Each of us could easily make a list. I would like to single out a few names. A full edition of the works of John the Solitary of Apamea, one of the most fascinating authors of the early period of Syriac Christianity, is still missing. No general studies of his world of thought or sources exist. This is all the more surprising as there is a growing interest in asceticism in the Syriac and late ancient world, and John really brings an original voice to the world of fifth-century asceticism. The same is true for Jacob of Edessa, one of the most learned authors of Syriac literature and probably its best Hellenist. Here again, there is no lack of interest in his works, but a number of them remain unpublished and no overall monograph is available.11 The works of many of the later authors are still lingering in manuscripts. What about Moses bar Kepha, Dionysius bar Salibi, Emmanuel bar Shahhârê, Yohannan bar Zo‛bi, Khamis bar Qardâhê, and Gabriel Qamsâ? Some parts of their works have been published or studied, often long ago, but no recent progress has been made. How to explain this lack of initiative, this lack of energy on the part of Syriac scholars? It is true that text editions and translations do not always have a positive reputation in the academic discourse, and that doctoral candidates often find it more attractive (or are even actively encouraged) to study a specific theme of Syriac Christianity on the basis of already published and translated texts. This tendency toward the monograph over and against the text edition and translation is to be regretted. Especially in the case of previously unedited and unpublished Syriac texts, there is no substantive academic foundation for the lack of prestige in executing such studies. The disclosure and the first interpretation of texts seem to me to be the noblest task of Syriac scholars, a task we should cherish above anything else. It is imperative, therefore, that we keep the standards of Syriac education high— in particular its linguistic and literary components—in order to allow future generations of Syriac scholars to carry out their work with the same rigor as the best editors and translators of the past.

11 A much delayed collective volume, to be edited by R.B. ter Haar Romeny and K.D. Jenner (Leiden University) and dealing with several of Jacob’s writings, is scheduled to appear in 2007.

30 [23]

[24]

[25]

Lucas Van Rompay

There may be an additional problem here, as the present-day requirements of many academic programs are so complex and wide-ranging that the basic study of languages and literatures is often given short shrift. This brings us back to the problem of the marginal position of Syriac in many universities. One can find students of Syriac in very different academic departments: religion, history, and art departments, and programs in Near Eastern Studies, Semitic Studies, and Arabic or Islamic studies. Though the focus of a dissertation may be entirely on Syriac, in the preliminary stages of a doctoral program many other topics, languages, and methodologies will have to be learned. While I am convinced that Syriac has its proper place in all these different departments, and that Syriac studies greatly benefit from these diverse contexts, there is the possible problem of time pressure, the more so as university administrators are increasingly eager to abbreviate the number of years students spend in Ph.D. programs. Many of us will have noticed that in recent years symposia and conferences on Syriac topics are well-attended by a wonderful crowd of enthusiastic people with very different backgrounds—reflecting the healthy diversity hinted at above. This often leads to fascinating discussions and enriching encounters. One also realizes, however, that many of the attendees, while enthusiastically dealing with matters Syriac from a variety of angles, have only a limited knowledge of the Syriac language or no knowledge at all. We should not complain too much about this, as it is one of the consequences of the growing popularity of Syriac studies in recent years. Moreover, we may learn from the viewpoint of experts in different fields, even if they are not as strong in the Syriac language as we would like them to be. But there is a risk that Syriac texts are used without much precision or are quoted in translations without being checked against the Syriac original. Unfortunately there even have been some lamentable examples of poor, or less than poor, Syriac in recently published monographs. For several reasons—some of which mentioned above—it may not always be easy for students to learn Syriac, or to find experts with whom to discuss the specific problems posed by the texts with which they are dealing. In addition, as pointed out above, the tools for learning Syriac are less than ideal. There seems to be a real challenge here, which poses itself equally to Syriac scholars and to all those who are interested in Syriac Christian culture. On the one hand, we should let the Hidden Pearl be revealed to anyone who is interested in discovering it and learning from it. On the other hand, in dealing with Syriac texts we should never desist from applying the highest possible standards. Even though our understanding and interpretation of ancient texts will always be incomplete and provisional—every generation of scholars offering new insights differing

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from those of the previous generations—the language should be studied in its full depth and be taken as the solid starting point for any discussion. Proper study of language and style should always be an integral part of our engagement with Syriac texts. May our field further grow and flourish in the coming ten years and beyond! May Hugoye bring and keep us together both in the real world and in cyberspace!12

BIBLIOGRAPHY S. Brock, “Syriac Studies in the Last Three Decades.” In VI Symposium Syriacum 1992, R. Lavenant, ed., Orientalia Christiana Analecta 247. Rome: Pont. Institutum Orientalium Studiorum, 1994. 13-29. S. Brock, E. Balicka-Witakowski, D.K.G. Taylor, W. Witakowski, The Hidden Pearl. The Syrian Orthodox Church and Its Ancient Aramaic Heritage, 4 vol. Rome: Trans World Film Italia, 2001. R.B. ter Haar Romeny and K.D. Jenner (eds.), Jacob of Edessa and the Syriac Culture of His Day. Leiden (forthcoming). A. de Halleux, “Vingt ans d’étude critique des Églises syriaques.” In The Christian East. Its Institutions and Its Thoughts. A Critical Reflection, R. F. Taft, ed., Orientalia Christiana Analecta 252. Rome: Pont. Institutum Orientalium Studiorum, 1996. 145-179 J.A. Lund, in collaboration with G.A. Kiraz, The Old Syriac Gospel of the Distinct Evangelists. A Key-Word-in-Context Concordance, 3 vol. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2004. I. Ramelli, “Session on Syriac Lexicography, International Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, Groningen, The Netherlands, July 25-28, 2004.” Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies 7/2 (July 2004). H. Teule, “Current Trends in Syriac Studies.” In J.P. Monferrer-Sala (ed.), Eastern Crossroads. Essays on Medieval Christian Legacy. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2006. 143-156. L. Van Rompay, “Review of Th. Nöldeke, Compendious Syriac Grammar.” Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies 4/2 (July 2001). J.-M. Vosté, “De la besogne pour les jeunes syriacisants.” Le Muséon 60 (1947): 171186.

12 For their help and suggestions while I was writing this paper I would like to thank Sebastian Brock, Bas ter Haar Romeny, George Kiraz, Kyle Smith, and Herman Teule.

Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies, Vol. 10, 33-52 © 2007 by Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute and Gorgias Press

FORTY YEARS OF SYRIAC COMPUTING GEORGE A. KIRAZ BETH MARDUTHO: THE SYRIAC INSTITUTE

ABSTRACT The term “Syriac Computing” was coined in 1992 and took shape in 1995 when the First International Forum on Syriac Computing was held in conjunction with the Second Syriac Symposium in Washington, DC. The term was applied to computer-related activities and projects which support Syriac studies. Syriac computing, however, began much earlier though on a small scale. On the 10th anniversary of Hugoye and the 15th anniversary of its parent, Beth Mardutho, whose contributions to Syriac computing are well known, this paper aims to outline the history of Syriac computing and offer some considerations for the future.

COMPUTATIONAL LEXICOGRAPHY [1]

The first project that is known to me which employed computer systems for the study of Syriac falls within the domain of computational lexicography, and is only known through oral tradition. Stanislav Segert, former Professor at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) from whom I learned this in the mid 1980s, heard that someone at UCLA had encoded Brockelmann’s Lexicon Syriacum on a mainframe computer system back in the 1960s. He attempted to trace down the data during his tenure, but was unable to find anything. One can speculate that at minimum these data contained a transcription of the Syriac lexemes in the Lexicon, maybe with Latin correspondences as well. It is unknown if more linguistic data 33

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tagging was applied, such as morphological information. The data must have been entered using punch cards. Nothing is known about the intention of the project; it may have been simply a study aid.

Figure 1. Computer system similar to the one used at UCLA in the 1960s. [2]

Later lexicographical projects aimed at the generation of concordances, primarily to biblical texts. These are discussed below in chronological order. The Göttingen Project

[3]

In 1970, an ambitious project began in Göttingen to publish concordances to Biblical texts. The project was called Der Göttinger Syrischen Konkordanz, and used Fortran IV as its programming language.1 The resulting concordances were subsequently published.2

The description given here is based on M. Zumpe, Technische Aspekte der Göttingen Syrischen Konkordanz (Deutsche Arbeitsgemeinschaft Vorderer Orient, September 2001). 2 Werner Strothmann, Konkordanz zum Syrischen Psalter (1976); Werner Strothmann, Konkordanz zur Syrischen Bible: Der Pentateuch (1986), Der Propheten (1984). 1

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The data model of the Göttingen project was a simple one. Tables were saved in flat files, where each line in a file represented a record. Fields in each record were fixed-length. Entering data was a challenge in its own right. Someone who must have known Syriac, or at least the Syriac alphabet, transcribed data on data cards. The data was then entered, by someone who did not have to know Syriac, using a traditional keyboard used to generate a punch card. The punch card was then fed to an IBM mainframe computer. Syriac text was entered using simple transcription (one-to-one mapping from Syriac letters to ASCII). The Way International Project

[5]

Also in 1970, and probably unknown to the Syriac studies community at the time, The Way International, a “nondenominational, nonsectarian Biblical research, teaching and fellowship ministry” (as it describes itself on its web site), began an ambitious project to create a Syriac concordance to the Syriac New Testament. The Way was motivated by George Lamsa’s unfounded claims that the Peshitta is superior to the Greek New Testament and represents an original Aramaic version of the New Testament.3 During a period of 15 years, The Way managed to encode the entire Syriac New Testament, with a comprehensive lexical database. The concordance4 that came out of the project was a mere word list, despite the fact that the data model was sufficient to create a concordance as detailed as the one produced later by Kiraz.5 The Way managed to publish other useful tools from the project: an edition of the New Testament in the Estrangelo script,6 an inter-linear Syriac-English edition of the Peshitta New Testament,7 and an English-Syriac index.8 At the time, The Way initially George A. Lamsa, The Holy Bible From Ancient Eastern Manuscripts, Containing the Old and New Testaments Translated from the Peshitta, The Authorized Bible of the Church of the East (Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers, 1933, 22nd printing 1981); the NT was reprinted by Harper & Row, n.d. For Lamsa’s claims, see George M. Lamsa, New Testament Origin (Aramaic Bible Center, 1976). 4 The Way International, The Concordance to the Peshitta Version of the Aramaic New Testament (Ohio: American Christian Press, 1985). 5 George Kiraz, A Computer Generated Concordance to the Syriac New Testament, volumes 1-6 (Brill, 1993). 6 The Way International, The Aramaic New Testament (Ohio: American Christian Press, 1983). 7 The Way International Research Team, Aramaic-English Interlinear New Testament, vol. 1 Matthew-John 1988, vol. 2 Acts-Philemon 1988, vol. 3 HebrewsRevelation (American Christian Press, 1989). 8 The Way International, English Dictionary Supplement to the Concordance to the Peshitta Version of the Aramaic New Testament (American Christian Press, 1985). 3

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made these publications available to individuals who were not members of their organization. I managed to obtain a set! The data model employed here was based on a relational database. The data were later made available through the Ancient Biblical Manuscript Center (Claremont, CA). The Center received this data on a single magnetic reel-to-reel tape containing twelve data files. The format was created on an IBM System 38 computer. The files were downloaded onto sixteen 364K, 5 ¼” floppy disks in a PC environment with the help of the Academic Computer Center at the Claremont Graduate School. Each record type was represented in a flat file, one record per line. Fields were fixed-length. The data was later utilized by Kiraz in the SEDRA database project (see below). Borbone / The Peshitta Institute

[7]

During the 1980s, Pier Giorgio Borbone developed a computational system with which he produced a number of concordances to Biblical texts. Description of this system can be found in various papers.9 The Borbone system has been developed further and is currently being used for the generation of the Leiden Peshitta concordance, of which one volume has already appeared.10 Kiraz’s SEDRA Database

[8]

The initial work of George Kiraz’s lexical work goes back to 1984 when he began encoding existing lexica in relational databases. The first attempt was to encode an Arabic-Syriac version of Costaz’s dictionary.11 Only the letters Olaph-Dolath were entered at the time. In a second attempt during 1990, Kiraz tried getting an international group of volunteers to encode 9 P. Borbone, ‘L’uso dell’elaboratore elettoronico per lo studio della Pešit?a’, Henoch 9 (1987), pp. 55-96; P. Borbone, ‘Un programma per l’elaborazione di testi siriaci e un progetto di redazione di concordanze della peshitta’, in R. Lavenant (ed.), V Symposium Syriacum 1988, Orientalia Christiana Analecta 236 (1990), pp. 439-50; P. Borbone and F. Mandracci, ‘Another way to analyze Syriac texts, a simple powerful tool to draw up Syriac computer aided concordances’, in Proceedings of the Second International Colloquium, Bible and Computers: Methods Tools, Results, Travaux de Linguistique Quantitative 43 (1989), pp. 135-45. 10 The Peshitta Institute, The Old Testament Concordance According to the Peshitta Version, Part V Concordance (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1997). 11 For another unfinished computational work on Arabic-Syriac dictionaries, see George Kiraz and Daniel Ponsford, ‘Automatic Compilation of Semitic Lexica’, in Proceedings of the 4th International Conference and Exhibition on Multi-Lingual Computing (1994); George Kiraz and Daniel Ponsford, ‘The Arabic-Syriac/SyriacArabic Dictionary Project: Report II’, in G. Kiraz (ed.), SyrCOM-95: Proceedings of the First International Forum on Syriac Computing (1995).

Forty Years of Syriac Computing

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Margoliouth’s Syriac-English dictionary through Alaph Beth Computer Systems. The system was called in Syriac sedra “array” as databases are considered arrays of data. The acronym SEDRA at the time stood for “Syriac Electronic Data Research Archive.”12 In this case too, very little was achieved. On March 2, 1988, Kiraz signed an agreement with the Ancient Biblical and Manuscript Center and incorporated its data into SEDRA. The system was used to publish a detailed concordance to the Syriac New Testament, and a pedagogical word list to assist students in learning New Testament Syriac.13 Recently, Logos Research Systems incorporated SEDRA in its Scholar’s Library.14 In addition, a team of international scholars are currently using SEDRA to generate an interlinear to the Syriac New Testament. SEDRA is available for download from the Beth Mardutho web site (http://www.bethmardutho.org). A number of online tools have already been implemented using SEDRA.15 SEDRA went through three incarnations. SEDRA I (1989) derived from the database provided by The Way International through the Ancient Biblical and Manuscript Center. As flat files were not necessarily efficient for modeling databases, the relational database was converted for use in db_VISTA,16 a database management system that provided a programmable interface in the C programming language for writing database applications. In the next incarnation, SEDRA II (1990), additional tables and fields necessary for the generation of Kiraz’s Concordance were added. Moreover, the entire text of the New Testament was vocalized and pointed, punctuation marks were added, and the text was normalized to represent the BFBS edition of the Syriac New Testament,17 as the text used by The

12 George A. Kiraz, ‫ܪܐ‬ The Syriac Electronic Data Research Archive (SEDRA) (leaflet), pp. 1-3. 13 George A. Kiraz, ‘Automatic concordance generation of Syriac texts’, in R. Lavenant (ed.), VI Symposium Syriacum 1992, Orientalia Christiana Analecta 247 (1994), pp. 461-75; G. Kiraz, A Computer-Generated Concordance to the Syriac New Testament, 6 vols. 106. (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1993); G. Kiraz, Lexical Tools to the Syriac New Testament (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1994; Piscataway: Gorgias Press, 2002). 14 Logos Research Systems, Scholar’s Library Silver Editon: A professional-level library of texts and tools for serious Bible Study using Greek, Hebrew, and English resources, Logos Bible Software Series X (2004). 15 Examples are Syriac Dictionary, a useful tool by Abed Daoud (available from http://www.bethmardutho.org), and a similar on-line tool at http://www. peshitta.org. 16 Raima Corporation, db_VISTA III™, Version 3.10 (Bellevue, WA: 1989). 17 British and Foreign Bible Society, The New Testament in Syriac (London: 1919 and subsequent editions).

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[10]

[11]

George A. Kiraz

Way was based on other manuscripts, primarily from the British Museum.18 To accomplish the vocalization and pointing process, a program was written that skipped over words which had been already vocalized. Initial bgdkpt letters were always marked with a qushshaya point; an algorithm was written to convert the qushshaya into rukkakha if the preceding word, if any, ended in a vowel and was not followed by a punctuation mark. The dot on the feminine object pronominal suffix was not included in the pointing, and is to be added by another algorithm based on the existing morphological data. The same applies to seyame. Many of the online tools that generated NT texts from downloading SEDRA ignored these features and hence produced texts without seyame and the feminine marker. The next incarnation of the project was SEDRA III (1991). The first change was the move from a relational model to a network model where ordered, one-to-many parent-child relations provided ease for concordance generation. The technical aspects of this model have been described in detail elsewhere.19 SEDRA III contains 2,050 roots, 3,559 Lexemes, 31,079 word forms and 6,337 English meanings (particular to the context of the New Testament). Brigham Young University’s Bar Bahlul Project

[12]

[13]

In early 1998, ISPART (then CPART) commissioned G. Kiraz to implement a linguistic database of the Syriac language that can be used as a tool to implement search engines of Syriac texts. Central to the creation of a searchable Syriac text was an electronic lexicon compounded with a morphological generator. As Syriac is a highly inflected language, it is not possible to enumerate all of the Syriac words that may occur in texts. Kiraz proposed that a linguistically motivated lexicon be created, accompanied with a morphological generator that would create all, or as many as possible, inflected Syriac words, and named the project after the famous 10th century lexicographer Bar Bahlul. The electronic lexicon was built in Access Format, and populated with roots and lexemes with many morphological attributes. The database contains abstract information from which a fuller lexicon can be generated using a morphological generator. The morphological generator is expressed in ASCII files according to a special format. In addition to deriving all verbal forms for each root based on information provided in the electronic

For a list of the manuscripts used, see The Aramaic New Testament, Estrangelo Script (1983) p. x. 19 George Kiraz, ‘Automatic Concordance Generation’, in René Lavenant (ed.), VI Symposium Syriacum 1992, Orientalia Christiana Analecta 247, pp. 461-475. 18

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lexicon, the morphological generator creates forms with object pronominal suffixes, possessive suffixes, and prefixes.20 The Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon [14]

[15]

In the 1980s, The Comprehensive Aramaic Project was born under the direction of Stephen Kaufman. The project is ambitious and aims at covering all dialects of ancient Aramaic. This is probably the first project involving Syriac wherein the lexical aspects of the project are primary, and concordance generation is secondary (i.e., concordance helps in compiling a lexicon). Various publications dealing with Aramaic dialects other than Syriac have already come out.21 The publication of a concordance to the Old Syriac Gospels has just been published.22 More information on CAL can be found on the project’s web site at http://cal1.cn.huc.edu.

WORD PROCESSING AND DESKTOP PUBLISHING [16]

[17]

[18]

Until the 1970s and even the early 1980s, publishing Syriac texts used traditional methods such as movable type, and machine-set types (e.g., the Syriac types produced in the 1920s by American Linotype, and the Estrangelo type produced by the British Monotype Corporation in 1954).23 With the advancement of computers, institutions began looking for ways to use computer technology to print Syriac texts. The first publications that employed computer technology for the production of the text were the concordances of the Göttinger Syrischen Konkordanz project mentioned above. The text was produced on a plotter, an output device that draws pictures and drawings using one or more pens, usually used by the engineering community for architectural drawings. This system was not used, to the best of my knowledge, beyond the project’s publications. Another early project, one that made use of a more advanced technology, was initiated by the Assyrian Church of the East in the early 1980s. The Church’s Literary Committee commissioned Purdy and This approach departs radically from the more ubiquitous approach of using finite-state technology for morphological analysis and generation. It was used because of its ease and the lack of a finite-state engine. For a finite-state approach to Semitic morphology, see George Anton Kiraz, Computational Nonlinear Morphology: With Emphasis on Semitic Languages (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001). 21 See http://cal1.cn.huc.edu for a list of publications. 22 J. Lund, The Old Syriac Gospel of the Distinct Evangelists, A Key-Word-InContext Concordance, volumes 1-3 (Piscataway: Gorgias Press, 2004). 23 For a detailed history, see J. F. Coakley, Typography of Syriac: A Historical Catalogue of Printing Type, 1537-1958 (Oak Knoll Press, 2006). 20

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Macintosh to produce a high-resolution digital phototypesetting system. The term “digital” here needs to be qualified. The device, and the software that was implemented on the device, were indeed digital (i.e., a specialpurpose computer). The actual output of the device, however, was a photographic one. This was advantageous at the time as photographic type produced better quality than digital type. The device’s photographic results were of the highest quality, at a resolution of up to 2602 elements per inch. In addition to Syriac, the device handled English and Arabic, catering for the need of the Church. The Syriac fonts were designed by the Church’s team and included one Estrangelo and one East Syriac type. The device was announced in 1985. The Church produced a beautiful lectionary using this system and a number of publications. Such devices proved to be quite expensive, which was a factor in their limited distribution. The general user had to wait until the popularization of personal computers, and the availability of Syriac digital types for these platforms. The DOS Era [19]

[20]

With the release of the IBM Personal Computer in the early 1980s, the age of personal computing really began. Individuals were able now to obtain such machines. By the mid 1980s, PCs were competing with the Apple Macintosh system, and to a lesser extent with the Atari system. This period witnessed a number of attempts by various individuals to implement Syriac fonts for various platforms. It is difficult here to give an account of all such efforts for the lack of documentation. Instead, I shall outline here my personal experience in developing Syriac fonts, mentioning the work of others when possible. I began looking into the problem of Syriac fonts and word processing in 1984. My first attempts to represent a Syriac letter digitally revolved around hard-coding a representation of each glyph manually. I began by drawing an 8-column grid on a piece of paper. The choice of eight was because a byte, the unit of storing information in computers, consists of eight binary bits. I then drew the letter in the grid. For each row, a filled cell was assigned 1 and an empty was assigned 0, and these were then put together to form an 8-bit byte as shown in Figure 2. The collection of bytes (one per row) were then represented in the C programming language as an array; e.g., the letter Beth was represented as follows: int Beth[14] = { 0x00, 0x00, 0x3E, 0x41, 0x01, 0x0E, 0x00, 0x00 };

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Figure 2. Crude binary representation of beth. Binary numbers shown in black and red; hex numbers are shown in blue. This crude attempt produced ugly output. The lack of a word processor that would communicate with such a representation of fonts made the result useless. [21]

In 1985, I came across two products from a Colorado-based company called Data Transforms Inc.: Fontrix™ and Printrix™. The former product allowed the user to type text on a graphic screen using bitmap fonts. The input method allowed left-to-right as well as right-to-left writing. What made it interesting is that it came with a font editor that allowed the user to create new fonts. The Printrix product allowed the user to print larger documents avoiding the graphical screen. Fontrix and Printrix had a number of serious limitations. The font editor did not allow scanned images, forcing one to rely on manually drawn glyphs. Marks could not be placed above or below base glyphs. As the input was drawn on a graphical screen, one could not edit the text without having to delete it first. There was no text wrapping either. Despite these deficiencies, I produced a few crude fonts for private use as shown in Figure 3. Independently, Touma Issa produced a Syriac font in Fontrix with the help of his father Corepiscopos Butros Touma, and used it to print church banners in 1986.

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Figure 3. Crude Fontrix and Printrix fonts (1985). [22]

[23]

In 1986 Gamma Productions of California issued version 3.0 of its multi-lingual word processor Multi-Lingual Scholar™ (MLS). This software was truly multi-lingual in the sense that if the user was typing in a particular language, the typographical rules of that language applied. Indeed, it remained for PC-based systems the only unchallenged multi-lingual word processor until very recently when Microsoft released its multi-lingual operating system Windows 2000. MLS came with Latin, Cyrillic, Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic, with the possibility of adding other languages. Its importance to Syriac resided in the fact that MLS came with a font editor that allowed the user to create new fonts, indeed, new languages. The font editor was able to read scanned images; hence, one was able to design highquality fonts based on books published from metal types. The word processor worked bi-directionally. One was able to place up to three marks above and below a letter (ample for Syriac), and the font allowed for twenty such marks. Alaph Beth Computer Systems, a company that I founded in 1986 and was operational until the early 1990s, produced a suite of Syriac fonts for MLS. Two Estrangelo fonts, one similar to the Monotype design, and the other based on a type originally designed by W. Drugulin of Leipzig ca. 1880; one Serto font modeled after a type whose original design dates back to a type associated with the famous diplomat and printer of Arabic, Savary de Bréves, before 1614; and one East Syriac font, based on a type by

Forty Years of Syriac Computing

[24]

[25]

[26]

43

Drugulin ca. 1880, designed with helpful comments from Mar Emanuel Emanuel of the Church of the East.24 MLS used the bitmap font technology; i.e., drawing glyphs by pixels similar to my early crude attempt but using a more sophisticated font editor. This meant that a font was designed for a specific point size; another size would require designing a new font (usually copying the old font and editing it). Additionally, as each printing device had a different resolution (i.e., printed a different number of pixels per inch), each font at each size had to be designed for various printer solutions. 300 dots-per-inch (dpi) laser printers, 240 dpi 24-pin dot matrix printers, and 180 dpi 9-pin dot matrix printers in both draft and quad-density modes. MLS had a number of shortcomings. Formatting commands had to be typed within the text. No file could be larger than 64K bytes, including formatting commands. This meant that a complicated document, such as my Concordance to the Syriac New Testament (1990), could not be more than five or six pages long. The 4,640-page Concordance had to be split into 928 files, but MLS had the ability to link each document to a “previous” and “next” document, creating a chain of documents. (Luckily, I had my concordancegeneration software create and link the 928 files so that with one print command I was able to print the entire text.) While such limitations would be unacceptable to the modern computer user, the user of the 1980s was satisfied to have such a multi-lingual capability, with a high-resolution output. The MLS Syriac fonts were used in a number of other scholarly publications, but more so amongst the Syriac-speaking communities. Bar Hebraeus Verlag in Holland published over 50 books with these fonts. The fonts appear in journals, wedding invitations, and even tombstones! A screen shot appears in Figure 4.

24 These fonts were later redesigned for use in Meltho OpenType suite. They correspond to the following fonts, respectively: Estrangelo Edessa, Estrangelo Nisibin, Serto Jerusalem, and East Syriac Adiabene.

44

George A. Kiraz

Figure 4. Screen shot of MLS 3.2 showing Kiraz’s Syriac, Arabic and cuneiform fonts, along with Gamma Production’s Hebrew and Greek fonts (1986). [27]

In the 1988 Symposium Syriacum held in Louvain, I declared that MLS is “the most sophisticated word processor that has all the requirements needed [for Syriac]”.25 Bill Gates of Microsoft is also quoted to have said in 1981, “640K ought to be enough for anybody.” Syriac desktop systems would continue to advance. The Windows Age

[28]

[29]

During the 1990s, users started shifting from the DOS-based operating system to the more user-friendly Windows operating system. At the time Microsoft had different language-based operating systems. A Middle East version supported right-to-left writing. During this period, a number of fonts were produced by various people. Fonts for the standard Windows operating system were limited as users had to type texts backward, or use a utility program that switched the text for them. Those designed for the Middle East Windows version worked perfectly. In essence, the font designers designed an Arabic font, replacing Arabic glyphs with their corresponding Syriac glyphs. There was one problem that was ingeniously overcome by the font designers: The letters Sodhe and Taw are right-joining in Syriac but their counterparts in Arabic are dual-joining. As the rules of joining letters was hard-coded in the operating system, the fonts used the Arabic ta-marbuta position for Taw, and a similar letter for Sodhe. The font methodology of the time was using TrueType fonts. These were outline fonts rather than bitmaps. The font designer had to define the shape of a glyph in terms of Bezier curves using a user-friendly font tool. One design is good enough for all sizes and resolutions. The computer takes care of figuring out the size of the font. One popular font was suryani2 whose origins I do not know. During this period numerous other fonts were designed by various people. Listing them gives an indication of the widespread use of computers and web sites:26 • Gamma Productions redid my Alaph Beth Computer Systems fonts to be used for their Windows-based tools in 1995.

25 G. Kiraz, “Computers: Innovation and New Future to Syriac Studies.” René Lavenant, S.J. (ed.), V Symposium Syriacum 1988. Orientalia Christiana Analecta 236, 1990, pp. 451-8. 26 I am grateful to Nicholas Al-Jeloo who provided me with this list (Email personal communication, November 15, 2001).

Forty Years of Syriac Computing

45

•

[30]

[31]

Steven J. Lundeen of Emerald City Fontworks, Seattle, designed a decorative font in 1997. • Yakob Ishak Oraha, Europe, designed a collection of East, West and Estrangelo fonts in 1998. • Tony Khoshaba, Chicago, IL, designed Ishtar Web in 1998. • James Adair designed an Estrangelo font called SPEdessa based on the Leiden Peshitta edition in 1998. • Dawod Abed, Germany, designed a Serto font called “Dawod” to be used in his Aramaic Write word processing program in 1998. • Ashur Cherry of Ontario, Canada, designed 15 East and 4 Estrangelo fonts for the Ashurbanipal software and made them available on the Internet in 1999. • Nabu Publishing in Australia designed East Syriac fonts in 1999. • Mesut Tan, Germany, designed four Serto fonts and one Estrangelo font in 2000. • Michael Davodian, Germany, designed fonts which were then used on Web sites. • David Chibo and the Assyrian Youth Group of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia, produced fonts in the Assyria’s Letters series. These included two East, one Serto, and two Estrangelo fonts. • International Systems Consultancy, Australia, produced an East Syriac font named Assyrian Web. It was used by the makers of the Farsi-based Parsnegar word processing system. During this period, Yannis Haralambous designed Sabra,27 a collection of outline fonts and macros for use in the TEX typesetting languages. The project was part of a wider activity under the auspices of the ScholarTEX project. The encoded text was processed by TEX—XET, the bidirectional version of TEX. A preprocessor, written as a set of macros and directives, allowed the user to encode texts in a more user-friendly fashion. The Haralambous fonts included all scripts. His Serto script was the first to use fine ligatures based on manuscript tradition (e.g., changing the angle of Gomal depending on if the following letter is Lomad, ‛E or otherwise). I am not aware of how many publications made use of this system. I used it to produce my Comparative Edition of the Syriac Gospels.28 By 2000, Microsoft decided to collapse its different language-based operating systems into one, and hence multi-lingual computing took a new 27 Yannis Haralambous, ‘Sabra, a Syriac TEX System’ in G. Kiraz (ed.), SyrCOM-95: Proceedings of the First International Forum on Syriac Computing (Cambridge: The Syriac Computing Institute, 1995). 28 G. Kiraz, Comparative Edition of the Syriac Gospels, Aligning the Sinaiticus, Curetonianus, Peshitta and Harklean Versions, 4 vols. (Brill, 1996; Gorgias Press, 2004).

46

[32]

George A. Kiraz

shape with the release of Windows 2000. Coupled with this, a consortium of companies proposed a new font format called OpenType. These would be TrueType fonts with additional information built into them. Whether a letter is right-joining or dual-joining would now be stored in the font (not hard coded in the operating system). The distance of a diacritical point can be defined per glyph and that also can be saved in the font. Ligatures, kerning and other typographical data can all be part of the font now. The font designer will no longer be at the mercy of the operating system (as long as the operating system renders OpenType technology properly). Paul Nelson, Sargon Hasso and I embarked on putting specifications for Syriac OpenType fonts, and the results were the fonts in the Meltho font package, available as a free download from http://www.bethmardutho.org. Alas, we have never documented in detail the technical aspects of the Meltho fonts. OpenType technology brought Syriac font design to a new level, and it would be useful to document this not only for practical reasons, but also for historical purposes. In brief, the fonts contain rules that specify the position of each letter, the distance of each mark from each glyph, and many additional rules that fine-tune the appearance of fonts. For instance, a kerning rule will distance a final Nun from a Dolath if the Nun hits the Dolath as depicted in Figure 5. Other rules may elongate the line joining letters. Such fine-tuning rules may be specified using left and right context regular expressions. The rules are usually specified by the user graphically and may be compiled as finite-state machines.

Figure 5. Kerning of Dolath and Nun. [33]

The only other sets of fonts I am aware of that were designed under this methodology were the East Syriac fonts by Dr. Isho Marcus and Rabi Daniel Benjamin. The former has been involved in font design for decades and in fact was instrumental in the Assyrian Church of the East system mentioned above. The latter comes from a family of printing tradition in Iraq.

Forty Years of Syriac Computing

47

STANDARDS [34]

[35]

[36]

[37]

Since the inception of computer science, standards have emerged to ensure compatibility in platforms and applications. This became more important with the ubiquitous usage of computers world wide. One such standard is Unicode, replacing the old ASCII standard for storing texts in computers. Windows 2000 dictated that any supported script must be part of the Unicode standard. This led Paul Nelson, Sargon Hasso and I to embark on writing a detailed proposal for the Unicode Consortium.29 The proposal was sent to a number of scholars, who also wrote recommendation letters to the Unicode Consortium.30 The proposal was submitted to the Unicode Consortium on February 27, 1998 and a unanimous resolution was passed on that day to accept it. Syriac became officially part of Unicode 3.0 in 200031 and occupied the 0700-074F slots. The standard defined 14 punctuation marks, 29 letters (the 22 letters, Garshuni letters, CPA Pe, a dotless Dalath/Rish, and a Yudh-He Yahweh ligature), and numerous diacritical marks and points. A new addition was the Syriac Abbreviation mark, a control letter that marks the beginning of an overstrike abbreviation mark. In 2002, Nicholas Sims-Williams and Michael Everson proposed the addition of six additional Syriac letters for use in Sogdian and Persian,32 which were incorporated into Unicode 5.0 in 2007.33 Syriac letters used for Malayalam Garshuni have not yet been proposed.34 There are other standards in which Syriac appears. For instance, the language name is now part of ISO 639 which provides codes for all languages. Syriac is assigned to “Sy” in the two-letter codes and “Syr” in the three-letter codes.

THE INTERNET [38]

In 1992, the World Wide Web was charted, and only a year later, individuals from the Aramaic-speaking world began creating web sites.

