Syriac Sources for Byzantinists: an introduction and overview

MEREDITH L.D. RIEDEL (Duke University)

Contents:
• Introduction and Purpose
• Language Overview and Geographical Origins
o Writing/Scripts
o Ecclesiastical Distinctions
o Manuscripts
o Dating
• Reference Materials
o Grammars and Lexica
• Overview of Texts by Genre
o Poetry
o Bible
o Hagiography
o Apologetic texts
o Greek texts in Syriac
o Law
o Historiography
o Ascetic literature
o Philosophy
o Sciences
• Chrestomathies
• Conclusion

Over the course of my studies in Byzantine history and postdoctoral research on

Syriac texts, it became apparent that many of my fellow Byzantinists at Oxford, while
appreciative of the world of Syriac studies, did not have a clear understanding of what Syriac
literature has to offer, nor how it could enhance their own research into Byzantine history,
especially with regard to its central role in the transmission of Greek literature. Although they
may have no immediate plans to learn the Syriac language, despite its apparent usefulness for
exorcising demon-possessed camels1, nonetheless I think Byzantinists will enjoy discovering
this rich and fascinating literature. In the hope of providing a concise if not comprehensive
introduction to Syriac sources for Byzantinists as well as for medieval historians of other
persuasions, this brief overview is offered.

The texts mentioned here are geographically restricted to lands under the hegemony
of the Roman empire up to the rise of Islam in the early seventh century. Two further articles
are planned, focusing on pre-Islamic Syriac historiography (CE 2-7th centuries) and Syriac

1
See Jerome’s account of the life of St Hilarion, written in Jerusalem in the late fourth century: Patrologia
Latina XXIII, Vita S. Hilarionis Eremytæ, 3.23. See Susan Weingarten, ‘The Vita Hilarionis’, in her The Saint's
Saints: Hagiography and Geography in Jerome (Leiden, 2005). This saint’s life is also reprised by the tenth-
century Byzantine writer Symeon Metaphrastes. See the unpub. PhD dissertation of Laura Franco, ‘A Study of
the Metaphrastic Process: an annotated critical edition of the Vita of Saint Hilarion, and the Passiones of Saints
Iakovos and Platon by Symeon Metaphrastes’ (Royal Holloway University London, 2009).

1
historiography of the early medieval period (CE 7-13th centuries) respectively. As an
introduction, the current article offers a general survey of the salient aspects of Syriac
literature. This includes a brief description of the characteristics of the Syriac language for
those who do not read Syriac, and an introduction to the various scripts in which it is written.
Because Syriac is one of the primary Christian languages of the Near East, this article will
attempt to untangle regional doctrinal divergences and competing terminologies in order to
make it easier to identify references to various groups when they are encountered in the texts
as well as the secondary scholarship. It will offer an annotated bibliography of reference
works, and provide information on anthologies of texts for those interested in reading Syriac.
I have also tried to indicate available modern translations of texts wherever possible in an
effort to indicate material accessible to those who do not read Syriac. Finally, it will then
briefly survey Syriac literature, including various overlapping genres and the geography of its
origins.

Syriac literature is both useful and important to scholars of late antiquity and
Byzantium in a multitude of fields. Most obviously, those concerned with the history of
religion and specifically Christian theology and spirituality will find an enormous treasure
trove of relevant texts in Syriac. Those interested in Eastern Christian theology, liturgy, and
hymnody will be particularly spoilt for choice. Philologists will be interested in the numerous
books of poetry, while cultural historians have great masses of narrative texts to plunder as
they seek to understand the interactions of Romans, Persians, and other peoples. Later
historians will discover the crucial role of Syriac literature in exploring contacts between the
caliphate and Byzantium, and particularly the influence of Syriac on Arabic and Greek
writers of the period. Historians of late antiquity will discover a culture at the inception of an
emerging theological and historical identity that distinguished it from the Greek and Persian
cultures that surrounded it. In what follows, the lens will be rather more centred on Syriac
literature and its interaction with Greek literature and culture, since the objective is to provide
a ‘map’, as it were, designed specifically for Byzantinists and other historians who specialise
in civilizations to the west.

Language Overview and Geographical Origins

Syriac is a dialect of Aramaic, a Semitic language related to Hebrew and Arabic. It is first
attested with its own script in the first century of the Common Era, and is one of several post-
Achaemenid Aramaic dialects. Others include Jewish Palestinian Aramaic, Nabatean,

2
Palmyrene, Hatran, Mandaean (and many others), but Syriac has by far the largest literature.2
By the fourth century, it had been adopted by Christians as a liturgical language under the
hegemony of the Roman and Persian empires, and is thus one of the most important
languages for the study of Christianity, after Greek and Latin. Although the language is called
‘Syriac’, this may appear misleading, as it was not widely used in what is now called Syria
until the late sixth century. Indeed, it was never the administrative language of any political
or state entity, but existed in lands where Greek, Persian or Arab authorities held official
jurisdiction. Its origins as a language of culture lie rather in the area between the Euphrates
and the Tigris, in the Roman provinces of Osrhoene and Mesopotamia. The key centre for
Syriac culture was Edessa (modern Urfa, or Şanlıurfa, in southeast Turkey).

Any discussion of Syriac texts must include some description of the kinds of texts one
might expect to encounter. This encompasses a lot of cognate disciplines, all of which are
interesting to historians. The great majority of Syriac texts are related to Christianity; that is,
they were produced by Christians, and mostly copied and transmitted by monks, for the
purposes of education, worship and exhortation. Many early writers were poets, who used
poetry for education, polemics, apologetics, liturgy, and exegesis. Aphrahat, writing in the
330s and 340s under Sasanian rule, uses a distinctive Kunstprosa. Other prose writings
include biblical exegesis, theology, saints’ lives, liturgies, and ascetic writings. A very early
translation movement from Greek into Syriac produced law codes, philosophy and
historiography.

Purely historical writings, such as chronicles, were not composed in Syriac before the
early sixth century. In the pre-Islamic period, most historical texts were translations of Greek
chronicles written by Eusebius3, John Malalas4, Socrates, Sozomen, Theodoret5 and

2
Extant Syriac manuscripts number in the thousands. For an overview of Aramaic dialects, see Klaus Beyer,
The Aramaic Language, Its Distribution and Subdivisions (Göttingen, 1986); John F. Healey, Aramaic
Documents and Inscriptions of the Roman Period (Oxford, 2009); S.P. Brock, A Brief Outline of Syriac
Literature, 2nd ed. (Kottayam, 2008).
3
M. Debié, ‘L’héritage de la chronique d’Eusèbe dans l’historiographie syriaque’, Journal of the Canadian
Society for Syriac Studies 6 (2006), 18-28; W. Witakowski, ‘The Chronicle of Eusebius: its type and
continuation in Syriac Historiography’, ARAM 11-12 (1999-2000), 419-437; S.P. Brock, ‘Eusebius and Syriac
Christianity’, in H.W. Attridge and H. Gohei, eds., Eusebius, Christianity, and Judaism (Leiden, 1992),
4
M. Debié, ‘Jean Malalas et la tradition chronographique de langue syriaque’, in J. Beaucamp et al, eds.,
Recherches sur la chronique de Jean Malalas (Paris, 2004), 147-64; W. Witakowski, ‘The Transmission of
Malalas’ Chronicle in Syriac’, in E. Jeffreys, B. Croke, and R. Scott, eds., Studies in Malalas (Sydney, 1990),
299-310.
5
A. de Halleux, ‘L’Histoire Ecclésiastique de Théodoret dans les florilèges syriaques’, in R.-G. Coquin, E.
Lucchesi, G. Troupeau, Mélanges Antoine Guillaumont: Contributions à l’étude des christianismes orientaux
(Geneva, 1988), 221-32.

