Texts and Translations of the Chronicle of Michael the Great. Volume 7 Texts and Translations of the Chronicle of Michael the Great (7 of 11 volumes): Syriac Original, Arabic Garshuni Version, and Armenian Epitome with Translations into French 9781463215514

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TEXTS AND TRANSLATIONS OF T H E CHRONICLE OF MICHAEL T H E GREAT

Texts and Translations of the Chronicle of Michael the Great General Editor GEORGE A . KIRAZ

VOLUME 7

The Mardin Arabic Garshuni Codex of the

Chronicle of Michael the Great

Edited By PHILOXENOS SALIBA O Z M E N

Photographs Provided By HILL MUSEUM & MANUSCRIPT LIBRARY

GORGIAS PRESS

2009

First Gorgias Press Edition, 2009

Copyright © 2009 by Gorgias Press LLC

Manuscript photographs Deir Al-Za'faran, Turkey.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise without the prior written permission of Gorgias Press LLC. Published in the United States of America by Gorgias Press LLC, New Jersey

ISBN 978-1-59333-114-6 (Set) 978-1-59333-147-4 978-1-59333-336-2 978-1-59333-393-5 978-1-59333-637-0 978-1-59333-635-6 978-1-59333-643-1 978-1-59333-636-3 978-1-59333-662-2 978-1-59333-663-9

(Volume (Volume (Volume (Volume (Volume (Volume (Volume (Volume (Volume

1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) 7) 8) 9)

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PREFACE

B Y PHILOXENOS SALIBA OZMEN

It is with great pride that we publish in this volume the Mardin Codex of the Chronicle of Michael (d. 1199) at the request of Dr. Sebastian P. Brock and Malphono George A. Kiraz. Mardin was home of the Syriac Orthodox Patriarchate for centuries, and as a result it has a rich library of manuscripts. This library was the most important cultural center for the church for many generations. The Chronicle of Michael Rabo is well known to scholars. It is suffice to quote below what Patriarch Afram Barsoum described in his book jUo^: A well-known universal history containing both world and ecclesiastical events from the creation until 1193. [Michael Rabo] wrote it in Syriac in several volumes, each page containing three columns: one for the ecclesiastical history, one for world history and the third for strange events and natural phenomena. His sources were many histories, some of which are known, but the majority are lost. Some of these are the histories of Julius Africanus, Andronecus, Eusebius of Caesarea, Valianus the Alexandrine monk (middle of the fourth century), Socrates, Sozomen, Zachariah of Mitylene, Qura of Batnan, John of Asia, Jacob of Edessa, John of Atharb, Dionysius of Tell Mahre, Ignatius of Melitene, Elijah of Kesum and Bar Salibi. He also used Arabic sources. This history consists of eight hundred large-size pages, written in fine handwriting. It is a very important history... It was also translated into colloquial Arabic by John Shuqayr of Sadad, metropolitan of Damascus, in 1759. There are five copies of this translation.

Special thanks must be given to Fr. Columba Stewart of the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library, whose team digitized our entire Mardin collection for purposes of preservation and scholarship. We hope that this publication will help scholars understand the rich history of the Syriac Orthodox Church and its valuable heritage. Finally, we would like to offer this publication in memory of the late Mor Philoxenos Yuhanon Dolabani, whose tireless efforts in cataloguing our Mardin library cannot be forgotten.

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