Paul Nelson, George Kiraz and Sargon Hasso, Proposal to encode Syriac in ISO/IEC 10646 (February 20, 1998), 46 pages. Independently, an earlier proposal was filed by Sargon Hasso and Peter Jasim in 1997. 30 These were Sebastian P. Brock, Mor Julius Y. Çiçek, J. F. Coakley, E. J. Wilson, Luk Van Rompay, Konrad Jenner, and Heleen Murre-van den Berg. 31 The Unicode Consortium, The Unicode Standard, Version 3.0 (2000). 32 Nicholas Sims-Williams and Michael Everson, Proposal to add six Syriac letters for Sogdian and Persian to the UCS (March 30, 2002). 33 Julie D. Allen et al. (eds), The Unicode Standard, Version 5.0 (2007). 34 For a description, see Koonammakkal Thoma Kathanar, ‘Malayalam Karshon’ in The Harp 10 (1997):59-64. 29

48 [39]

[40] [41]

[42]

[43]

George A. Kiraz

Giving a detailed history of web sites or listing known ones in chronological order—despite the short history—is not an easy task. Electronic archives of early versions of sites, even those that are still active, no longer exist, and their creators in most cases did not have a reason to keep a record. While this is somewhat harmless, it should alert us to the fact that today’s web site may not be there tomorrow. This becomes a serious problem in the case of content-based sites such as the soon-to-becomeavailable eBethArké library. How do we guarantee that digitized forms of unique material (such as manuscripts and archives, as opposed to printed books) will be kept safe for generations to come? The following is an attempt to list in chronological order the creative web sites that appeared between 1993 and 1996 based primarily on information received from the web site creators themselves. Firas Jatou, then an electromagnetics undergraduate student at the University of Toronto, is credited with being the first to publish a community web site. He named it Assyria Online and it was hosted at the university server under the URL http://waves.toronto.edu/~jatou (no longer valid) until 1995. It was then moved to http://aina.org/aol where it currently resides. Very soon after, Nineveh Online by Albert Gabriel appeared which was converted from an earlier dialup Bulletin Board System called eBabylon.35 In late 1993 or early 1994 (I don’t even know now!), The Syriac Computing Institute (the former name of Beth Mardutho) published the first academic site dedicated to Syriac studies on the Web server of the Computer Laboratory of the University of Cambridge. The SyrCOM site, as it was then known, gave information about the Institute and its activities. In 1997, the site was moved to the web server of The Catholic University of America, where later the Institute hosted its Hugoye journal. In 2002, the Institute obtained its own domain name, bethmardutho.org and the site was moved there. The year 1995 witnessed more intense activities. On Feb 6, 1995, Wilfred Alkhas published the first issue of his Zenda Magazine in the form of an email message, which went out to 12 people in Chicago, San Jose and Sidney. On November 3, 1997, it was hosted on a web site, but continued to be sent as an email until the end of 1999. Zenda Magazine was renamed to Zinda on November 9, 1999 due to a conflict with a Silicon Valley computer game company named Zenda Games. Zinda’s readership grew from the initial 12 recipients to 28,000 readers from 64 countries with nearly a million hits per month.36

35 36

Firas Jatou, e-mail personal communication dated Apri 2, 2005. Wilfred Alkhas, e-mail personal communication dated April 5, 2005.

Forty Years of Syriac Computing [44]

[45]

[46] [47]

[48]

49

In mid 1995, the first Church-based web site appeared as a family effort by the Issas of Australia. Corepiscopos Boutros Touma, his son Touma Issa and daughter Theodora Issa put together a web site on the Syrian Orthodox Church. Due to a lack of a proper web server, Touma Issa hosted the site on his personal Windows 3.1 desktop using special software called Windows httpd that allowed the computer to serve web pages. He had to keep the desktop turned on 24/7. The URL was on the Murdock University network (http://chempc25.murdoch.edu), then moved after two years to a proper web server on the University network (wwwstaff.murdoch.edu.au/ ~t-issa/syr/syr.htm). In 2005, the site was moved out of the university to a free geocities web server (http://soca.cjb.net and http://syriac.cjb.net). On September 5, 1995, Thomas Joseph became the first Indian Syriac Christian to produce a church web site. The site initially located at http://www.netadventure.com/~soc (now defunct) started as a web site for his parish, St. Mary’s at Los Angeles. On May 16, 1996, it was expanded and named the Syrian Orthodox Resources (SOR) and went live at a web server at UCLA where Thomas was a graduate student. On May 1, 2000, the site was renamed ‘Syriac Orthodox Resources’ and moved to The Catholic University of America (http://sor.cua.edu) where it is currently hosted. SOR remains today one of the richest sites on the spiritual heritage of the Syriac Orthodox Church. Also in 1995, a newsgroup called soc.culture.assyrian was proposed by Peter Jasim and became the first community discussion forum. After 1996 the number of scholarly and community based sites exploded so that it became impossible to track them down. Whereas a web search for Syriac studies yielded only a few results back in 1994, today a Google search on the word “Syriac” yields 1.7 million pages (compare with a search done in 2005 which resulted in 300,000 pages). Google now gives suggestions based on what users search. The top search strings that users utilize which begin with Syriac are: Syriac Orthodox Church, Syriac Orthodox, Syriac Church, Syriac alphabet, Syriac Christianity, Syriac Bible, Syriac fonts, and Syriacus. I shall conclude this section with two contributions by Beth Mardutho. In 1998, Beth Mardutho began publishing Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies. In addition to being the first and only peer-reviewed journal dedicated entirely to the Syriac heritage, the journal was totally electronic with free access online. Thomas Joseph assumed the position of Technical Editor and devised the templates necessary to publish the journal. Hugoye followed a tradition established by TC: A Journal of Biblical Textual Criticism, available at http://rosetta.reltech.org/TC/TC.html numbering logical paragraphs to be used as references instead of page numbers. Beth Mardutho planned from the outset to publish Hugoye in print as well, and while there have been delays, plans are now underway to accomplish this. Beth Mardutho also

50

George A. Kiraz

plans in the near future to add to its web site a collection of over 1,000 books, manuscripts and archival material in digital form. This will hopefully become an indispensable tool in our field.

FUTURE CONSIDERATIONS [49] [50]

[51]

[52]

Syriac computing has gone a long way especially in the past two decades; however, there is a need for much more to be done. An optical character recognition (OCR) system that can cope with the various Syriac scripts is a desideratum. It will help us scan hundreds of texts not as images, but as searchable texts. This will also open the way for texttagging projects along the lines of similar projects for Greek and Latin. The field is lucky to have William Clocksin37 who has been working in the past few years on such a system. It is hoped that soon a user-friendly application can be hosted online that will allow users to upload images of texts and download them in Unicode searchable and editable form. Another desideratum is a general knowledge-base that embodies an encyclopedia in the traditional sense, but also would link to bibliographical and manuscript-catalog databases. To these one can add a book review database, and a colophon database. Imagine if in a simple search, one could find everything that was published on a Syriac author, a list of the author’s works, the manuscripts containing those works and their colophons! The design of such a system is not too difficult and can be achieved in a very short period of time. What is time-consuming is populating the database. In the absence of funding, one may have to resort to a Wikipedia type encyclopedia where the users populate the data themselves. If one is allowed to dream, one can add another desideratum: a linguistic database of the language that would include a computational lexicon and a natural language engine. The data model behind the computational lexicon needs to cover not only typical fields that are found in paper-lexica (variant orthographies, dialectical variants, historical spellings, collocations, idiomatic phrases, etc.), but also grammatical, morphological and phonological data that give flexibility for future applications. For instance, there has been hardly any system in previous lexical projects that encodes phonological information, and while most would cater to morphological paradigms, probably none marks things like transitiveness. Of equal importance are semantic and thesaurus-type information. These would not only allow the user to search the lexicon based on concepts (rather than mere roots, lexemes or word forms), but

For an earlier report, see William Clocksin and Prem Fernando, ‘Towards automatic transcription of Estrangelo script’ in Hugoye 6 (2003) [http://www. bethmardutho.org/hugoye]. 37

Forty Years of Syriac Computing

[53]

[54] [55]

51

also would allow the building of semantic relations and hierarchies.38 Such a system would allow for writing applications to assist in the grammatical tagging of texts, and we might as well drop a spelling checker there. Multi-media can also play a role in projects. One project that comes to mind is a comprehensive recording of the Beth Gazo melodies according to various traditions. Syriac Orthodox Resources and Beth Mardutho have already digitized the recordings of Patriarch Jacob III and a few others, but a larger enterprise is needed to create a comprehensive searchable database that makes use of audio and texts. Each person probably has his or her own wish list. Would you like your iPod to display Syriac? ‫ܒ ܐ܀‬

‫ܗ‬

‫ܒ܆ ܘ ܘ ܐ ܕ‬

‫ܐ‬

‫ܘ ܐ‬

BIBLIOGRAPHY Julie D. Allen et al. (eds), The Unicode Standard, Version 5.0 (2007). P. Borbone, ‘L’uso dell’elaboratore elettoronico per lo studio della Pešitṭa,’ Henoch 9 (1987), pp. 55-96. P. Borbone, ‘Un programma per l’elaborazione di testi siriaci e un progetto di redazione di concordanze della peshitta,’ in R. Lavenant (ed.), V Symposium Syriacum 1988, Orientalia Christiana Analecta 236 (1990), pp. 439-50. P. Borbone and F. Mandracci, ‘Another way to analyze Syriac texts, a simple powerful tool to draw up Syriac computer aided concordances,’ in Proceedings of the Second International Colloquium, Bible and Computers: Methods Tools, Results, Travaux de Linguistique Quantitative 43 (1989), pp. 135-45. British and Foreign Bible Society, The New Testament in Syriac (London: 1919 and subsequent editions). William Clocksin and Prem Fernando, ‘Towards automatic transcription of Estrangelo script’ in Hugoye 6 (2003) [http://www.bethmardutho. org/hugoye]. J. F. Coakley, Typography of Syriac: A Historical Catalogue of Printing Type, 1537-1958 (Oak Knoll Press, 2006). D. A. Cruse, Lexical Semantics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986). Yannis Haralambous, ‘Sabra, a Syriac TEX System’ in G. Kiraz (ed.), SyrCOM-95: Proceedings of the First International Forum on Syriac Computing (Cambridge: The Syriac Computing Institute, 1995). George A. Kiraz, ‫ ܪܐ‬The Syriac Electronic Data Research Archive (SEDRA) (leaflet), pp. 1-3. George A. Kiraz, “Computers: Innovation and New Future to Syriac Studies.” René Lavenant, S.J. (ed.), V Symposium Syriacum 1988. Orientalia Christiana Analecta 236, 1990, pp. 451-8.

38

1986).

D. A. Cruse, Lexical Semantics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,

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George A. Kiraz, ‘Automatic Concordance Generation,’ in René Lavenant (ed.), VI Symposium Syriacum 1992, Orientalia Christiana Analecta 247, pp. 461-475. George A. Kiraz, A Computer-Generated Concordance to the Syriac New Testament, 6 vols. (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1993). George A. Kiraz, ‘Automatic concordance generation of Syriac texts,’ in R. Lavenant (ed.), VI Symposium Syriacum 1992, Orientalia Christiana Analecta 247 (1994), pp. 461-75. George A. Kiraz, Lexical Tools to the Syriac New Testament (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1994; Piscataway: Gorgias Press, 2002). George A. Kiraz, Comparative Edition of the Syriac Gospels, Aligning the Sinaiticus, Curetonianus, Peshitta and Harklean Versions, 4 vols. (Brill, 1996; Gorgias Press, 2004). George A. Kiraz, Computational Nonlinear Morphology: With Emphasis on Semitic Languages (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001). George A. Kiraz and Daniel Ponsford, ‘Automatic Compilation of Semitic Lexica,’ in Proceedings of the 4th International Conference and Exhibition on MultiLingual Computing (1994). George A. Kiraz and Daniel Ponsford, ‘The Arabic-Syriac/Syriac-Arabic Dictionary Project: Report II,’ in G. Kiraz (ed.), SyrCOM-95: Proceedings of the First International Forum on Syriac Computing (1995). Thomas Koonammakkal Kathanar, ‘Malayalam Karshon’ in The Harp 10 (1997):5964. George A. Lamsa, The Holy Bible From Ancient Eastern Manuscripts, Containing the Old and New Testaments Translated from the Peshitta, The Authorized Bible of the Church of the East (Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers, 1933, 22nd printing 1981). George M. Lamsa, New Testament Origin (Aramaic Bible Center, 1976). Logos Research Systems, Scholar’s Library Silver Editon: A professional-level library of texts and tools for serious Bible Study using Greek, Hebrew, and English resources, Logos Bible Software Series X (2004). J. Lund (in collaboration with George A. Kiraz), The Old Syriac Gospel of the Distinct Evangelists, A Key-Word-In-Context Concordance, volumes 1-3 (Piscataway: Gorgias Press, 2004). Paul Nelson, George Kiraz and Sargon Hasso, Proposal to encode Syriac in ISO/IEC 10646 (February 20, 1998), 46 pages. Independently, an earlier proposal was filed by Sargon Hasso and Peter Jasim in 1997. The Peshitta Institute, The Old Testament Concordance According to the Peshitta Version, Part V Concordance (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1997). Raima Corporation, db_VISTA III™, Version 3.10 (Bellevue, WA: 1989). Nicholas Sims-Williams and Michael Everson, Proposal to add six Syriac letters for Sogdian and Persian to the UCS (March 30, 2002). Werner Strothmann, Konkordanz zum Syrischen Psalter (1976); Werner Strothmann, Konkordanz zur Syrischen Bible: Der Pentateuch (1986), Der Propheten (1984). The Unicode Consortium, The Unicode Standard, Version 3.0 (2000). The Way International, The Concordance to the Peshitta Version of the Aramaic New Testament (Ohio: American Christian Press, 1985). The Way International, The Aramaic New Testament (Ohio: American Christian Press, 1983).

Forty Years of Syriac Computing

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The Way International Research Team, Aramaic-English Interlinear New Testament, vol. 1 Matthew-John 1988, vol. 2 Acts-Philemon 1988, vol. 3 HebrewsRevelation (American Christian Press, 1989). The Way International, English Dictionary Supplement to the Concordance to the Peshitta Version of the Aramaic New Testament (American Christian Press, 1985). M. Zumpe, Technische Aspekte der Göttingen Syrischen Konkordanz (Deutsche Arbeitsgemeinschaft Vorderer Orient, September 2001).

Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies, Vol. 10, 55-59 © 2007 by Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute and Gorgias Press

BRIEF ARTICLE

RECENT BOOKS ON SYRIAC TOPICS PART 10 SEBASTIAN P. BROCK UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD [1]

[2]

The present listing continues on from previous listings in the first number of Hugoye for each of the years 1998-2006. Once again, reprints are not included (for a number of important ones, see http://www.gorgiaspress. com). 1997 B. Sony, Le catalogue des manuscrits du couvent des Dominicains, Mossoul [in Arabic] (Mosul).

[3] [4]

2000 P. Yousif (revised tr.), J. Chittilappilly (ed.), The Order of the Holy Qurbana in the East Syrian Tradition (Trichur).

2002

Kuriakose Corepiscopa Moolayil (ed.), Four Historic Documents (Cheeranchira, Chenganacherry: Mor Adai Study Centre). [C. Buchanan, The Syrian Christians in India; O.H. Parry, The Ancient Syrian Church; P.T. Geevarghese (Mor Ivanios), Were the Syrian Christians Nestorians?; K.K. Lukose, Christians in Malabar].

[5]

2003 I. de Francesco, Efrem il Siro. Inni sulla Natività e sull’Epifania (Milan: Paoline). Y.M. Yishaq, Tarikh al-Ruha/Maktabzabne d-‚Urhoy (Stockholm: Författeres Bokmaskin). [Chronicle of Edessa, Syriac and Arabic].

[6]

2004 E. Aydin (Introd.), La divine Liturgie selon le rite de l’Église Syriaque Orthodoxe d’Antioche (Paris). Mar Aprem, Patriarch Mar Dinkha IV: the Man and his Message (Trichur: Mar Narsai Press).

55

56

Sebastian P. Brock

D. Cerbelaud, Éphrem Le Syrien. Le combat chrétien. Hymnes de Ecclesia (Spiritualité Orientale 83; Abbaye de Bellefontaine). K. Mani Rajan (ed.), Calendar of the Syrian Orthodox Church (Kottayam: Travancore Syriac Orthodox Publishers). G. Thadikkatt, Liturgical Identity of the Mar Toma Nazrani Church (Oriental Institute of Religious Studies India 278; Vadavathoor, Kottayam: Pourastya Vidyapitham). Archimandrite Vasileios, From St Isaac the Syrian to Dostoyevsky (Mount Athos Series, 15; Montreal: Alexander Press. [23pp.] P. Vysanethu, Musicality makes the Malankara Liturgy Musical (Moran Etho 2; Kottayam: SEERI).

[7]

2005 —,

Anaphorae of Mar Theodore and Mar Nestorius (LRC Publications 12; Kochi). [Syriac, Latin, English and Malayalam]. G. Afram, Svensk-Assyrisk Ordbok/Sfar melle swedoyo-suryoyo (Stockholm: the Author) [1241 pp. ISBN 91-631-6574-0; available through Gorgias Press]. P. Al-Kfarnissy, Grammar of the Aramaic Syriac Language [in Arabic] (Piscataway NJ: Gorgias Press). J. Amar, Dionysius bar Salibi. A Response to the Arabs (CSC0 614-5, Scr. Syri 238-9; Leuven: Peeters). W. Baum, Shirin, Christian Queen: Myth of Love (Moran Etho 26; Kottayam, SEERI). G. Bohas, Les bgdkpt en syriaque selon Bar Zo‘bi (Toulouse: Amam-Cemaa). S.P. Brock, Spirituality in the Syriac Tradition (Moran Etho 2; 2nd edn; Kottayam: SEERI). S. Chialà, Abramo di Kashkar e la sua comunità. La rinascita del monachesimo siro-orientale (Comunità di Bose: Edizioni Qiqajon). M. El-Hage, Le Lectionnaire maronite. Période de la Pentecôte et de la Croix (Université Antonine: Faculté des Sciences Théologiques et des Études Pastorales 1; Hadath-Baabda, Lebanon). A.D. Forbes and D.G.K. Taylor (eds.), Foundations for Syriac Lexicography I. Colloquia of the International Syriac Language Project (Perspectives on Syriac Linguistics 1; Piscataway NJ: Gorgias Press). B. Haddad, Ganat Lame (Baghdad) [Arabic-Syriac, 2 vols]. S. Henno (tr. A. Gorgis and G. Toro), Die Verfolgung und Vernichtung der SyroAramäer im Tur Abdin 1915 (Monastery of St Ephrem: Barhebraeus Verlag). J. Karukaparambil (ed.), Marganitha Kynanaitha/Kynanaya Pearl (Kottayam: Deepika). [In honour of Archbishop Kuriakose Kunnacherry]. N. Kavvadas, Isaak tou Syrou, Asketika I-III [Discourses 1-41 of ‘Second Part,’ tr. from Syriac] (Thera: Thesvites). [ISBN 960-88742-5-4] Kuriakose Corepiscopa Moolayil (ed.), Kthiboth Hago. Festschrift in honour of His Holiness Ignatius Zakka I Iwas (Chicago: St George Syrian Orthodox Church of Malankara). C. Lange, The Portrayal of Christ in the Syriac Commentary on the Diatessaron (CSCO 616, Subsidia 118; Leuven: Peeters). G. Menachery, Glimpses of Nazraney Heritage (Trissur: SARAS).

Recent Books on Syriac Topics

[8]

57

Paulose Mor Athanasius Kadavil (ed. K. Kuriakose Corepiscopa Moolayil), The Syrian Orthodox Church: Its Religion and Philosophy (Cheeranchira, Chenganacherry: Mor Adai Study Centre). J. Puthuparampil, Mariological Thought of Mar Jacob of Serugh (451-521) (Moran Etho 25; Kottayam: SEERI). G.J. Reinink, Syriac Christianity under Late Sasanian and Early Islamic Rule (Variorum Collected Studies 821; Aldershot: Ashgate). J. Rhétoré and J. Alichoran, Les chrétiens aux bêtes: souvenirs de la guerre sainte proclamée par les Turcs contre les chrétiens en 1915 (Paris: Le Cerf). A. Sauma, Efrem Syriern (306-373). Han liv och skrifter (Stockholm/Uppsala: Aram). [ISBN 91-975712-0-2] B. Sony, Fihris makhṭuṭat dayr Mar Behnam al-Shahid ba-shbobut Baghdayda (Baghdad). M. Tamcke and A. Heinz (eds), Die Suryoye und ihre Umwelt. Viertes deutsches SyrologenSymposium. Festgabe W. Hage (Studien zur Orientalischen Kirchengeschichte 36; Münster: LIT). S. Timm, Eusebius von Caesarea, Das Onomastikon der biblischen Ortsnamen. Edition der syrischen Fassung mit griechischen Text, englischer und deutscher Übersetzung (Texte und Studien 152; Berlin: de Gruyter).

2006

—, Saint Éphrem, Harpe du Saint Esprit: Receuil d’hymnes (Antelias: Centre d’Études et de Recherches Orientales). [Anthology, Syriac-English-French-Arabic]. —, Awṣar Ṣlawot’o, 1. The Book of Common Prayer (Kottayam: SEERI). [Syrian Orthodox Sheḥimo, Syriac and English]. —, Festschrift Prof. Dr. John Madey (= The Harp: A Review of Syriac and Oriental Ecumenical Studies 19; Kottayam: SEERI). —, Festschrift Rev. Dr. Jacob Thekeparampil (= The Harp 20). —, Festschrift Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Thelly (= The Harp 21). J. Anis Abi-Aad, St Maron. Glimpses on his Life, Hermitage and Burial (Louaize, Lebanon: Notre Dame University Press). S. Ashbrook Harvey, Scenting Salvation. Ancient Christianity and the Olfactory Imagination (The Transformation of the Classical Heritage XLII; Berkeley: University of California Press). W. Baum, Christian Minorities in Turkey (Moran Etho 28; Kottayam: SEERI). C. Baumer, The Church of the East. An Illustrated History of Assyrian Christianity (London: I.B. Tauris). A.H. Becker, Fear of God and the Beginning of Wisdom. The School of Nisibis and the Development of Scholastic Culture in Late Antique Mesopotamia (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press). P. Bedjan (ed. S.P. Brock), Homiliae Selectae Mar-Jacobi Sarugensis (six volumes) (Piscataway NJ: Gorgias Press). [Reprint of Bedjan, I-V, with added VI, containing further homilies and indexes]. V. Berti, Abramo bar Dashandad. Custodisci te stesso (Testi dei Padri della Chiesa 84; Monastero di Bose: Edizioni Qiqajon). J. Bet-Şawoce, Sayfo b Ţurcabdin 1914-1915 (Södertälje, Sweden: Bet-Froso Nsibin). Y. Bilge, Geçmişten Günümüze Deyrulzafaran Manastırı (Istanbul: Gerçeğe Doğru Kitapları). [ISBN 975-8379-66-6]

58

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S.P. Brock, Fire from Heaven. Studies in Syriac Theology and Liturgy (Aldershot: Ashgate, Variorum Reprints). S.P. Brock, The Wisdom of St Isaac of Nineveh (Texts from Christian Late Antiquity 1; Piscataway NJ: Gorgias Press). [Bilingual edition]. S.P. Brock, An Introduction to Syriac Studies (Revised 2nd Edition. Gorgias Handbooks 4; Piscataway NJ: Gorgias Press). S.P. Brock, The Bible in the Syriac Tradition (2nd Revised Edition. Gorgias Handbooks 7; Piscataway NJ: Gorgias Press). S.P. Brock and G.A. Kiraz, Ephrem the Syrian. Select Poems. Vocalized Syriac text with English translation, and notes (Eastern Christian Texts 2; Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press). S.P. Brock (tr. M. Campatelli and S. Staffuzza), La spiritualità nella tradizione siriaca (Rome: Lipa). [tr. from 2nd edn]. I. Carajosa, La características de la versión síriaca de los Salmos (Sal 90-150 de la Peshitta) (Analecta Biblica 162; Rome). F. Cassingena-Trevédy, Éphrem de Nisibe. Hymnes paschales (Sources chrétiennes 502; Paris: du Cerf). F. Cassingena-Trevédy and I. Jurasz (eds), Les liturgies syriaques (Études syriaques 3; Paris: Geuthner). D. Cerbelaud Éphrem le Syrien. Le Christ en ses symboles. Hymnes de Virginitate (Spiritualite Orientale 86; Bégrolles en Mauges: Abbaye de Bellefontaine). S. Chialà, Isacco di Ninive, Annuncia la bontà di Dio (Testi dei Padri della Chiesa 81; Monastero di Bose: Edizioni Qiqajon). I. de Francesco, Efrem Siro. Inni sul Paradiso (Milan: Paoline). G. de Monjou, Mar Moussa. Un monastère, un homme, un désert (Paris: Albin Michel). K. den Biesen, Simple and Bold: Ephrem’s Art of Symbolic Thought (Piscataway NJ: Gorgias Press). R. Doran, Stewards of the Poor: The Man of God, Rabbula, and Hiba in Fifth-Century Edessa (Cistercian Studies 208; Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications). J. Ferrer and J.P. Monferrer, Historia y enseñanzas de Ahíqar o la antigua sabiduría oriental. Edición, traducción y estudio (Studia Semitica, Series Minor 2; Córdoba: Universidad de Córdoba). D. Gaunt (with the assistance of J. Bet-Şawoce), Massacres, Restistance, Protectors: Muslim-Christian Relations in Eastern Anatolia during World War I (Piscataway NJ: Gorgias Press). G. Gnoli (ed.), Il Manicheismo, II. Il mito e la dottrina (Fondazione Lorenzo Valla: Mondadori). [Includes translations of Syriac texts]. R. Gyselen (ed.), Chrétiens en terre d’Iran, I. Implantation et acculturation (Studia Iranica 33; Paris: Association pour l’avancement des études iraniennes). J-C. Haelewyck, Sancti Gregorii Nazianzeni Opera. Versio Syriaca, III, Orationes XXVII, XXXVIII, XXXIX (Corpus Christianorum, Series Graeca 53; Corpus Nazianzenum 18; Turnhout/Leuven: Brepols/Univer-sity Press). M. Hansbury, The Letters of John of Dalyatha (Piscataway NJ: Gorgias Press). M. Hansbury, Hymns of Saint Ephrem the Syrian [Table hymns] (Oxford: Fairacres Publications). T. Kuzhuppil, The Vision of the Prophet Isaiah. A Theological Study of Narsai’s Interpretation of Isaiah 6 (Rome: Institutum Patristicum Augustin-ianum, Diss. ad Doctoratum).

Recent Books on Syriac Topics

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R. Malek, with P. Hofrichter, Jingjiao. The Church of the East in China and Central Asia (Collectanea Serica; Sankt Augustin: Institut Monu-menta Serica). P. Pallath, The Grave Tragedy of the Church of St Thomas Christians and the Apostolic Mission of Sebastiani (Changanaserry: HIRS Publications). F.A. Pennacchietti, Three Mirrors for Two Biblical Ladies: the Queen of Sheba and Susanna in the Eyes of Jews, Christians and Muslims (Piscataway NJ: Gorgias Press). F. Petit, with L. van Rompay, Sévère d’Antioche. Fragments grecs tirés des chaînes sur les derniers livres de l’Octateuque et sur les Règnes (Traditio Exegetica Graeca 14; Louvain: Peeters). [L. van Rompay: Glossaire syriaque]. S. and I. Tanoğlu, Eserleriyle Mor Afrem (Istanbul; ISBN 994-45201-0-1). W. Taylor, Antioch and Canterbury: the Syrian Orthodox Church and the Church of England 1874-1928 (Piscataway NJ: Gorgias Press). J. Tubach and G.S. Vashalomidze (eds), Studien zu den Thomas-Christen in Indien (Hallesche Beiträge zur Orientwissenschaft 33/02). W.Th. van Peursen and R.B. ter Haar Romeny (eds), Text, Translation, and Tradition. Studies on the Peshitta and its Use in the Syriac Tradition presented to Konrad D. Jenner on the Occasion of his Sixty-Fifth Birthday (Monographs of the Peshitta Institute Leiden, 14; Leiden: E.J. Brill). B. Varghese, Dionysius bar Salibi: Commentaries on Myron and Baptism (Moran Etho 29; Kottayam: SEERI). J. Vellian, Selected Studies (Kottayam: Deepika). J.T. Walker, The Legend of Mar Qardagh. Narrative and Christian Heroism in Late Antique Iraq (Berkeley: University of California Press). E.-I. Yousif, Les syriaques racontent les croisades (Paris: L’Harmattan). M. Zammit, ‘Enbe men karmo suryoyo. A Syriac Chrestomathy (Gorgias Handbooks 6; Piscataway NJ: Gorgias Press).

BOOK REVIEWS Susan Ashbrook Harvey, Scenting Salvation. Ancient Christianity and the Olfactory Imagination. Berkeley & Los Angeles: University of California, 2006. REVIEWED BY ROBERT DORAN, AMHERST COLLEGE

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Susan Harvey has given us a masterful treatment of the role of the sense of smell in Late Antiquity. To change the sensory image, it is a rich, generous platter. She alerts us to the way smells filled the late antique air and provides a fascinating insight into how the Constantinian revolution changed Christian attitudes towards perfumes and incense. She also conveys how, for the late antique Christian, the bodily life of Jesus meant that the senses would be involved in experiencing God’s kingdom. In the first chapter, “The Olfactory World,” Harvey describes how Greeks and Romans breathed an air filled with scents and smells. Complex and pungent aromas attended sacrifices. Aromatics were in daily use: as pesticides to drive away insects and snakes, as air fresheners in the smelly environment of an ancient city, as counteracting bodily odors. They could be used for medicinal purposes or as poisons. Hence good smells were associated with good things, bad smells with bad. Here Harvey notes that Christians had critiqued pagan sacrifices before the full impact of the Constantinian revolution as had Greco-Roman philosophers; nevertheless they had used sacrificial rhetoric to describe Christian liturgical usage. In the second chapter, “The Christian Body: Ritually Fashioned Experience,” Harvey emphasizes the importance of the Constantinian change for the Christian use of aromatics. Christians now had a place and status in the world. The increasing number of Christian churches and their public liturgy meant that a ritual context was given as the place to learn sensory meanings, to distinguish good from bad smells. Holy oil was a component of Christian initiation and perfumed oil used for the baptized. There was a growing use of spices in oils, and liturgical perfume was seen as a sign of the presence of the divine. Harvey is excellent in tracing the role incense begins to play in ritual piety, expressly as evidenced in Ephrem and the Transitus Mariae. Excluded from Christian ritual for 300 years, incense contained both sacrificial symbolism as well as indicating the divine-human relationship. Unseen and yet experienced, smells wafting through the air connected the source to the one sensing. “Knowledge of God was instilled in the believer who inhaled the scent of worship.” (p. 80) Chapter 3, “Olfaction and Christian Knowing,” is a treasure trove of ways in which olfaction was used as a powerful theological metaphor. The 61

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Song of Songs with its rich sensual imagery gave a strong impulse to such use. A particularly beautiful example is where Ambrose of Milan calls Christ the flower of Mary. Just as the flower does not lose its odor when cut, torn or bruised, so Jesus on the cross exhaled the gift of eternal life. Besides such use, odor could be used diagnostically, as each person has their own individual smell. Divine visitation could fill a holy person with its fragrance, and this fragrance could then become known to those who visited the holy one. Harvey also mines the liturgical commentaries and her analysis of the consecration of the holy myron is superb. Chapter 4, to this reader, reveals the key problem that drives this work: How to reconcile the seemingly contradictory post-Constantinian developments of a more complex sensory ritual life for Christians and of a rising severity in asceticism? Harvey sees both these as responses to a “heightened importance of the physical realm” (p.156). She finds a reconciliation in the notion of the fragrance of virtue, and the way lives of ascetics are connected to ritual activity through olfactory images. The prime examples for her are the stylite saints: Stylite asceticism and incense piety point to a profound reconciliation between ascetic and liturgical discourses in late antiquity. She captures the late antique view that the foul smells surrounding sickness and death were a sign of humanity’s fallen condition, and wonderfully explores how the foul stench surrounding Simeon the Stylite’s ascetic endeavors could be transformed at his death into a paradisial fragrance. While her analysis works wonderfully well for the Eastern tradition, I would have liked her to suggest how this might apply in the Western tradition. While Martin of Tours once smelled the presence of the devil and Jerome has the body of Hilarion give off fragrance at his death, the life of Benedict contains no sensory images. Does this reflect a different view of ascetic endeavor, or perhaps a different attitude towards liturgy? Is Western liturgy more sight and sound than smell? Harvey ends her work with a fascinating contrast between Augustine’s description of heaven, based primarily on sight, and Ephrem’s, strongly based on olfactory experience. For Harvey, sense perception is a mode of religious knowing, and for Ephrem it is “the foundational experience of the human-divine encounter both in the present and in the life to come.” (p.238) With its insistence that we be alert to our senses and to our bodily existence, this book contributes to the ongoing discussion about the body and religion. It is a treat to read.

Jobst Reller and Martin Tamcke, eds. Trinitäts- und Christusdogma. Ihre Bedeutung für Beten und Handeln der Kirche. Festschrift für Jouko Martikainen. Studien zur Orientalischen Kirchengeschichte 12. Münster, Hamburg, and

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London: LIT-Verlag, 2001. Pp. 265. ISBN 3-8258-5278-4. Paperback. Euros 20.90. REVIEWED BY CORNELIA B. HORN, SAINT LOUIS UNIVERSITY

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This collection of essays by colleagues and students was dedicated to Jouko Martikainen as a Festschrift on the occasion of his 65th birthday. From 1984 until 2001 Martikainen held the position of Professor of the History of Oriental Christianity at the Georg-August University in Göttingen, Germany. A native of Valtimo, Finland, and a member of the Lutheran Church, Martikainen became known through his work on Ephraem the Syrian, Philoxenus of Mabbug, and John I Sedra, as well as through his collaboration and editorial involvement with the German-Finnish symposia on Makarios. Of the 15 contributions contained in the volume, six articles that form the initial section of the book concentrate on topics that are of more immediate interest to scholars of Syriac Studies. Enhancing and attempting to further modern ecumenical dialogue between the Orthodox Church, the Oriental Orthodox Church, and the Apostolic Church of the East, Wolfgang Hage (“Chambésy 1990 und zwei syrische Stimmen aus dem Mittelalter,” pp. 9-20) offers a discussion of the reconciliatory potential of the approach to fellow Christian denominations that was advanced in the Middle Ages by the Syrian-orthodox theologian and polymath Gregory Barhebraeus (d. 1286). Instead of condemning Christians from the Chalcedonian Orthodox side or from the Church of the East, Barhebraeus chose not to include members of these churches in the catalogue of heresies that he presented in the Christological section of his “Book of the Candelabra of the Sanctuary.” For the time prior to Barhebraeus, Hage can cite Timothy I (d. 823), Catholicos-Patriarch of the Church of the East, as another voice that was able to speak in a reconciliatory manner, despite the growing experience of competition between the Syriac Orthodox Church and the Church of the East that manifested itself at the time. Karl Merten (“Aussagen syrisch-orthodoxer Christen zu ihrem Glauben während ihres Asylverfahrens,” pp. 21-32) examines a legal file of statements made by 1345 Syrian Orthodox Christians and a few additional Christians who belong to other denominations, all of whom applied for asylum in Germany between 1978 and 1994. Although most of the responses did not reflect a nuanced knowledge of the Christian faith, it is remarkable that in several cases the little that people knew combined with a deep conviction of the truth of their religion and their willingness to give their lives for it. However, the lack of factual knowledge of their faith points to two areas that need further development: that of increased efforts on the part of Church officials in the realm of catechesis, and that of greater freedom of religion to be granted to religious minorities by Turkey.