3
Zachariah of Mytilene.6 One of the most distinctive features of Syriac as a field of study is
the large number of texts which are known from copies made before the Islamic period, as
well as the number of early manuscripts, the oldest dating from the early fifth century. Non-
documentary sources for Syriac culture include inscriptions, which were widespread
throughout Syria, Mesopotamia, and Palestine.7 The oldest of these is securely dated to CE 6
and is found near Edessa. There are few coins with Syriac inscriptions, because it was never
the primary language of any political power or state; however, some were struck in the
second and early third centuries in Edessa, while it was still a semi-independent kingdom.8

6
G. Greatrex, ‘Le Pseudo-Zacharie de Mytilène et l’historiographie syriaque au sixième siècle’, in M. Debié,
ed., L’historiographie syriaque (Paris, 2009), 33-55; G. Greatrex, The Chronicle of Pseudo-Zachariah Rhetor:
Church and War in Late Antiquity (Liverpool, 2011).
7
Alain Desreumaux and Françoise Briquel-Chatonnet, Recueil des inscriptions syriaques (Paris, 2008-), Amir
Harrak, Syriac and Garshuni Inscriptions of Iraq, 2 vols. (Paris, 2010); S. Brock, ‘Edessene Syriac inscriptions
in late antique Syria’, in H. Cotton et.al., eds., From Hellenism to Islam. Cultural and Linguistic Change in the
Roman Near East (Cambridge, 2009): 289-302; F. Briquel-Chatonnet, M. Debié, and A. Desreumaux, eds., Les
inscriptions syriaques (Paris, 2004).
8
F. Drijvers and J.F. Healey, The Old Syriac Inscriptions of Edessa and Osrhoene (Leiden, 1999); Steven K.
Ross, Roman Edessa: Politics and Culture on the Eastern Fringes of the Roman Empire, 114 - 242 C.E.
(London and New York, 2001); Babelon, E., ‘Numismatique d’Édesse en Mésopotamie’, Revue Belge de
Numismatique 48 (1892) 349-83; 505-25: 49 (1893) 5-37. Repr. in his Mélanges numismatiques II (Paris, 1893)
209-96.

4
Writing and Scripts

Three main scripts were used for the Syriac language, which is written from right to left using
22 consonantal letters in a horizontal line; vowels, if added, appear as diacritical marks above
and below the consonants.9 Here is a table of the three alphabets:

Alef Beth Gomal Dalet He Waw Zayin Ḥeth Tet Yod Koph Lomadh Mim Nun Semkath Ayin Pe Ṣade Qoph Resh Shin Taw

Estrangelo       
            
Serto
     
            
Eastern
     
            

The regular Estrangelo alphabet was used in the earliest Syriac inscriptions and manuscripts.
Estrangelo is an angular, monumental script most commonly used up until the Islamic
conquest of the early seventh century. In Estrangelo, the word for ‘Syriac’ looks like this:
 and is pronounced ‘suryoyo’ (in the west) or ‘suryaya’ (in the east). Although there
are many minor differences between the eastern and western dialects of Syriac, the main
differences in pronunciation between east and west are vocalic, that is to say, the
pronunciation of the original long ‘a’ vowel. In the east it preserved the long ‘a’ sound, while
in the west, it developed into a long ‘o’. Few modern grammars explain this discrepancy in
pronunciation clearly for beginners; for scholars attempting to read transliterated Syriac
words, it is important to be aware of it, however.10 Serto (‘Syriac’ in Serto: ) a more

compact minuscule, originally a secretarial hand, developed concurrently to Estrangelo, but

began to be used more extensively in the eighth century. It was widely adopted in the West
Syrian churches, such as the non-Chalcedonian ‘Jacobites’ and the Chalcedonian ‘Maronites’,
after whom it is often named (‘West Syrian’).11 It is more rounded, forms several letters
significantly differently to Estrangelo, and uses vowel diacritics adapted from the Greek
alphabet. The Eastern script (‘Syriac’ in the Eastern script: ), sometimes infelicitously

called ‘Nestorian’ or ‘Chaldean’, developed even later and uses a different system of vowel
pointing; it is a ‘spiky’ blend of Estrangelo and Serto. It is useful to be able to recognise these

9
See grammars listed below in the section on reference materials. For points, see J.B. Segal, The Diacritical
Point and the Accents in Syriac (London, 1953).
10
For more on the differences in dialect and pronunciation, see J.P.P. Martin, ‘Syriens orientaux et occidentaux.
Essai sur les deux principaux dialectes araméens’, Journal Asiatique VI.19 (1872): 305-483; R. Duval, Traité de
grammaire syriaque (Paris, 1881), 43-55.
11
John F. Healey, ‘The Early History of the Syriac Script. A Reassessment’, Journal of Semitic Studies 45/1
(2000) 55-67.

5
different scripts; for example, a commonly used lexicon employs Estrangelo for the rubrics,
but the entries are written in Serto.12

A helpful collection of images of 200 dated Syriac manuscripts, recently republished,

offers photographs of these various kinds of Syriac handwriting, as well as a thorough
introduction that discusses everything related to its production: writing materials, styles,
quires, vowel pointing, punctuation, and dating.13 It should be noted that this collection offers
a photograph of one page of each manuscript, not entire manuscripts. To examine
manuscripts in their entirety, one will have to go to the libraries that hold them. The Vatican,
a main depository of Syriac manuscripts, is currently in the process of scanning all the
manuscripts in its collection, to be made available online in the future. But so far the online
availability of Syriac texts is largely confined to digitized copies of modern printed editions.
Online facsimiles of original manuscripts are not yet widely available.14 A new international
project is underway to provide an online database of all Syriac manuscripts.15

Ecclesiastical Distinctions
Because Syriac literature was written mostly by and for Christians, it is often classified by
theological categories that can be confusing for those unfamiliar with ecclesiastical history.
In the fifth century, Christological controversies divided Syriac Christianity into three
separate entities, all of which continue to the present day. These are known as the Church of
the East, the Syrian Orthodox Church, and the Chalcedonian Churches. This three-way split
in the Church specifically involved varying doctrinal interpretations of the relationship
between the divinity and humanity of Christ. Historians need to understand the differences
between them in order to appreciate competing political loyalties and to perceive hostilities
that might otherwise go unnoticed. Moreover, Chalcedonian polemics have successfully
imposed derogatory names on the Oriental Orthodox Churches, with the result that non-
Syriacist historians can easily become confused about who is meant by the various

12
J. Payne Smith, A Compendious Syriac Dictionary (Oxford: Clarendon, 1903 repr. 1967).
13
W.H.P. Hatch, An Album of Dated Syriac Manuscripts, 2nd ed. (Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias, 2002). The second
edition contains a very useful introduction by Lucas van Rompay that corrects Hatch’s work and brings it up to
date.
14
The Syriac Studies Reference Library at Brigham Young University’s Center for the Preservation of Ancient
Religious Texts (cpart.byu.edu) offers free access to a small number of scanned manuscripts as well as many
out-of-print books; a CD of 33 Vatican manuscripts is also available. A selection of partial Syriac manuscripts
available online is maintained by Steven Ring (www.syriac.talktalk.net). The University of Birmingham has
also made available high-quality scans of its Mingana Collection of 11 Syriac manuscripts
(vmr.bham.ac.uk/Collections/Mingana/part/Syriac).
15
There is a new online reference resource for the study of Syriac authors, texts, manuscripts, and historical
research being developed by an international team of scholars: the Syriac Reference Portal at the University of
Alabama. See http://www.syriac.ua.edu/ for more details.

6
appellations.16 Furthermore, it is helpful to know when each term came into use, and whether
it was a self-designation or an abusive label.
The basic rule of thumb is that all Syriac Christian writers refer to themselves as
‘Christians’ or ‘the orthodox’ or ‘the Church’. All other names for the various groups in the
primary literature are polemical labels used by their enemies; the secondary literature
sometimes uses neutral terms in an effort to avoid offence, or, less serendipitously,
uncritically employs polemical terms from the primary texts. Above all, since every term
rises from a particular historical context, historians must be sensitive to the dangers of using
them as absolute terms, rather than as the contextualized designations that they are. Much
confusion has occurred because the same words have been used to mean completely different
things. The responsible historian can avoid much grief by being aware of this and striving for
clarity in terminology.

The Church of the East

The Church of the East, as it is now known, embraced a strict dyophysite doctrine, which
held that Christ had two natures (Syriac: kyanin  ) and two hypostases (qnomin !")
in one person (parsopa #$#). The Church of the East views Nestorius, the patriarch of
Constantinople (r. 428-31) very positively, despite his being condemned as a heretic at the
Council of Ephesus in 431, thus their theological opponents referred to them as ‘Nestorians’.
However, the Christological theology of the Church of the East developed from Theodore of
Mopsuestia (d. 428), not Nestorius, hence the term ‘Nestorian’ is considered ‘not just bad
manners, but also positively misleading.’17 Theodore of Mopsuestia’s authority is such that
East Syrian texts refer to him simply as ‘the exegete’.18

The Syrian Orthodox

The Syrian Orthodox followed the Christology of Cyril of Alexandria, which held that Christ
had one nature ( ) and one hypostasis (%!") united in one person (#$#). The
Syrian Orthodox have been labelled ‘Monophysites’, a polemical term that refers to their
view of the one nature (Greek: φύσις) of Christ. They are also sometimes called Jacobites; the

16
The clearest and most helpful explanation I have found of these terms and the conflict underlying the debate
about Christology is found in S.P. Brock and D.G.K. Taylor, The Hidden Pearl. The Syrian Orthodox Church
and its Ancient Aramaic Heritage, vol. 3 (Rome, 2001), chapter 2: ‘The Churches of the Syriac Tradition’, esp.
26-28.
17
S.P. Brock, Fire from Heaven (Aldershot: Ashgate Variorum, 2006) x. See also ‘The ‘Nestorian’ Church: A
Lamentable Misnomer’ in the same volume.
18
Cf. A.H. Becker, Sources for the Study of the School of Nisibis (Translated Texts for Historians, vol. 50:
Liverpool, 2008) 9.

7
term ‘Jacobite’ derives from the name of a sixth-century bishop of Edessa, Jacob Baradeus (r.
543-78), and was first used during a period of persecution by imperial authorities. The
foundation of Syrian Orthodox tradition is attributed to Jacob because of his efforts to gain
toleration for the so-called Monophysites under pressure from Chalcedonians.
Monophysitism itself is not monolithic, but embraces several variations, some of which are
viewed as heretical by Monophysite fathers themselves. The most obvious example of this is
Eutychianism, which took an extreme view of the blending of the two natures of Christ into
one (mostly divine) nature; Eutyches (d. ca. 456) was declared a heretic at the Council of
Chalcedon in 451, despite his vigorous opposition to Nestorius (and the doctrine of
monophysitism) at the Council of Ephesus in 431. The most common neutral term that Syriac
scholars currently use for ‘monophysites’ is ‘miaphysites’.

The Melkite and Maronite Churches

The Chalcedonian formulation, so called because it was adopted at the Council of Chalcedon
in 451, is probably most familiar to those who study Christianity in the West. Not only Latin
Christendom, but also the Greek Orthodox Church based in Constantinople, held that Christ
had two natures (φύσεις) in one hypostasis (ὑπόστασις) in one person (πρόσωπον). In the
Syriac tradition, this is the Christological position also of the Melkite and the Maronite
churches. The Melkites (literally, ‘royalists’, because they agreed with the emperor)
comprised Christians from the east who, in distinction to the two-nature/two-hypostasis and
one-nature/one-hypostasis views, agreed with the Council of Chalcedon’s two-nature/one-
hypostasis view. The Maronites were monks who also agreed with Chalcedon, but later
embraced monotheletism, a political compromise offered in the early seventh century by the
Byzantine emperor Heraclius in his failed effort to unite Monophysites and Chalcedonians
into one Church.19 Monothelitism is the doctrine of a single will in Christ (Greek: µόνο θέλω)
that also accepts the Chalcedonian doctrine of the two natures of Christ. Although Heraclius
was supported by the patriarch of Constantinople, Sergius, in this attempt at creative
theology, monotheletism was nonetheless condemned as heresy at the Council of
Constantinople in 680-81. The Maronites renounced their monotheletism during the era of the
Crusades; the modern Maronite Church, whose identity is strongly connected with Lebanon,
is united with the Catholic Church of Rome.

19
For more on the history of the Maronite Church, see M. Moosa, The Maronites in History (Syracuse, 1986).
On union with Rome, see K. Salibi, ‘The Maronite Church in the Middle Ages and its Union with Rome’,
Oriens Christianus 42 (1958): 92-104. For more on the Melkite Church, see I. Dick, Les Melkites (Brepols,
1994).