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Matthias Quaschning-Kirsch (“... so daß wir durch Ihn ein Wohlduft sind! Der Phönix als christologisches und paränetisches Symbol im syrischen Physiologus,” pp. 33-49) examines the manifold aspects of a Christological interpretation of the mythological phoenix in the two Syriac recensions of the Physiologus. The author helpfully contextualizes the material against the background of recensions in Greek and further oriental Christian languages. Gabriel Rabo (“Der Kirchenbau und seine innere Ausstattung in der syrisch-orthodoxen Kirche,” pp. 51-65) offers some data on early literary attestations and comments on church building activities and churches in the Syriac tradition. The second part of the essay, which constitutes the main portion of the work, presents a detailed description of individual parts of the interior space of a Syriac church, i.e., of sanctuary, chancel, and nave. Jobst Reller (“Zur Deutung des Heilswerkes Christi in der syrischsprachigen Paulinenauslegung von Johannes Chrysostomos über Mose bar Kepha bis Dionysius bar Salibi,” pp. 67-90) offers a discussion of the contribution of Syriac thought to soteriology that developed on the basis of the interpretation of Paul’s Letters from the fifth through the 12th centuries. John Chrysostom’s interpretation of Romans 7 and 12.1-3, which are dealt with in Homilies on Romans 13 and 21, provide the starting point among the Fathers. Also Theodore of Mopsuestia was a strong influence on later commentators from the 8th-12th centuries. Reflecting the Protestant interest of the investigator and the honoree, Reller focuses his investigation on the themes of baptism, the inability of the Law to bring about salvation, and reflections on the inability even of the redeemed human being to overcome sin completely. The sixth and final contribution of this volume that treats themes that are of immediate interest to Syriac Studies is an article by Martin Tamcke (“Gedankensplitter zu Gotteslehre und Gottesbild in den ostsyrischen Mönchsregeln am Ende des 6. Jahrhunderts,” pp. 91-101), that attempts to trace thoughts on God in East Syrian asceticism between the years 588 and 604. The essay examines in turn ascetic Rules by Dadisho‛, successor of Abraham of Kashkar as abbot of the Great Monastery on Mount Izla, the Covenant of the Monastery of Barqita, and comments made in a Letter by Sabrisho‛ to the Monks of Barqita. Neither one of the documents offers a coherent, systematic teaching De deo. All three feature a strong sense of God as judge. The documents differ from one another with regard to their emphasis on how to employ rational thought when approaching God and when to allow the self to be carried away by emotions. Subsequent articles deal with further themes in the fields of Biblical Theology (Jukka Thurén [“Johannes als Monotheist,” pp. 253-265]), Greek Patristics and History of the early Church (Jürgen Kielisch [“Die Trinität in den fünf Theologischen Reden des Gregor von Nazianz,” pp. 129--146]),

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Interreligious Dialogue (Martti Vaahtoranta [“Lutherische Messe und Gebet in der Moschee. Die christliche und islamische Gottesdienstgemeinde im Blick auf die Lehre von der Einheit Gottes--ein Versuch, richtige Fragen zu stellen,” pp. 103-128]), Philosophy of Religions (Hans-Olof Kvist [“Grundsätzliches zum christlichen Sprachgebrauch in Immanuel Kants Religionsdenken,” pp. 147-161]), Historical Theology (Hans-Walter Krumwiede [“Nachfolge und Widerstand. Ein Beitrag zur Christologie Dietrich Bonhoeffers,” pp. 163-194], Eberhard Busch [“Das trinitarische Bekenntnis im Genfer Gottesdienst,” pp. 195-209], and Anni Maria Laato [“Die Trinitätslehre in Dogmatik-Vorlesungen in Schweden-Finnland während der 1770er Jahre,” pp. 211-221]), and the History of the Protestant Reformation (Inge Mager [“Bemühungen um die Reform der Klosterkonvente im fünfzehnten Jahrhundert. Grundzüge der Windesheimer und Bursfelder Reform,” pp. 223-243] and Jouko Heikkinen [“Die Einheit Gottes und der Anfang der Katechismustradition,” pp. 245252]).

Johann E. Erbes, The Peshitta and the Versions: A Study of the Peshitta Variants in Joshua 1-5 in Relation to Their Equivalents in the Ancient Versions (Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. Studia Semitica Upsaliensia 16; Uppsala: Uppsala University Library, 1999). REVIEWED BY CRAIG E. MORRISON, PONTIFICAL BIBLICAL INSTITUTE

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The question of the relationship of the OT Peshitta to the other ancient versions continues to capture the interest of Peshitta scholars. While past research indicates that the Peshitta is, for the most part, an independent translation of a Hebrew Vorlage, this conclusion still needs to be refined for each book of the Bible. The problem stems from the uncertain origins of the OT Peshitta. It is not unreasonable to presume that the Peshitta translator, working from a Hebrew text, also consulted a Greek version of the Bible and perhaps a Jewish Aramaic version as well. To further complicate matters, the first manuscript evidence is a good three centuries after the translation emerged. By that point, the Peshitta, which may have been the work of Jewish translators, was firmly in the hands of Syriac speaking Christians who knew the Greek Bible. One line of inquiry into the Peshitta’s character involves the study of the relationship between the Peshitta with other versions of the Bible. It is within this arena that Erbes’ dissertation, presented to the faculty of Semitic Languages at Uppsala University, situates itself. At the outset, Erbes asks the question: “How does the Peshitta sphere relate to the Jewish sphere, the Septuagint sphere, and the Vulgate?” (p. 24).

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He wants to uncover evidence of versional influence (especially the Septuagint) on the Peshitta. The bulk of his volume presents a verse by verse analysis of the variant readings in the Peshitta of Joshua 1-5. Even the most minor Peshitta divergences are discussed. The first reading he treats is the question of the waw on wy‚mr in the MT of Josh 1:1 which the Peshitta renders ‚mr (“he said”). He notes that the Syriac tradition uniformly reads ‚mr (without waw). He then provides a retroversion of the MT (wy‚mr) into Syriac (w’mr). One could quibble as to whether this retroversion is even possible in Syriac as it produces a rather “unsyriac” construction (the verb ‚mr in Josh 1:1 introduces the main clause after the subordinate clause introduced with wmn btr d ). He then discusses the versional evidence for the waw (the Targum and some Greek versions reflect the waw). Erbes concludes that the “absence of the waw is idiomatically the equivalent of the Masoretic Text” (p. 60) and that the Peshitta is free from versional influence. The study proceeds in this fashion, considering every variation between the MT and the Peshitta in Joshua 1-5. The discussions at the end of each variant studied reveal that most often the Peshitta offers an independent reading. Some variants are so minor that they defy explanation. But Erbes tries anyhow. He suggests that the variant word order in some Peshitta MSS in Josh 1:4, stressing the proper name of the river “Euphrates,” was “triggered by the relative proximity of the translator to it.” His competent study would not have been compromised had such imaginative explanations been left aside. Sometimes Peshitta readings are treated in isolation, such as the translation ‚yk dbzq‚ for Hebrew nd (Josh 3:16). Erbes suggests that the Peshitta reading “is possibly an adapted translation of the Hebrew ‘dam’ or a misreading with a Mishnaic background” (p. 219). Both explanations are possible, but it should be acknowledged that the Peshitta translation for this Hebrew term also appears in Exod 15:8 and Pss 33:7 and 78:13. As Peshitta scholars will be interested in the results of this technical research, I offer a summary below: 1. The Peshitta normally follows the MT. 2. The Peshitta rarely follows the Septuagint. 3. The Targum did not influence the Peshitta. 4. The Peshitta-Ethiopic parallels suggest direct contact or contact through a lost Septuagint MS. 5. Most unique Peshitta readings can be explained by translation technique. More than once the author acknowledges the quantitative limitations of his research. But the copious data Erbes presents witnesses to his ardent search for even the most minor trace of influence from these versions on the Peshitta. For this reason his conclusions are well founded.

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Joel Thomas Walker, The legend of Mar Qardagh. Narrative and Christian heroism in late antique Iraq. [The Transformation of the Classical Heritage, vol. 40. University of California Press, Berkeley, Los Angeles & London, 2006; ISBN 0-520-24578-4.] xviii + 345 pp; hardcover. REVIEWED BY ANDREW N. PALMER, KING EDWARD VI SCHOOL

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The legend of Mar Qardagh is a Syriac text probably written around 600 C.E. at Arbela, modern Irbīl in northern Iraq. It is set in the same place some two hundred and fifty years earlier, when the hero, Qardagh, was stoned to death as a consequence of his anti-Zoroastrian activities. Emphasis is laid on the patriotism of Qardagh, a commander of troops in a zone bordering on the Christian Roman Empire; his conversion to Christianity did not make him sympathize with the enemies of the Sasanian King of Kings and his rejection of his family and their Zoroastrian Faith did not lessen his determination to avenge his people when they were attacked by the Romans. Today Christians in the same region are sometimes suspected by Muslims of sympathizing with the Western Powers which recently invaded Iraq. In the sixth century there were many military confrontations between the Romans and the Sasanians, who claimed the whole territory once taken from the Parthians by Pompey an others and, earlier, from the Achaemenids by Alexander. In the first half of the seventh century, the frustrations of the Near East, for so long fought over by Romans and Persians, where brought to an end by an unexpected Arab invasion of both empires and the region which Garth Fowden has described as the Mountain Arena came to dominate both the Iranian plateau and (to some extent) the Mediterranean Basin. The legend of Mar Qardagh has a political message, as well as a religious one: being a Christian in the Church of the East is not the same as sympathizing with an Empire which proclaims the Christian Faith, nor is the adoption of the otherworldly values of the Gospel a justification for opting out of one’s own world, when it comes to defending the community into which one was born from external aggressors. W. gives us a tolerably reliable English version of the legend of Mar Qardagh to set beside the Latin of Jean-Baptiste Abbeloos and the German of Hermann Feige, both published in 1890; he also gives us the first ever monograph on the legend. This is no Bollandist endeavour to eliminate historically suspect elements from the legend and so make it acceptable as history. This legend has no value, Paul Peeters had claimed, contradicting Theodor Nöldeke, as a source for the events it describes; and W. agrees with Peeters, though he admits Wiessner’s point (p. 117) that there may be

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a tenuous link with a fifth-century Sasanian governor called Qardagh the nekōrgan, who (according to the correspondence of Barsauma of Nisibis) resolved a border dispute involving the raids of pro-Roman Arab tribes. The value of the legend to the historian is as a literary testament of its own time. The story of Mar Qardagh enables us to ‘breathe the climate of northern Iraq on the eve of the Islamic conquest,’ the place and the time of its composition (p. 1, acknowledging Freya Stark as the source of the phrase ‘literature is a sort of climate which one breathes’). As a source for history of the Church of the East, the legend was studied, long after Nöldeke and Peeters, by two students of Syriac-speaking Christianity, Jean-Maurice Fiey and Gernot Wiessner; the former was most interested in historical geography, the latter in the Persian epic motifs which are the subject of W.’s second chapter. The late Sasanian Empire has been studied by specialists in Persian and Arabic, with some contributions by archaeologists. Among earlier authors only Wiessner had adduced the legend of Mar Qardagh as a source for this period; Walker claims that the Qardagh legend ‘provides new and unexpected evidence for this tradition [i.e., the Iranian epic tradition] among the Christians of northern Iraq’ (p. 163). With this formula W. does scant justice to Wiessner’s contribution. The legend contains a philosophical dialogue in the Greek style, the aim of which is to show that Zoroastrians make a categorical mistake in worshipping as eternal entities things which were made by the Creator of the Universe, such as the sun and the moon, fire and water, air and earth. This dialogue was translated into English by Philippe Gignoux in 2001, as W. acknowledges in a footnote on p. 28; one might have expected W. to justify the more important discrepancies between Gignoux’s translation and his own. W.’s translation, Part I of his book, is placed on pp. 19-69 after his introduction (pp. 1-18) and before the interesting selection of photographs with instructive captions (pp. 73-83) and Part II, consisting of five chapters and an Epilogue (pp. 85-285). Chapters 1-3, on ‘The Church of the East and the Hagiography of the Persian Martyrs,’ ‘ “We rejoice in your heroic deeds!” Christian heroism and Sasanian epic tradition’ and ‘Refuting the eternity of the stars: philosophy between Byzantium and late antique Iraq’ have been touched on in the preceding paragraphs. We turn now to the rest of Part II. Chapter 4, on ‘Conversion and the family in the Acts of the Persian Martyrs,’ contains what is perhaps the most original insight of this monograph. W. notes that the Acts of the earliest Sasanian martyrs ‘typically emphasize the solidarity of Christian families, especially the affective bonds between mothers and their sons,’ whereas those of the late Sasanian martyrs tend to focus on ‘the persecution of the daughters and wives of vociferously “pagan” families,’ though they ‘include, more often than not,

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scenes of reconciliation’ (p. 244f.). ‘The Qardagh legend presents, by comparison, an utterly uncompromising view of Christian ascetic heroism’ (p. 245). What is not altogether satisfactory is W.’s explanation of these literary trends and, in particular, of the unique status which he claims for his text. Chapter 5, on ‘Remembering Mar Qardagh: the origins and evolution of an East-Syrian martyr-cult.’ Here W., while regretting ‘the badly underdeveloped state of Christian archaeology in former Sasanian lands,’ pays tribute to the pioneering work of Fiey on the cults of the East Syrian saints and martyrs (p. 248), but remarks on how few other studies there have been. He tends to believe, though admitting that specific proof of continuity has yet to be excavated, that the annual market at Melqi, outside the walls of Arbela, attested by the legend of Mar Qardagh, is of preChristian origin and that its religious focus in earlier times was the cult of the goddess Ishtar. This goddess, whose statue may have been moved out every two years from her primary temple in the city of Arbela to Milqia (a name very like that of Melqi) outside the walls for the duration of her festival, has a warlike aspect (p. 251), but little else in common with the saint. The evidence is a ‘persuasive’ reconstruction by A. Livingstone of a fragmentary text. Melqi plays a prominent part in the story of Qardagh’s life and it was there that his monastery was later situated, presumably on the ruins of the church—no need, surely, to distinguish between the ‘great and handsome church’ in §98 of B and that in the corresponding section of the Mosul MS—mentioned in the last paragraph of the text. On p. 267 W. points out that the main stream of the West-Syrian tradition ignores Qardagh, although he was commemorated in the fourteenth-century calendar of Tur ‘Abdin. In this connection it is worth remarking that Tur ‘Abdin is a plateau which includes the northern slopes of Mount Izlo/Izlā, on the southern slopes of which several monasteries existed which belonged to the Church of the East. This ridge had once been the frontier between the Roman (Tur ‘Abdin) and Persian Empires, a fact ignored in Map 2 on p. 4, which, like most other maps of the Roman frontiers, places the greater part of Tur ‘Abdin in Sasanian territory. Far be it from me to suggest that my book, Monk and mason on the Tigris frontier: the early history of Tur ‘Abdin (University of Cambridge Oriental Publications, 39; Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1990) ought to be included in the sizeable bibliography of modern scholarship (29 pages); but that is where the relevant geographical evidence is collected. That there was, throughout the centuries, intellectual exchange between West-Syrian and East-Syrian monks living in close proximity to one another in this remote and agricultural region could be assumed, if it had not been demonstrated (which, I think, it has). This route for the transmission of the ideas of John Philoponus from West-Syrian circles (in which, for doctrinal reasons, he

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was favoured) to the Church of the East (where they are found, unexpectedly, in the legend of Qardagh) might perhaps be added to those enumerated in n. 150 on p. 203. The conclusions of the several chapters are resumed in the Epilogue, where W. also suggests that the revival of the cult of Mar Qardagh at Alqoš after the First World War should be connected with the continuing tendency in the Church of the East (and to a lesser extent among Syrian Christians generally) to bolster the identity of a small ethnic group by reference to the past glories of the Assyrian Empire (p. 285). Already in the fourteenth century Rabban Saliba of Hah, the Syrian Orthodox compiler of the calendar cited in my last paragraph, highlighted this ‘nationalistic’ association in his brief entry: ‘Mar Qardagh of the genso/gensā of Sennacherib, who was crowned on a Friday.’ The Syriac word gensā can mean family or nation; this recalls §3 of the legend, where we read (in W.’s translation, p. 20): ‘Now holy Mar Qardagh was from a great people (gensā) from the stock of the kingdom of the Assyrians (’tōrāyē). His father was descended from the renowned lineage of the house of Nimrod, and his mother from the renowned lineage of the house of Sennacherib.’ The beauty of the presentation is unfortunately let down by the shortcomings of the proofreading, particularly in the transcription of Syriac: I counted more than a hundred misspellings. The translation is also marred by a number of errors. Students of Christian architecture need to know that the word translated as ‘vaulted chancels’ in §69 (p. 69) is not a plural, but a transcription of the Greek κογχη, meaning ‘apse;’ and students of philosophy should compare all the existing translations of the dialogue on creatures, as the following short extract from §17 (p. 28 f.) shows: The blessed one said to him, “Do you not worship the sun and the moon, fire and water, air and earth, and call them gods and goddesses?” Qardagh said to him, “Yes, I worship them because these things are eternal entities and have not been made [this should be: and no creatures; the Syriac is w-law ‛bīdē, not wlaw ‛bīdīn].” The blessed one said to him, “Now from what have you deduced that the luminaries are eternal entities and have not been made [see above]?” Qardagh said to him, “From their constant course and because of the [var. B] immutability [B reads ‘mutability;’ the reading ‘immutability’ comes from A!] of their nature, and from the fact that they endure [Syriac: mkatrīn, which is ‘abide’] by the strength of their nature and are not changed like other things, and are set on high above [the

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conjunction w- is here strongly adversative; translate: ‘but are set on high’].” In §18 (p. 29) the word qāpsīn/qāpes is translated first as ‘store up [their warmth],’ then as ‘restrain [its rays];’ the former translation is inadmissible. I found as many mistakes on each of the following pages of the dialogue. On p. 30 ‘they also are not alive’ should be ‘they are not even alive,’ as in l. 4 f. of the same section (p. 29). In §19, l. 2, ‘greater’ should be ‘to a greater degree;’ in l. 5, ‘organs of the body: the brain etc.’ should be ‘organs of the body, such as the brain etc.;’ in l. 8, ‘parts’ should be ‘things;’ in l. 9, ‘in’ should be ‘of;’ in l. 10 f. ‘the whole world would be destroyed’ should be ‘that would entail the destruction of the whole world;’ in l. 11, ‘bond’ should be ‘girdle;’ in l. 13, ‘plants’ should be ‘roots.’ On p. 31 (§20), l. 1, the word ‘qualities’ has been supplied by the translator and mārānā’īt should be ‘in a sovereign manner,’ not ‘chiefly;’ in. l. 2, ‘receive’ should be ‘have received;’ in l. 4 metnged should be translated ‘is afflicted,’ not ‘is blinded,’ and ‘suffers’ should be ‘suffers harm to his sight;’ in l. 10 ‘have been made’ should be ‘creatures’ (see above) or ‘created entities,’ as in l. 13; in l. 15, ‘rout’ should be ‘defeat;’ in l. 16, ‘dissolved’ should be ‘liquefied’ and the word ‘even’ should be omitted; in l. 17, ‘vanishes’ should be ‘evaporates;’ in l. 19, ‘heated’ should be ‘ignited’ and ‘by the luminaries’ should be ‘by fire’ (although this involves emending the text); in l. 20, ‘each of them’ should be followed by ‘singly’ and ‘even of’ should be ‘including.’ In n. 58 on p. 31 W. writes: ‘Literally “has come into being” (hwāyā hū).’ This should be: ‘Literally: “is a contingent being” (hwāyā-[h]w).’ The corrections necessary on these three pages suffice to show that no scholarly argument can be based solely on this translation. One might also have hoped to see more sensitivity to the way the author plays on Syriac words, particularly on the word mšīḥā ‘Messiah,’ which has almost the same appearance on the page as mšaynā ‘domesticated,’ from šayyen ‘he pacified’ (see p. 50, l. 1: ‘From when I put on Christ, the peace of the world, I did not want of my own volition to clothe myself in the rage of battles’), while the root mšah means both ‘anoint’ and ‘measure’ (see p. 22, l. 7: ‘intemperate’ = ‘unchristened’). By no means all allusions to the Bible are noticed; for example, the child Samuel also said, ‘Here I am!’ when he heard his name called by a supernatural being in the night (p. 23). If one is not too pedantic, though, this book is enjoyable and instructive to read. It certainly gives a more panoramic view than any previous study of the legend, with more suggestive insights and more abundant documentation, though perhaps the contribution of Wiessner to the conception of Chapter 2 might have been more generously acknowledged.

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Suha Rassam, Christianity in Iraq: Its Origins and Development to the Present Day. Leominster, UK: Gracewing, 2005. xxix, 203 p., [14] p. of plates, 3 maps. Bibliography: p. [198]-203. ISBN 0852446330 £9.99; Distributed in the US by Gorgias Press, $35.00. JAN WITOLD WERYHO, MCGILL UNIVERSITY (RETIRED)

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Iraqi Christian visitors or immigrants in the West are often surprised by the question “When did you convert to Christianity?” Their indignant response is usually “We have always been Christian!” Indeed, Christianity had arrived in Iraq before it arrived in Britain or anywhere in northern Europe. Today the number of Christians in Iraq surpasses half a million (573,918 according to the 1997 edition of World Church Handbook, quoted in the book under review on p. 181). The author, Suha Rassam is a Catholic of the Chaldean rite, born in Mosul. A medical doctor, she had been an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the University of Baghdad. After coming to England in 1990 she worked in London hospitals until her retirement when she took an MA in Eastern Christianity at the school of Oriental and African Studies in the University of London. In this she is following in the footsteps of her distinguished ancestors. During the heyday of medieaval Arab civilization many famous Christian physicians had written works about history and theology, or conversely, many theologians had produced works about medicine. But, as far as I know, Rassam is the first woman to combine the two disciplines. Her book presents a history of Christianity in Iraq from the very beginnings until our own time. (The last date in the chronology is 10 April 2005, recording the appointment of Mr. Jacfari as Prime Minister). According to tradition Christianity was first preached in Iraq by the Apostle Thomas on his way to India and his fellow-Apostle, St. Thaddeus. Or maybe even earlier? In his Prologue to the book Monsignor Mikhael Al Jamil mentions the three Magi who had visited the Infant Jesus in Bethlehem. Could they have been Iraqis? The Magi were Zoroastrian priests, presumably ethnic Persians, but Iraq was at that time part of the Iranian (Parthian) Empire. Could they have brought back the news of the Saviour, Saoshyant foretold by Zarathushtra? The Parthian Arsacid rulers of Iran and Iraq, nominal Zoroastrians were quite tolerant of other religions. The situation changed in 224 AD when they were overthrown by the Sassanids, ardent Persian nationalists, determined to restore the ancient culture of Iran without the foreign influences accumulated since the conquest by Alexander 500 years before. Christianity, as a foreign religion, was perceived as a threat, especially during the constant wars between Zoroastrian Iran and Christian Byzantium. The

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harshest and longest persecution in the history of Iraqi/Iranian Christianity took place during the forty years (339-379) reign of Shah Shapur II. The Chaldean church in Montreal is dedicated to its numerous victims, Les Saints Martyrs d’Orient. The situation improved when the Church of the East declared itself independent of Byzantium and Rome (like in our times the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association in Communist China). During the 5th and 6th century Middle Eastern Christianity gradually divided itself into three mutually hostile groups, accusing each other of heresy. Ostensibly the conflict was over a formula expressing the human and divine nature of Christ, but cultural differences played their part. The so-called Melkites or “Royalists” (from Syriac malkâ, Arabic malik, “king”) accepted the doctrine promoted by the Byzantine Emperor (and the Pope), as defined by the Council of Chalcedon. The West Syrian or Syrian Orthodox Church (known as Jacobite after its famous preacher Jacob Baradeus) was accused of denying Christ’s true humanity. Finally the East Syrian Church or Church of the East, best known as Nestorian for accepting the doctrine preached by Nestorius, Patriarch of Constantinople, condemned by the Council of Ephesus, refused to accept the term Theotokos (Mother of God), insisting that Mary was the Mother of Jesus the Man only. Rassam takes us through all those controversies showing us that most of them were simply misunderstandings. The disputants had been trying to apply Greek logic to issues which belonged to faith more than to philosophy. Indeed, in 1994 the “Nestorian” Church of the East and the Catholic Church have issued a joint statement expressing their agreement about the two natures and one Person of Christ. Better late than never! But to the majority of the faithful (of any denomination) more relevant than abstract questions of theology are such discernible signs as the liturgical language, Communion under both species or in the form of bread only, the direction of the sign of the Cross, left or right, married clergy versus celibate clergy (or bearded clergy versus clean-shaven clergy), Gregorian versus Julian calendar, baptism by sprinkling with water or by immersion, the mystery of the Mass behind a screen or curtain or openly facing the congregation, segregated or merged seating of men and women in church, the presence or absence of icons... (The Church of the East rejects any pictorial representations as staunchly as Islam or some radical Protestant Churches in the West). Rassam has little to tell us about those relatively trivial (or perhaps not so trivial) matters. She strongly objects to the use of the terms “Nestorian” and “Jacobite” traditionally applied to the Church of the East and the Syrian Orthodox Church by outsiders as incorrect and even offensive. Nestorius was not even a member of the Church which goes by his name! Likewise she proposes the term “Oriental Orthodox Churches” for the so-called “Monophysite” Churches (another incorrect term thrust upon them by

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their opponents) which include the Syrian Orthodox Church and its sister Churches in the Middle East to distinguish them from the Chalcedonian “Eastern Orthodox Churches” of Eastern Europe which follow the Byzantine tradition (p. 63). This may work very well in English which provides us with the synonyms “Eastern” and “Oriental,” but what about other languages? In French we can say Les Eglises Orthodoxes Orientales, but what alternative do we have? Yet the term “Nestorian,” while incorrect, does have an illustrious history. Most of us have heard of the “lost” Nestorian Christianities in the heart of Asia. Persecuted or harassed in the Iranian Empire the Church of the East had sent missionaries to India, to Central Asia and China. Today some 20 million Christians in the Indian State of Kerala use Syriac as their liturgical language. Nestorian Christianity has disappeared from Central Asia and China by the 14th century, but some of its traces remain: The Mongolian language is still written in a Syriac-derived script in Inner (Chinese) Mongolia, as it was written in Outer (independent) Mongolia until the introduction of Cyrillic in 1941. The Arab Muslim conquerors were welcomed by the Iraqi Christians as liberators from the oppressive Iranian rule. Under shari‛a law Christians, Jews and Sabi’ans, followers of monotheistic religions mentioned in the Koran, were given certain rights as dhimmis (“protected persons”). Under the ‛Abbasid Caliphs, when Arab Islamic civilization had reached its apogee Christians became particularly appreciated as translators of Greek philosophy into Arabic and as physicians. Suha Rassam quotes a story by Jâḥiz about a medical doctor Asad bin Jani who complains that he has no patients because he is a Muslim, not a Christian (p. 83). Sounds eerily familiar: In pre-War Poland Jewish doctors were perceived as more competent than their Polish Catholic colleagues. The joke went that every anti-Semite made an exception for his doctor. Understandably Christian success had created resentment. Even such leading intellectuals like Jâhiz and Tabari found it necessary to write anti-Christian polemics. At the time of the Arab conquest the overwhelming majority of Iraqi Christians spoke Syriac. Gradually they began to change their language from Syriac to Arabic although they continued to attend Syriac churches. Today Syriac-speakers are a minority, even among the Christians of Iraq. Rassam’s Mosul family had always been Arabic-speaking, at least as far as her greatgrandmother could remember. Our author speculates that she may be descended not from Chaldeans who had lost their language, but from Arabs who had converted to Christianity before Islam (p. 128, n. 6). She does not mention any Kurdish-speaking Christians. The Mongol conquest of Baghdad in 1258 was of course a catastrophe for the Arabs, but, paradoxically enough it put Christians in a position of advantage compared to the preceding period. For all their barbarity the

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Mongol rulers had one great virtue: complete religious tolerance. Indeed many of them were members of the Church of the East. Jizyah, the special tax which the dhimmis had to pay in lieu of military service and all other legal disadvantages affecting Christians were abolished. The year 1287 saw the first attempt at reconciliation between the Church of the East and the Catholic Church. The Patriarch Yahballaha III sent his Bishop, Bar Sauma to Rome with letters from the pro-Christian ilkhan of Iran, Argun Khan proposing a Mongol-Christian alliance. Perhaps fortunately no military alliance materialized, but Bar Sauma was warmly received by the Pope and allowed to participate in all church ceremonies like a Catholic Bishop in good standing. The Christian-Mongol “honeymoon” ended in 1295 when Argun’s son and successor, Ghazan converted to Islam. The sharica was reinstated, including all restrictions on the dhimmis. Iraq was conquered by the Ottoman Turks in 1534. The Ottomans governed their recognised non-Muslim minorities through the millet system. Millet, derived from Arabic milla (“sect”) means “nation” in Turkish. Each “nation” was given a large measure of inner self-government with the Patriarch or leader holding civil as well as ecclesiastical authority with the responsibility of collecting taxes for the Ottoman Government. The origins of the Chaldean “Uniate” Catholic Church can be traced to 1552 when a rival Patriarch of the Church of the East, John Sulaqa asked for and was granted recognition by the Pope. The Patriarch Shimcon VIII Dinkha, recognised as head of his millet had him thrown in prison by the Ottoman authorities. The union lasted on and off with the two lines of Patriarchs exchanging their positions until it became permanent in 1830 when John VIII Hormiz was given by the Pope the title “Patriarch of Babylon over the Chaldeans.” The Chaldean Catholic Millet was recognised by the Ottoman authorities in 1844. Today the Chaldean Catholic Church forms the largest Christian community in Iraq. The Iraqi Christians are perfectly justified in their proud boast “We have always been Christian,” but they stand on less firm ground when they claim “We have always been Catholic.” Meanwhile the Church of the East, much reduced in numbers found refuge in the almost inaccessible Hakkâri Mountains in southeast Turkey. Its faithful, claiming descent from the ancient Assyrians displayed the warlike qualities of their ancestors. No Ottoman military or tax collector dared enter their territory. The chiefs of their seven tribes bore the grandiose title Malik (“King” in Arabic). Over the seven Kings stood the Patriarch of the East whose office had become hereditary from uncle to nephew in the Mar Shimcun family. Their virtually independent state bore a remarkable resemblance to Montenegro, unconquered by the Turks and likewise ruled by hereditary (uncle to nephew) Orthodox Bishops.

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During the First World War, the Assyrians, encouraged by Russian and British agents, openly rebelled against their nominal Turkish overlords. Driven out of Turkey into Iran whose declared neutrality was respected by neither party they captured the largely Assyrian city of Urmiyé. They held their own against Turkish, Iranian and Kurdish attacks until August 1918 when they decided to trek south to British-occupied Hamadan. Some fifteen out of sixty thousand perished on the way. The British, who had by that time occupied most of Iraq, removed them to Bacqubah where they trained the wild mountain guerrillas into a modern army. The so-called Assyrian Levies ranked among the toughest soldiers in the British Empire, equal to Sikhs and Gurkhas. Their loyalty to their British allies would cost them dearly. By 1920 the British liberators of Iraq had outstayed their welcome and an uprising broke out in the South. It was put down, largely with Assyrian help, but the British were forced to grant self-government to Iraq with Faysal I as King. Formal independence followed in 1932. Rassam greatly admires King Faysal for his lack of prejudice against religious minorities. She quotes him with approval (p. 134): “I do not want to hear that this country contains Christians, Jews or Muslims because we are all Semites [emphasis added by the reviewer] forming one nation called Iraq...” True, the Chaldeans, the Assyrians, the Jews and the Arabs are Semites, but the Kurds are not. Rassam does not comment. With Iraqi independence the British disbanded the Assyrian Levies, hated by the Arab Muslim population. Fearing the worst, the Assyrians refused to surrender their arms. A clash with the Iraqi Army became inevitable. King Faysal, very ill, tried to avert the tragedy, but was ignored by his Prime Minister, Rashid Ali al-Gaylani, a Fascist who would stage a pro-German coup d’état during the 2nd World War. Meanwhile his government created a general panic by exaggerating reports about the strength of the Assyrian rebel forces and the danger they represented. Unable to hold their own against the Iraqi Army the Assyrians were massacred in the summer of 1933. King Faysal died soon afterwards. The Patriarch of the East, Mar Eshai Shimcun was expelled from the country and not allowed back until 1970. Needless to say, the Assyrian problem did not make life easier for the other Christian communities in Iraq. In 1958 the Iraqi Monarchy was overthrown and a Republic proclaimed. In 1968 power was seized by the Bacath (“Renaissance”) Party, an Arab nationalist party founded by a Christian Arab political philosopher, Michel Aflaq. Its secular nationalism appealed to many young Christian Arab intellectuals. “A sense of belonging to the country as an Arab, an Iraqi and a Christian was encouraged but only through being a Ba‛athist” (p. 149). Saddam Hussein succeeded Ahmad Hassan al-Bakr as President in 1979. Whatever his misdeeds as a ruthless dictator he never perpetrated nor

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permitted any iniquity against the Christians. He appointed many Christians to high positions including the Deputy Prime Minister, Tariq Aziz. If Christians suffered under his regime, it was not specifically as Christians but like all Iraqis. Like every historian who has drawn her narrative down to her own time, Rassam is forced to make a comment about the current situation. She has little sympathy for the American-led invasion, as is shown by her use of the term “occupation,” a term the self-proclaimed “liberators” of Iraq would protest against. She quotes with approval the joint statement of the Bishops of Mosul of all denominations (p. 190): “...We ask the occupying forces and all foreign armed people to leave the country.” The “foreign armed people” are Muslim volunteers come to Iraq to fight the Americans. They have carried out indiscriminate killings, not only of Americans and the new Iraqi Army and Police, but of ordinary Iraqis, Christians and Muslims. They have carried out bomb attacks against Christian churches which have been condemned by all Iraqi Muslim religious leaders, Sunni and Shica. Since the book was published Shica and Sunni mosques have also been destroyed by bombs, so that now all Iraqis, Christians and Muslims are in the same desperate situation. The last chapter “Iraq under occupation and transitional rule” does not make happy reading, but the overall message of the book need not be pessimistic. Iraqi Christians (and all Iraqis) had survived persecution, foreign invasion, civil war in the past and this could be the ultimate lesson from history. The bibliography consists of two sections: “Publications in English” (p. [198]-202) and “Arabic publications and translations” (p. 202-3). There are no French works listed, not even J.M. Fiey’s monumental Assyrie chrétienne, although Rassam had learnt French in L’Ecole de la Présentation, a girls’ school in Baghdad directed by French nuns and indeed she mentions Fiey in note 32 on p. 75 without giving the title of his book. The Arabic titles are given in English translation only, without the Arabic original, neither in transliteration nor in the original script. Now suppose I want to look up AlKaisi, Abd al-Majid Hasib, The Political and Military History of the Assyrians in Iraq in a library catalogue? I have to translate it back into Arabic Târîkh alAthûrîyîn al-Siyâsî wa-al-‛Askarî fî-al-‛Irâq (?) and hope that this is how the title goes in the original, but how can I be sure? There are glossaries of Syriac and Arabic terms (p. [194]-197), but no index, which would have been very useful. Syriac and Arabic names in the text are spelt phonetically, not according to any exact transliteration, as we would expect in a book written for the general public. However there are many typos, no doubt the fault of the English printer, e.g., the name Bakr is spelt Bakir, both in the case of the Caliph Abu Bakr (p. 73, n. 18) and of President Ahmad Hassan al-Bakr (p. 148).