8
Manuscripts

Although many Byzantinists may not yet read Syriac, it seems useful to include a brief
description of the manuscript evidence. The largest and most important collections of Syriac
manuscripts are located in London, the Vatican, Paris, Berlin, and the Mingana collection in
Birmingham, UK. It is worth noting that Syriac evidence is key for many of the Greek
patristic writings that have not survived in Greek, but only in their Syriac translations. As
mentioned above, Syriac evidence dates to the very early first century CE, with the earliest
manuscripts dating to the fifth century CE. There is a profusion of Syriac manuscripts in the
fifth and sixth centuries; many of these have been translated and published as critical
editions. The oldest Syriac manuscripts in these collections come from the monastery Dayr
As-Suriani in the Wadi Natrun in Egypt, a Syrian Orthodox monastery. These manuscripts
exist only because they were acquired in the early tenth century by Moses of Nisibis, the
monastery’s abbot.20 Sent to Baghdad to protest a crippling poll-tax imposed on the monks at
the court of the caliph, the abbot not only succeeded in having the tax lifted, he also collected
several hundred Syriac manuscripts, many of which date to the pre-Islamic era, and have
since been preserved by the Egyptian climate. Far fewer old manuscripts from the Church of
the East survive.

The most useful handbook of manuscript catalogues, published in French,

exhaustively lists catalogues alphabetically by current geographical location of manuscript
collection. An introductory thematic listing is less complete and not always helpful.21 In
English, one must cope with the arrangements of manuscript catalogues such as Wright’s
Catalogue of Syriac Manuscripts in the British Museum.22 In this catalogue, for example,
there are 1353 pages over three volumes; the table of contents, however, is to be found in Part
III, on page 1037, and lists manuscripts by genre. The index of manuscripts (in Part III, from
page 1221) lists them by number with a brief description and provides a Roman numeral to
indicate where information about them may be found elsewhere in the catalogue. For
example, if one were interested in finding Add. 14,568, Athanasius’ commentary on the
Psalms, one would have to locate dxxxi. This is found in Part II, the section on theology,
20
S.P. Brock, ‘Without Mushẽ of Nisibis, Where Would We Be? Some reflections on the transmission of Syriac
literature’, Journal of Eastern Christian Studies 56 (2004) 15-24.
21
Alain Desreumaux and Françoise Briquel-Chatonnet, Répertoire des bibliothèques et des catalogues de
manuscrits syriaques (Paris, 1991).
22
W. Wright, Catalogue of Syriac Manuscripts in the British Museum, acquired since the year 1838, 3 vols.
(London, 1870-72).

9
between Aphraates and Ephraim, on page 405 (but the page number is not given in the
index). The entry itself gives a physical description of the manuscript (no photo, although
Part III does contain 20 full-color photographs of various manuscript pages), describes the
script and lists the contents. It also provides the date of the manuscript, and bibliographic
information for any printed editions; in this case, the Greek version in Migne’s Patrologia
Graeca. The entry reproduces several colophons (in Syriac, not transliterated or translated)
and attempts to trace the provenance of the manuscript from these. From the description of
this process, one can see that using even the best available manuscript catalogues can be a
complex and time-consuming process, and this is before one has even seen what the
manuscript looks like.

For those interested in art history, a comprehensive survey of Syriac illuminated

manuscripts, with black-and-white photographs, appeared in two volumes in 1964.23 The
most famous and beautiful of Syriac manuscripts, the Rabbula Gospels, has also been
published as a facsimile and also contains examples of ‘Garshuni’, which refers to foreign
languages (in this case Arabic) written using the Syriac alphabet.24 Further information on the
production of Syriac manuscripts in the early period has been published by M.C. Mango.25

Dating

The overwhelming majority of Syriac manuscripts use the Seleucid dating system, if they
provide a date at all. This system is based on the accession of Seleucus I, who ruled Syria
after the death of Alexander the Great. The Seleucid era thus began on October 1, 312 BCE,
and is sometimes referred to by Syriac scribes as ‘the year of the Greeks’; it is still used in
Syriac manuscripts to the present day. Other less common dating systems include local eras
like those of Antioch (began October 1, 49 BCE) or Bostra (began March 22, 106 CE),
although these are used in comparatively few manuscripts. After the rise of Islam, Syriac
codices began to provide dates based on the Islamic era, which began on July 16, 622 CE,

23
Jules Leroy, Les manuscrits syriaques à peintures conservés dans les bibliothèques d'Europe et d'Orient:
contribution à l'étude de l'iconographie des Eglises de langue syriaque, 2 vols. (Paris, 1964).
24
Massimo Bernabò, (ed.), Il Tetravangelo di Rabbula: Firenze, Biblioteca medicea laurenziana, Plut. 1.56:
l'illustrazione del Nuovo Testamento nella Siria del VI secolo (Rome: Edizioni di storia e litteratura, 2008). A.
Mengozzi, ‘The History of Garshuni as a Writing System: Evidence from the Rabbula Codex’, in F. M. Fales &
G. F. Grassi (eds), CAMSEMUD 2007. Proceedings of the 13th Italian Meeting of Afro-Asiatic Linguistics,
held in Udine, May 21st-24th, 2007 (Padova, 2010), 297-304. Cf. C. Cecchelli, G. Furlani, M. Salmi, The
Rabbula Gospels. Facsimile Edition of the Miniatures of the Syriac Manuscript Plut. I,56 in the Medicaean-
Laurentian Library (Olten and Lausanne, 1959).
25
M.C. Mango, ‘The Production of Syriac Manuscripts, 400-700 AD’, in Scritture, libri e testi nelle aree
provinciali di Bisanzio, vol. I, eds. G. Cavallo, G. de Gregorio and M. Maniaci (Spoleto, 1991), 161-79.

10
and is referred to as ‘the year of the hijra’.26 Hijra dates, although uncommon, most often
appear alongside Seleucid dates, and are used mainly in manuscripts of the Church of the
East. World chronicles in Syriac (when they depend on Greek sources) sometimes use the
dating system of Constantinople, based on the creation of the world, believed to have begun
on September 1, 5509 BCE. Finally, a few Syriac texts, written after the first contacts with
western missionaries, provide dates according to the Christian era, believed to have begun at
the incarnation of Jesus Christ. This system was popularized by a sixth-century Roman monk
named Dionysius Exiguus, who called it Anno Domini (AD); it has recently been co-opted by
the more religiously neutral Common Era designation (BCE/CE = BC/AD) using the same
numbering to indicate the years. Many Syriac scribes also provide dates according to the year
of office of patriarchs or bishops or abbots in addition to other systems; at times, these dates
do not agree and so are to be read with a healthy amount of scepticism. Later Syriac
manuscripts from India use the Kollam era, which began in September, CE 824.27

Reference materials

The field of Syriac studies is well-supplied with a number of general introductions to its
literature. Foremost among these are the two slim volumes produced by the great Oxford
Syriacist Sebastian Brock. An introduction to Syriac studies28 is the starting place for any
student of Syriac language and literature. It provides a clear and simple account of what
Syriac is and why it is studied. It sketches the scope of Syriac literature, discussing its
importance for biblical studies, and outlines its peculiarities as a dialect of Aramaic. It lists
translation tools, such as grammars and dictionaries, and gives a brief historical background
to situate the corpus of Syriac literature in context. A helpful appendix clarifies the terms by
which Syriac churches are known, their liturgical traditions and relationship to one another,
and how they fit into Christian tradition generally. The earlier book, A brief outline of Syriac
literature,29 provides an outline of the most important (and accessible) Syriac authors,
arranged chronologically. He divides Syriac literary production into four main periods (CE
1st-3rd c., 4th c., 5th-7th c., mid-7th to ca. 1300) with a few pages devoted to texts of the 14th-

26
S.P. Brock, ‘The use of hijra dating in Syriac manuscripts: a preliminary investigation’ in J.J. van Ginkel,
H.L. Murre-van den Berg, T.M. van Lint (eds.) Redefining Christian Identity. Cultural Interaction in the Middle
East since the Rise of Islam (Leuven/Louvain, 2005), 275-90.
27
Kollam is also known as the Koḷamban or Quilon era, and is said to commemorate the founding of Kollam, a
city in the south Indian state of Kerala. Cf. A.C. Burnell, Elements of South Indian Palaeography (London,
1874) 73. For more on Syriac chronologies, see P. Ludner Bernhard, Die Chronologie der Syrer (Vienna, 1969).
28
S.P. Brock (Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias, 2006, rev. 2nd ed.).
29
S. P. Brock. (Kottayam: St. Ephrem Ecumenical Research Institute, 1997).

11
20th centuries. This volume does not discuss unpublished sources, although important
unpublished works are occasionally referenced. Indications are given of modern translations
where available, and 140 pages are devoted to sample passages in English of the most
important Syriac texts. An index of Syriac authors is also provided.

For those who read French, Chapter 6 (‘Langue et littérature syriaques’) of

Christianismes orientaux: introduction à l’étude des langues et des literatures30 provides a
very short general introduction. The author, Micheline Albert, claims that Syriac virtually
disappeared by the thirteenth century, but this is disputed by eminent Syriacists, including
Sebastian Brock. Her information is extremely brief, limited to listing one or two dictionaries,
chrestomathies, and grammars. She devotes rather more space to biblical Syriac and liturgical
texts, followed by 20 pages on the Syriac fathers, listed chronologically. Fewer than ten
pages are devoted to hagiography, spirituality, history and law.

A more recent publication, Nos sources: arts et littérature syriaques,31 offers a sort of
mini-encyclopedia on Syriac literature. It contains 24 short essays (in French, English, Italian
and German), two appendices, a preface and an epilogue, plus an index. The essays describe
the sources of Aramaic literature of which Syriac comprises the largest extant group, and
consider manuscripts, biblical texts, exegesis, theology, spirituality and mysticism, law,
liturgy, poetry, hymns, hagiography, historiography, philosophy and science, apocrypha,
inscriptions and translations. Appendix 1 gives a six-page timeline of Syriac literature;
Appendix 2 provides a four-page bibliography for further reading.

The classic reference work in German, by Anton Baumstark32, offers scholars a dated
but still useful work that describes Syriac literature in succeeding periods. The pre-Islamic
era divides the texts between those of the Christological debates, the Nestorian movement,
and the Monophysite movement. Syriac literature in the Islamic period is arranged by
‘Nestorian’ (that is, Church of the East) texts to the end of the first Christian millennium,
‘Jacobite’ (that is, Syrian Orthodox) texts to the end of the first Christian millennium, and
‘Nestorian’ and ‘Jacobite’ texts of the second Christian millennium. Each section is
introduced by a paragraph describing the historical and linguistic context, then texts are listed
by author, including biographical information, structure of the text, and a brief description of

30
Micheline Albert, ed. (Paris : Éditions du Cerf, 1993).
31
P. Khoury, G, Rahme, eds. (Antélias: Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Orientales – CERO, 2005).
32
Geschichte der syrischen Literatur mit Ausschluß der christlich-palästinensischen Texte, by Anton Baumstark
(Bonn: Marcus und Weber, 1922).

12
its contents. The book has ten pages on Maronite and Melkite liturgy at the end, plus an index
of authors and texts.

Two nineteenth-century books deserve mention. William Wright’s little book,33

although dismissive of Syriac literature as mediocre, acknowledges its role in transmitting
Greek learning to the Arabs. He begins with a discussion of the Peshitta and the Curetonian
Gospels, the versions of the various Christological positions (Melkite, Monophysite,
Nestorian) and the Masoretic manuscripts. What follows is a chronological survey of the
major Syriac writers from Bardesanes to Barhebraeus, including anonymous chronicles and
other writings. There is no table of contents but a detailed index of authors, anonymous
works, and translations. Duval’s contribution34 is divided into two parts. Part I (330 pages)
covers the origins and characteristics of Syriac literature, then examines it by genre (poetry,
biblical materials, hagiography, historiography, philosophy, science, rhetoric, etc.) in 17
chapters. Part II (100 pages) focuses on Syriac writers in three periods: up to the fifth century,
up to the seventh century, and those who wrote under caliphal hegemony from the seventh to
the thirteenth centuries. Duval has provided a very good map, a bibliographic index, and an
index of authors and anonymous works. It is still considered a classical reference work for the
early period because it is thorough and concise.

Very recently, the delightfully titled Scattered Pearls35 has presented a new
translation into English (from Arabic) of a book published in 1943 by the Syrian Orthodox
Patriarch of Antioch. His purpose is to correct the incomplete picture of Syriac literature
given by Western scholars. It is tremendously useful as he references writers that few if any
scholars have heard of before. He is rather more focused on Christian liturgical and doctrinal
writings than standard histories, but includes unusual topics such as calligraphy, versification,
the rites of the church, geographical sketches of Syrian cities, historical documents and the
history of Syriac literature since 1290, including works and manuscripts previously unknown.
He excludes Eastern Syrian texts (i.e., Nestorian writers), as well as ‘the meagre literary
output of the Malkites and Maronites.’ (xxiii)

33
A short history of Syriac literature, by William Wright (London: A. and C. Black, 1894).
34
La littérature syriaque, by Rubens Duval (Paris, 1900).
35
The scattered pearls: a history of Syriac literature and sciences, by Ignatius Aphram I Barsoum ; 2nd rev. ed.
translated and edited by Matti Moosa (Piscataway, N.J. : Gorgias, 2003).