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An unfortunate slip of the pen occurs on p. 173: In enumerating the Chaldean churches outside Iraq the author counts “two in Iran.” Maybe she means the two Archdioceses, Tehran and Urmiyé. As to parish churches, there are in Sanandaj (the former See of the Archbishop of Tehran), in Salmas, in Kermanshah, in Hamadan, and in Ahvaz. The fourteen pages of black-and-white photographs will give the Western reader a direct feeling of Iraqi Christian culture, although they do not give full justice to the rich ecclesiastical architectural heritage of Iraq. The book fills a much needed lacuna. Most educated Westerners have heard of the Copts in Egypt, the Maronites in Lebanon, but the presence of the Chaldeans and other Christian groups in Iraq is largely unknown. Although the book is written with the general reader in mind, the Orientalist scholar will find much useful information in it. Its scope extends beyond its stated subject matter. Iraq is not an island, geographically or figuratively speaking, and Iraqi Christianity is placed within a wider context. We learn about the history of the Christian Church and its Christological controversies of interest to theologians, about the history of the Middle East, and of the neighbouring countries, Iran, Syria and Turkey. I believe that the history of a religious or ethnic minority throws a new perspective on our view of the society in general. (“Black Studies” teach us something not only about the history of Black people in North America, but also about American and Canadian history as such). The author’s references to her personal experience as an Iraqi Christian add a lot to the charm of the book. There are those who believe that a scholarly work has to be dry and impersonal, excluding any “anecdotal” material to be truly “academic.” This reviewer does not share that view and would recommend the book to all readers interested in Iraq and the Middle East.

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IN MEMORIAM

BRUCE M. METZGER (1914-2007) IAN TORRANCE PRINCETON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY [1]

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Dr. Bruce Manning Metzger, New Testament professor emeritus at Princeton Theological Seminary and, I believe, the greatest American New Testament critic and biblical translator of the twentieth century, died February 13, 2007, at his home in Princeton at the age of 93. Bruce Metzger was born in Middletown, Pennsylvania on the 9th of February 1914. After gaining a BA from Lebanon Valley College in 1935, he entered Princeton Theological Seminary, graduating with a ThB in 1938. So began a life-long association with Princeton Theological Seminary during which Bruce Metzger became not only a legend himself but also one of the school’s greatest intellectual ornaments. He was ordained in the United Presbyterian Church (now the PC[USA]) in 1939. In 1944 he married Isobel Elizabeth, the elder daughter of John Alexander Mackay, the great Third President of the Seminary, who rebuilt and revitalized the school after the divisions of the 1920s. Bruce Metzger’s sheer brilliance, clarity and Christian devotion set a standard all of his own. He taught while he continued to study (Princeton University, MA[1940], Ph.D. [1942], Classics), serving as Teaching Fellow in New Testament Greek 1938-40 and as Instructor in New Testament 1940-44. He was appointed Assistant Professor 1944-48; Associate Professor 1948-54 and Professor 1954-84. He was named the George L. Collord Professor of New Testament Language and Literature in 1964. He retired in 1984 and was named professor emeritus. An absolutely preeminent New Testament scholar, Metzger was known internationally for his work in biblical translation and the history of the Bible’s versions and canonization. He was one of the world leaders in textual study of the New Testament, the Apocrypha and the Pseudepigrapha. He served as Chair of the Committee on Translation of the American Bible Society 1964-70, and as Chair of the Committee of Translators for the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible 1977-90. The impact of this work is incalculable and Bruce Metzger saw it through the press almost single-handedly. The NRSV, published in 1990, made changes 81

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to the RSV in paragraph structure and construction, eliminated archaisms while retaining the Tyndale-King James tradition, polished renderings in the interest of accuracy, clarity, and felicity of English expression, and eliminated masculine language referring to people, insofar as this did not distort historical accuracy. In 1993 Bruce Metzger presented a copy of the NRSV, Catholic Edition, to Pope John Paul II at the Vatican. Bruce Metzger understood and was passionate about the significance of biblical translation for ecumenical dialogue. In 1957 he served on the committee that translated the Apocrypha (the committee comprised the original RSV Committee plus Metzger, Floyd Filson, Robert Pfeiffer, and Allen Wikgren). In 1972 he chaired the sub-committee that translated 3 and 4 Maccabees and Psalm 151 for an expanded version of the Apocrypha. He personally presented this expanded version to His All Holiness Demetrios I in 1976. It was important to him that Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, and Protestant Christians be able to have recourse to a common biblical text as an instrument of unity. Bruce Metzger cared about and provided for his students. Generations have been grateful for his Lists of Words Occurring Frequently in the Coptic New Testament, and his Lexical Aids for Students of New Testament Greek (first published in 1946) became a standard study tool. He edited The Oxford Annotated Bible in 1962, and in 1966, along with Kurt Aland, Matthew Black and Allen Wikgren, edited the United Bible Societies’ edition of the Greek New Testament. This text, especially adapted to meet the needs of Bible translators, with its beautiful original font and indication of the relative degree of certainty for each variant adopted in the text, proved to be an enduring landmark. The editors were later joined by Carlo Martini (the Cardinal Archbishop of Milan from 1980 to 2002). A warm friendship grew between Metzger and Matthew Black, the doyen of Scottish text-critical scholars. The honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity from St Andrews University was bestowed on Bruce Metzger in 1964, and all Scots are moved by seeing that he is wearing his St Andrews tie in his portrait in the Speer Library. There were other honors. In 1994, Bruce Metzger was awarded the Burkitt Medal for Biblical Studies by The British Academy in London (of which he had been a Corresponding Fellow since 1978). This is only awarded in recognition of a lifetime of distinguished Biblical study. Bruce Metzger was elected president of Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas (1971), the International Society of Biblical Literature (1971), and was the first president of the North American Patristic Society (1972). He was a member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton (1969 and 1974) and visiting fellow at Clare Hall, Cambridge (1974) and Wolfson College, Oxford (1979).

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There were many other books, among which the classic studies The Text of the New Testament, its Transmission, Corruption and Restoration (1964, and translated into German, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Italian and Russian) and The Early Versions of the New Testament, their Origin, Transmission, and Limitations (1977) have been particularly influential. Bruce Metzger’s last publication before his death was Apostolic Letters of Faith, Hope, and Love: Galatians, 1 Peter, and I John (2006). Bruce Metzger cared passionately about the Bible, and in 1982 became the general editor of the Reader’s Digest Condensed Bible. He lectured throughout the nation and the world, in North and South America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Korea, Japan, and South Africa, often at churches and universities where his former students ministered and taught. He was awarded honorary doctorates by Lebanon Valley College, Findlay College, St. Andrews University, the University of Münster, and Potchefstroom University in South Africa. A Bible autographed by Bruce Metzger is sealed in the time capsule embedded in the corner of Scheide Hall. Despite all his distinctions, Bruce Metzger never lost his modesty, or his courteous welcome, genuine interest in and encouragement for much younger scholars. He was a warm and supportive colleague within the Seminary and beloved by many scholars and lay people here in Princeton and throughout the world. Bruce Metzger is survived by his wife Isobel and his sons John Mackay Metzger and James Bruce Metzger. A memorial service to give thanks for Bruce Metzger’s life was held on Tuesday, 20th February at 2.00pm in Nassau Presbyterian Church.

IN MEMORIAM

TAEKE JANSMA (1919-2007) LUCAS VAN ROMPAY DUKE UNIVERSITY [1]

[2]

[3]

Professor Taeke Jansma died on May 30, 2007 in Voorschoten, near Leiden, The Netherlands, at the age of 87. Present-day Syriac scholars will not have seen new publications by Professor Jansma in the last thirty years or so, but several of his Syriac publications that appeared between 1949 and the mid-seventies have proven to be of such lasting significance that there is reason, in a journal devoted to Syriac studies, to reflect briefly on the work of this eminent scholar.1 Taeke Jansma was born in Almelo, in the province of Overijssel, in the east of The Netherlands, in 1919. In 1938, he went to Leiden to study theology and Semitics. Under the supervision of Professor P.A.H. de Boer (d. 1989) he wrote his dissertation, Inquiry into the Hebrew Text and the Ancient Versions of Zechariah IX-XIV (no. 1), with which he earned his Ph.D. in 1949. Chapters are devoted to the Targum, the Peshitta, and the Septuagint, while Syriac readings are used and referred to throughout the dissertation. Moreover, several of the additional theses, short statements that in the Dutch tradition accompany the dissertation, deal with Syriac. Already during his student years, therefore, Syriac must have been emerging as an important focus of his scholarly interests. Jansma acquired additional expertise in the Aramaic languages of Late Antiquity including Syriac, Jewish Aramaic, and Samaritan Aramaic during a period of study spent in Leeds and Oxford in 1949-50. In 1950, Leiden University appointed him full professor of “Hebrew language and literature, Israelite Antiquities, and Aramaic,” thus putting on his shoulder a heavy teaching load, which seemed to leave only a little room for Syriac. For nearly a quarter of a century Jansma’s teaching covered the whole field that had been entrusted to him. Syllabi and student notes that continued to circulate in Leiden even many years after his retirement are a clear indication of the effect his teaching had on students. He was a

1 The precious help of Heleen Murre-van den Berg, Bas ter Haar Romeny, and Joel Marcus is gratefully acknowledged.

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[4]

[5]

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powerful teacher, who was always extremely well prepared and who was able to capture the attention and stimulate the imagination of students. When in the late fifties the Peshitta project of the “International Organization for the Study of the Old Testament” was set up in Leiden, under the direction of Professor de Boer, Jansma took upon himself the preparation of the edition of Genesis (which appeared in 1977 – no. 6). There can be no doubt that he was well-equipped to carry out this task, but he saw his work as much more than that of a text-critic. As he wrote in his dissertation “… text-critical work only goes part of the way. It may find its completion by an exegetical study,” for “judging and weighing is the work of exegesis.” (p. 59). This must have been the background to his exploration, from the mid-fifties on, of Syriac interpretations of Genesis. This exploration led to a number of important publications that arose out of Jansma’s reading of numerous published and unpublished Syriac commentaries, treatises, and homilies. In 1958, Jansma published a paper of monograph length: “Investigations into the Early Syrian Fathers on Genesis. An Approach to the Exegesis of the Nestorian Church and to the Comparison of Nestorian and Jewish Exegesis,” (no. 8). This is a remarkable and still very useful survey of relevant Syriac texts, with comments on the characteristics of each text, on its sources, and on parallel passages drawn from GreekChristian as well as from Jewish writings. This study laid the groundwork for much of the later scholarship in the field of East-Syriac biblical interpretation. Along with the work of Professor Van den Eynde in Louvain (d. 1991), who also in the fifties started his exemplary edition and annotated translation of Ishocdad of Merv’s Old Testament commentaries, Jansma’s studies opened the field, identified the main texts, and formulated interesting research questions. Subsequent students and scholars owe a very great debt of gratitude to these two scholars, Jansma and Van den Eynde. They worked on the same texts, sometimes came to the same conclusions, and admired each other’s work. They also had in common, however, that they shunned public events and felt very uncomfortable with personal attention—which helps explain why they never met. Other important publications that emerged from Jansma’s work in the field of Syriac exegesis include his edition and study of Syriac fragments from Theodore of Mopsuestia’s Commentary on Genesis (no. 16), his study of interpretations of the Creation and Paradise story in Jacob of Serug (no. 9) and Narsai (nos. 20, 23, 26, and 27), and his work on Ephrem’s Commentary on Genesis (nos. 28, 33, 38). Text-criticism and the history of interpretation are clearly interwoven in Jansma’s study of specific Genesis readings in the Syro-Hexapla (no. 25), Bardaisan (no. 24), Ephrem (no. 35), and Barhebraeus (no. 32). His study of a number of anonymous homilies (in particular nos. 11 and 12) should be mentioned under this rubric as well.

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[7]

[8]

[9]

In Memoriam

Jansma’s critical notes on the published texts and translations of Ephrem’s Commentaries on Genesis and Exodus (nos. 28, 31, 33, and 38) as well as on Narsai’s Homilies on Creation (no. 26) remain indispensable for those who study these texts today. In addition to the biblical text and its interpretation, the figure of Bardaisan and his legacy became an important theme in Jansma’s work. What was initially intended as a review of H.J.W. Drijvers’ monograph Bardaisan of Edessa (1966) grew into a full monograph, which was published in Dutch in 1969: Natuur, lot en vrijheid. Bardesanes, de filosoof der Arameeërs en zijn images (no. 5). The most significant word of the title is the last one, “images.” Jansma strongly argued that the different sources providing information on Bardaisan and his teaching cannot be brought together into one coherent picture. We can hardly go beyond the different “images” which each of the sources create and construct. Present-day students, therefore, are like visitors in a gallery of paintings spanning nearly 18 centuries of history. We see, one after the other, portraits of Bardaisan, positive or negative, painted by such skilled artists as his disciple Filippus, Sextus Julius Africanus, Ephrem, … and in recent times, among others, by Schaeder, Levi della Vida, and Drijvers. Jansma himself clearly did not want to be one of these artists. With remarkable sharpness he tried to read each of the ancient sources in its own right, trying to understand what it was doing in its own context, and painfully aware (and “filled with unspeakable bitterness,” as the final sentence of the book has it) that the real Bardaisan escapes from us, that we know neither his writings nor his thoughts, and that we have not been able to glimpse his face. Jansma’s book on Bardaisan happened to be the very first monograph on a Syriac topic that I read as a beginning student of Syriac. The author’s erudition, which normally would be intimidating for an inexpert reader, is balanced with a very accessible and truly beautiful language and style. Moreover, the book is only very lightly footnoted. The reader is skillfully guided through the world of Edessene and Syriac Christian culture, and important lessons in literary and historical criticism are taught. A very different period of history is the scene of another of Jansma’s monographs, published in 1959: Oost-Westelijke verkenningen (“East-West explorations”—no. 4). It is built on a parallel reading of two travelogues: the Latin report by William of Rubroeck of his journey to the Mongol court in 1253-1255, and the Syriac narrative of Barsauma’s travels to the Middle East and Europe at the end of the 13th century. Closely following the texts and explaining them to his readers in a lively fashion, Jansma delineates the ways in which the Flemish monk saw Mongolia and the East-Syrian prelate from the Beijing region saw Europe. The skills of the literary critic and of the historian, which would become so prominent in the Bardaisan book ten years later, are already to be found here. At the same time, this book shows

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the versatility of the author, who felt at home with any Syriac text between Bardaisan and Barhebraeus. In 1973, the Leiden chair of Hebrew and Aramaic was split up. Jansma decided to leave the Hebrew part to a newly appointed colleague, and to become the first incumbent of the new Aramaic position himself. This could have been the beginning of a new phase in his career, one entirely devoted to teaching and research in the field of Aramaic and Syriac. Unfortunately, soon thereafter his health no longer allowed him to continue his work. He retired early, in his mid-fifties. Although he recovered to some extent, he did not resume academic work and chose not to participate in university life, in spite of his close physical proximity to it. This was a source of great sadness for his students and colleagues, who had to find consolation in their memories and in Jansma’s written work. His passing away now, more than thirty years later, at an advanced age, accentuates the pain of his early departure and long absence. However, in view of the rich diversity of his scholarship and its remarkable depth, our feelings should in the first place be ones of admiration and profound gratitude. May he rest in peace!

APPENDIX: A LIST OF T. JANSMA’S PUBLICATIONS Books and Independent Publications 1. Inquiry into the Hebrew Text and the Ancient Versions of Zechariah IXXIV (Leiden: Brill, 1949); also published in Oudtestamentische Studiën 7 (1950), 1-142. 2. Twee Haggada’s uit de Palestijnse Targum van de Pentateuch. Rede uitgesproken bij de aanvaarding van het ambt van Hoogleraar aan de Rijksuniversiteit te Leiden op 20 october 1950 (Leiden: Universitaire Pers, 1950). 3. A Selection from the Acts of Judas Thomas (Semitic Study Series. New Series, 1; Leiden: Brill, 1952). 4. Oost-Westelijke verkenningen in de dertiende eeuw. De reizen van de Franciscaan Willem van Rubroek naar Mongolië in de jaren 1253-1255 en van de Nestoriaanse prelaat Barsauma naar Europa in de jaren 1287-1288 (Vooraziatisch-Egyptisch Genootschap “Ex Oriente Lux.” Mededelingen en Verhandelingen, 13; Leiden: Brill, 1959). 5. Natuur, lot en vrijheid. Bardesanes, de filosoof der Arameeërs en zijn images (Cahiers bij het Nederlands Theologisch Tijdschrift, 6; Wageningen: H. Veenman & Zonen, 1969). 6. Genesis. Based on Material Collected and Studied by T. Jansma. Prepared by the Peshitta Institute (The Old Testament in Syriac according to the Peshitta Version, I,1. Preface. Genesis – Exodus; Leiden: Brill, 1977).

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Articles 7. “Vijf teksten in de Tora met een dubieuze constructie,” Nederlands Theologisch Tijdschrift 12 (1957-1958), 161-179. 8. “Investigations into the Early Syrian Fathers on Genesis. An Approach to the Exegesis of the Nestorian Church and to the Comparison of Nestorian and Jewish Exegesis,” Oudtestamentische Studiën 12 (1958), 69-181. 9. “L’Hexaméron de Jacques de Sarûg,” L’Orient syrien 4 (1959), 3-42, 129-162, 253-284. 10. “The Credo of Jacob of Sĕrūgh : A Return to Nicaea and Constantinople,” Nederlands Archief voor Kerkgeschiedenis 44 (1960), 18-36. 11. “Une homélie anonyme sur la chute d’Adam,” L’Orient syrien 5 (1960), 159-182, 253-293. 12. “Une homélie anonyme sur la création du monde,” L’Orient syrien 5 (1960), 385-400. 13. “Une homélie anonyme sur les plaies d’Égypte,” L’Orient syrien 6 (1961), 3-24. 14. “Une homélie anonyme sur l’effusion du Saint-Esprit,” L’Orient syrien 6 (1961), 157-178. 15. “Une homélie anonyme sur le jeûne,” L’Orient syrien 6 (1961), 413440. 16. “Théodore de Mopsueste, Interprétation du Livre de la Genèse. Fragments de la version syriaque (B.M. Add. 17,189, fol. 17-21),” Le Muséon 75 (1962), 63-92. 17. “Projet d’édition du « Ketâbâ derêš mellê » de Jean bar Penkayé,” L’Orient syrien 8 (1963), 87-106. 18. “Encore le Credo de Jacques de Saroug. Nouvelles recherches sur l’argument historique concernant son orthodoxie,” L’Orient syrien 10 (1965), 75-88, 193-236, 331-370, 475-510. 19. “Die Christologie Jakobs von Serugh und ihre Abhängigkeit von der alexandrinischen Theologie und der Frömmigkeit Ephraems des Syrers,” Le Muséon 78 (1965), 5-46. 20. “Étude sur la pensée de Narsaï : L’homélie no XXXIV: Essai d’interprétation,” L’Orient syrien 11 (1966), 147-168, 265-290, 393429. 21. “La notice de Barḥadbešabba sur l’hérésie des Daiṣanites,” in Mémorial Mgr Gabriel Khouri-Sarkis (1898-1968) (Louvain: Imprimerie orientaliste, 1969), 91-106. 22. Bardesanes van Edessa en Hermogenes van Carthago,” Nederlands Theologisch Tijdschrift 24 (1969/70), 256-259.

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23. “Narsai and Ephraem. Some Observations on Narsai’s Homilies on Creation and Ephraem’s Hymns on Faith,” Parole de l’Orient 1 (1970), 49-68. 24. “The Book of the Laws of Countries and the Peshitta Text of Genesis IX,6,” Parole de l’Orient 1 (1970), 409-414. 25. “«And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters ». Some Remarks on the Syro-Hexaplaric Reading of Gen. I,2,” Vetus Testamentum 20 (1970), 16-24. 26. “Narsai’s Homilies on Creation. Remarks on a Recent Edition,” Le Muséon 83 (1970), 209-235. 27. “Narsai’s dubbele erfenis. Enkele opmerkingen over de invloed van Theodorus van Mopsueste en van Efraïm de Syriër,” Nederlands Archief voor Kerkgeschiedenis, NS, 51 (1970), 1-15. 28. “Ephraems Beschreibung des ersten Tages der Schöpfung. Bemerkungen über den Charakter seines Kommentars zur Genesis,” Orientalia Christiana Periodica 37 (1971), 295-316. 29. “A Note on Dislocated Extracts from the Book of Genesis in the Syriac Massoretic Manuscripts (= Peshitta Institute Communications, 10),” Vetus Testamentum 21 (1971), 127-129. 30. “The Provenance of the Last Sections in the Roman Edition of Ephraem’s Commentary on Exodus,” Le Muséon 85 (1972), 155169. 31. “Ephraem’s Commentary on Exodus: Some Remarks on the Syriac Text and the Latin Translation,” Journal of Semitic Studies 17 (1972), 203-212. 32. “Barhebraeus’ Scholion on the Words ‘Let there be Light’ (Gen. I,3) as Presented in his ‘Storehouse of Mysteries.’ Some Observations on the Vicissitudes of the Exposition of a Biblical Passage,” Abr Nahrain 13 (1972), 100-114. 33. “Beiträge zur Berichtigung einzelner Stellen in Ephraems Genesiskommentar,” Oriens Christianus 56 (1972), 59-79. 34. “Ephraem on Exodus II,5: Reflections on the Interplay of Human Freewill and Divine Providence,” Orientalia Christiana Periodica 39 (1973), 5-28. 35. “Ephraem on Genesis XLIX,10. An Inquiry into the Syriac Text Forms as Presented in his Commentary on Genesis,” Parole de l’Orient 4 (1973), 247-256. 36. “Aphraates’ Demonstration VII.18 and 20. Some Observations on the Discourse on Penance,” Parole de l’Orient 5 (1974), 21-48. 37. “Philoxenus’ Letter to Abraham and Orestes concerning Stephen bar Sudaili. Some Proposals with regard to the Correction of the Syriac Text and the English Translation,” Le Muséon 87 (1974), 7986.

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In Memoriam 38. “Weitere Beiträge zur Berichtigung einzelner Stellen in Ephraems Kommentare zu Genesis und Exodus,” Oriens Christianus 58 (1974), 121-131. 39. “Neue Schriften des Johannes von Apameia. Bemerkungen zu einer Edition,” Bibliotheca Orientalis 31 (1974), 42-52. 40. “«Maar Mefibosjet zelf zal niet aan mijn tafel eten als een van ’s konings eigen zoons.» Enkele opmerkingen over 2 Sam. IX, 11B,” in Travels in the World of the Old Testament. Studies Presented to Professor M. A. Beek on the Occasion of his 65th Birthday, edd. M.S.H.G. Heerma van Voss, Ph.H.J. Houwink ten Cate, N.A. van Uchelen (Studia Semitica Neerlandica 16; Assen: Van Gorcum, 1974), 119-131. 41. “The Establishment of the Four Quarters of the Universe in the Symbol of the Cross: A Trace of an Ephraemic Conception in the Nestorian Inscription of Hsi-an fu?,” in Papers Presented to the Sixth International Conference on Patristic Studies Held in Oxford 1971, ed. E. A. Livingstone (Studia Patristica, 13 [= Texte und Untersuchungen, 116]; Berlin, 1975), 204-209.

Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies, Vol. 10, 91-100 © 2007 by Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute and Gorgias Press

SYRIAC LANGUAGE AND SCRIPT IN A CHINESE SETTING NESTORIAN INSCRIPTIONS FROM QUANZHOU, CHINA MAJELLA FRANZMANN UNIVERSITY OF NEW ENGLAND

ABSTRACT This article provides an overview of the Syriac language and script found on 14th century Nestorian tombstones from Quanzhou in South China. Syriac script is used for the most part on the tombstones for writing inscriptions in Turkic language. The article deals with the formation of the Syriac script, Syriac formulae that appear in some inscriptions, Syriac loan words in Turkic, the use of an extra letter within the Syriac script to capture a specific Turkic pronunciation, and the transliteration of Syriac titles into Chinese in the bilingual inscription for Mar Solomon, Bishop of South China.1

[1]

At the Conference of the American Oriental Society in 2001 in Toronto, Wassilios Klein presented an overview of the Syriac language and script of Central Asian tombstones from Biškek and Tokmak.2 In concluding the An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 9th Symposium Syriacum in Kaslik, Lebanon in 2004. 2 W. Klein, Syriac Writings and Turkic Language according to Central Asian Tombstone Inscriptions, in: Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies 5/2 (2002). 1

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overview, he made reference to the Turkic-language inscriptions in Syriac script from Quanzhou in China, which at that stage had not been edited in full. While a sample of these inscriptions have been edited and translated since then by members of the Australian research team that has been working on them since 2001,3 there is as yet no similar overview of the Syriac language and script from the inscriptions as Klein makes available for the Biškek area. This article proposes to fill that gap to enable a more comprehensive view of the extent of Syriac development across Central Asia and into China. It will also enable an evaluation of Klein’s summary statement about the Quanzhou inscriptions: “In any case, they are of a completely different character to the Central Asian tombstones.”4 Only the script will be analysed. Of course there is a very limited amount of Syriac language as opposed to script, so that comparisons with Klein’s material is also thereby limited. The iconography of the tombstones has been the subject of articles by my colleague Ken Parry.5 There are currently nine inscribed stones in Syriac script on display in Quanzhou: eight are in the Quanzhou Maritime Museum (108, [Wu 84]; 109, [Wu 82]; 110, [Wu 79]; 111, also KJ008, [Wu 78.1-2]; 130, also KJ006, [Wu 76.1 –2]; 131, also KJ016; 138, also KJ007, [Wu 77.1-3]; 271, also KJ029, [Wu 108]), and the ninth is a new find, first viewed by the Australian research team in 2004 in the Quanzhou Southern-Style Historical Buildings

3 L. Eccles, M. Franzmann, and S. Lieu, Observations on Select Christian Inscriptions in the Syriac Script from Zayton, in: From Palmyra to Zayton: Epigraphy and Iconography, edited by I. Gardner, S. Lieu, and K. Parry, Turnhout 2005 (Silk Road Studies 10), 247-78. I wish to acknowledge the teamwork with my colleagues on the inscriptions, with generous assistance from Prof. Peter Zieme and Prof. Aloïs van Tongerloo, which lies behind this paper. See other recent work, for example, in M. Franzmann and S.N.C. Lieu, A New Nestorian Tombstone from Quanzhou: Z47, Epitaph of the Lady Kejamtâ, in: Jingjiao. The Church of the East in China and Central Asia, edited by R. Malek and P. Hofrichter, Sankt Augustin 2006 (Institut Monumenta Serica), 293-302; Niu Ruji, Nestorian Inscriptions from China (13th – 14th Centuries), Jingjiao, 209-242; and Niu Ruji, A New Syriac-Uighur Inscription from China (Quanzhou, Fujian Province), in: Journal of the Canadian Society for Syriac Studies 4 (2004), 60-65. 4 See K. Parry, The Iconography of the Christian Tombstones from Zayton, From Palmyra to Zayton, 229-246; K. Parry, Angels and Apsaras: Christian Tombstones from Quanzhou, in: The Journal of the Asian Arts Society of Australia 12/2 (2003), 4-5; and K. Parry, Images in the Church of the East: The Evidence from Central Asia and China, in: The Church of the East: Life and Thought, edited by J.F. Coakley and K. Parry, Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester 78/3 (1996), 143-162. 5 Klein, Syriac Writings and Turkic Language, #29.

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Museum, and now on display in the Quanzhou City Museum.6 All the inscriptions dated so far belong to the early to middle 14th century CE, almost all within the dating timeframe of 1250-1342 given by Klein for the major finds of tombstones from Biškek and Burana under analysis in his overview (although the stones in Almalyk date up to the 1370s).7

LETTERS FORMED IN SYRIAC [3]

[4]

[5]

Several features which Klein noted about the formation of Syriac letters in the Central Asian material hold true for the Quanzhou inscriptions:8 the letters are in Estrangelo, with fairly consistent ligature of the taw-alaph, and with some considerable variation in the formation of the alaph. However, other features which Klein found are not present: the rish and daleth retain the diacritic point although with the weathering of the stones it is sometimes difficult to judge what is a diacritic mark and what a simple pockmark, and there is no great tendency to connect letters beyond what is normally found. The variation in the formation especially of the alaph even within the same inscription is quite striking. The samek is also problematical, but this lies more in the degree to which the letter leans towards the right rather than the actual formation of the letter. While there is variation amongst all the letters in the inscriptions to some extent, as would only be expected with a variety of hands, the variation in the formation of the alaph is the most noticeable. Klein described the Central Asian variant alaph as follows: The high line slanting towards the right is also common in other inscriptions, but the small check-mark underneath usually goes towards the right from the bottom of the vertical line, or crosses The first number mentioned is the current number given in the museum. Numbers in square brackets are taken from Wu Wenliang, Quanzhou zongjiao shike (Religious Stone Inscriptions at Quanzhou), Beijing 1957. Stone 131 is not found in Wu; see pl. 7, fig. 3.5 in Wu Yuxiong, Fujian Quanzhou faxian di Yelikewen (Qingjiao) bei (On the Nestorian tombstone discovered in Quanzhou, Fujian), in: Kaogu (1988/11), 1015-1020, pls. 7-8, 1018. The research team is aware that many of the stones are well-produced replicas, and continue the search for those originals that have survived. 7 Klein, Syriac Writings and Turkic Language, #2. The team’s preliminary tentative dating is as follow: 130 1301 108 1305 131 1307(?) 271 1313 new piece 1313 111 1347 8 See ibid., #23-28. 6

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Majella Franzmann the vertical line. Here it runs upwards towards the left, so that the letter takes the form of a check-mark (√).

Klein also notes that this variant as well as the usual form appear together. The Quanzhou inscriptions sometimes reveal the same feature. Inscription 108, lines 1 and 6, for example, exhibit a tendency to the checkmark formation of the alaph as described by Klein. However there is also a perfectly normally formed initial alaph in line 12. The greatest difference in formation of the initial alaph is found in the bilingual inscription, 271. In ‫ )ܐ ܐܪ‬and the first word this inscription, the second word of line 1 ( of line 2 (‫ )ܐܘܘܕ‬both have an intial alaph that appears to correspond with Klein’s examples, and yet the initial alaph for the seventh word in line 1 ‫ܐ‬ ‫ )ܐ‬is normally formed. ( While weathering and other damage to the stones makes reading the Syriac script difficult, the situation is not improved by some inscriptions in which the Syriac letters are poorly formed rather than showing a variant formation. The greatest problem is with the variation in relative size of letters where this may make reading difficult: the difference between yodh and nun, or even between yodh and lamedh. The relative sizing of yodh and chet does not really present a difficulty since the chet is generally consistently very small and it appears only in the Syriac formulae, not at all in the Turkic. A good example of the difficulty with yodh and nun is found in 108, line 8, , and yet where the nun is written smaller than the yodh in the word is much smaller in relation to the three lines earlier the yodh in ‫ܣ‬ lamedh. In 131, line 4, however, exactly the opposite occurs where the first yodh in the word ‫ܣ‬ is almost as high as the following lamedh. When it comes to the question of relative size, the formation of the Syriac letters may be a problem for stonemasons who have no knowledge of the letters. But the difficulty with the Syriac seems unlikely to be the problem of the (Syriac) illiteracy of the stonemasons themselves, as Klein suggests. That they are adept at their art is amply indicated by the stones with Arabic script in the Quanzhou Maritime Museum. It seems more probable that the fault lies with the poorly written script by the one commissioning the work from which they are copying, attesting to a possible loss of facility with Syriac script within the community.

SYRIAC LITURGICAL/PRAYER FORMULAE [9]

Introductory formulae on the majority of the stones are in Syriac language. This is the only appearance of Syriac language per se, apart from loan words and other items that will be discussed below.9 These opening formulae are Klein (ibid., # 9-10) gives a good overview of the use of Syriac language in Central Asia and the relative knowledge of Syriac. 9

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much more elaborate than those from Semiriče and Biškek as recorded by Klein. Of the seven inscriptions which include a complete opening section, apart from the rather official Chinese/Syro-Turkic bilingual, five open with a formula that shows very little variation: 130

‫ܐܒܐ ܘܒ ܐ ܘܪܘ ܐ ܕ ܕ ܐ‬

‫ܒ‬

In the name of the Father and the Son (and) the Holy Spirit. 138

‫ܐܒܐ ܘܒ ܐ ܘܪܘ ܐ ܕ ܕ ܐ‬

‫ܒ‬

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. 131

‫ܐܒܐ ܘܒ ܐ ܘܪܘ ܐ ܕ ܕ ܐ‬

In the name of the Father and the Son (and) the Holy Spirit forever. New piece

‫ܐܒܐ ܘܒ ܐ ܘܪܘ ܐ ܕ ܕ ܐ‬

‫ܒ‬

‫ܒ‬

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, forever. 108

‫ܐ‬

‫ܐܒܐ ܘܒ ܐ ܘܪܘ ܐ ܕ ܕ ܐ‬

‫ܒ‬

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit forever amen. The formulae are all correct grammatically and orthographically in the stones so far edited or translated. Perhaps if more Syriac language had been used, there may have been evidence of faults in this regard as Klein found on the Central Asian stones.

SYRIAC NAMES [11]

We have no knowledge as yet of the ethnic make-up of the communities in Quanzhou in the 14th century, although we know that some of the community were descendants of those who came from Central Asia; in 130, lines 5-9, we read of the deceased Usha Tasqan,10 the son of Tutmiš Ata, “from the city of Chotcho.” All the names so far deciphered on the inscriptions are Turkic, Syrian, or biblical, and there is no way of knowing if any of these are names taken by Chinese converts to Christianity. It would not be unreasonable to consider that there may have been Chinese converts

10 The name is uncertain, but is read as Tasqan in Niu Ruji, Quanzhou xuliyaweiwuer shuangyu jingjiaobi zai kao shi (A re-examination and translation of the mixed Syriac-Uighur language Inscription from Quanzhou), Minzhu Yuwen (1999/3), 33.

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among the community. Chwolson notes the grave of a Chinese believer, Terim, in Semiriče.11 There are biblical names, though only for one or two of the deceased identified so far—in a badly damaged end of 108, it may be possible to read “Paulus,” and the bilingual is for Bishop Mar Solomon. Apart from this, the first name of the one who dedicates Mar Solomon’s tomb is Timothy. Biblical names also appear in a separate list of Old Testament patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in 109, lines 16-17.12 Names that are frequent in Klein’s material, and in Chwolson’s before him, are also found here. Thus in the new piece, line 17, we read the name [sic] lit. = the resurrection). The name of the deceased as Kejamtâ (‫ܐ‬ occurs ten times in Chwolson’s inscriptions.13 Zauma is the second name of the one who dedicates Mar Solomon’s tomb, Zauma being another version of Ṣauma (“fast”) (bilingual, line 2). It occurs some 15 times in Chwolson’s inscriptions14

SYRIAC TITLES [14]

The bilingual inscription uses the title “most reverend bishop.” The title of ‫ܐ‬ ‫ ܐ‬is a loan word from Syriac (‫ܐ‬ ‫ )ܐ‬which is bishop itself a loan word from the Greek (επισκοπος). The term is reproduced as closely as possible in transliteration in the Turkic and Chinese (episqopanïng and abisiguba). The extra descriptor “most reverend” is again 11 Inscription no. 24 in D. Chwolson, Syrisch-Nestorianische Grabinschriften aus Semiretschie, Neue Folge, St.-Pétersbourg 1897, p. 11. 12 See the similar use of the list of Old Testament matriarchs, Sara, Rebecca, and Rachel, in the Epitaph of Elizabeth of Yangzhou (a bilingual SyroTurkic/Chinese inscription), line 9. A photograph of the rubbing of the inscription appears in Wang Qinjin, Yuan yanyou sinian jelishiba mubei kaoshi, in: Kaogu (1989/6), 553-554 and 557. 13 In D. Chwolson, Syrisch-Nestorianische Grabinscriften aus Semiretschie, Nebst einer Belage: Über das türkische Sprachmaterial dieser Grabinschriften von W. Radloff, mit drei phototypischen Tafeln und einer ebensolchen, von Julius Euting ausbeargeiteten Schrifttafel, St.Pétersbourg 1890 (Mémoires de l’Académie Impériale des Sciences de St.Pétersbourg, VIIe série, Tome XXXVII, No. 8): inscriptions 50,2 (the girl Kejamtâ, p. 86), 50,23 (the believer Kejamtâ, p. 91), and 98,1 (the believer Kejamtâ, p. 31); in D. Chwolson (1897): inscriptions 31 (the believer Kejamthâ, [but spelled ‫ܐ‬ according to Chwolson], p. 12), 67 (the girl Pazak Kejamthâ, p. 18), 112 (the believer Kejamthâ, p. 27), 211 (the believer Kejamthâ, p. 39), 261 (the believer Kejamthâ, p. 47), 264 (Kejamthâ, p. 47), and 294 (the little girl Kejamthâ, p. 49). 14 Chwolson (1890, 134) notes that the name occurs seven times in his data and is a frequently used Syrian name; see also Chwolson (1897), no. 7 (p. 7), no. 19 (p. 10), no. 25 (p. 11), no. 40, a woman’s name (p. 13), no. 201 (p. 38), no. 230 (p. 42), no. 237 (p. 42), no. 243 (p. 45).