13
 Two bibliographical projects are of great interest to those seeking published literature
in the field of Syriac studies. First, Cyril Moss’ catalogue36 of Syriac manuscripts, books and
articles lists everything held in the British Museum collection. At the time of its first
publication, it was the most comprehensive Syriac bibliography available and is still the
standard reference for material produced up to the end of 1959. The work is published in one
large, thick volume and offers a thorough list of bibliography cross-indexed by author and
subject. A general title index is found at the back of the volume. For lists of more recent
publications, Sebastian Brock’s series of bibliographies37 have been published at regular
intervals as an extension of Cyril Moss’ Catalogue of Syriac Printed Books and Related
Literature in the British Museum. They are intended to help students locate secondary
literature on a given subject within the field of Syriac studies. The material listed is arranged
by subject, not by author (but an index of authors is provided), and is confined to publications
in the major European languages. Scholarship produced in Arabic and Syriac is thus
excluded. Reprints and unpublished dissertations are also not listed. Entries provide only
bibliographic information to enable one to pursue further research.

Two reference works on the Syriac fathers are available, one in Latin, one in English.
Somewhat dated, but still very useful, the work of the Jesuit scholar Ortiz de Urbina presents
a compendium of the Syriac fathers in Latin with a useful introductory chapter describing the
historical origins and literary background of Syriac Christianity.38 The first three parts are
organised according to theological doctrine, that is, in three categories: Orthodox, Nestorian,
and Monophysite. Parts Four and Five treat anonymous works (primarily hagiography and
minor chronicles) and post-patristic biblical texts respectively. The author limits his work
chronologically to texts created up till the death of John of Damascus in the mid-eighth
century. Each text is briefly described and a bibliography of editions, translations and
secondary scholarship (published before 1964) is provided. More recently, a comprehensive
survey of Eastern fathers, including Greek, Coptic, Armenian and Syriac writers has been
translated from Italian into English under the title Patrology: the Eastern Fathers from the

36
Catalogue of Syriac Printed Books and Related Literature in the British Museum, Cyril Moss (London,
1962).
37
Syriac Studies: a classified bibliography, by S.P. Brock. 1960-1970: Parole de l’Orient 4 (1973): 393-465;
1971-1980: Parole de l’Orient 10 (1981-82): 291-412; 1981-1985: Parole de l’Orient 14 (1987): 289-360;
1986-1990: Parole de l’Orient 17 (1992): 211-301; 1990-1995: Parole de l’Orient 23 (1998): 241-350; 1996-
2000: Parole de l’Orient 29 (2004): 263-410; 2001-2005: Parole de l’Orient 33 (2008): 281-446; 2006-2010:
(forthcoming).
38
Ignatius Ortiz de Urbina, Patrologia Syriaca (Rome, 1965).

14
Council of Chalcedon (451) to John of Damascus (750).39 Chapter VI, written by Paolo
Bettiolo, gives a basic survey of Syriac literature in 83 pages, arranged chronologically by
author. Each author or text is described in its historical context, and followed by bibliography
for editions, translations, and secondary scholarship including studies and introductions to
that particular text or author. For some writers, the bibliography is extensive; for example, the
one given for Ephrem covers more than four pages.

In order to find manuscripts, editions, and translations of Syriac texts, the canonical
place to start is with the Patrologia Syriaca,40 the Patrologia Orientalis (PO)41, and the
Scriptores Syri series of the Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium (CSCO).42 The
PO and CSCO series, both begun in 1903, provide standard editions of Syriac texts with
translations. The PO presents Syriac texts in the Serto script, with either a Latin or French
translation. The CSCO offers more than 200 volumes of Syriac texts in Estrangelo script,
with companion volumes with translations into Latin or, more recently, main European
languages. The seven volumes of the Woodbrooke Studies series present Syriac texts with
English translations.43 In order to locate manuscripts, the essential guide is Desreumaux’
1991 volume Répertoire des bibliothèques et des catalogues de manuscrits syriaques.44 It
should be pointed out that although these resources may be somewhat difficult for beginners
to use, one should nonetheless be aware of them.

Grammars and Lexica

Those interested in learning the language will find two introductory grammars recently
published from Gorgias Press, which specialises in Syriac studies. Healey’s 2005 edition is a
good, easy to follow teaching grammar that aims to introduce the student to the main features
of the language and a basic vocabulary, in order to achieve a reading fluency as quickly as
possible.45 Kiraz’s 2007 contribution also seeks to provide a simple introduction, at a gentler
pace with more repetition.46 Both books come with a CD so that students can hear variations
in pronunciation using the eastern and western accents. An excellent and slightly more

39
Patrology: the Eastern Fathers from the Council of Chalcedon (451) to John of Damascus (750), ed. Angelo
Di Berardino, tr. Adrian Walford (Cambridge, 2006).
40
Patrologia Syriaca [= PS] (Paris, 1894-1926), 3 vols. For Syriac texts with German translations, see
Göttinger Orientforschungen, Reihe I, Syriaca [=GOFS] (Göttingen, 1971 -).
41
Patrologia Orientalis [= PO] (Paris / Turnhout, 1904 -).
42
Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium [= CSCO] (Leuven, 1904 -).
43
A. Mingana, Woodbrooke Studies, 7 vols. (Birmingham UK, 1927-1934).
44
A. Desreumaux, Répertoire des bibliothèques et des catalogues de manuscrits syriaques (Paris, 1991).
45
J. F. Healey, Leshono Suryoyo. First Studies in Syriac (Piscataway, 2005).
46
G.A. Kiraz, The New Syriac Primer (Piscataway, 2007).

15
complex grammar is Coakley’s 2002 rewriting of Robinson’s 1962 work, while the most
significant reference grammar is Nöldeke’s dense but comprehensive Compendious Syriac
Grammar.47 More recently, a few other new editions have also appeared.48

Overview of texts by genre

Syriac literature is overwhelmingly Christian in character and subject matter, although there
are some texts that deal with less religious matters, like Aesop’s Fables, medical and
philosophical treatises, or stories about Alexander the Great. Many of Syriac texts were
translations into Syriac of original compositions in other languages, mostly Greek. Their
value for the non-Syriacist lies in the fact that many of these texts survive only in Syriac and
not in the original Greek (or Persian or Arabic), although an increasing number are now
accessible through modern translations. Leading Syriacists Debié and Taylor compare the role
of Syriac for the Middle East to ‘that played by Latin in the late antique churches of North
Africa and Western Europe, or Hebrew in the Jewish diaspora.’49 The point is that Christian
missionaries, scribes, and monks in late antiquity translated thousands of texts from other
languages into Syriac. For Byzantinists, the salient issue is therefore the transmission of
Greek manuscripts translated and preserved in Syriac.

Why should Byzantinists be concerned with Syriac translations of Greek texts now no
longer extant? One important example: few original Greek anti-Chalcedonian texts remain,
except in Syriac; this loss skews the history of theological conflict for those aware only of the
pro-Chalcedonian Greek texts.50 Although the schism of the Oriental Orthodox churches may
be seen as occurring in parallel with linguistic differences, this would be misleading. An
appraisal of the Syriac corpus will show the existence of the ‘dissenting’ Greek manuscripts,

47
J.F. Coakley, Paradigms and Exercises in Syriac Grammar (Oxford, 2002); T. Nöldeke, Compendious Syriac
Grammar, tr. J.A. Crichton (Eisenbrauns, 2001). NB: This is a reprint of the 1904 edition, with addition of
English translation of his own manuscript annotations. German 2nd edition of Nöldeke, with annotations, ed.
Anton Schall (Darmstadt, 1966).
48
W.M. Thackston, Introduction to Syriac (Bethesda, 1999); T. Muraoka, Classical Syriac. A Basic Grammar
with a Chrestomathy (Wiesbaden, 1997). Muraoka is stronger on syntax, which is largely omitted from the older
grammars.
49
M. Debié and D. Taylor, ‘Syriac and Syro-Arabic Historical Writing, c.500–c.1400’, in C. Robinson & S.
Foot, eds., The Oxford History of Historical Writing, vol. II (OUP, 2012) chapter 8, 155-179.
50
For more on this, see M Debié and D. Gonnet, ‘Les pères disparus en grec’ in A. Schmidt and D. Gonnet,
eds., Les pères grecs dans la tradition syriaque (Paris, 2007): 127-148.

16
thus providing a fuller understanding of the schism as more complex than a merely cultural or
linguistic conflict.51

Further evidence of the traces of Greek manuscripts in the Syriac corpus may be
found in the relatively small number of palimpsests with Greek underneath and Syriac on top.
One of the most notable examples is the well-known ninth-century manuscript with 400
verses of Menander underneath a collection of Syriac monastic texts; this manuscript is
currently held in the Vatican (Vat. sir. 623). The fifth-century CE Greek palimpsest
containing portions of the Iliad (5th c.) and parts of the Gospel of Luke as well the Elements
of Euclid (7th-8th c.) underneath a Syriac manuscript of Severus of Antioch (late 8th or early
9th c.), held at the British Library (BL Ad. 17210/17211), is another example.52

Most Syriac manuscripts, both translations and original compositions, were produced
in the northern Mesopotamian cities of Edessa and Nisibis (until 363), and in monasteries of
northern Syria and what is now southeastern Turkey. Except for chronicles and biblical
commentaries, Syriac writers display a preference for metrical genres of writing over prose
and composed beautiful poetry. Syriac poetry has been characterised as presenting ‘les hautes
envolées du lyrisme’, high lyrical flights of fancy.53

Poetry

The origins of Syriac poetry are ecclesiastical, and bear no traces of pagan influence.54 The
great fourth-century Syriac father Ephrem attributes the creation of Syriac poetry to the
second-century writer, Bardaisan of Edessa, who wrote hymns as a vehicle of religious
teaching to help believers learn Christian doctrine. The great sixth-century bilingual Syrian
Romanos the Melodist, who is famous among Byzantinists for the liturgical hymns he wrote
in Greek, introduced exegetical traditions from Ephrem and other Syriac authors into Greek
thought, yet some scholars may be unaware of this.55

51
A list of patristic works translated into Syriac from the Greek, including dozens of Greek manuscripts no
longer extant, may be found in the appendix to A. Schmidt and D. Gonnet, eds., Les pères grecs dans la
tradition syriaque (Paris, 2007). It should be noted that this list is limited to patristic works; later periods and
other genres also have their dozens, although no comprehensive list has yet been published to my knowledge.
52
Wright, Catalogue, vol. II, 548-550.
53
Duval, La littérature syriaque (Paris, 1900) 10.
54
For more on the origins of Syriac poetry, see S.P. Brock, ‘Syriac and Greek hymnography: problems of
origins’, Studia Patristica 16 = Texte und Untersuchungen 129 (1985) 77-81 [repr. in SSC].
55
Brock and Taylor, Hidden Pearl, 185.

17
 Syriac poetry is based on the principle of counting syllables: Ephrem’s metrical
homilies, for example, are written in couplets of seven syllables.56 Rhyme becomes a feature
of Syriac poetry only in the tenth century under the influence of Arabic. The two main types
!
' % ),
of poetry are didactic hymns (Syriac: madroshe   "#%$ ) and narrative homilies (memre &(%)
although there are also canticles (or sung prayers) as well as a number of other hymn forms.
The madroshe, which are sung as part of the liturgy, are intended to offer instruction by
means of poetry.57 As didactic compositions, they can address heresies, recount the stories of
saints, or offer fatherly advice. The memre are not composed in stanzas like the madroshe,
and are recited for the edification of the faithful.58 They usually commemorate saints or
martyrs, or the feast days of the Church. Often later Syriac poetry is written in the form of
acrostics, using either the alphabet or the name of the author as the rubric; the highest form of
this is the double acrostic structure, in which the rubric can be read from beginning to end
and back again.

Bible

Syriac translations of biblical books and commentaries date from the second century CE and
later. The standard Syriac translation of the Hebrew Scriptures is known as the Peshitta
(&'()#), a word that mean something like ‘simple’ in Syriac, although this word was not
used until the ninth century.59 The language of the Peshitta is certainly simpler than what is
found in the Syro-Hexapla, a translation produced near Alexandria by Paul of Tella in CE
615-17 (according to colophons) and based on the Septuagint Greek in the fifth column of
Origen’s Hexapla. The Syriac of the Syro-Hexapla is a highly literal translation of the Greek
to the point of being distinctly unidiomatic Syriac. This, along with the quality of his sources
and the preservation of many of Origen’s critical symbols, renders Paul’s translation of great
importance in recovering Origen’s text of the Septuagint.60 However, the Syro-Hexapla does
not survive complete.

56
S.P. Brock, ‘Poetry’, in Nos sources. Arts et Littérature Syriaques (Antélias, 2005), 255-74.
57
Ephrem composed more than 100 hymns. See K.E. McVey, Ephrem the Syrian: Hymns (Classics of Western
Spirituality; New York, 1989).
58
Jacob of Serug, for example, wrote a homily of 1400 verses on the throne-chariot vision of the prophet
Ezekiel. See T. Kollamparampil, Jacob of Serugh, Select Festal Homilies (Rome/Bangalore, 1997).
59
The word is a feminine passive participle from the root *)# which means ‘to stretch out’. It is related to ‫פָּשׁוּט‬
in Mishnaic Hebrew, meaning ‘straightforward’. The Hebrew noun ‫ ְפּשַׁט‬is later used in biblical interpretation to
mean ‘simple’. Cf. M.P. Weitzman, The Syriac Version of the Old Testament. An Introduction (Cambridge,
1999), 2-3. See also E. Nestle, ‘Zum Namen der syrischen Bibelübersetzung Peschitṭa’, ZDMG 47 (1893) 157-9.
60
S.P. Brock, ‘Versions, Ancient (Syriac)’, Anchor Bible Dictionary (1992), vi.796-799.