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reproduced as exactly as possible in the Turkic and Chinese transliteration (mari ḥasya and Mali Haxiya). There is clearly no attempt to find a Turkic or Chinese equivalent for “most reverend;” the title of Bishop includes with it the further qualification “most reverend,” so that it is all of one piece. The use of the Syriac here is indicative of perhaps two things—that the bishop and his designated role within the Syrian region has no real equivalent either for the people of Central Asia or for the people of China; and/or that the presence of a bishop sent from the originating communities in Syria or from the Central Asian region has such status that there is no attempt to tamper with the official title. Klein also notes that titles are preserved “in the form in which the Syrians brought them.”15 Apart from the words for “bishop” and “most reverend,” there is only the loan word ‫“ ܒ ܐ‬tomb” in the inscriptions.

SYRIAC TRANSCRIPTION OF TURKIC [16]

The inevitable differences in Syriac spelling of Turkish words is noted by Klein, as well as the difficulties in using Syriac for the Turkic phonemes that did not all have some corresponding symbol in Syriac.16 Similarities are obvious with Klein’s material, and one small example will suffice to show them—108, lines 4-11.17 The Syriac letter has been used here to indicate where an adapted letter has been used to designate the guttural as in the khan, as discussed below. 4 MQDWNY’ P’LY‘ ‫ܘ ܐ ܐ‬ m(a)q(e)donya balïq 5 LY‘ PYLYPWS X’N ‫ܣ ܐܢ‬ -lïg(γ) pilipos xan 6 ‫ܪܘܣ‬ ‫ܐ‬ ‫’ ܐܘ‬W‘LY ’LKSNDRWS oγlï al(e)ks(a)ndros 7 ‫ܐܢ ܐ‬ ‫’ ܐ‬YLY‘ X’N S’XYŠY ilig xan saqïšï 8 YYL MYNG ’LTY ‫ܐ‬ yïl mïng altï 9 ‫ـܐ‬ ‫ ܙ ܐܘܢ ܐ‬YWZ ’WN ’LTY T’ yüz on altï-ta 10 S’XYŠY ‫ ـܐܒ ܐܨ ܐ‬T’B‘’S tabγac saqïšï

Klein, Syriac Writings and Turkic Language, #5. Ibid., #19. 17 For the text in full, see Eccles, Franzmann and Lieu, Observations, 260-261. 15 16

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11

‫ܘ‬

LWW YYLY... loo yïlï ... Translation: In the year 1616 of the reckoning of Alexander the Great King, son of King Philip from the province of Macedonia, in the Year of the Dragon of the Chinese reckoning. Similar to the inscriptions investigated by Klein, the yodh is used here for both i and ï, normally distinguished as front and back vowels; and the alaph also is used for the vowel i in the word ilig. Waw is used for o as well as ü, as Klein notes also. Gamal is interchangeable with ‛ayn, as is beth with pe, also as noted by Klein. Finally the same use of the sadhe for the Turkic sound c is found in line 10.18 Finally one must note the same use of the adapted letter to designate the guttural as used in the word khan. Klein characterises it as a special symbol “created based on the Syriac k and supplemented by a diacritic check-mark.” He argues that it cannot be the Arabic kaf, although it looks rather similar in its formation, which has a final form and is not connected as this letter is both to the left and the right.19 In fact, in the Quanzhou inscriptions there are no instances of the letter joining to the right. Chwolson had already suggested that this is a letter created by Syriac speakers. That it is not the Arabic is made more likely by the fact that the Arabic ‫ ق‬generally transcribes the Turkic k and ‫ ﮐ‬transcribes the Turkic K.20 Klaus Beyer notes that the East Syriac final kaf and the sogdian-uigur non-final k/g look a little like a number 5 and he suggests that it is this kaf that is used here as a symbol for a special turkic-uigur consonant or double consonant (e.g. tk) which is not found in East Syriac and which is close to the Turkic k.21

SYRIAC DATING [21]

Klein comments that the Central Asian inscriptions use the Turkic dating system with reference to the twelve-year animal cycle as well as the Seleucid dating system used by Syrian Christians. He adds: “It is striking that only the Turkic-language tombstones add the information that it is the era of Alexander, and that the inscriptions on Chinese territory generally do not include this dating and the resulting association with Syria.”22 However, in the majority of the Quanzhou inscriptions, immediately after the opening formula, the dating of the burial/death begins with just such a reference to Klein, Syriac Writings and Turkic Language, #20. Ibid., #21. 20 Chwolson (1890), 143, fn. 1. 21 Prof. Klaus Beyer, personal correspondence, 26.6.04. Prof. Beyer also considers it highly unlikely that this is an Arabic letter. 22 Klein, Syriac Writings and Turkic Language, #8. 18 19

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‫ ) ܐ‬based on the reign of Alexander (111 and the calendar/reckoning ( 130) or of Philip and Alexander (108, 131, and the new piece). Where the name of Alexander only occurs, the title of King/Khan is ascribed to him ‫ ܐ‬111 and 130). Where the names of Alexander and Philip (‫ܪܘܣ ܐܢ‬ ) and Alexander is the occur, Philip is given the title of King (‫ܣ ܐܢ‬ Great King (‫ܐܢ‬ ‫ܪܘܣ ܐ‬ ‫ ;ܐ‬108, 131, and the new piece). It is unusual to include Philip in the formula; his name appears only once in a Syro-Turkic Nestorian inscription from Central Asia which reads “in the year of King (Khan) Alexander, son of Philip of Macedonia.”23 In conclusion, the Syro-Turkic inscriptions from Quanzhou show some similarities with Klein’s material from Central Asia, although the former inscriptions are generally longer and more elaborate. Perhaps what is most surprising in the material presented above is the final section regarding the dating formulae. Together with the preservation of the Syriac forms for the titles of Mar Solomon, this evidences a very strong link with the originating Syriac communities and their tradition. However, despite the clear desire to keep that link strong, the inscriptions also attest to an inevitable and regrettable loss of proficiency with the Syriac script itself. BIBLIOGRAPHY Chwolson, D. Syrisch-Nestorianische Grabinscriften aus Semiretschie, Nebst einer Belage: Über das türkische Sprachmaterial dieser Grabinschriften von W. Radloff, mit drei phototypischen Tafeln und einer ebensolchen, von Julius Euting ausbeargeiteten Schrifttafel, St.-Pétersbourg 1890 (Mémoires de l’Académie Impériale des Sciences de St.-Pétersbourg, VIIe série, Tome XXXVII, No. 8); idem. Syrisch-Nestorianische Grabinschriften aus Semiretschie, Neue Folge, St.Pétersbourg 1897. Eccles, L., Franzmann, M. and and S. Lieu. Observations on Select Christian Inscriptions in the Syriac Script from Zayton, in: From Palmyra to Zayton: Epigraphy and Iconography, edited by I. Gardner, S. Lieu, and K. Parry, Turnhout 2005 (Silk Road Studies 10), 247-78. Franzmann, M. and S. Lieu. A New Nestorian Tombstone from Quanzhou: Z47, Epitaph of the Lady Kejamtâ, in: Jingjiao. The Church of the East in China and Central Asia, edited by R. Malek and P. Hofrichter, Sankt Augustin 2006 (Institut Monumenta Serica), 293-302. Klein, W. Syriac Writings and Turkic Language according to Central Asian Tombstone Inscriptions, in: Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies 5/2 (2002), [http://www.bethmardutho.org/Hugoye] (accessed 20/7/2004). Parry, K. Angels and Apsaras: Christian Tombstones from Quanzhou, in: The Journal of the Asian Arts Society of Australia 12/2 (2003), 4-5. Parry, K. Images in the Church of the East: The Evidence from Central Asia and China, in: The Church of the East: Life and Thought, edited by J.F. Coakley Cf. Č. Džumagulov, Yazyk syro-tjukskix (nestorianskix) Pamjatnikov fsKirgizii (Frunze, 1971), 91, text line 1. 23

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and K. Parry, Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester 78/3 (1996), 143-162. Parry, K. The Iconography of the Christian Tombstones from Zayton, From Palmyra to Zayton, 229-246. Qinjin, Wang. Yuan yanyou sinian jelishiba mubei kaoshi, in Kaogu (1989/6), 553554 and 557. Ruji, Niu. Nestorian Inscriptions from China (13th – 14th Centuries), Jingjiao, 209242. Ruji, Niu. A New Syriac-Uighur Inscription from China (Quanzhou, Fujian Province), in: Journal of the Canadian Society for Syriac Studies 4 (2004), 60-65. Ruji, Niu. Quanzhou xuliya-weiwuer shuangyu jingjiaobi zai kao shi (A reexamination and translation of the mixed Syriac-Uighur language Inscription from Quanzhou), Minzhu Yuwen (1999/3).

Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies, Vol. 10, 101-111 © 2007 by Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute and Gorgias Press

THE EDESSAN MILIEU AND THE BIRTH OF SYRIAC JOHN F. HEALEY UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER

ABSTRACT1 This paper reviews the cultural and linguistic environment in which the Syriac dialect of Aramaic emerged as a language of inscriptions, legal documents and, in due course, literature. It is argued that the evidence for the hellenization of the Edessa region in the Greek and early Roman periods is slight. Edessa owed more to its Semitic cultural roots and early Syriac writings do not reflect strong Greek impact. The emergence of the language is to be seen in the context of the varied contemporary Aramaic dialects of Mesopotamia, with the variations also reflected within early Syriac itself.

[1]

Syriac’s emergence as a literary language was stimulated on the one hand by a multicultural Semitic, Greek and Iranian environment, and on the other by the demands made of the language in the context of the spread of Christianity. In some sense Syriac responded to these demands. Of course, we often talk about languages in a metaphorical way, as if a language were able to decide whether to respond or not! In some sense languages have a life of their own and this partly explains why, in our attempts to describe their processes, we tend to use terms derived from the life sciences, such as the terms “family” and “birth.” 1 This paper was delivered at a plenary session of the fourth North American Syriac Symposium, held at Princeton Theological Seminary, July 9-12, 2003.

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In attempting to describe the cultural and linguistic environment of the birth of Syriac, we look primarily to the earliest evidence, the archaeological evidence and the earliest written materials in the language, which are labelled “Syriac” or, more specifically, “Old Syriac.” These inscriptions and legal texts come from a particular and narrowly defined locality, the kingdom of Edessa, centred on Urhay, the modern-day Urfa in southern Turkey. The number of the Old Syriac inscriptions has now reached about 110 and we have in addition the immensely important treasure of three long Syriac legal texts on parchment. Many of these inscriptions and parchments are dated either directly or indirectly and the dates span the period from A.D. 6 to A.D. 243 (Drijvers and Healey 1999, used for reference to inscriptions below). All of these materials are non-Christian, and there is no expression of Christian sentiments or allegiance in them. The cultural environment of this early Syriac is, therefore, pagan. The Syriac of the texts is usually classified as “Middle Aramaic,” a term which also covers other contemporary Aramaic dialects such as Palmyrene and Nabataean. So where did Syriac come from? And what was the environment of its transformation into a major literary and theological language? I address these questions under three headings: I. The cultural hellenization of preChristian Edessa; II. The impact of the Greek language on Edessa and on pre-Christian Syriac; and, rather briefly, since the details are covered elsewhere, III. Early Syriac in the context of contemporary Aramaic. I will then comment on some specific factors which contributed to the rise of what is usually called classical Syriac.

I. THE CULTURAL HELLENIZATION OF PRE-CHRISTIAN EDESSA [4]

[5]

Although this area of Upper Mesopotamia was from time immemorial one of Semitic language use, it is also in the Greek and Roman periods an environment of considerable international contact and specifically of contact on the one hand with Parthia (and subsequently Sasanian Persia) and on the other with the Greek-speaking Seleucid Kingdom and Roman East. How far we can regard the Edessa region as hellenized in the preChristian period, has, however, been disputed and indeed subject to some fluctuations of scholarly fashion. Robert Murray in a publication of 1982 (1982: 9-10) noted the view, widely accepted in the early twentieth century, that Edessa’s culture was non-hellenic and “purely” Semitic. Murray committed himself to a retraction from this position in favour of the view that Edessa was extensively if not thoroughly hellenized in pre-Christian times. This view was even more strongly espoused by my late and much loved friend Han Drijvers (e.g. 1970, 1998). I believe, however, that some retraction from the retraction is necessary, since there is a danger of exaggeration of the hellenistic factor in early Edessa.

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There is no doubt, it must be stated from the start, that multiculturalism is woven into the fabric of the early history of Edessa. It was, after all, essentially a Seleucid foundation and became a provincial centre within the Seleucid Kingdom, with a Macedonian name, SeleucidHellenistic institutions and, no doubt, physical appearance. Seleucid coins, for example, were struck. At the same time, however, it must be remembered that the new foundation was located at the site of an older city, Adme (Harrak 1992). We know very little about this earlier Adme, but the whole region of Upper Mesopotamia is well known in earlier times. Edessa’s neighbour, Harran, had been a prominent cultural centre for millennia and housed a famous temple of the moon-god, Sin, whose cult continued into the early centuries A.D., as the Syriac inscriptions from Sumatar Harabesi show. With the decline of Seleucid power and a little before the Romans arrived, Edessa grasped its chance to establish itself as an independent state with its own kings of a local dynasty, said to be that of Aryu, around 140-30 B.C. It is often called the Abgarid dynasty because of the prominence of the royal name Abgar. Segal (1970: 16) claimed that this was a Nabataean dynasty. This seems implausible: the only real evidence is the names of kings, such as Abgar, Ma‛nu, etc. These conform to a name-type, common in Nabataea, but common also throughout the Middle East in this period and they may suggest that in Edessa, as in Petra, there was already an Arab presence. It is possible that an Arab dynasty came to power by filling the post-Seleucid power-vacuum. There is nothing, however, to suggest a specifically Nabataean presence. It is interesting to note that, in contrast to the policy of the Nabataean kings, so far as we know local coins were not issued in Edessa until much later, the middle of the 2nd century A.D. There was no early “native” imitation of Seleucid coinage. And when coins did appear, they did so during a period of Parthian domination and the earliest types bore Syriac legends (Babelon 1893: 209-96; Hill 1922: xciv-cvii, 91-118, pls XII-XVII). Of the Seleucid, Abgarid and Roman cities very little survives by way of material remains. In a survey, Mango reviewed what is known of classical art in Mesopotamia and most of what survives comes from the period after A.D. 165, when the Roman involvement in Edessa became intense (Mango 1982: 117). Non-survival of earlier material is often ascribed to the continuous occupation of Edessa, but it is surprising how little has survived and this suggests that Edessa was far from thoroughly hellenized, a suspicion voiced also by Ross (2001: 11-13). Perhaps the most characteristic survival of pre-Christian Edessa is that of the mosaics, mostly funerary mosaics set on the floors of tombchambers. The mosaics all appear to date from the early 3rd century A.D., though a recently published mosaic is dated a little earlier, to A.D. 194

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(Healey 2006). They are of great interest in themselves and point to Edessa’s cultural contact at this period with Roman Antioch: the concept of mosaic-making must have come from that direction. Interestingly, though, by far the majority of the mosaics follow artistic norms which are nonAntiochene: they bear Syriac rather than Greek inscriptions, presumably because the patrons knew no Greek or did not regard it as important. And they show a distinctive local art which is non-Western (and has often, with insufficient justification, been called Parthian). In a few cases a rather wooden rendering of a western model is involved (as in the case of the Orpheus and Phoenix mosaics). There are also a few non-funerary mosaics which appear to have been used as decor in villas and these are thoroughly Antiochene in inspiration, containing mythological and legendary scenes (e.g. the mosaics now in the Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem depicting Achilles, Patroclus and Briseis: Drijvers and Healey 1999: Cm3, Cm4), and one of these, from outside Edessa, depicting the river Euphrates and dated A.D. 227, has a bilingual Syriac and Greek legend (Bm1). These more westernized mosaics give the impression, however, of being prestige items created by non-native craftsmen for the new Roman citizens of the third century and in any case they do not prove earlier hellenization (for the dating of the mosaics: Colledge 1994; Healey 2006). Although there is a lack of archaeological (artefactual) evidence for hellenism in pre-Roman and pre-Christian Edessa, we do have some literary evidence from the earliest surviving Syriac literature which might suggest a mixed culture at Edessa even in the pre-Christian period, though one must again be wary of exaggeration. There are texts like the letter of Mara bar Serapion, the date of which is much disputed. Fergus Millar (1993: 460-62) evidently leans towards the 70s A.D., but it has been ascribed to a much later date by Kathleen McVey (1990). An early date might suggest that at least for the elite of society, such things as Greek mythology were familiar. This is confirmed for the third century, as we have seen, by the mythological and literary themes in the non-funerary mosaics. Apart from Achilles and Patroclus, we also find Zeus and Hera represented. There are also literary figures from the surrounding area, though not Edessa itself, who might be taken into account: Lucian of Samosata and Tatian. But perhaps the most iconic figure in the cultural environment of Edessa itself is Bardaisan (A.D. 154-222). If the direct quotations from Bardaisan which have survived and the dialogue, The Book of the Laws of Countries, are an accurate reflection of his teaching, they give us an insight into what appears to be a philosophical school at Edessa. Bardaisan was a Christian, but walked a tightrope between paganism and Christianity. He can be seen as trying to juggle Christianity, Greek philosophy and Semitic

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culture. One cannot help but admire his effort, even if it was inevitable that he was going to fall foul of Christian orthodoxy once it came into existence. Han Drijvers, in his book on Bardaisan (1966) and in numerous articles, was able to build up for us a very full picture, and there can be no doubt that Bardaisan was well versed in contemporary Greek philosophy. But so far as we know he wrote in Syriac, not in Greek, and it is easy to overlook the extent to which he is dependent on a local cultural tradition despite his awareness of things Greek. Thus the evidence for regarding Edessa before the mid-2nd century A.D. as extensively hellenized is really rather thin and it suggests the need for caution. What survives of Bardaisan’s thought is the only substantial indication of hellenistic culture and there is a possibility that his hellenism was restricted to a very narrow circle associated with the court. Beyond this circle there is little evidence. It may be that whatever earlier hellenization had taken place in the Seleucid context practically disappeared under the Abgarids. It seems to me, therefore, that the cultural background of the emergence of Syriac and its development as a literary language is best regarded as predominantly Semitic and traditional. Pre-Christian Edessa worshipped traditional local deities like Sin, Baalshamin, Shamash, Nebo and Bel, not Greek gods, and employed an art which may have some hellenistic/Roman features, but which is nonetheless marked heavily as local. And as Sebastian Brock has noted, there is in the earliest evidence of Christian Edessa a noticeable absence of classical baggage. In the Peshitta of Acts 14: 12 the Greek divine name Zeus is not transcribed as zews, as it could have been, but given an interpretatio syriaca as Mārē ‚alāhē, “lord of the gods,” a title used in Edessan inscriptions of Sin and Baalshamin (Brock 1982: 19; Drijvers and Healey 1999: 80).

II. THE IMPACT OF THE GREEK LANGUAGE ON EDESSA AND ON PRE-CHRISTIAN SYRIAC [17]

[18]

The presence of Greek loans in the early Syriac inscriptions and parchments would in general be an indicator of Greek cultural influence on preChristian Edessa and its language. This has been discussed in several earlier works and there is no attempt here to enter into all the details (cf. Schall 1960; Healey 1995; Brock 1996). In an article published in 1995 I chose to contrast the incidence of Greek loans in Old Syriac with the incidence of Greek loans in early Nabataean. Old Syriac seems at first sight to have many more loans. However, the distribution of the Greek loans in the Syriac inscriptions and parchments deserves closer scrutiny. Seventeen out of the twenty-one clear Greek loans (data summarized in Drijvers and Healey 1999: 30-32) appear only in the legal parchments, almost all in the context of introductory dating formulae, and it is hardly

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surprising to find them used, since these texts come from the 240s A.D. and already the legal context was a Roman one. This is clear from the more numerous Greek legal texts in the Feissel and Gascou cache (1989) to which two of the three Syriac legal texts belong. The texts are Romanized presumably because their legal content might have to be defended in a Roman court. (There is an interesting parallel here with the switch from Nabataean to Greek after A.D. 106 in the legal texts from the Babatha archive.) Of the remaining four Greek loans in the Syriac inscriptions, two (‚plwtr‚ from ¢peleÚqeroj and qesar) appear in the same late 2nd century A.D. inscription (As49) in the distinctly Roman phrase “freedman of Antoninus Caesar.” The broken word ‚yg[mwn‚] from ¹gemèn, “governor,” appears in another third-century inscription (As10). Thus all the Greek loans up to this point can easily be accounted for because of having been used within a Roman legal and administrative context. This leaves us with the word ‚dryṭ ‚ related to ¢ndri£j, “statue,” in the famous inscription on the pillar on the Urfa citadel, and this pillar is a Roman-style artefact if ever there was one (As1)2 The point here is that this is a meagre inventory of Greek linguistic influence and it all suggests the appearance of Greek words in Edessa is mostly connected with Romanization in the third century A.D. Before that period the Syriac inscriptions are free of Greek influences and indeed Syriac is virtually the only language attested east of the Euphrates (Brock 1994: 152). An epigraphic exception to this last point may be the bilingual Amashamash tomb inscription from just south of Edessa: it could date as early as the 1st century (Millar 1993: 462), though a later date is more likely (Drijvers and Healey 1999: As62). It is useful to compare this situation with Palmyrene and Nabataean. At Palmyra, Greek was very widely used because of more direct Roman influence (most recently Taylor 2002). As for Nabataea, Romanization did not much affect Petra until after the Roman annexation in A.D. 106, apart from some architectural imitations of styles from adjacent territories. There is only one securely dated pre-annexation Greek inscription at Petra, a bilingual which seems to have been erected by a family especially conscious of its Greco-Roman connections (Sartre 1993: no. 54).

III. EARLY SYRIAC IN THE CONTEXT OF CONTEMPORARY ARAMAIC [22]

The pre-Christian Edessan inscriptions, as we have seen, are treated by epigraphists as a corpus and called “Old Syriac,” though the gathering of Note that a fuller survey of the evidence would have to take account also of Greek loans in the earliest literary works such as The Book of the Laws of Countries. 2

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the material in this way under this title is largely based on non-linguistic features: the provenance of the inscriptions and the distinctive form of script used, with the corpus containing at least two varieties of early Syriac distinguished mainly by the y-prefix 3rd masculine imperfect instead of the nprefix also found in classical Syriac: yiqṭūl instead of classical neqṭūl.3 The chronological distribution in the inscriptions suggests a division between the earlier texts (before about A.D. 200), which have y-, and the later texts, all of which have n-. This may, however, disguise a more complex situation in which both forms existed side by side, representing different registers or sub-dialects. Broadly, after the demise of the Achaemenid Empire, the Achaemenid Aramaic lingua franca had, in the absence of the empire, no function and largely disappeared. What remained were the local Aramaic dialects in each region where Aramaic was spoken as a vernacular. Gradually these local dialects were turned into literary or official languages. How this worked in practice depended, however, on local circumstances. In the Seleucid cities Greek became the official language. In Nabataea Aramaic was replaced at least in some circles by a form of Arabic, though a distinctly conservative, Achaemenid-type Aramaic continued to be used for official purposes. So how did Syriac emerge? Syriac is the local Aramaic of the Edessa region. Beyer (1984: 46; 1986: 31) noted, however, that its use as a state language and the opportunity for its development into a literary language must have been thrown into doubt by the Seleucid refoundation of Edessa, with Greek as the official language, even if Greek has left little trace. The local dialect of Aramaic might never have been turned into a written language, as happened to vernaculars in other Greek-dominated regions. In fact, however, the spoken use of the Aramaic of the area continued throughout the period of Seleucid control. Whether this Edessan Aramaic was written down at all during this period is not known with any certainty. Perhaps suggestive of some continuity is the evidence of Achaemenid (and Arsacid) orthographic influence in Old Syriac when it first appears in written form (Beyer 1966). There is also the evidence of the later legal texts, the parchments from the 240s A.D., which contain legal formulae which clearly go back to the Achaemenid period and earlier, bearing comparison with the Samaria papyri. It thus seems likely that the writing as well as the speaking of the local Aramaic of the Edessan region continued during this time.

3 A fuller account of the linguistic aspect of this topic is to be published in the Proceedings of the “Congress on Aramaic in its Historical and Linguistic Setting”, held in Leiden, August 24-27, 2006.

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[31]

John F. Healey

Edessan Aramaic—Syriac—begins to re-emerge with the Abgarid dynasty around 140-130 B.C., being adopted for public use probably as part of the assertion of a non-Greek identity. As the local Aramaic dialect emerged, there developed for it a local variety of the earlier Aramaic script. Both script and language are well established by the time of the earliest dated Syriac inscription, the Birecik inscription of A.D. 6, in which a local official, a šallīṭā, writes his own tomb-inscription in Syriac (As55). The transformation of this early epigraphic Syriac used for official purposes into a prestigious literary language is also remarkable (though one can ask the same question about many languages known in their earliest form through non-literary epigraphs). Three specific factors may be noted: First, Syriac had already, in the earliest evidence available to us, become an administrative language. The administrative language of the Abgarid dynasty was Aramaic rather than Greek. The major evidence here is provided by Syriac legal texts. Even though these are late (from the 240s A.D.), they are part of a whole legal tradition and prove incontrovertibly that the Syriac form of Aramaic had continued to be used in such contexts. The Greek legal texts found with them, on the other hand, must certainly be an innovation of the Romanizing period (not an inheritance from the Seleucid period). Secondly, Syriac became a royal language. It became a royal language in the sense that the dynasty of Edessa chose to write inscriptions in it rather than in Greek (which must have been a feasible alternative at the end of Seleucid rule). While the Edessan kings did not produce historical inscriptions in the normal sense, they did produce coins with Syriac legends, before Greek legends and Roman style supervened. And the elite of the kingdom chose to write its inscriptions in Syriac, as we can see from the Birecik inscription and the later inscriptions of a military character at Sumatar (especially those referring to the governors of different districts: As31 and 47, etc.). There is also the famous inscription on the pillar on the Urfa citadel dedicated to a queen of Edessa (As1). Above all Syriac became a religious language. While most of the well preserved early inscriptions are funerary and simple commemorative texts, which do, of course, reveal some religious sentiments, there is also a small number of inscriptions, especially from Sumatar Harabesi, which have a more directly religious purpose (As36 and 37; also the altar inscription Bs3). A further factor, beyond the scope of this paper, is that there was an early interest in translating religious texts into Syriac and these translations had a part in raising Syriac to a new level, especially when the Bible began to be translated into Syriac. By that time Bardaisan was probably writing philosophical works in Syriac and poets were composing poetry.

The Edessan Milieu and the Birth of Syriac

109

CONCLUSIONS [32]

[33]

[34]

I do not want to advocate a romanticized view of the early Edessan environment of Syriac Christianity as unsullied by the “bitter poison of the wisdom of the Greeks” as Ephrem calls it (de Fide II, 24). On present evidence, however, though Bardaisan may form a prominent peak of hellenism, it is not clear that he is the tip of an iceberg of any great significance. That there was Greek culture in Edessa is clear, but much more clear is the underlying dominance of native religious and linguistic tradition. If Greek had been at all prominent in Edessa the Greek text of the gospels would have sufficed, as it did in Antioch. Instead, for the whole society, including the elite (apart possibly from the few who partook in the kind of intellectual activity which preoccupied Bardaisan), it was this need in the religious sphere which was answered by Syriac, a local language which had come to written prominence during the reign of the Abgarid dynasty, used for administration and religion, by kings and people alike. At the end of this process, to quote Sebastian Brock, “… it was Christianity which lent to Syriac the requisite prestige to enable it to compete with Greek as a literary language …” (Brock 1994: 155). It is hard to credit, however, Noeldeke’s remark (1904: xxxii) to the effect that the Edessan dialect “was employed as a literary language, certainly long before the introduction of Christianity”: there seems to be no clear evidence of this. So far as the title of this paper is concerned, “The Edessan Milieu and the Birth of Syriac,” my conclusion is that in the formative period the Edessan milieu was not hellenized to any significant extent, while Syriac’s ancestry is to be sought in the local Aramaic dialects of northern Mesopotamia, gradually transformed into a prestige language of religious literature. This brings us back to the issue of variety within this early Syriac. The major variation, y-prefix and n-prefix imperfect forms, can be interpreted either diachronically (with the classical form emerging c. A.D. 200) or synchronically (and accounted for as reflecting different varieties of Aramaic/Syriac). The latter explanation is, in my view, more plausible. Indeed, linguistic variation continued beyond the birth of Syriac and into the “classical” phase, as Lucas van Rompay has shown convincingly in a paper of 1994 (see also Joosten 1999; Brock 2003).

BIBLIOGRAPHY Babelon, E. 1893. Mélanges Numismatiques II. Paris: C. Rollin & Feuardent. Beyer, K. 1966. “Der reichsaramäische Einschlag in der ältesten syrischen Literatur.” ZDMG 116: 242-54. —. 1984. Die aramäischen Texte vom Toten Meer. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.

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—. 1986. The Aramaic Language. Its Distribution and Subdivisions. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. Brock, S. P. 1982 “From Antagonism to Assimilation: Syriac Attitudes to Greek Learning.” Pp. 17-34 in N. G. Garsoïan, T. F. Mathews and R. W. Thomson (eds), East of Byzantium. Syria and Armenia in the Formative Period. Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks, Center for Byzantine Studies. —. 1994. “Greek and Syriac in Late Antique Syria.” Pp. 149-60, 234-35 in A. K. Bowman and G. Woolf (eds), Literacy and Power in the Ancient World. Cambridge: C.U.P. (reprinted as no. I in From Ephrem to Romanos: interactions between Syriac and Greek in Late Antiquity. Aldershot/Brookfield/Singapore/Sydney: Ashgate/Variorum, 1999). —. 1996. “Greek Words in Syriac: some general features,” Studia Classica Israelica 15: 251-62. (reprinted as no. XV in From Ephrem to Romanos: interactions between Syriac and Greek in Late Antiquity. Aldershot/Brookfield/Singapore/Sydney: Ashgate/Variorum, 1999.) —. 2003. “Some Diachronic Features of Classical Syriac.” Pp. 95-111 in M. F. J. Baasten and W. Th. van Peursen (eds), Hamlet on the Hill. Semitic and Greek studies presented to Professor T. Muraoka on the occasion of his sixty-fifth birthday. Leuven/Paris/ Dudley, MA: Peeters/Department of Oriental Studies. Colledge, M. A. R. 1994. “Some remarks on the Edessa Funerary Mosaics.” Pp. 189-97 in J.-P. Darmon and A. Rebourg (eds), La mosaïque gréco-romaine IV. Actes du IVe Colloque International pour l’Étude de la Mosaïque Antique, Vienne, 8-14 Août 1994. Paris: Association Internationale pour l’Étude de la Mosaïque Antique. Drijvers, H. J. W. 1966. Bardaiṣan of Edessa. Assen: van Gorcum. —. 1970. “Bardaiṣan of Edessa and the Hermetica: the Aramaic philosopher and the philosophy of his time.” JEOL 21: 190-210. —. 1998. “Syriac Culture in Late Antiquity: hellenism and local traditions.” Mediterraneo Antico 1: 95-113. Drijvers, H. J. W. and J. F. Healey. 1999. The Old Syriac Inscriptions of Edessa and Osrhoene(HdO I/XLII). Leiden: E. J. Brill. Feissel, D. and J. Gascou. 1989. “Documents d’archives romains inédits du Moyen Euphrate (IIIe siècle après J.-C.).” CRAIBL, 535-561. Harrak, A. 1992. “The Ancient Name of Edessa.” JNES 51: 209-14. Healey, J. F. 1995. “Lexical Loans in Early Syriac: a Comparison with Nabataean Aramaic.” Studi Epigrafici e Linguistici 12: 75-84. —. 2006. “A New Syriac Mosaic Inscription,” Journal of Semitic Studies 51: 313-27. —. forthcoming. “Variety in Early Syriac: the Context in Contemporary Aramaic” (Leiden Congress Proceedings, eds H. Gzella and M. Folmer). Hill, G. F. 1922. Catalogue of the Greek Coins of Arabia, Mesopotamia and Persia. London: British Museum. Joosten, J. 1999. “Materials for a Linguistic Approach to the Old Testament Peshitta.” Journal of the Aramaic Bible 1: 203-18. Mango, M. M. 1982. “The Continuity of the Classical Tradition in the Art and Architecture of Northern Mesopotamia.” Pp. 115-34 in N. G. Garsoïan, T. F. Mathews and R. W. Thomson (eds), East of Byzantium. Syria and Armenia in the Formative Period. Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks, Center for Byzantine Studies.

The Edessan Milieu and the Birth of Syriac

111

McVey, K. 1990. “A Fresh Look at the Letter of Mara bar Serapion,” OCA 236: 257-72. Millar, F. 1993. The Roman Near East 31 BC-AD 337. Cambridge-London: Harvard University Press. Murray, R. 1982. “The Characteristics of the Earliest Syriac Christianity.” Pp. 3-16 in N. G. Garsoïan, T. F. Mathews and R. W. Thomson (eds), East of Byzantium. Syria and Armenia in the Formative Period. Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks, Center for Byzantine Studies. Nöldeke, Th. 1904. Compendious Syriac Grammar (trans. J. A. Crichton). London: Williams & Norgate. Rompay, L. van. 1994. “Some Preliminary Remarks on the Origins of Classical Syriac as a Standard Language: the Syriac Version of Eusebius of Caesarea’s Ecclesiastical History.” Pp. 70-89 in G. Goldenberg and S. Raz (eds), Semitic and Cushitic Studies. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. Ross, S. K. 2001. Roman Edessa: politics and culture on the eastern fringes of the Roman Empire, 114-242 C.E. London/New York: Routledge. Sartre, M.1993. Inscriptions grecques et latines de la Syrie XXI. Inscriptions de la Jordanie IV: Pétra et la Nabatène (Bibliothèque Archéologique et Historique 115). Paris: P. Geuthner. Schall, A. 1960. Studien über griechische Fremdwörter im Syrischen. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft. Segal, J. B. 1970. Edessa, the Blessed City. Oxford: O.U.P. Taylor, D. G. K. 2002. “Bilingualism and Diglossia in Late Antique Syria and Mesopotamia.” Pp. 298-331 in J. N. Adams, M. Janse and S. Swain (eds), Bilingualism in Ancient Society: language contact and the written word, Oxford: O.U.P.

Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies, Vol. 10, 113-124 © 2007 by Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute and Gorgias Press

KTHOBONOYO SYRIAC SOME OBSERVATIONS AND REMARKS GEORGE A. KIRAZ BETH MARDUTHO: THE SYRIAC INSTITUTE

ABSTRACT This paper gives some observations and preliminary remarks on Kthobonoyo, the spoken form of classical Syriac as used in the twentieth and twenty first centuries. It presents a brief history of Kthobonoyo usage, and outlines its linguistic and sociolinguistic features.

INTRODUCTION [1]

Recent history, beginning in the early decades of the twentieth century, witnessed a revival in the utilization of classical Syriac in both written and oral forms. Written utilization was not primarily in the form of religiousoriented literature as one may expect, but in various secular genres including national and ethnic-oriented poetry and prose, as well as journalism. Oral utilization became to be centralized around pop poetry and lyrics set to music (although a few written exceptions have been noted),1

1

‫ܬܐ‬ ‫ܕܐ‬

Published lyrics set to musical notation include Gabriel Asad’s ‫( ܕ‬Aleppo, 1953), [Laila Haddad], ‫ܪ ܐ‬ ‫ ܙ ܬܐ ܒ ܐ‬: ‫( ܘ‬Jönköping, 1998), inter alia.

113

‫ܗ ܐ ܙ‬

114

[2]

George A. Kiraz

radio broadcasting,2 and the use of classical Syriac as a spoken medium of communication. While the written modality of this period has been studied by Brock,3 Knudsen,4 and Wardini,5 there are no publications that I am aware of on the spoken modality which I shall refer to as Spoken Classical Syriac (SCS). What I aim to do here is to give some preliminary remarks on the subject. It must be stressed from the outset that the remarks made herein are entirely observational. A serious study would require a corpus of recorded spoken conversations which is now not available. I shall begin with some terminology leading to a definition of Kthobonoyo, the form of SCS discussed in this paper. I shall then describe the history of Kthobonoyo in the twentieth century, following it with a preliminary account of the characteristics and features of this form of Syriac.

TERMS AND DEFINITIONS [3]

[4]

SCS is referred to with the Syriac term leshono kthobonoyo, somewhat a misnomer as it literally means ‘the written language,’ and less often with the term leshono sephroyo ‘the book language.’ For instance, one may hear the English utterance “He is speaking kthobonoyo.” It is important to note that the term kthobonoyo does not usually refer to the written form, despite its literal meaning. The term suryoyo is reserved for the written modality; e.g., “She is reading/writing suryoyo.” Moreover, kthobonoyo is sometimes used to distinguish SCS from the Ṭuroyo and Swadaya vernaculars. Intriguingly, none of the printed lexica assign the spoken modality to the term kthobonoyo. Brockelmann6 and Smith7 explain ‫ܒ ܐ‬ with Latin scriptus “written,” and the latter adds scripto consignatus “sealed in writing.” The first broadcasting in Classical Syriac was by Abrohom Nuro in Lebanon in the 1970s. Radio Qolo from Sweden broadcasts some interviews in Kthobonoyo, while its usual broadcasting is a Kthobonized form of Turoyo. 3 S.P. Brock, ‘Some Observations on the Use of Classical Syriac in the Late Twentieth Century,’ Journal of Semitic Studies, XXXIV/2 (1989), 363-75. 4 E. E. Knudsen, ‘Lexical Innovations in Modern Literary Syriac’, in René Lavenant (ed.), Symposium Syriacum VII, 545-51; E. E. Knudsen, ‘An important step in the revival of literary Syriac: Abrohom Nouro’s Tawldotho’, Oriens Christianus 84 (2000), 59-65. 5 E. Wardini, ‘Neologisms in MLS’, Melanges de l'Universite Saint-Joseph 53:5 (1993/4), 401-566, and 54 (1995/6), 167-324; E. Wardini, ‘Modern Literary Syriac: A Case of Linguistic Divorce’, in René Lavenant (ed.), Symposium Syriacum VII, pp.517-25; E. Wardini, Neologisms in Modern Literary Syriac: Some Preliminary Results (Dissertation, Oslo 1995). 6 Karl Brockelmann, Lexicon Syriacum (Georg Olms Verlag reprint, 1982). 7 Robert Payne Smith, Thesaurus Syriacus [Syriac Thesaurus] (Gorgias Press reprint, 2007). 2

Kthobonoyo Syriac

[5]

[6]

[7]

115

‫“ ܕܐܬܬ‬that which was handed down by Audo8 gives ‫ܒ ܒ ܐ‬ writing.” Margoliouth9 does not cite the term at all. Instead, the lexica reserve for the spoken modality the shorter form kthoboyo. Here, Smith ‫ܐ‬ , explains it with sermo qualis est in gives, inter alia, the phrase ‫ܒ ܐ‬ libris “talking as it is in books,” and cites Étienne-Marc Quatremère (17821857), la langue écrite, le style des livres “[sermon like] the written language, in ‫ ܐ‬and explains it with ‫̇ܗܘ‬ the style of books.” Audo gives ‫ܒ ܐ‬ ̈ ‫ܐ ܕ ܕܐ‬ ‫ ܒ‬.‫[“ ܕ ܒܐ‬the language] of the books, on the contrary of swadaya [the spoken colloquial]” (here Audo’s explanation implicitly refers to the spoken modality as he contrasts kthoboyo with Swadaya). Margoliouth cites kthoboyo, but is the only one who does not give reference to the spoken modality; instead, she explains it with “literary language or style.” Brockelmann does not cite kthoboyo. ܳ While there is certainly an interchangeability between the suffixes ‫◌ ܳ ܐ‬ ܳ and ‫) ܕ ܐ‬10 it is not clear why modern usage and ‫( ◌ ܳ ܳ ܐ‬e.g., in ‫ܕ ܐ‬ did not opt for ‫ ܒ ܐ‬instead of ‫ ܒ ܐ‬to reference the spoken modality as it already exists in the printed lexica. The term is familiar to malphone from the first sentence of the Prologue of Bar ‛Ebroyo’s Ṣemḥe, ̇ ‫ܐ ܕ‬ ̇ ‫̈ܐ ܕܒ ܪܘܬܗܘܢ‬ ‫ܐ‬ ‫ܓ‬ “ ‫ܕܐ‬ —Grammar is the knowledge ‫̇ ܚ‬ ‫ܒ ܐ ܕܒ‬ ‫ܐ‬ ‫ܐ‬ from which are learned rules with whose observance the vernacular mistake is distinguished from the accurate kthoboyo speech.” (There is always the remote possibility that ‫ܒ ܐ‬ was used in earlier periods to denote the spoken form, but this meaning was not recorded in any of the lexica.) The definition of kthobonoyo can be further defined along time and demography. While SCS was used in earlier times and perhaps continuously until the present, the lack of historical records makes it impossible to ascertain any of its linguistic features. For this reason alone, I opt to limit the definition of kthobonoyo to twentieth and twenty-first century usage, and reserve the more general term, ‘SCS,’ for earlier periods if needed. As for demography, kthobonoyo is primarily, and probably exclusively, a feature known in West Syriac and more precisely amongst the Syrian Orthodox, with a few hundred speakers or so at various competence levels. This is not to deny other religious communities who have competent

Thomas Audo, ‫ܪ ܐ‬ ‫ܐ ܕ ܐ‬ (Mosul, 1897). J. Payne Smith (Mrs. Margoliouth), A Compendious Syriac Dictionary (Eisenbrauns reprint, 1998). 10 Brockelmann: ‫ܕ ܐ‬ alloquens; ‫ܕ ܐ‬ no entry. Smith: ‫ܕ ܐ‬ ad allocutionem pertinens, compellativus; ‫ܕ ܐ‬ colloquialis, ‫ܕ ܐ‬ ‫ܒ ܐ‬ ‫ܐ‬. Margolioth: ‫ܕ ܐ‬ vocative, allocutory; ‫ܕ ܐ‬ colloquial, conversational. Audo states that both forms are synonyms and refer to the colloquial language. 8 9

116

[8]

[9]

George A. Kiraz

scholars that can even converse in it.11 In the late 1960s and early 1970s, for instance, the Syriac Catholic Monastery of Sharfeh had courses run by Abrohom Nuro on conversational Syriac. Earlier, the Maronite scholar Joseph Hobaïca published a guide for conversational Syriac with Arabic and French translations.12 As for East Syriac, the number of its speakers is quite small and does not form a speaking community.13 This striking absence of the spoken modality amongst the modern Assyrians and Chaldeans is probably due to the fact that Swadaya, the colloquial, had raised itself to a literary language in the past few centuries.14 This is echoed in the term used ‫ ܐ‬leshshana ‛attiqa to refer to the classical language in East Syriac: ‫ܐ‬ ‘the old language,’ as opposed to the modern written language. Ṭuroyo, the vernacular of the West Syriac speakers, on the other hand, remains a vernacular and efforts to write it down have always been resisted by the clergy and malphone (though there are some recent attempts to use it in written form). One finds a similar pattern in the use of classical Syriac in written form. Brock15 notes that during the twentieth century, the written literary production of West Syriac is by far more extensive than that in East Syriac. Ironically, it was East Syriac writers, like Touma Audo and Awgin Manna, who surpassed their western counterparts in producing lexical and grammatical works in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Because kthobonoyo, as we shall shortly see, has its own identity, users, style, and idiosyncrasies that distinguish it from the written form of classical Syriac, it qualifies to be considered a subtype of Syriac. Hereinafter, I shall use the term ‘Kthobonoyo Syriac’ or simply ‘Kthobonoyo’ (capitalized and unitalicized). To summarize our definition, Kthobonoyo is the spoken, not written, form of classical Syriac as used in the twentieth and twenty first centuries. (One can designate the written form by ‘Modern Literary Syriac’ following Knudsen and Wardini). The rest of this paper discusses the use of 11 For instance, during the Louvain Symposium Syriacum, one was able to hear Alber Abbouna converse with Malphono Abrohom Nuro in the classical language in East Syriac pronunciation. Just recently, I had a very lengthy and serious discussion (not mere niceties and formalities) with Fr. Emmanuel Youkhannan who conversed with me very eloquently and in the Western dialect. 12 Pierre Hobeïca, Premiere Guide Pratique De la conversation dans la langue syriaque, “texte syriaque, arabe, français”, Manuel specialement destine (Beirut, my copy does not have the cover and is not dated), Part I (I do not know if a second part was published). 13 Malpana Daniel Benjamin, who comes from a family of printers and publishers, tells me that while very few Chaldeans and fewer Assyrians can converse in SCS, he has not heard it himself (e-mail communication, 7/4/03). 14 H. L. Murre-Van den Berg, From a Spoken to a Written Language, The Introduction and Development of Literary Urmia Aramaic in the Nineteenth Century (1999). 15 Brock, Some Observations, p. 364.

Kthobonoyo Syriac

117

Kthobonoyo in the twentieth and twenty first centuries, and then briefly outlines some of its linguistic and sociolinguistic characteristics and features.

USE OF KTHOBONOYO IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY [10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

While Kthobonoyo was just defined as a subtype of Syriac that belongs to the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, it was born from an earlier tradition of SCS. How far was SCS used and to what extent is hard to ascertain. The lexical definitions of the term kthoboyo by Smith and Audo are a testimony to its existence. Necessity must have dictated the use of SCS at least amongst the clergy. In recent centuries, the linguistic background of the church hierarchy in the Middle East included Ṭuroyo-, Arabic-, Armenian-, Turkish- and Kurdishspeakers. While most of the clergy were conversant in more than one language, there may have been cases where a common language was not available, in which case SCS would have been the only choice. This, of course, is a mere conjecture, and if indeed SCS was practiced, its use would have been quite limited. The communication between the Church hierarchy of the Middle East and its flock in India provides clearer evidence for the use of SCS in earlier periods. At least since the seventeenth century, visiting bishops to Malabar had no knowledge of Malayalam, the indigenous language of the Syriac Christians of India, and in reverse the local clergy knew none of the Middle Eastern languages apart from Classical Syriac. While sometimes Arabic translators were used, much of the communication relied on Syriac. Until this day, one finds a few Kthobonoyo speakers amongst the Malayalees, although the number is dwindling, being replaced by English. The use of SCS as a mean of communication continued until the Kthobonoyo age of the twentieth century. Another reason that gave rise to the use of Kthobonoyo in the early twentieth century is national identity, which intensified in 1908 when the Turkish İttihat ve Terakki Cemiyeti (Committee of Union and Progress, CUP), or the Young Turks, revolted against the Ottoman sultan, and forced him to restore the Ottoman constitution of 1876. This gave an opportunity to many millet communities to form secular organizations and movements that gave rise to a spirit of nationalism. Within the Syrian Orthodox church, the ‛irutho movement was formed with much enthusiasm from activists like Na‛‛um Faiq. Unity was the main focus, not only unity within the Syrian Orthodox church, but also with other communities that belonged to the same “nation,” such as the Assyrians, Chaldeans, Syrian Catholics and Maronites. Hence, a notion of ‚umthonoyutho (belonging to a ‘people’ or ‘nation’) was developed, and in turn a movement of Syriac revival came into being. Proponents of Syriac revival saw in the use of SCS but one method

118

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George A. Kiraz

with which the language can be revived. Speakers of Kthobonoyo in the first half of the twentieth century included educators such as Yuḥanon Dolabani (1885-1969), and later Kthobonoyo was promoted by Fawlos Gabriel (1912-1971), Abdulmasih Qarabashi (1903-1983), Abrohom Nuro (1923-), and others. In the second half of the twentieth century, the use of Kthobonoyo was enforced in the seminaries and some of the village schools in Ṭur ‛Abdin. It was not unusual for a pupil to receive a punishment if heard speaking in a tongue other than Kthobonoyo. Even Ṭuroyo was prohibited in schools. Teachers would go to the extent of assigning some pupils as ‘watchers’ whose duty is to report other pupils when they speak in a non-Kthobonoyo language. This attitude is echoed in a statement made in Kthobonoyo by Malphono Isa Garis, director of students at Mor Gabriel Monastery, “ ‫ܬ‬

‫ܘܗܝ ܒ ܐ‬ ‫ܬ‬ ‫ܕܗܘ܆ ܐ ܘ ܕ‬ ‫ܪ‬ ̣ ‫ܐ ܕܐ ܐ ̇ ܐ‬ ̇‫ܕ‬ ‫ܐ‬ ‫ ܘܐ ܐ‬.‫ܐ ܐ ̇ ܒ ܘ ܗ‬ ‫ܘܕ܆ ܗܘ‬ ‫ܘܢ ܐ‬ ‫ܬܗ‬ —in my opinion, if any teacher, of whatever language, does not [15]

converse in the language which he is teaching, then he is not doing that which is right, and his training will not be successful.”16 Kthobonoyo was given a push after the immigration of the Syrian Orthodox from the Middle East to Europe in the 1960s and 1970s. Immigrants came from various diverse linguistic backgrounds. In the diaspora, they acquired English, Swedish, French, German, Dutch, Flemish, or Italian. Finding a common language is not always possible, and amongst the clergy and malphone, Kthobonoyo started to serve as a mini lingua franca. I can report from a personal experience how I had no choice but to communicate in Kthobonoyo. That was during a visit to the Monastery of St. Ephrem in Holland in 1988, the purpose of which was to teach the monks how to use the then newly released Syriac MLS fonts.17 The monk who was assigned to learn this new technology from me spoke Turoyo, Swedish, and a bit of Dutch, none of which I mastered. The only common language available to both of us was Kthobonoyo. I found myself struggling not only to communicate in a language that I have hitherto used only in a liturgical context, albeit for fifteen years, but also had to translate and coin, sometimes on the spot, computer terminology to get the lessons across. This experience gave rise to a number of neologisms: ‫“ ܬ ܐ‬monitor,” ‫ܐ ܕ ̈ ܐ‬ “keyboard,” and of course ‫̈ ܐ‬ “fonts.” Instantaneous coinage of terms is one of the linguistic features of Kthobonoyo as we shall shortly see.

Heto [Heto], vol. 5, nos 8-9, 2003, p. 46. Gamma Productions, Multi-Lingual Scholar, Wordprocessor User’s Manual (Santa Monica, 1989); G. A. Kiraz, Alaph Beth Font Kit User’s Guide (Los Angeles, 1989). 16 17

Kthobonoyo Syriac [16]

119

Today, Kthobonoyo has become more popular. One finds speakers communicating in Kthobonoyo even when their linguistic backgrounds give rise to another common, sometimes native language. Attendees of Syriac Symposia are now hearing Kthobonoyo more often.

CHARACTERISTICS AND FEATURES OF KTHOBONOYO SYRIAC Nativeness and Aptitude [17]

[18]

Kthobonoyo, as the fuṣḥā of Arabic, is primarily a learned, non-native language that requires formal training. Very few cases where Kthobonoyo is a native language do exist, and one such case was reported during the Syriac Symposium in Princeton in 2003 and this year’s Aram conference in Chicago.18 In all of these cases, the children who acquire Kthobonoyo as a native language are multilingual children, speaking at least two other languages. The aptitude level of Kthobonoyo speakers varies tremendously, despite the fact that speakers tend to be clergymen and malphone well versed in Classical Syriac. There are two main factors that affect aptitude: the level of mastering Classical Syriac, and the extent to which the speakers’ social context allows them to use Kthobonoyo. Any shift in these factors has a direct affect on the speaker’s aptitude. I am happy to provide a personal example. I began speaking Kthobonoyo in 1988 with a low aptitude level. As I began reading Syriac on daily basis as part of my M.St. degree in Oxford in 1990-1991, my Kthobonoyo aptitude increased tremendously, especially that concurrently I had the opportunity to speak it on regular basis with two friends in London until 1996. After I moved back to the US in 1996, I had little chance to speak Kthobonoyo and my aptitude level decreased until I decided to speak it at home with my children. Male Centricity

[19]

[20]

A significant sociolinguistic feature of Kthobonoyo, one which sets it apart from most other languages, is its male centricity. Most speakers are either clergy (by definition male) and/or male malphone, with very few female speakers. The result is an intriguing peculiarity of a language that is morphologically gender sensitive. At least two types of gender related ill-usage are observed in the use of verbal forms, even when speakers have an average mastering of the written language. In male-female dialogues, the second person verbal paradigm is misused in both directions. Males often address females in a mixture of masculine and feminine forms. This observation was made when a number 18

G. A. Kiraz, Tabetha Syriac (forthcoming).

120

[21]

[22]

George A. Kiraz

of speakers, including myself, addressed my Kthobonoyo-speaking daughter Tabetha; e.g., *‫ ܐ ܬܐܙܠ‬instead of ‫“ ܐ ܬܐܙ‬do not go.” This often happens in imperfect forms that end in the suffix –in, whereby the speaker may wrongly assume a silent yudh ending. I have also observed adult females addressing males in a mixture of masculine and feminine ‫“ ܐ ܐ‬you say.” Such forms; e.g., * ‫ ܐ ܐ ܐ ܐ‬instead of ‫ܐ‬ ill-usage of verbal forms takes place when the speakers are new to each other. If and when the experience between the two speakers grows, less and less mistakes are made. The other ill-formed usage of verbs that was observed takes place in third feminine forms. In a dialogue I had with an adult malphono, he was continuously referring to his wife in the masculine when constructing an instead of ‫ܒ ܐ ܕܬܐܙܠ‬ ‘imperfect + ‫ ’ܕ‬form; e.g., *‫ܒ ܐ ܕ ܐܙܠ‬ “when she wants to go.” This malphono in question was of course aware of the proper verbal conjugation in the written form, but as referring to a female is not common in Kthobonoyo, the wrong verbal form was used. This male dominant feature of Kthobonoyo has effects beyond morphology and syntax. It puts, for example, a limitation on the genres of dialogues that take place. While one may imagine gender related topics discussed, one is guaranteed that they are always given from a male perspective. Additionally, the social status of speakers puts a limitation to the range of topics which are usually under discussion. Matters of church and community are common, but dialogues on the latest in pop culture are probably far fetched. Code Switching

[23]

[24]

[25]

Code switching is when lexemes from another language infiltrate a dialogue, ‫—ܐ ܗܘܐ‬we had an interdisciplinary e.g., “interdisciplinary ‫ܐ‬ meeting” (read ith... knushyo interdisciplinary). Various factors affect the use of code switching; these include formality, subject matter of dialogue, competence of the speakers, and the availability or absence of another common language. Formal dialogues exhibit less code switching than informal ones. Such dialogues take place between people who may have just been introduced, or between two speakers of two different social classes (e.g., a bishop with a lay person)—and of course one is trying to impress the other of one’s competence in Kthobonoyo! When a word is needed on the spot and the speaker cannot think of it, the speaker may go around by explaining it with a phrase to avoid code switching. The subject matter of the dialogue is a major factor in affecting code switching. Mere formalities and niceties are well represented in Kthobonoyo that hardly any code switching is necessary. But discussions of current affairs, serious topics, or technology related matters require much

Kthobonoyo Syriac

[26]

[27]

121

code switching such as the “interdisciplinary” example given above. Sometimes even niceties demand code switching. I am not aware of a Kthobonoyo term that expresses the full emotions of missing someone. Of ‫‘ ܩ‬eager to see.’ But course, one can opt for something like ‫ܐ‬ would one really want to use it after not seeing one’s daughter for a month! miss ‫—ܒܐܒܐ‬Daddy misses you a lot” (read baba miss I prefer “ ‫ܓ‬ lekh sagi ). The availability or absence of another common language between the two speakers also affects code switching. When such a language is available, and especially in informal and serious discussion, it is easy to fall back to the second language in order to provide for technical terms. But when no such language exists, one has to find a way to express oneself without code switching. The more the speaker is lexically competent in literary Syriac, the less code switching takes place. The primary challenge here is that much of the lexemes that are unique to Kthobonoyo are not systematically recorded ‫‘ ܒ‬airport,’ ‫‘ ܬ ܙܬܐ‬radio,’ ‫‘ ܨܘܪ ܐ‬television’), and one (e.g., ‫ܐ‬ has to find them by digging up modern dictionaries that mix Classical Syriac with Kthobonoyo vocabulary. The Lexicon: Neologism and Coinage

[28]

The primary difference between Kthobonoyo and the written modality is in the lexicon. On the one hand, the Kthobonoyo lexicon employs many new additions, and gives some of the existing words a new meaning. On the other hand, the Kthobonoyo lexicon employs only a subset of the larger literary lexicon. Much of Kthobonoyo vocabulary can be found in recent dictionaries, though always mixed with Modern and Classical Literary Syriac.19 The neologisms put forward by Abrohom Nuro are the expection.20

Recent dictionaries containing Kthobonoyo terms include Issa Hanna, MiniWörterbuch Deutsch-Assyrisch (1984); Simon Atto, Nederlands Suryoyo Woordenboek (1986); Simon Atto, Süryanice-Türkçe Sözlük (1988); Aziz Bulut, Woordenboek Nederlands-Syrisch, Syrisch-Nederlands (1993); Hatune Dogan, Wörterbuch Syrisch-Deutsch, Deutsch-Syrisch (Aleppo, 1997); Odisho Ashitha, Hilqa de Leshana Assyrian-Arabic Dictionary (1977); Younan Hozaya and Anderios Youkhana, Bahra Arabic-Assyrian Dictionary (1998); Sabo Hanno and Aziz Bulut, Wörterbuch Deutsch-Aramäisch, Aramäisch-Deutsch (2000); Shlemon Khoshaba and Emanuel Yokhanna, Zahreera Arabic-Syriac Dictionary (2000); Joseph Malke, ‫̈ܪ ܐ‬ ‫[ ܒ ܘ ܐ‬Syriac-Arabic, ArabicSyriac] (2003); Gabriel Afram, Svensk Assyrisk ordbok (2005). 20 Abrohom Nuro, Tawldotho or Syriac Neologisms, Principles, Criteria and Examples (1997); Nuro also put together a word list circulated privately in Syriac, Arabic, English and French. 19

122 [29]

[30]

[31]

George A. Kiraz

There are instances when a new word is coined when there is in fact an equivalent in the written lexicon. I, for instance, coined ‫‘ ̈ ܐ ܕ ܐ̈ܪܐ‬water of fruits’ for ‘juice’ and used it for some years until Abrohom Nuro pointed out ‫ܬܪ ܐ‬. In some cases, nominal variants of the same root are used for the same semantic feature by different speakers. I always used with my daughter ‫ܗܒ‬ ‘give me a kiss.’ The use of ‫ܐ‬ is motivated from the ‫ܐ‬ prayer of the Kiss of Peace from the Liturgy of St. James. Malphono ‫ܗܒ‬, to which Tabetha Abrohom Nuru, however, opted for ‫ܐ‬ responded without any problem. Kthobonoyo is rich in neologisms and coined terms, but as just mentioned there is no systematic recording of these terms. Sometimes a term is coined on the spot. For instance, when (then) my 3 ½ year old daughter and I were walking in an airport and we reached the escalator-like ‫ ”ܗ ܐ‬I ‘moving floor,’ my inquisitive daughter asked, “‫ܢ ܐ ܘܗܝ؟‬ ‫ܗ ܐ‬.” Others may coin a instantaneously replied, “‫݂ ܐ ܐ ܘܗܝ‬ different word which results in an object having different lexical representations in Kthobonoyo. Simplified Grammar

[32] [33]

[34]

[35]

While the phonology and morphology of Kthobonoyo are quite similar to Classical Syriac, the syntax of Kthobonoyo is a subset of that of the classical language. The nominal absolute state is less frequent in Kthobonoyo, as well as for Classical Syriac the construct state (e.g., Kthobonoyo ‫ܐ ܕܐ ܐ ܐ‬ ‫ܐ ܐ ܐ‬ ‘the king of Spain’). Having said that, one finds common ‫݂ ܬܐ ܕ‬ ‫‘ ܪ‬the mayor of Losser.’ constructs such as Other grammatical features are absent in Kthobonoyo. Possessive and ‫ ܐ‬for object suffixes of complex verbs are avoided (e.g., Kthobonoyo ‘he called me’). Active participle forms are used Classical Syriac primarily as present tense verbs and hardly as nouns. The infinitive is quite ‫ܐ ܐ ܕ‬ infrequent, especially with an object (e.g., Kthobonoyo ‫ܐ ܢ‬ ). for Classical Syriac ‫ܐ ܢ‬ Nominal clauses with pronoun contractions are hardly heard in Kthobonoyo, but are quite frequent in literary Syriac. When Sebastian P. Brock was playing with his three-year old namesake Sebastian-Kenoro a game of hide-and-seek, he would use the literary form ‫( ܐ ܐ‬i.e., ‫ܐ ܐ‬ ‫)ܐ ܐ‬, where one would expect in Kthobonoyo the longer simplified form ‫ܐ ܐ ܐ ܝ‬. The substitution of the ‫ܐ‬- structure in place of contracted pronouns is quite frequent in Kthobonoyo.

Kthobonoyo Syriac [36]

123

Word order is less free in Kthobonoyo than in Classical Syriac. In Kthobonoyo, the verb is hardly at the end of a phrase or sentence, while in Classical Syriac one case place the verb in various positions of the sentence. Conclusion

[37]

This paper gave some observations and remarks on Kthobonoyo, the spoken form of classical Syriac as used in the twentieth and twenty first centuries. We have seen that Kthobonoyo is a continuation of the tradition of speaking classical Syriac from earlier centuries, but was encouraged in our period due to necessity and national identity. Kthobonoyo has its own linguistic and sociolinguistic features such as male centricity, the strong use of code switching, and the lexical idiosyncrasies. A more thorough investigation of the topic, especially around syntax and usage, would ideally ‫ܘ ܘܐ ܕ ܒ‬ . require a recorded corpus. ‫ܒ ܐ‬

BIBLIOGRAPHY Afram, Gabriel. Svensk Assyrisk ordbok (2005). ‫ܕ‬ (Aleppo, 1953). Asad, Gabriel. ‫ܬܐ‬ Ashitha, Odisho. Hilqa de Leshana Assyrian-Arabic Dictionary (1977). Atto, Simon. Nederlands Suryoyo Woordenboek (1986). Atto, Simon. Süryanice-Türkçe Sözlük (1988). ‫ܐ ܕ ܐ‬ (Mosul, 1897). Audo, Thomas. ‫ܪ ܐ‬ Brock, S. P. ‘Some Observations on the Use of Classical Syriac in the Late Twentieth Century,’ Journal of Semitic Studies, XXXIV/2 (1989), 363-75. Brockelmann, Karl. Lexicon Syriacum (Georg Olms Verlag reprint, 1982). Bulut, Aziz. Woordenboek Nederlands-Syrisch, Syrisch-Nederlands (1993). Dogan, Hatune. Wörterbuch Syrisch-Deutsch, Deutsch-Syrisch (Aleppo, 1997). Gamma Productions, Multi-Lingual Scholar, Wordprocessor User’s Manual (Santa Monica, 1989). ‫ ܙ ܬܐ ܒ ܐ‬: ‫( ܗ ܐ ܙ‬Jönköping, 1998). Haddad, Laila. ‫ܪ ܐ ܘ ܕ ܐ‬ Hanna, Issa. Mini-Wörterbuch Deutsch-Assyrisch (1984). Hanno, Sabo, and Bulut, Aziz Wörterbuch Deutsch-Aramäisch, Aramäisch-Deutsch (2000). Heto [Ḥeṭo], vol. 5, nos 8-9, 2003, p. 46. Hobeïca, Pierre. Premiere Guide Pratique De la conversation dans la langue syriaque, “texte syriaque, arabe, français,” Manuel specialement destine (Beirut, my copy does not have the cover and is not dated), Part I (I do not know if a second part was published). Khoshaba, Shlemon, and Yokhanna, Emanuel. Zahreera Arabic-Syriac Dictionary (2000). Kiraz, G. A. Alaph Beth Font Kit User’s Guide (Los Angeles, 1989). Kiraz, G. A. Tabetha Syriac (forthcoming). Knudsen, E. E. ‘An important step in the revival of literary Syriac: Abrohom Nouro’s Tawldotho,’ Oriens Christianus 84 (2000), 59-65.

124

George A. Kiraz

Knudsen, E. E. ‘Lexical Innovations in Modern Literary Syriac,’ in René Lavenant (ed.), Symposium Syriacum VII, 545-51. Hozaya, Younan, and Youkhana, Anderios. Bahra Arabic-Assyrian Dictionary (1998). ‫[ ܒ ܘ ܐ‬Syriac-Arabic, Arabic-Syriac] (2003). Malke, Joseph. ‫̈ܪ ܐ‬ Murre-Van den Berg, H. L. From a Spoken to a Written Language, The Introduction and Development of Literary Urmia Aramaic in the Nineteenth Century (1999). Nuro, Abrohom. Tawldotho or Syriac Neologisms, Principles, Criteria and Examples (1997). Smith, J. P. A Compendious Syriac Dictionary (Eisenbrauns reprint, 1998). Smith, R. P. Thesaurus Syriacus [Syriac Thesaurus] (Gorgias Press reprint, 2007). Wardini, E. ‘Modern Literary Syriac: A Case of Linguistic Divorce,’ in René Lavenant (ed.), Symposium Syriacum VII, pp.517-25. Wardini, E. ‘Neologisms in MLS,’ Melanges de l’Universite Saint-Joseph 53:5 (1993/4), 401-566, and 54 (1995/6), 167-324. Wardini, E. Neologisms in Modern Literary Syriac: Some Preliminary Results (Dissertation, Oslo 1995).

Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies, Vol. 10, 125-127 © 2007 by Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute and Gorgias Press

BRIEF ARTICLE

150 YEARS OF SYRIAC STUDIES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO AMIR HARRAK UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO

ABSTRACT This brief article outlines the history of Syriac studies at the University of Toronto since 1857.

[1]

[2]

Instruction in Syriac at the University of Toronto began in 1857, seven years after this institution replaced King’s College, which had been founded in 1827 through a Royal Charter from King George IV. A programme called “Oriental Literature,” including instruction in Hebrew, Aramaic, Syriac, Arabic and Samaritan, was established by the German-born Jacob Maier Hirschfelder (1819-1902), who must have taught all these languages. The university calendar for 1857-58 indicates that the teaching of Syriac included “Grammar (Phillips’s); The Parables in the New Testament; History of the Syriac Language and Literature.” In 1886-87, Syriac was part of the Honour Course taught in the Second Year, and the grammar used was either “Uhlemann translated by Hutchinson, Phillips, or Noeldeke.” In 1889 Hirschfelder was succeeded by his former assistant James Frederick McCurdy, a native of New Brunswick (1847-1935). He was a Semitist and Assyriologist, with degrees from Princeton, Tübingen, and Leipzig. His teachers were none other than the distinguished Delitzsch, 125

126

[3]

[4]

[5]

Amir Harrak

Schrader, and Nöldeke. Post-graduate studies in “Orientals” appeared in the Calendar for 1889-90, and here the study of Syriac expanded beyond the Syriac Bible to “Selections from Bar Hebraeus, and Ephraem Syrus.” One of the reference books was Nöldeke’s Kurzgefasste syrische Grammatik, which by that time was one of the most widely used grammars of Syriac. The Ph.D. programme in Oriental Languages, called in this context Semitic Languages or Semitics, was introduced in 1897. One of McCurdy’s assistants was William Robert Taylor, a graduate of Toronto in Theology and Bible; he succeeded McCurdy upon his retirement in 1914. Taylor, a native of Ontario (1882-1951), was an outstanding scholar who mastered several ancient languages and published extensively, mostly in the field of Biblical Studies. He must have been the supervisor of Frederick Victor Winnett, also a native of Ontario (1903-1989), who wrote his dissertation on the 13th century Syriac author ‛Abdīšō bar Brīkhā. This dissertation, entitled Paradise of Eden, was “submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the University of Toronto;” it was published by the University of Toronto Press in 1929. In the introduction, Winnett justified his study of the Paradise of Eden, saying “its avowed purpose is to display the resources and elegancies and subtleties of that tongue [Syriac], just as the Maqamat of al-Ḥariri was written to display the niceties of the Arabic language.” A master of Syriac and Arabic, Winnett devoted most of his research at the University of Toronto to Pre-Islamic Arabic studies. In 1929 Winnett was added to the staff as Lecturer, and one year later, another Syriac scholar, William Steward McCullough, became temporary Lecturer. McCullough, a native of Toronto (1902-1982), was also versed in all biblical languages, including Syriac. Overwhelmed by teaching duties, intensive research by him did not begin until he retired in 1970, and during his retirement he wrote his A Short History of Syriac Christianity to the Rise of Islam, (published posthumously in 1982 by Scholars Press). This is an excellent tool for the study of both Eastern and Western branches of Syriac Christianity, and in it the author proved himself critical, comprehensive, and insightful. The minutes of the Council of University College dated September 20, 1982, reveal that at the time of Professor McCullough’s death, he “left behind a substantial portion of a translation from Syriac of a monumental work of the thirteenth century, the Ecclesiastical History by the learned Bar-Hebraeus.” Though the minutes state that “one of McCullough’s former students has undertaken to bring the task to completion,” neither the name of this student nor the fate of McCullough’s translation is now known. Unfortunately, this worthwhile study was never published. In 1961, while McCullough was teaching Oriental Languages at University College, Professor Ernest George Clarke was appointed

150 Years of Syriac Studies at the University of Toronto

[6]

[7]

127

Associate Professor of Near Eastern Studies at Victoria College, where he taught Aramaic. Clarke was born in Ontario in 1927 and after he obtained a Master’s degree in Oriental Languages at the University of Toronto, he studied for his doctorate at Leiden University, the Netherlands, graduating in 1962. His doctoral dissertation was on Syriac: The Selected Questions of Ishō‛ Bar Nūn on the Pentateuch, published by Brill in 1962, but his research while at the University of Toronto concentrated on the targums until he retired in 1993. He died in Toronto in 1997 while still active in his targumic research. One year after McCullough’s retirement in 1970, David John Lane was appointed Assistant Professor of Aramaic and Syriac in the then Department of Near Eastern Studies. David was born in 1935 in England, where he studied Theology and Oriental Studies, concentrating on Hebrew, Aramaic and Syriac. At the University of Toronto he worked on the Syriac Bible, editing several books of the Old Testament for the Leiden Peshitta Institute, revising other books, and publishing a monograph that took Peshitta studies out of simple text criticism of the Old Testament into the wider field of Syriac church history and liturgy. Although he had received tenure in the department as Associate Professor, in 1983 Lane left Toronto to join the staff of the College of the Resurrection, Mirfield, near Huddersfield, England. After completing his work on the Peshitta, he began doing research on the Syriac Fathers, especially Shubhalmaran, a 7th century bishop and ascetic author. His edition and translation of the latter’s Book of Gifts was published on Lane’s 70th birthday in the CSCO. He died in January 9, 2005, while lecturing on Syriac at the St Ephrem Ecumenical Research Institute, Kerala, India. After Lane’s departure from Toronto in 1983, Ernest Clarke took over the teaching of Syriac, as well as his own area of Aramaic, in the department. From 1988 until the present time, a full undergraduate and graduate programme in Syriac studies has been directed by Amir Harrak in the Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations.

BOOK REVIEWS Sebastian P. Brock, An Introduction to Syriac Studies (revised second edition). (Gorgias Handbooks 4; Gorgias Press: Piscataway, NJ, 2006) Pp. ix + 78. Paperback, $29.00. REVIEWED BY ROBERT A. KITCHEN, KNOX-METROPOLITAN UNITED CHURCH

[1]

[2]

[3]

It has seldom been an easy task to venture into the study of things Syriac. There are few places, even many theological institutions, where mention of the Syriac language and its churches elicits a response of recognition. Sources and reference materials, therefore, are not readily located, so where to begin is a matter of first importance. Sebastian Brock’s second small volume recently republished in an updated edition remedies the situation. An Introduction to Syriac Studies was written originally in 1980 for a publication in Birmingham targeted towards undergraduates, but over time became inaccessible to most students. Kristian Heal of the Center for the Preservation of Ancient Religious Texts (CPART) at Brigham Young University first rescued the publication from no-longer-in-print status and published it electronically on the CPART website. Now Gorgias Press has reissued the book with a number of additions and updates which Brock happily notes is the good sign of significant growth and interest in the field of Syriac studies. This may be called an introduction, but it is worth the time reading through for any student or experienced scholar. Particularly helpful are the initial sections on “what is Syriac” and “why one should study it,” matters typically raised by all sorts of people, but seldom answered in an articulate way. The section on the scope of Syriac literature is all too brief, but after all this is intended only to be an introduction, so Brock continually points the reader towards other more in-depth resources. Nevertheless, Brock’s enthusiasm and delight in the subject quickly infect even the oldest hand. The fourth section on the place of Syriac among the Aramaic dialects, along with a chart that locates Aramaic in the family of Semitic languages, is very helpful for the student who is entering Syriac from a Biblical/Hebrew/ theological background. A brief description of the Syriac scripts is helpful, though it would have been nice to see some actual scripts as examples. Indeed, that would be the only real criticism of this handbook—given the facility of computerized publishing and the availability of numerous Syriac 129

130

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

Book Reviews

fonts—a few examples of the different Syriac scripts and fonts would obviously aid in visualization for the beginner. Chapter Five, “Tools,” by necessity has been updated the most extensively, and in many instances, dramatically. Grammars, chrestomathies, dictionaries begin; then an excellent overview of the status of the Syriac Bible, Old and New Testaments, and their various editions— particular notice being given to the progress of the Leiden Old Testament Peshitta project and George Kiraz’s computer-generated concordance to the Peshitta. Next, histories of Syriac literature are listed as well as works on the historical background of Syriac culture and churches, taking care to point out the different trajectories of the East and West Syriac traditions. The ever expanding knowledge explosion in Syriac studies is indicated in the lists of bibliographical aids, the various old and new series of texts and translations, periodicals, encyclopedias, festschrifts and volumes of collected essays. The Epilogue may not be part of a formal academic introduction, but “The Delights of Manuscripts” should result in more people engaging this adventure. Brock relates tales of his own joys and excitement in the presence of ancient manuscripts in which, as he writes concerning holding the oldest dated Syriac manuscript in the British Library’s Oriental Reading Room, “It does not take much imagination to find oneself transported back across time and space to Edessa in November 411.” Brock’s enthusiasm is catching as he takes the reader on a tour from Sinai to Damascus, Ṭur ‛Abdin and back to the Bodleian. The Appendix, “The Syriac Churches,” signals a road seldom traveled in years past. Obviously, most Syriac literature is immersed in the life of the Syriac-speaking churches, but often the gap between the academy and the congregation has not been bridged. Brock delineates the various members of the Syriac Body of Christ and their positions relative to the Christological controversies and historical allegiances to other denominations with the aid of several charts and diagrams. Clarification and correction of the terms Nestorian and Monophysite is a critical insertion in order to facilitate ecumenical dialogue. Included as well are articles and books describing in more detail the history and ethos of the individual churches, whether in the Near East, Europe, the Americas and India. There are certainly other scholars who could compile a similarly excellent introduction to the study of Syriac; here we may listen to the voice of the scholar who has had a significant role in putting it all together.

Book Reviews

131

Sebastian P. Brock, The Wisdom of St. Isaac of Nineveh. (Texts From Christian Late Antiquity 1; Gorgias Press: Piscataway, NJ, 2006) Pp. xx + 42. Paperback, $24.00. REVIEWED BY ROBERT A. KITCHEN, KNOX-METROPOLITAN UNITED CHURCH

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

The third incarnation or edition of a small volume of verses of Isaac of Nineveh selected by Sebastian Brock is more than a reprinting, but an innovation in Syriac publishing. The first life of this selection originated in Kottayam, India, as a 1995 publication of the St. Ephrem Ecumenical Research Institute; the second included a longer introduction in an attractive edition by SLG Press, Fairacres, Oxford (1997, 1999). In this third Gorgias Press edition, the book continues being fleshed out with the longer introduction, an updated bibliography, and in particular a facingpage Syriac text. Another dimension is added with Brock’s introduction being translated into Syriac by Raban Awgen Aydin—recently consecrated as Mar Polycarpus Eugene Aydin, Bishop of the Netherlands, Diocese of the Syrian Orthodox Church. It is as much the concept of this text as its content that is significant. George Kiraz and Gorgias Press have initiated a new series of bilingual texts in order to make available edited texts and excellent English translations at low cost. Fittingly, Sebastian Brock’s selection of Isaac of Nineveh is Volume One, a throwback to an older style of a selected reader for spiritual development and guidance. Brock has chosen 153 sayings or mēllē from the First and Second Parts of Isaac’s works. The number, of course, is the count of the postresurrection catch of fish by the disciples (John 21), utilized by other early Christian writers especially for similar collections of pithy sentences or chapters intended for memorization and meditation. The introduction presents a thorough, yet concise, summary of what is known of Isaac’s life and the longer story of his writings, emphasizing its wide spiritual influence first in Syriac, then in Greek and Russian spirituality. The journey of Isaac’s works into the Philokalia are detailed, as well as the description of the traditional First Part, the rediscovery in the Bodleian Library of the Second Part, and a brief note on the even more recent discovery of the Third Part. Describing the content of this collection of short texts is a problem since there is no narrative or overarching scheme for the sentences. Since the sentences are intended for purposes of meditation, one does not want to give too many away. For the student of Syriac patristics and the seeker of Eastern Christian spirituality there are further benefits. One is able to observe how Brock

132

[7] [8]

[9] [10]

translates with his deep understanding of how this language functions. The English translation is always contemporary in tone, occasionally edging toward the colloquial, so consequently needing little explanation for one desiring to meditate upon the sentences. The sentences generally focus upon the attitudes of human beings towards prayer and its practice, and conversely, upon God’s compassionate attitude towards us. A few examples will illustrate. The first sentence is of interest to see where Brock begins. From the second homily of the First Part Isaac speaks appropriately of a spiritual progression and journey—ladder and steps, descending and ascending. 1. “The ladder to the Kingdom is hidden within you, and within your soul. Dive down into your self, away from sin, and there you will find the steps by which you can ascend up.”

ܰ ܳ ܶ ‫ܬܐ ܰܓ‬ ܰ ܰ ‫ܰ ܐ‬ ‫ ܳ ܶ ܐ ̱ ܳܒ‬. ܳ ܰ ‫ܘܒܓ‬ ܶܰ ܰ ‫ܶ ܰ ܐ ̱ ܰ ̈ ܳ ܐ ܰܕܒ ܘܢ ܬ ܀‬

[12] [13]

[14]

‫ܶ ܶܒ‬

ܰ ܳ ܰܳ ‫ܐ ܕܗܝ‬ ‫ܐ܇ ܘܬ‬

ܶ

Two sentences underline Isaac’s ascetical commitment and a firm stance on an old and continuing theological problem. 11. “Fire will not catch alight with wet wood, and fervour for God will not be kindled in a heart that loves ease.”

‫ܳ ̈ܐ‬

[11]

Book Reviews

ܰ ‫ܳܕ ܐ܇ ܶܘܪܬ ܐ‬ ܶ ‫ܕܒܐ ܳ ܐ ܒ ܶ ܒܐ ܳܪ‬

‫ܪܐ ܒ ܰ ̈ ܐ ܱ̈ܪ ܒܐ‬ ‫ܶ ܰܒ ܰ ܫ܀‬

32. “‘Satan’ is a name denoting the deviation of the human will from truth; it is not the designation of a natural being.” ܳ

ܰ ܰ ܳ ‫ܘܗܝ ܰ ܕ ܳ ܐ܀‬ ̱ ‫ܪܐ܇ ܘ ܰܕ ܳ ܐ ܐ‬

ܶ ‫ܳ ܬܗ ܶܕܨܒ ܳ ܐ‬

ܰ‫ܐܕ‬

‫ܐ܇‬

A couple of sentences from the Second Part of Isaac’s work exemplify Isaac’s contemplative orientation in both the practice of prayer and in his understanding of the Gospel. 118. “You should not wait until you are cleansed of wandering thoughts before you desire to pray. If you only begin on prayer when you see that your mind has become perfect and raised above all recollection of the world, then you will never pray.”

ܶ ܶ ܰ ܶ ܶ ‫ܬܬܕ ܶ ܐ ܕ ܳ ̈ܒܐ܇ ܳܗ‬ ܰ ܶ ‫ܰ ܐܕܶ ܶ ܐ‬ ‫ ܐܢ ܶܕ‬... . ‫ܬܬܪܓ ܰ ܓ ܰܕ ܰܬܨ‬ ܽ ܶ ܰ ܰ ‫ܰܘ‬ ܶ ܶ ‫ܐ ܶܕܪ ܳ ܐ‬ ܳ ‫ܗܕܢ ܕ ܳ ܐ ܳܗ‬ ‫ܓ‬ ‫ܘܐ‬ ܰ ܰ ܳ ‫ܗܝ܇ ܳܗ ܶ ܬ ܰ ܶ ܐ ܰܒ ܬܐ܇‬ ‫ܰ ܐ̱ ܀‬ ̱

ܰ

ܰ

ܶ ‫ܶܬ‬

120. “The entire purpose of our Lord’s death was not to redeem us from sins, or for any other reason, but solely in order that the world might become aware of the love which God has for creation. Had all this astounding affair taken place solely for the purpose of the forgiveness of sin, it would have been sufficient to redeem us by some other means.”

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ܽ ܶ ܰ ‫̱ܗܘܐ‬ ‫ܰ ܇ ܘ‬ ̱‫ܰ ܳ ܶ ܶ ܡ ܐ‬ .‫ܐ ܳ ܬ ܶ ܒ ܐ‬ ‫ܶܓ ܒ ܒܐ ܰܕ ܶܐ‬ ܽ ‫ܕ ܗܘܐ ܳܗ‬ ‫ܳ ܕܬܕ ܪܬܐ܇‬ [15]

ܶ ‫̈ܐ‬ ܰ ‫ܐ‬ ‫ܰܒ‬ ‫ܘܩ܀‬

ܳ

133

ܽ ܶ ܽ ܶ ܳ ‫ܬܗ ܕ ܳ ܰ ܢ܇ ܐ ܰܒ ܕ ܕ‬ ܽ ܶ ܳ ܳ‫ܒ‬ ‫̈ܐ‬ ܶ ܶ ̱‫̱ܗܘܐ ܰܕܒ ܶ ܶ ܡ ܐ‬

ܰ

ܶ‫ܕ‬

ܶ

ܰ ܳ

Sebastian Brock has spoken and written of the need for “haute vulgarisation” of Syriac literature in order to promote the field among a wider audience than just specialists and thus help integrate awareness of the Syriac tradition as “the third lung” for the Church. This slim volume certainly fills this imperative, particularly in its accessibility.

Adam H. Becker, Fear of God and the Beginning of Wisdom. The School of Nisibis and Christian Scholastic Culture in Late Antique Mesopotamia, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia 2006, Series Divination, pp. xvi + 298, ISBN-13: 978-0-8122-3934-8; ISBN-10: 0-8122-3934-2. REVIEWED BY ILARIA RAMELLI, CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF THE SACRED HEART, MILAN, ITALY

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This rich and fine book (a revision of the author’s doctoral dissertation) provides an intellectual and institutional history of the scholastic culture of the Church of the East—above all of the School of Nisibis—in the late antique and early Islamic periods. The work sheds light on the development of Christian paideia in Late Antiquity and the rise of the Babylonian Jewish academies, and exposes the importance of the East-Syrian school movement as the background to the intellectual culture to come, a point that has not yet been fully appreciated. The present study is all more valuable in that the East Syrians, called “Nestorians” by their enemies, continue to exist all over the world, in the Middle East, in South India, and in the Diaspora, e.g. in the U.S.A. (especially in the Midwest), in Australia, and in Sweden. Thus it is entirely appropriate that in a “Note on Transliteration, Spelling, and Terminology” (xiii-xiv) the author, in line with S. Brock, “The ‘Nestorian’ Church: A Lamentable Misnomer,” Bulletin of the John Rylands Library of Manchester 78 (1996) 23-36, sensibly rejects the denomination “Nestorians” for the East Syrians, and also declares his preference for “Miaphysite” rather than “Monophysite” for the Syrian Orthodox, according to the terminology adopted by Lucas van Rompay. These in fact are more accurate denominations, and at the same time much more respectful. After a useful Chronology from AD 363 to 1020 (xv-xvi), the Introduction (1-21) provides valuable guidelines for the readers. First of all, Becker sketches the history of the passage of the exegesis and scholarly

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practice from the School of the Persians of Edessa to the School of Nisibis, and follows the development of this school along with its leaders. He notes that the East-Syrian scholastic culture grew at the same time and in the same place as that of one of the main cultural products of the late antique and early Medieval Near East, viz. the Babylonian Talmud. The author remarks that in ancient Mesopotamia Jews and Christians spoke the same language, lived under the same rulers, and shared the same Scriptures and mystical and eschatological speculation. In particular, a full comparative study of the School of Nisibis and the Rabbinic academies of Babylonia is still a desideratum. This is, according to the author, due largely to the model of the “Parting of the Ways” between Judaism and Christianity, which prevented scholars from a joint investigation of Jewish and Christian institutions of learning in Late Antiquity. (I note that a good contribution to criticism against a too sharp “Parting of the Ways” model is to be found in the miscellaneous work edited by the author himself and Annette Yoshiko Reed, The Ways that Never Parted: Jews and Christians in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, Tübingen 2003). In the introduction Becker also presents the main intellectual historical source for the School of Nisibis and one of the chief sources for the School of the Persians in Edessa, a source on which a good part of this book depends: the Cause of the Foundation of the Schools by Barḥadbshabba, of the sixth century, which combines different traditions, from Ephrem, Theodore of Mopsuestia, Evagrius of Pontus, and Neoplatonism. In this text, all historical figures are understood in pedagogical terms, which is a fundamental feature. Becker remarks that the educational system was alike for Christians and non-Christians in late antiquity, although some Christian schools had particular characteristics, e.g. those run by Justin, Clement, and Origen— but there, too, classical culture and philosophy were present and alive and the author correctly observes that it is doubtful whether Origen himself was attempting to develop a completely autonomous Christian culture. On this point, I would add some important contributions: H. Crouzel, “Cultura e fede nella scuola di Cesarea con Origene,” in Crescita dell’uomo nella catechesi dei Padri, Rome 1987, 203-209; M. Rizzi, “Il didaskalos nella tradizione alessandrina, da Clemente alla Oratio Panegyrica in Origenem,” in Magister. Aspetti culturali e istituzionali, edd. G. Firpo—G. Zecchini, Milan 1999, 177198; Gregorio il Taumaturgo (?), Encomio di Origene, ed. Id., Milan 2002; J.W. Trigg, “God’s Marvelous Oikonomia: Reflections of Origen’s Understanding of Divine and Human Pedagogy in the Address Ascribed to Gregory Thaumaturgus,” Journal of Early Christian Studies 9 (2001) 27-52; L. Lugaresi, “Studenti cristiani e scuola pagana,” Cristianesimo nella Storia 25 (2004) 779-832; A. Grafton—M. Williams, Christianity and the Transformation of the Book, Cambridge-London 2006, 22-132; J. Tloka, Griechische Christen, Christliche Griechen, Tübingen 2006, 25-126. As an example of a fruitful

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transmission of the liberal arts to the Middle Ages, the author mentions Cassiodorus’ Institutiones, and we might also recall Boethius’ treatises and Martianus Capella’s De Nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii (cf. e.g. my Marziano Capella, Milan 2001), which was studied and commented on throughout the Middle Ages (editions, essays and commentaries in my Tutti i commenti a Marziano Capella: Scoto Eriugena, Remigio di Auxerre, Bernardo Silvestre e anonimi, Milan 2006). According to Becker, in fact, the classical paideia was destroyed not by the Christians, but by the barbarians, and for this reason classical culture in the East remained more stable and endured longer than in the West of the Roman empire; the East-Syrian school movement developed outside the Roman empire, but was based on classical paideia and the Scriptures, just like the Christian paideia that grew inside Roman territory. The Book of the Laws of Countries, e.g., by Bardaiṣan (or perhaps by his school, we might add; see e.g. my “Linee generali per una presentazione e per un commento del Liber legum regionum, con traduzione italiana del testo siriaco e dei frammenti greci,” RIL 133 [1999] 311-355) is a philosophical dialogue written on the model of the Platonic dialogues: in it, the Christian character of Bardaiṣan argues against the determinism of the stars. The first chapter, “Divine Pedagogy and the Transmission of the Knowledge of God: The Discursive Background of the School Movement” (22-40), examines the tendency, well attested in the Syriac milieu and most evident in the Cause, to understand Christian belief and practice in pedagogical terms, and the conversion to Christianity as a kind of pedagogical conversion. The first roots of pedagogical imagery go back to the very beginning of Christianity, where in the Gospels Jesus is a master with his disciples, and Judaism, according to Josephus, had hairéseis named after the Greek philosophical schools. Justin, Clement, and Origen understood Christianity in pedagogical terms: for Origen, I note that this conception is closely linked to the role of the Holy Spirit, on which I now refer to M. Beyer Moser, Teacher of Holiness. The Holy Spirit in Origen’s Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, Piscataway, NJ 2005. Becker exemplifies how the Peshitta tends to develop a pedagogical terminology, which of course facilitated the pedagogical reading of Scripture, e.g., with prophets as masters with their own schools, etc. Becker illustrates the imagery of pedagogy in several Syriac authors, especially Ephrem and Jacob of Sarug. Another aspect that seems to have been influential is that scribes in the Syrian area were more self-conscious than the Greek ones. In documents such as the Acts of the Persian Martyrs, or the Life of John of Tella, moreover, we find conversion to Christianity as a passage from one school to another, and Zoroastrianism described as the “school of the Magi,” and Christianity as “discipleship of Jesus,” implying much study, so that from outside it could even be misunderstood as “sadness.” This finds, I believe, an interesting parallel in several Latin and Greek sources on early Christians

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and the accusations of tristitia brought against them, which also involved the philosophers, especially the Stoics. See my “Tristitia. Indagine storica, filosofica e semantica su un’accusa antistoica e anticristiana,” Invigilata Lucernis 23 (2001) 187-206. In the second chapter, “The School of the Persians (Part 1): Rereading the Sources” (41-61), the author challenges scholars’ traditional assumption that the School of Nisibis is an immediate and direct descendant of the School of the Persians of Edessa. A critical reading of the evidence for the School of the Persians rather suggests that we know much less about this institution than was previously supposed, since both sources and scholars tended to project the sixth-century School of Nisibis onto fifth-century Edessa, and the sources themselves are often problematic, dependent on one another, contradictory and influenced by polemics of their own time. Becker usefully distributes them into three groups: 1) West-Syrian sources, involved in Miaphysite propaganda opposed to the so-called Nestorians and to Chalcedonians as well, such as the letter of Simeon of Bet Arsham, which is the earliest source (loosely) connecting Ibas to the School of the Persians and contains inaccuracies, or Jacob of Sarug’s Letter 14, an apologetic document, and again, the Chronicle of Edessa, the Chronicles of Ps. Dionysius of Tell-Mahre and of Michael the Syrian, and John of Ephesus’ hagiographical work; 2) Costantinopolitan sources, i.e. Theodore Anagnostes and the Life of Alexander the Sleepless, in which the relevant passage is interestingly suggested by the author to be an extrapolation from the Acts of the “Latrocinium” Council of Ephesus (449), and 3) East-Syrian sources: the Cause and the Ecclesiastical History by Barḥadbshabba, attentively compared by the author, and the Chronicle of Arbela, which directly connects Ibas to the School of the Persians, which is probably not correct. In the third chapter, “The School of the Persians (Part 2): From Ethnic Circle to Theological School” (62-76), Becker places the sources for the School of the Persians in a better framework, more appropriate to fifthcentury Edessa, beginning with the only source prior to the closure of the school (489), the Acts of the “Latrocinium” Council of Ephesus of 449. It emerges that this school seems more similar to a loosely knit study circle than to an institution; moreover, the Acts mention three “schools” in Edessa that subscribed against Ibas the bishop: those of the Armenians, of the Persians, and of the Syrians. This suggests that the School of the Persians had a somewhat ethnic aspect, that Ibas was not closely associated to this school, as it is often assumed, and that the school itself was not generally known for its dyophysite leanings. It is likely that toward the middle of the fifth century the schools in Edessa did not have easily identifiable theological positions, but were essentially ethnic groupings, maybe voluntary associations similar to the Latin collegia and the like: “school” might have been a somewhat metaphorical designation, like the

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Greek hairesis, that was applied to the Greek philosophical schools, and also to the Christians, and to the Jewish groups of the time of Josephus. In the V century, many people came to Edessa both from Persia and from Armenia, such as Moses of Chorene: the author sensibly considers him trustworthy when he declares that he travelled to Edessa and employed its archives, as Eusebius had done in the previous century (see my “Possible Historical Traces in the Doctrina Addai?,” Hugoye 9,1 [2006] §§ 1-24). Only shortly before its closure, according to the Cause and the Ecclesiatical History by Barḥadbshabba, the School of the Persians was divided into a tripartite hierarchy, very similar to the arrangement of the Greco-Roman educational system (mhagyana = magister ludi or harenarius; maqryana = grammarian; mphashqana or exegete = rhetor, philosophus). Another remarkable point made by the author is that there was only one exodus from the School of the Persians in Edessa to Nisibis, which occurred in 489 after the closure of the school itself by order of the Emperor Zeno. Vööbus was led to suppose two exoduses—one in 471 by Narsai, and the other, larger, in 489—by reading the same event, described in the Cause and in the Ecclesiastical History, as two different facts. At the end of the chapter, Becker observes a couple of things that may be significant and should stimulate further comparative studies: 1) the closure of the School of the Persians by order of the emperor Zeno displays a deep affinity to that of the School of Athens forty years later, in 529, by order of the emperor Justinian. 2) In many different sources, this event is described with the same terminology: all say that the school was “uprooted,” just as several sources pun on the name of Nisibis while saying that the same School of the Persian was “planted” (nṣb) there. Becker also suggests exploring whether any ethnicallybased intellectual circles developed in other intellectual centres in late antiquity, such as Athens, Jerusalem or Beirut, which would be very interesting to investigate. In the fourth chapter, “The School of Nisibis” (77-97), Becker carefully analyzes the evidence for the School of Nisibis, its foundation, its daily life, and its curriculum. Among its models were contemporary cenobitic institutions, the School of the Persians in Edessa, and maybe also the local school led by the interpreter Simeon of Kashkar in Nisibis when the new school was founded, perhaps incorporating students of Simeon’s school. The author also examines various sets of canons of the School of Nisibis, valuable for reconstructing its daily life and the organization of teaching. and presents the literary production of the scholars attached to the School: commentaries, in memre and then in prose, where also the “Alexandrian” allegorical technique crept in; liturgical works, treatises and “causes.” Illuminating comparisons with the organization of other schools are also provided, and the author rightly insists on the close parallelism between the school year and the liturgical year.

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The intellectual life of the School of Nisibis is the focus of chapters Five through Seven, and is reconstructed on the basis of the examination of the Cause. In particular, the fifth chapter, “The Scholastic Genre: the Cause of the Foundation of the Schools” (98-112), addresses the question of the literary genre of the Cause, which is relevant to the understanding of study at the School of Nisibis: it seems that the Cause is associated with the explication of the Christian liturgical cycle, which suggests that the school year was seen as part of the holy calendar, and that study itself was conceived as a form of liturgy. The author recalls first of all that only recently has the Cause been given scholarly attention, in studies such as D.S. Wallace-Hadrill, Christian Antioch. A Study of Early Christian Thought in the East, Cambridge 1982, 63-65; G.J. Reinink, “Edessa Grew Dim and Nisibis Shone Forth: The School of Nisibis at the transition of the Sixth-Seventh Century,” in H.J.W. Drijvers—A.A. McDonald, edd., Centers of Learning. Learning and Location in Pre-Modern Europe and the Near East, Leiden 1995, 77-89: 81-87; Th. Heinthaler, “Die verschiedenen Schulen, durch die Gott die Menschen lehren wollte. Bemerkungen zur ostsyrischen Schulbewegung,” in M. Tamcke (ed.), Syriaca II, Münster 2004, 175-192, and my own “Linee introduttive a Barhadbeshabba di Halwan, Causa della fondazione delle scuole: filosofia e storia della filosofia greca e cristiana in Barhadbeshabba,” ‘Ilu. Revista de Ciencias de las Religiones 9 (2004) 127-181; Ead., Barhadbeshabba di Halwan, Causa della fondazione delle scuole. Traduzione e note essenziali,” ibid. 10 (2005) 127-170. After setting forth the contents of the Cause and the problem of its relationship to the Ecclesiastical History of Barḥadbshabba ‘Arbaya, and that of its authorship by Barḥadbshabba d-Halwan, who may be the same as the former, Becker observes that the literary genres that seem to be present in the Cause are: the “cause” genre, derived from the classical aitia and mainly represented in the Syriac tradition by the “causes of festivals,” which explained the origins of a celebration and its theological ground; the protreptic tone, derived from the protreptics to philosophy, and then to Christianity; the collective biography, and the scholastic “chain of transmission” found in the “successions of philosophers” (on which see documentation e.g. in my “Diogene Laerzio storico del pensiero antico tra biografia e dossografia, ‘successioni di filosofi’ e scuole filosofiche,” in Diogene Laerzio, Vite e dottrine dei più celebri filosofi, ed. G. Reale, Milan 2005, XXXIII-CXXXVIII) and later of apostles and bishops, and also in Rabbinic sources: most interestingly, Becker points out a terminological similarity between the Cause and the Avot. Becker also provides a better translation for the title of the Cause: rather than Cause of the Foundation of the Schools, he proposes Cause of the Establishment of the Session of the School, a rendering that is well grounded in Syriac and helps us to understand the writing as an opening and official address to the students and teachers of the School of Nisibis.

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Chapters Six and Seven analyze the contents of the Cause and place it within its cultural context. The sixth chapter, “The Reception of Theodore of Mopsuestia in the School of Nisibis” (113-125), demonstrates that the Cause depends on a sixth-century version of Theodore’s thought, attested not only in the East-Syrian Church, but also in Greek and Latin authors. The author recalls, first of all, the veneration for Theodore of Mopsuestia in the East-Syrian Church, where he is the theological and exegetical authority par excellence, and in particular in the School of Nisibis, and the translations of his works into Syriac, which has turned out to be all the more valuable in that, after the condemnation of his doctrines in 553, most of his writings have been lost in Greek, and are extant only in fragments. Thence, Becker interestingly develops the suggestion by Macina, WallaceHadrill, and Reinink, that the Cause ultimately depends on Theodore’s idea of divine paideia, and, after giving a brief account of his thought in general, he focuses on the pedagogical conception of history and of the relationship between God and humans, and illustrates how pedagogical terminology in the Cause and in the Syriac translation of Theodore converge. I definitely agree with the author that we ought not to stress the opposition between Alexandrine and Antiochene exegesis (cf. e.g. my “Giovanni Crisostomo e l’esegesi scritturale: le scuole di Alessandria e di Antiochia e le polemiche con gli allegoristi pagani,” in Giovanni Crisostomo: Oriente e Occidente tra IV e V secolo. Atti del XXXIII Incontro di Studiosi dell’Antichità Cristiana, Roma, Augustinianum 6-8.V.2004, I, Roma 2005, 121-162). Becker also states that the focus on the human being as the image of God in the Cause is an extremely common Antiochene motif, which is absolutely correct; we may nevertheless observe that the so-called “theology of the image,” which sees the human being as eikōn tou Theou—according to Genesis 1:26-27—is central and crucial also in the Cappadocians, and above all in Gregory of Nyssa, who inherited it essentially from Origen: and in fact, the three Cappadocians’ writings are well attested in Syriac, and Basil’s Hexaemeron, continued by Gregory of Nyssa’s De hominis opificio, was highly influential in Syriac literature and for an understanding of the book of Genesis. In any case, the author is right that Theodore of Mopsuestia’s commentary on Genesis, insofar as it can be reconstructed, seems to lie behind the Cause’s understanding of Genesis 1: the author of the Cause puts Theodore’s notion of divine paideia into more concrete terms, speaking not only of God who instructed the angels at creation and human beings throughout history, but even of classrooms and schools instituted by God. The author reasonably suggests that the connection between Theodore and the Cause may have been Narsai, who studied Theodore in Syriac and, as far as we know, is the first who described creation as a school class with books, pens, etc., in similes.

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The seventh chapter, “Spelling God’s Name with the Letters of Creation: The Use of Neoplatonic Aristotle in the Cause” (126-154), studies the Neoplatonic interpretation of Aristotelian logic that crept into the EastSyrian Church from the beginning of the VI century onward. Becker shows how the Cause uses this material to develop a natural theology that also contains reminiscences from Ephrem and Evagrius. Relying on Sebastian Brock’s noteworthy suggestions, the author challenges the widespread assumption that philosophical materials like Aristotle’s writings and Porphyry’s Isagoge were imported into Nisibis by the Edessan School of the Persians after its migration. In fact, the evidence for such studies in fifthcentury Edessa is thin, especially because it seems to be a mistake to place Probus, the early Syriac commentator and translator of Aristotle’s logical works, in Edessa in the V century. Aristotle’s logic, read through the Neoplatonists – as has been shown above all by R. Sorabji –, arrived at Nisibis later and through another way, probably thanks to direct contacts with Alexandria, as again has been suggested by Brock and confirmed by several other proofs. Of course, Greek philosophy had been absorbed in the Syriac culture already since the days of Bardaiṣan (documentation in my “Bardesane e la sua scuola tra la cultura occidentale e quella orientale,” in Pensiero e istituzioni del mondo classico nelle culture del Vicino Oriente, eds. R.B. Finazzi-A. Valvo, Alessandria 2001, 237-255) and Ephrem (for the presence of philosophy in whose works see U. Possekel, Evidence of Greek Philosophical Concepts in the Writings of Ephrem the Syrian, Louvain 1999). I suggest that we might even go back to Mara bar Serapion and his philosophical letter to his son, which might be very ancient: see my “Gesù tra i sapienti greci perseguitati ingiustamente in un antico documento filosofico pagano di lingua siriaca,” Rivista di Filosofia Neoscolastica 97 (2005) 545-570; D. Rensberger, “Reconsidering the Letter of Mara Bar Serapion,” in Aramaic Studies in Judaism and Early Christianity, Winona Lake 2006, forthcoming (I am very grateful to the author for sharing his study with me). Another article on Mara’s letter, its Stoic ideas and early date is forthcoming by Teun Tieleman and Annette Merz in a Festschrift for P.W. van der Horst. And of course Greek philosophy came also through Greek Patristic authors translated into Syriac – especially Platonism. The author tries to trace the philosophical background of the Cause, especially in the initial sections of this writing, where general philosophical issues are put forward; and here both Ephrem’s and Evagrius’ influence is detected, and also, e.g., that of the Tree of Porphyry, read through later Neoplatonism and transferred from logic to metaphysics. Again the Neoplatonists, and Theodore of Mopsuestia, are reasonably supposed to lie behind the issue of the epistemological inaccessibility of God, also addressed by the Cause, according to which, as a consequence, names can only be attributed to God by analogy. Once more,

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we may recall also Gregory of Nyssa, who held a mitigated form of apophatism that is central to his whole doctrine. Actually, the author himself remarks that some terminology of apophatism in the Cause may derive from Evagrius, who knew the Nyssene very well. In sum, it seems to me that the author demonstrates quite finely that the philosophical background of the Cause derives from both fifth-century Edessa and the spread of Greek philosophical literature in Mesopotamia in the sixth century. Some methodological indications by Becker are also valuable: much work is still required on the reception of Greek philosophical texts and ideas in Syriac, such as an edition of the earliest Syriac translation of Aristotle’s Categories. Chapters Eight and Nine recontextualize the School of Nisibis and the whole East-Syrian school movement in the frame of East-Syrian monasticism. The eighth chapter, “A Typology of East-Syrian Schools” (155-168), analyzes the sources for the various kinds of East-Syrian schools in late antique and early Islamic Mesopotamia, of which the evidence has not yet been gathered by any scholar. The main sources are the Book of Chastity by Isho‛denaḥ of Basra, of the late eighth or the ninth century; the Book of Governors by Thomas of Marga, of the ninth century, and the Chronicle of Siirt (or Seert, as it is often transcribed), of the tenth or early eleventh century. A division into three different groups is proposed by the author: independent schools, monastic schools, and village schools. The first group is represented first of all by the School of Nisibis itself, attested from the end of the fifth to the early seventh century, but also, e.g., by the School of Seleucia, independent of any monastery or church building, under the patronage of the Catholicos or even the Persian king. There were the School of Seleucia, too, founded by Paul the Reader, that of Kashkar, perhaps, that of Balad and that of Bet Sahde in Nisibis, about which we do not know whether it was meant to counter the School of Nisibis, as Fiey supposed. Our sources often are not so clear when they say there was a school in a monastery, since they tend to conflate monasteries and schools, and thus we do not know the extent to which the school was a formal institution. As for village schools, they were small and associated neither with large ecclesiastical centres nor with monasteries, but sometimes attached to the local church; some could even offer some exegetical teaching and advanced learning. Many were founded by Babai of Gbilta in the eighth century. In the ninth chapter, “The Monastic Context of the East-Syrian School Movement” (169-203), the author argues that, on the one hand, although not all schools were connected to monasteries, the general phenomenon of East Syrian schools is impossible to understand outside East-Syrian monasticism: even the independent School of Nisibis was modelled on monastic life; on the other hand, the schools also developed into entities

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that were semi-distinct from the monasteries, because of the institutional and intellectual differences that existed within the East-Syrian Church. One meaningful instance is cited of monks who refused the institution of a school in their monastery, because of their conception of monastic life as more ascetic than cenobitic: in Syrian monasticism, more and more emphasis was put on prayer, silence and solitude, and the communal life of school and book learning were progressively felt as merely earlier stages of spiritual development. This was also due to the influence of Egyptian monasticism, which is closely studied by the author, who mentions the new rules for monks by Abraham of Kashkar, inspired by the Egyptian desert Fathers. The last stage, for which the author presents good evidence, is the explicit criticism of philosophy, bookishness, and the School movement in several monastic authors. Becker also illustrates many transformations in the Church of Syria from the fifth century onwards: early figures felt as heterodox, such as Bardaiṣan and Tatian, were forgotten or rejected; urban ascetics were put under the control of bishops and the others removed from cities; the religious history of Edessa was reconstructed as orthodox from the very beginning. The author also depicts the enormous influence of the Origenist Evagrius of Pontus on Syriac intellectual and religious culture. The map includes two other Syrian Origenists, Ps.-Dionysius the Areopagite and Stephen Bar Sudaili: I am not surprised that Origen’s chief doctrine, that of apocatastasis, appears again in a later Syriac ascetic, Isaac of Nineveh. An appendix is devoted to the decline of the School of Nisibis at the beginning of the seventh century—the sources for it become sparse after the sixth—, and Becker hypothesizes that this might be connected to the controversy surrounding Ḥnana of Adiabene, who led the school in those days: the Barḥadbshabba who wrote the Cause, which comprises high praises of Ḥnana, may be the same as the one who signed the condemnation of Ḥnana and left the School of Nisibis: in this case, we should suppose a change in his attitude toward Hnana. This is entirely possible, since the Cause was probably written before the outbreak of the controversy, which is, at any rate, particularly difficult to reconstruct: he too was charged with “Origenism,” but this had meantime become so multivalent and vague an accusation that it is not clear what the point of the controversy was. In the Conclusion (204-210), the author also indicates further areas of possible investigation, which surely would be fruitful: philosophical culture in the Sasanian empire, the conflict between East and West Syrians in Mesopotamia, the Armenian sources for the intellectual culture of fifthcentury Edessa, or the nature of the “cause” genre. He also meditates on what emerges from his overall investigation and interpretation of the sources: in East-Syrian Christian schools, learning was not merely an intellectual act, and study was more than a purely mental activity. A

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significant example is that of Mar Narsai in Barḥadbshabba’s Ecclesiatical History, where his study practice cannot be separated from his asceticism, which is conceived in terms of imitation of the angels, that is, ceaseless worship of God, a liturgical activity. All this points to a holistic view that joins both the intellectual and the practical, performative side of life. The Cause was a speech delivered to welcome students who entered the School of Nisibis and was aimed at presenting the whole history as a long succession of schools and to have each student feel a part of the cosmic order, performing his duty of study as a way of life. The author rightly sees this conception in line with the notion of ancient philosophy as a way of life, to which especially Pierre Hadot has recently called attention. This was true of Roman Stoicism, of the Hellenistic philosophical schools in general, but also of Pythagoreanism, for example (on which see, e.g., the introduction by Francesco Romano to his edition, Giamblico. Summa Pitagorica: Vita di Pitagora, Esortazione alla filosofia, Scienza matematica comune, Introduzione all’ Aritmetica di Nicomaco, Teologia dell’aritmetica, Milan 2006). This idea was kept up by the Christians, and it is particularly evident in the East Syrian scholastic movement, as the author finely illustrates. It is a pity that this important and sanctifying experience was restricted to only half of the Christians, just as it happened in Rabbinic schools as well, whereas already some Greek philosophical schools were open to women too. The chapters are followed by the Notes, mostly devoted to bibliographical references and the indication of the sources, but also containing several valuable side-remarks (211-274). The Bibliography is selected but rich, relevant and up to date (275-286). In the last pages of the volume we find the Index (287-296), which is detailed and quite helpful, given the wide range of materials touched upon by the author in his treatment, and the Acknowledgments (297-298). This book definitely is a valuable contribution that is worth reading with close attention. Some pages in the Table of Contents do not correspond to those we find in the book itself (e.g. the Note on Terminology is not found on pp. xi-xii, as it appears in the Contents, but on xiii-xiv), but the volume is very carefully realized and excellent in its overall quality, both in its contents and arguments and in the arrangement and presentation of the materials. It deserves to be warmly recommended for the valuable insights it offers to scholars who study the development of Christian culture in the Syriac speaking world in its interactions with Greek philosophy, Judaism, and the birth of Islam. Sebastian Brock in his comment on the cover notes that it is particularly helpful to have a book that shows how the Middle East and Europe were intimately related from a cultural point of view before the separation brought about by the Arab conquests. This investigation will actually contribute to four fields often still considered as unrelated: Syriac studies, the study of the reception of Greek

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philosophy into Syriac and Arabic, Rabbinics, and the study of Christianity in late antiquity. Isaac Armalet, Catalogue of the Syriac and Arabic Manuscripts at the Patriarchal Library of Charfet [Gorgias Press 2006; ISBN 1-59333-365-X] xii*, [iv], 15, 526, [ii], 12, 14, [vi]pp; hardcover. REVIEWED BY DAVID G.K. TAYLOR, UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD

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This volume is a reprint of the very scarce 1936 Arabic catalogue of the Syriac and Arabic manuscripts in the Syrian Catholic Patriarchate of Charfet (Sharfeh), which is located in Dar‛un-Harissa, in the hills above Jounieh, Lebanon. The convent was founded by Patriarch Ignatius Michael III Jarweh as his patriarchal see in 1786 (this volume was published to mark the 150th anniversary of this event), and it subsequently attracted wealthy donors (such as Viscount Philippe de Tarrazi) as well as donations from other monasteries and churches, enabling it to develop into one of the world’s great collections of Syriac and Christian Arabic manuscripts. The present catalogue, was produced by Chorepiscopus Isaac Armalet (Isḥoq bar Armalto of Mardin, 1879–1954),1 who was a prolific scholar2 and an accomplished Syriac scribe,3 and lists 586 Syriac manuscripts (pp.1–293, 513–523)4 and 569 Arabic manuscripts of both Christian and Muslim origin (pp.295–512),5 ranging in date from the eleventh to the twentieth centuries. These include biblical, exegetical, theological, hagiographical, liturgical, legal, philosophical, lexical, and scientific texts (although the sections are fairly randomly divided and arranged). As was noted by a contemporary reviewer, Willi Heffening, in 1938,6 Armalet’s work provides a useful handlist of the manuscripts, but the descriptions are rather brief and basic, and fall far short of the best cataloguing standards of his day. The catalogue’s usability is also reduced by the lack of any kind of index. In Armalet’s original Arabic and French prefaces (supplemented in this Gorgias Press re-edition by an English Also frequently listed in library catalogues as Isḥaq Armalah. Cf. Rudolf Macuch, Geschichte der spät- und neusyrischen Literatur (Berlin 1976) 438-440. 3 He copied a number of important Syriac manuscripts from the Charfet collection for the Benedictine monastery of Montserrat, in Catalonia. 4 This section also includes many Karshuni manuscripts. 5 A further 18 manuscripts are listed in the preface which were transferred from Charfet to the Vatican Library through the agency of Cardinal Augustin Ciasca—an action strongly resented by Armalet and the local Syrian Catholic hierarchy. 6 Oriens Christianus III.13 [35] (1938) 147. 1 2

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translation from the French) the author provides some background information about the history of the library and earlier attempts to draft catalogues, and calls attention to certain manuscripts which he finds interesting. The prime virtue of Armalet’s work thus lies simply in the fact that it records the existence within the Charfet collection of certain named texts, and provides an approximate physical description and dating of the manuscripts. Before being too dismissive, however, we should remember that many European and North American collections of manuscripts are no better served by their catalogues, and many collections in the Middle East still have no reliable published catalogues of any kind. It might perhaps be useful to add a few further comments about subsequent developments in the Charfet manuscript collection. In 1956 Patriarch Ignatius Gabriel I Tappouni transferred the manuscript collection of the patriarchal residence in Beirut to the library at Charfet. This collection, which has been kept separate from the earlier manuscript holdings, then numbered more than 600 manuscripts, of which 305 were Syriac or Karshuni texts. These are obviously not included in Armalet’s 1936 work, but a simple alphabetic table was provided by Dom Polycarp Sherwood in 1957.7 In 1993 Behnam Sony published a large Arabic catalogue of this patriarchal collection,8 which by this date had increased in size to 883 manuscripts. Again, descriptions of the manuscripts are kept to a bare minimum, and there is no citation of colophons etc., or indeed any use of Syriac type, but there is still far more information here than in Sherwood’s table. Sony introduced a new set of reference numbers for the manuscripts, and amongst his many useful indexes he also helpfully included a table (pp.443–448) of correspondences with the numbers cited by Sherwood. As it happens, the manuscripts in the Charfet collection are still arranged on the shelves and labelled with Sherwood’s numbers (inherited from an earlier unpublished list of Fr. Pierre Saba), rather than those of Sony. Since 2006 a Franco-Lebanese research group, led by Françoise Briquel-Chatonnet, Alain Desreumaux, and Muriel Debié of the CNRS, has been actively engaged in producing a new scientific catalogue of all of the Syriac manuscripts preserved in Charfet, although it is clear that this is a task that will take many years to complete. Once their work is published the earlier catalogues of Armalet and Sony will be superseded, but in the meantime these pioneering manuscript catalogues should find a place on

‘Le Fonds patriarcal de la bibliothèque manuscrite de Charfet’, L’Orient Syrien 2.1 (1957) 93-107. 8 ‫( ﻓﻬﺮس اﻟﻤﺨﻄﻮﻃﺎت اﻟﺒﻄﺮﻳﺮآﻴﺔ ﻓﻲ دﻳﺮ اﻟﺸﺮﻓﺔ ﻟﺒﻨﺎن‬Beirut, 1993) 544pp. 7

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the shelves of any library or institute with an interest in Middle-Eastern Christianity and its literary production.

PROJECT REPORTS The BYU-CUA Syriac Studies Reference Library: A Final Report CARL W. GRIFFIN AND KRISTIAN S. HEAL, BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY

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On June 20, 2001, representatives of The Catholic University of America (CUA), Brigham Young University (BYU), and Beth Mardutho met together to discuss the digital imaging of key holdings in the Semitics/ICOR Library of CUA’s Mullen Library. CUA’s Semitics/ICOR Library houses one of the largest collections in the world of early and rare books on the Christian East. All parties shared a particular interest in early Syriac printed works, both for their continuing value to contemporary Syriac Christian communities as well as to Syriac scholars. Many early printed catalogs, text editions, grammars, lexica, and other instrumenta and studies have never been superseded. Their rarity and inaccessibility to scholars has long been a serious problem for the field of Syriac studies. The faculty and staff of Catholic University recognized this need as well, and generously agreed to work with BYU and Beth Mardutho to provide digital access to their collection. BYU and Beth Mardutho entered into a three-way agreement with CUA to scan a broad selection of their Syriac book holdings, with BYU focusing on titles of primarily academic interest and Beth Mardutho on materials of more broad interest to the Syriac churches. The result of the BYU project with CUA is now almost complete, and Web access to the imaged titles is being provided free of cost as the BYU-CUA Syriac Studies Reference Library at http://www.lib.byu.edu/ dlib/cua. A list of the titles included in this collection can be found at the following BYU site: http://cpart.byu.edu/completed/referencelibrary.php. The Semitics/ICOR Library houses some 45,000 books and periodicals, 20,000 of which were the bequest of CUA’s first great semitist and orientalist, Prof. Henri Hyvernat. Much of the cataloging of these early works has never been migrated to computer, and a number of early Syriac titles had never been cataloged at all. Fr. Matthew Streett, a doctoral candidate in Biblical Studies at CUA, was appointed Project Bibliographer and compiled a 400 page bibliography of Syriac materials in the CUA collections. With this finding aid in hand, BYU and CUA collaborated with Dr. David Taylor of the University of Oxford to determine which items were of the highest academic value and should be targeted by the project. 147

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A staff of 14 technicians was assembled from the CUA libraries, the School of Library and Information Science, and from graduate academic departments and programs with an interest in Syriac, with additional assistance from members of the Syriac Christian community. A total of 667 books, articles, and other media were scanned. The images scanned for BYU were returned to BYU’s Harold B. Lee library and turned over to specialists in the L. Tom Perry Special Collections imaging lab. There the more than 30,000 images were individually split and cropped, straightened, renamed, resized, sharpened, converted to PDF, and tagged with metadata. Indexing hierarchies were created and the images are being distributed via the Web using CONTENTdm digital collection management software. The images scanned by Beth Mardutho are also being published on the Web by the Hill Museum and Manuscript Library at http://www.hmml.org. Imaging for BYU was done with a Zeutschel Omniscan 10000 TT color book scanner tethered to a Windows PC, with a second PC used for proofing and data backup on DVD. The Zeutschel book scanner is capable of producing very high resolution scans with high color accuracy, yet with a minimum of stress to a book or manuscript. Images were captured at 600dpi in 24-bit color. While many of the published images have been downsized, to facilitate Web distribution and viewing, the resulting images are still very high resolution and of superb quality. The online collection may be navigated in three ways. From the project’s home page at http://www.lib.byu.edu/dlib/cua, a drop-down menu allows the user to browse titles by ancient author, or to simply browse all. A second drop-down menu allows the user to browse by topic, or the user may search by keyword. Each method will return a corresponding browse/search page listing all of the titles that contain the selected keyword or term in any of their metadata fields, and from this page one may then view individual items. In the item view, individual volume pages are viewable on the right. On the left is a navigation pane that provides a hot-linked table of contents which allows the user direct page-level navigation. Each page is a separate Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) file which is viewed and manipulated via the Adobe Reader browser plug-in. This allows the rapid download of individual pages and offers the user a large degree of viewing control. Also provided at the bottom of the navigation pane is a link to a monolithic Acrobat file of the entire work. For large, multi-volume works this file may be very large (500mb or larger), but some users may wish to download frequently used works for off-line access. The reason for the large file size is the high resolution of the images, but the resulting detail is spectacular. As high-speed internet connections become more and more the norm these large file sizes will become increasingly less consequential, but

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we have nevertheless adopted here a content delivery system that is usable even with dial-up access. From the outset, this collaborative effort has aimed to make a meaningful contribution to the growing body of Syriac materials now freely available in electronic format. We hope this aim has been met, and that the ease with which this particular collection can now be accessed will be a boon to the field of Syriac studies.

CONFERENCE REPORTS The 6th Italian Meeting on Syriac Christianity (I Incontro sull’Oriente Cristiano di tradizione siriaca), Milan, 25th May 2007 ALESSANDRO MENGOZZI, UNIVERSITÀ DEGLI STUDI DI BERGAMO

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The Sala delle Accademie of the Ambrosiana Library in Milan, Italy, is the traditional venue for the yearly Meeting on Syriac Christianity, co-organized by the Servizio per l’Ecumenismo e il Dialogo (Office for Ecumenism and Interreligious Dialogue, directed by Monsignor Gianfranco Bottoni, Archbishopric of Milan), the Ambrosiana Library and SYRIACA (Italian Society of Syriac Scholars, chaired by Prof. Paolo Bettiolo, University of Padova). Since the beginning of the series in 2002, themes proceed in approximately chronological order and alternately focus on the Western and Eastern tradition of Syriac Christianity. Italian scholars, international guests and authorities of the Syrian churches are invited to contribute. The Syriac manuscript treasures kept in the Ambrosiana as well as the history of Syriac studies in Milan are regularly dealt with in the morning sessions of the Meeting. Emidio Vergani (Pontificio Istituto Orientale, Rome) and Sabino Chialà (Monastero di Bose, Magnano) published the proceedings of the previous editions in what is becoming a reference series for Italian readers, especially for those interested in Syriac spirituality and monasticism: 1. Le ricchezze spirituali delle Chiese sire, Atti del 1° Incontro sull’Oriente Cristiano di tradizione siriaca (Milano, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, 1 marzo 2002), Centro Ambrosiano, Milano 2003; 2. Le Chiese sire tra IV e VI secolo: dibattito dottrinale e ricerca spirituale, Atti del 2° Incontro sull’Oriente Cristiano di tradizione siriaca (Milano, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, 28 marzo 2003), Centro Ambrosiano, Milano 2005; 3. Storia, cristologia e tradizioni della Chiesa Siro-orientale, Atti del 3° Incontro sull’Oriente Cristiano di tradizione siriaca (Milano, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, 14 maggio 2004), Centro Ambrosiano, Milano 2006; 4. La tradizione cristiana Siro-occidentale (V-VII secolo), Atti del 4° Incontro sull’Oriente Cristiano di tradizione siriaca (Milano, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, 13 maggio 2005), Centro Ambrosiano, Milano 2007; 5. in preparation. 150

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Meetings and publications are not intended for scholars only, but aim at providing updated information on Syriac Christianity to a wide audience, which is responding with real and growing interest. The 6th Meeting, held on Friday 25th May 2007, was devoted to the theme The Religious and Cultural Heritage of Western Syrians in the 6th-9th centuries. Monsignor Gianfranco Ravasi, Prefect of the Ambrosiana Library, gave the opening speech, welcoming participants to the workshop. The following papers were presented and discussed: Monsignor Cesare Pasini (Milan, now Prefect of the Vatican Library, Rome), Antonio Maria Ceriani (1828-1907) at the Ambrosiana Library; Prof. Emidio Vergani (PIO, Rome), Ceriani’s contribution to Syriac Studies; Lucas Van Rompay (Duke University, Durham, North Carolina), Deir al Surian: the Syriac Orthodox Experience in Egypt; Rev. Father Iskandar Bcheiry (Villa Park, Illinois), The Institution of the Maphryan in the Syriac Orthodox Church; Prof. Paolo Bettiolo (University of Padova), Sergius of Resh‘ayna and the Monastery of Qenneshre: Philosophy, Medicine, Theology; Rev. Father Davide Righi (Faculty of Theology of Emilia Romagna, Bologna; Group for ArabicChristian Research, Rome), Arab Christians and the Beginnings of Islam (8th-9th centuries). His Eminence Mor Philoxinos Saliba Özmen, Syriac Orthodox Archbishop of Mardin and Diyarbakır, honoured the meeting with his presence and contributed with a lecture entitled “Church and Christians in Tur ‘Abdin Yesterday and Today.” He confirmed his invitation to Tur ‘Abdin for scholars and participants in the “Seventh Italian Meeting on Syriac Christianity” which is scheduled for May 2008 in Mardin.

Vth Syriac Symposium, University of Toronto, Ontario, June 25-27, 2007 ROBERT A. KITCHEN, KNOX-METROPOLITAN UNITED CHURCH

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The Vth (North American) Syriac Symposium was held at the University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, June 25-27, 2007, for the first time outside the United States, adopting the theme of “Syriac as a Bridge Culture.” Previous Symposiums were conducted at Brown University (1991), Catholic University of America (1995), University of Notre Dame (1999), and Princeton University (2003). Professor Amir Harrak headed the organizing committee to provide an excellent conference in terms of the range and quality of papers presented, the convenience of living and conference quarters at New College, University of Toronto, as well as a range of extra-curricular activities. The Symposium keeps expanding with over 80 participants from at least 10 countries who listened to 55 papers and presentations, and

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generally spent most of their days conversing on matters Syriac during meals, coffee breaks and special events. Sidney H. Griffith of Catholic University of America gave the opening lecture, “Syrian Christian Intellectuals in the World of Islam: Faith, the Philosophical Life, and the Quest for Interreligious Convivencia in Abbasid Times.” Other plenary speakers were: Elisabetta Valgiusti of the Association ‘Salva i Monasteri,’ Rome, who presented a lecture and film produced by her, “Syriac Christianity in the Iraqi Exodus: A People of Prophets Between Hope and Hopelessness;” John H. Corbett of University of Toronto-Scarborough, presented the first of a series of papers on the Book of Steps, “The Ascetic Life as Holy War: The Biblical Basis of the Book of Steps;” Lucas Van Rompay of Duke University, presented a magisterial review of “Severus, Patriarch of Antioch (512-538), in the Greek, Syriac, and Coptic traditions;” and Craig E. Morrison of the Pontifical Biblical Institute, Rome, addressed directly the conference’s theme, “The Bridge from Judaism: The Jews in Ephrem’s Commentary on the Diatessaron.” The plenary papers will be published in the 2007 volume of the Journal of the Canadian Society of Syriac Studies. The papers presented offered a striking range and diversity of topic and theme. Sessions were held on the use of the Bible in Syriac exegesis, focus on specific books, history of medieval and modern Syriac churches, hagiography and asceticism, textual studies of the Peshitta, Modern Syriac and Neo-Aramaic, studies of the Assyrian Christians in the 20th century Near East, studies of various Syriac liturgies, architecture and Syriac inscriptions, the relationship between Syriac Christianity and Islam and Judaism. The Fifth International Forum on Syriac Computing revealed as always remarkable new developments in computer tools, programs, and resources for the needs of Syriac scholars. Socially, the conferees were not neglected. Gorgias Press and the Canadian Society for Syriac Studies co-hosted an evening reception at the Department of Near and Middle Eastern Studies a short walk away. At the close of the academic portion of the Symposium, conferees were transported to the Cathedral Church of Saint Mary for a Syriac Vespers presided by His Grace Mar Emmanuel, Bishop of the Assyrian Church of the East in Canada (and a new doctoral candidate at the University of Toronto, working on Johannan bar Penkaye), followed by a banquet in honor of the Symposium participants in the spacious Sharrukin Hall in the church. At the closing session, Lucas Van Rompay’s offer to host the VIth Syriac Symposium at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, in 2011 was gratefully accepted. The steering committee of the Symposium—Sidney Griffith, Susan Ashbrook Harvey, Kathleen McVey, and George Kiraz—

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augmented their numbers to include Amir Harrak, Lucas Van Rompay, and a representative of the Dorushe Graduate Student Association. Dorushe Conference 2007, April 14-15, 2007 JEANNE-NICOLE SAINT-LAURENT, BROWN UNIVERSITY

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The success of Beth Mardutho’s second annual Dorushe conference demonstrated the continued growth of Syriac studies in graduate programs both in North America and Europe. Princeton University hosted the conference this year. Support for the conference was provided by Princeton University’s Department of Near Eastern Studies, the Group for the Study of Late Antiquity, the Center for the Study of Religion, the Program in Hellenic Studies, the History Department, the Program in the Ancient World, and the Dean of the Graduate School. With stimulating papers and responses, feedback from senior scholars, and enjoyable meals and even dancing, this year’s conference provided an excellent opportunity for intellectual exchange and professional development for the next generation of Syriac scholars. David Michelson, Ph.D. candidate in Princeton’s Department of History, organized the event with assistance from a Dorushe committee of students. Students from nine universities and three countries presented papers on a wide variety of stimulating topics ranging from historical and literary studies to theological and philological investigations. The conference began on Saturday, April 14, 2007. Dr. Emmanuel Papoutsakis of the Department of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University and David Michelson welcomed the group. We heard excellent papers from students on Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. Outside observers from several universities attended, and Gorgias Press set up an outstanding book display. Saturday evening, after a lovely reception, conference participants celebrated together at a dinner hosted by Princeton. Prof. David Taylor of Oxford delivered an outstanding after-dinner talk. He spoke about changes in the field of Syriac studies in the last twenty-five years. He discussed how graduate students from both sides of the Atlantic can benefit and learn from the methodologies and approaches of one another and offered suggestions of topics in the field needing further research. On Sunday morning, after students presented their last papers, both Prof. Taylor and Dr. Papoutsakis offered closing remarks and conclusions for the group. Following is a brief summary of the papers presented. On behalf of the Dorushe conference committee, I express our thanks to Princeton University and to the students who contributed to the success of the weekend. Students who wish to join Dorushe are urged to contact

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[email protected]. Tentatively, next year’s conference is planned for April 2008 at the University of Notre Dame. Elitzur Avraham Bar-Asher (Harvard University): “Syriac as an Eastern Aramaic Dialect: a Reassessment of the Evidence.” Elitzur Bar-Asher’s paper reviewed the main scholarly positions on the topic of Syriac as an Eastern Aramaic dialect. This paper brings these discussions up to date by contributing new information and evaluating previous scholarship using methodologies from historical linguistics. This study also raised methodological problems concerning the study of Syriac. On account of inner evidence and comparison with phenomena in other eastern dialects, Bar-Asher suggested that Syriac be seen as an “Eastern literary language.” Kevin Casey: (University of Toronto): “The Use and Interpretation of Scripture Amongst Muslim and Christian Exegetes of the 7th through 10th Centuries.” This paper discussed biblical interpretation in Syriac mystical literature: the recognition of levels of meaning in the scriptural text and the intersection of spiritual experience, religious practice and hermeneutics. This paper situated these principles of mystical hermeneutics within the larger debate concerning the interpretation and meaning of scripture which raged in the Late Antique Near East. The discussion pointed to some areas where, perhaps, these principles and this debate were absorbed and manifested in Islam. The Syriac author Dadišoc Qatraya, for example, expands upon Antiochene theories of exegesis that reigned in the East Syrian Church in his discussion of the several senses (sūkāle) of meaning in the word of Scripture: historical interpretation (pūšāqā taš‛itānāyā), homiletic interpretation (mtargmānāyā), and spiritual interpretation (pūšāqā ruḥānāyā). Spiritual interpretation, for him, is a practice appropriate only for the solitaries and holy men. Early mystical commentary on the Qur’an took the form of short utterances and glosses of inspired speech that resulted from listening to and reciting the text of the Qur’an. Both Muslim and Christian mystics from the early Islamic period also single out the heart, not the mind, as the locus of the spiritual understanding of scripture. There are obvious similarities between the spiritual exegesis practiced by the monks of the Church of the East and the spiritual reading of the Qur’an found among the mystics of the first centuries of Islam. Miriam Goldstein: (Hebrew University): “Tafsīr al Tawrāt: Jewish and Christian Exegetes in the Muslim Empire.” Following the initial Muslim conquest of the Mediterranean and the Near East, a second, linguistic, conquest proved to be the most crucial transformation of the region. This was the conquest in which the Arabic language, which had taken root among the populations of the region even prior to the spread of Islam, replaced Aramaic. This provided a medium of discourse that encouraged the flow of ideas between groups that had formerly held one another at a distrustful distance. Most studies of interconfessional scholarly ties in the

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Muslim Empire till now have focused on Jewish–Muslim interaction, including the areas of law, theology, philosophy and literature. JewishChristian ties have been a striking omission. The study of biblical interpretation provides a natural point of entry to such research, for Jews and Christians held a common text, the Hebrew Bible, to be sacred. It is clear from numerous sources that scholars of the two groups were not only aware of each others’ interpretations; at times they actively sought the aid of each other in solving difficult exegetical problems. This paper sketched possible ties among exegetes of both religious traditions writing in Syriac/Aramaic and Arabic/Judeo-Arabic, both regarding interpretations of particular Scriptural verses as well as methodology. Henryk Jaronowski: (Leopold-Wenger-Institut für Rechtsgeschichte: University of Munich) “The Place of the Syro-Roman Law Book in Syrian legal Traditions.” The Syro-Roman Law Book (SRLB) presents scholars with a set of tantalizing and difficult questions. This paper addressed the question of the SRLB’s place in the Syrian legal traditions. Although the SRLB was continuously available and even translated into Arabic, Coptic, Armenian, and Georgian, citations of it are scarce. In the West Syrian tradition, only Bar Hebraeus (†1286) cites the SRLB. Although five East Syrian works cite it between the 8th and 13th centuries, the SRLB does not seem to be an essential part of the East Syrian legal consciousness. There are certain passages of the SRLB, specifically on inheritance law, family law, the arrha, and measurements, which are cited by multiple authors. This paper connected the citations to their source manuscripts and discussed how the repeated citations differ between authors, showing how the contents of the SRLB were used and adapted over time. The SRLB also appears in divergent West and East Syrian manuscript families, with different numbering and variations in text and content. Although Kaufhold and Selb’s 2002 critical edition of the SRLB edits, translates, and proposes a stemma for these various manuscripts, it does not treat the textual differences among them in detail. This paper characterized the differences in content between the two manuscript families and between the manuscripts in each family, evaluating how much and to what end the text was reworked. Vitalijs Permjakovs: (University of Notre Dame) “Two Spring Festivals in the Syriac Liturgical Calendar–Traces of an Archaic Calendar System?” This paper discussed two liturgical celebrations in the calendar used by the Syriac churches, both of West and East Syriac traditions. The first usually appears in the calendar under the title dominica nova (ḥad bšabâ ḥadtâ ): the first Sunday after Easter. The second feast comes in the middle of May. Often this is designated with the title “the Feast of the Theotokos over the ears of corn/grain.” They appear to be parts of two different calendrical cycles – one, the Easter-Pentecost cycle, another – the cycle of

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fixed Dominical/Marian feasts. However, these two liturgio-calendrical units represent elements of one, more archaic calendrical system that may be linked to Jewish calendars of the Temple period (Jubilees, Dead Sea Scrolls) and possibly to early Judeo-Christian communities. Across Christian traditions, including Syriac, the celebration of the first Sunday after Easter (dominica, dominica in albis, kainê kyriakê, antipascha) is marked as a solemn and festive occasion. The significance of this day may derive from its connection to particular calendrical traditions that can be traced to the ancient 364-day calendars. This paper examined whether liturgical data from the Syriac tradition gives any evidence for the dominica nova being a part of this proposed ancient “calendar system:” the ‘beginning’ of the archaic Pentecost season. Robert Riggs: (University of Pennsylvania): “Ibn Qutayba’s Usage of Arabic Biblical Referents: A Place for Syriac Informants?” Even a cursory examination of the works of the famed Arabic litterateur Ibn Qutayba (d. 889) reveals a plethora of Biblical or pseudo-Biblical references in a variety of his writings. While it is not unusual to find early Muslim authors referring to the Tawra (Torah), Injil (Gospel), and Zabur (Psalms) in their Qur’anic context, the lucidity and accuracy with which Ibn Qutayba uses references to the earlier revealed literature leads the reader to question his oral and textual informants. Unlike many of his Muslim contemporaries, who seemed to attribute authoritative status to a wide variety of apocryphal stories taken in part from the growing corpus of folk tales and myths, the qiṣsaṣ al-‚anbiyā‚, orally circulating during the milieu of the seventh to ninth centuries, Ibn Qutayba seems to draw from early textual sources which reflect a striking similarity to early Syriac and Hebrew manuscripts. This paper contrasted the use of Biblical references by early Muslim historians ‘Ali Rabban al-Tabari, Abu Ja‛far al-Ṭabari, and al-Ya‛qubi with the works of Ibn Qutayba to present a clearer view of the parallel usages and availability of Biblical texts in the ninth century. Jeanne-Nicole Saint-Laurent: (Brown University): “The Acts of Marī and the Rhetoric of Syriac Missionary Narratives.” Recent scholarship by F. and C. Jullien and A. Harrak have brought greater attention to the importance of the late sixth-, early seventh-century text, the Acts of Mari. This foundation myth narrates the missionary tour of Mar Mari, the apostle of Babylonia, linked in East Syriac religious traditions with the Edessan apostle Addai. The text’s rhetoric distinguished Mari and his foundations from other apostolic missionaries, like Thomas and Addai. While the apocryphal text established continuity between Addai and Mari, it also constructed difference to set Mari apart and make his story the exclusive treasure of the East Syrian Dyophysite Church. The text created and reconfigured a hierarchy for the cities of Persia and Babylonia. The rhetoric and vocabulary of this text reveal a distinct thought world and network of East Syriac

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monasteries in which this story circulated. As Jullien and Jullien have argued, the Acts of Mari must be interpreted in light of narratives of Manichean and Baptizing movements. As in the Acts of Thomas, women serve to advance the mission of the patron-apostle. The authors of the Acts of Mari used literary strategies of distinction to legitimize their origins as they stitched Mari’s itinerary into the literary framework of the apocryphal Acts narratives. Edward Schoolman: (UCLA): “From Antaura to the Evil Eye: Early Modern Syriac Magical Charms and their Pre-Christian Origin.” In 1912, Hermann Gollancz published a volume entitled The Book of Protection, in which he edited and translated four collections of Syriac magical amulets and charms. These collections, compiled in the 17th and 18th century in book form, do not follow the templates of ancient magical handbooks, but nevertheless preserve Christian charms and magical elements that have their antecedents in ancient Greek and Coptic traditions. This paper discussed a formula found numerous times in these texts and common to both this early modern Syriac collection and to ancient phylacteries and magical handbooks. The main feature of this spell type is an invocation of a helpful divine figure, which arrives to challenge a demonic one, with the interaction recorded in dialog, and the divine figure either turning away or binding the demonic one. A detailed comparison of this charm formula through pagan, early-Christian, and late Syriac contexts brings to light the adaptation of magical traditions across cultural, linguistic, and social lines. Michal Bar-Asher Siegal: (Yale University): “The Problem of Evil in the Syriac Translation of the Book of Ben-Sira.” This paper suggests that the treatment of evil in the book of Ben Sira caused the Syriac translator to change the content of the original text in several places. The translator found the treatment of the creation of evil in Ben Sira text problematic, particularly its suggestion of the possibility of predestined wicked men. In these cases, the Syriac translation tends to stress human choice and dims the sections of the text in which Ben Sira suggested divine determination and God’s creation of Evil. Outlining this motivation in the Syriac version brings new insights concerning previous scholarship on this translation, (such as Winter [1977]) and a rejection of their conclusions. Jeff Wickes: (University of Notre Dame): “The Literary Structure and Historical World Vision of Pseudo-Ephrem’s Sermon on the End of the World.” During the course of the later seventh and early eighth centuries, a number of works were composed in Syriac that depicted the initial Islamic conquests as harbingers of the world’s end. These works enlisted a cast of characters to act out this apocalyptic drama: the “Sons of Hagar,” or “Sons of Ishmael,” Romans, Persians, and Alexander’s Eschatological People of the North. All the characters that took part in these later seventh- and early eighth-century Syriac Christian representations of the end could be mapped

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onto actual historical figures, and thus the dramas functioned as commentaries on the world in which the authors and audiences lived. Moreover, the placement of these historical characters within a certain temporal framework—the brink of the end of time—aimed to alter audiences’ perception of the time in which they lived. One of the relevant themes within this emergent literature was the concept of time in PseudoEphrem’s “Homily on the End of the World.” Just as Ps. Ephrem’s presentation of the Islamic invaders sought to foster a certain perspective towards this, so, too, his presentation of time sought to alter their perception of the temporal space and the characters in these events.