18
 The word Peshitta is also used to refer to the Syriac version of the New Testament.
One text, Tatian’s harmony of the gospels known as the Diatessaron, dates to the mid-second
century. This effort to reconcile contradictory accounts of the life of Jesus as told in the four
canonical Gospels is not preserved in its original form; there is some debate about whether it
was originally compiled in Greek or Syriac, although it appears to have circulated in both
languages. It was the standard gospel in Syriac until the fifth century, and is cited as an
authority as late as the ninth.61 The only extant remains in Syriac are in Ephrem’s
Commentary on the Diatessaron and a few other early citations in Syriac texts.62 The third-
century Old Syriac translation of the four canonical gospels is preserved in two fifth-century
manuscripts, both incomplete.63 This translation was made in the third or early fourth century
and uses the Peshitta version of Hebrew Bible verses quoted in the New Testament. The
Harklean version of the Syriac New Testament, translated from Greek at the same time and in
the same monastery as the Syro-Hexapla, is also very literal, reflecting a similar approach to
translation.64 Early versions of the Syriac New Testament did not include the minor Catholic
epistles (2 Peter, 2 John, 3 John, Jude) nor Revelation. Although all of the Catholic epistles
were later accepted as canonical, the Book of Revelation has always been considered
spurious by the Syriac churches, despite the existence of two West Syrian translations in the
sixth and seventh centuries.

Hagiography

Syriac hagiography consists mainly of stories about ascetic feats, miraculous works, or
panegyrics. Unlike Byzantine Greek hagiography, there are few accounts of martyrdoms,
even at the hands of Muslims, although there are some fictional accounts, such as that of
Sophia (wisdom) and her three daughters Pistis (faith), Elpis (hope) and Agape (love),
supposedly martyred under Hadrian.65 A small number of martyr-acts concern persecutions in
the early fourth century under Roman emperors before the legalisation of Christianity. There
are rather more martyrdom stories of persecution under the Sasanid dynasty, beginning in the

61
William L. Petersen, Tatian’s Diatessaron. Its Creation, Dissemination, Significance, & History in
Scholarship (Leiden, 1994)1, fn 5.
62
L. Leloir, Saint Ephrem, Commentaire de l’Évangile Concordant. Chester Beatty Monographs 8 (Dublin,
1963).
63
B. Metzger, The Early Versions of the New Testament (Oxford, 1977).
64
J. White, Sacrorum Evangeliorum versio Syriaca Philoxeniana ex codd. mss. Ridleianis in bibl. coll. Nov.
Oxon. repositis nunc primum edita: cum interpretatione et annotationibus... (2 vols.; Oxford, 1778). Despite the
title, this is in fact the editio princeps of the Harklean version. It contains the Syriac text and a Latin translation on
each page.
65
Bedjan, Vol. VII. Repr. By A.S. Lewis in Studia Sinaitica IX-X (London, 1900), with English translation.

19
early fourth century under Shapor II. Eastern Syriac hagiography resembles historiography to
the extent that it records saints’ lives, using the sequence of their exploits to mark the passage
of time. The three major collections of hagiographical texts in Syriac are Assemani, Bedjan,
and Brooks.66 Of these, only Brooks offers an English translation; of Bedjan’s seven
volumes, only Vol. VII has been translated. The best general introduction to this corpus is
Fiey’s 2004 study, which provides a summary of each life, as well as a bibliography for
further research.67

Apologetic texts

Apologetic literature in Syriac is mostly Greek by origin, but its value lies in the preservation
of material whose Greek versions are now lost. The apology of second-century Athenian
philosopher Aristides, discovered in a seventh-century manuscript, is addressed to the
emperor Hadrian. The second-century discourse of Melito the philosopher, mentioned in
Eusebius’ Ecclesiastical History, defends the character of God as the creator of the world,
and explains the existence of pagan religions as proof that God gave humans free will and the
ability to discern truth from error. Although these texts are well known Syriac translations of
lost Greek sources, some apologetic texts were composed originally in Syriac, such as the
famous apology of the patriarch of the Church of the East Timothy I (r. 780-823) that defends
Christianity in a dialogue with the caliph al-Mahdi.

Law

Syriac law books include both ecclesiastical canons as well as civil law. The legal texts of
late antiquity include a collection presented to the emperor Valentinian by Ambrose, the
bishop of Milan; and a widely-known work that included the laws of Constantine I,
Theodosius, and Leo. A number of clergy also compiled ecclesiastical canons, notably
Simeon, the Metropolitan of Rev-Ardashir in the mid-seventh century; Jesubocht, the
Metropolitan of Fars in the late seventh and early eighth centuries; the late eighth and early
ninth-century patriarch Timothy (mentioned above); and the early ninth-century patriarch

66
S.E. Assemani, Acta sanctorum martyrum orientalium et occidentalium (2 vols; Rome 1748; rpr.
Farnborough, 1970), with Latin translation; P. Bedjan, (ed), Acta martyrum et sanctorum (7 vols; Paris/Leipzig
1890-97; rpr. Hildesheim, 1968.) [standard Syr ed.; Index by I. Guidi in Rendiconti della R. Academia dei Lincei
V.28 (1919) 207-29.]; E.W. Brooks, John of Ephesus: Lives of the Eastern Saints (Patrologia Orientalis 17.1
(1923); 18.4 (1924); 19.2 (1926), Paris; rpr. Brepols, Turnhout 1983), with English translation.
67
J.M. Fiey, (ed. L.I. Conrad), Saints Syriaques (Studies in Late Antiquity and Early Islam 6; Princeton, 2004).

20
Jesubarnun. The later Nomocanon compiled by Abdisho of Nisibis (d. 1318) contains
references to these earlier works.68

Historiography

Two general formats were used for historiography by West Syrian writers: world history that
covered events from creation69, and church history, modelled after Eusebius.70 The eastern
tradition does not follow the universal history model but generally begins with the life of
Jesus, followed by the foundation of the church and the lives of the fathers.71 There are also
local histories that covered events limited to a geographical area. Although Syriac history
writers admired and imitated Greek historians, there is no clear division in their works
between learned histories and annalistic chronicles.72 There are also no striking differences in
linguistic register in Syriac, such as exist in Greek between Attic and Koine styles. Syriac
historiography up to the end of the fifth century consists primarily of translations of Greek
works. In the fifth and sixth centuries, however, chroniclers began to compose works in
Syriac. These writers were building a cultural identity in their works for the Syriac-speaking
community.73 In particular, community identities developed in the aftermath of the Islamic
conquests of the seventh century in ways that both distinguished them from and adapted to

68
Assemani, Bibliotheca Orientalis, Vol. III; Syrische Rechtsbücher, herausgegeben und übersetzt von Eduard
Sachau, 3 vols. (Berlin: G. Reimer, 1907-1914); Hubert Kaufhold, ‘Die syrische Rechtsliteratur’, in Nos
sources. Arts et Littérature Syriaques (Antélias, 2005), 211-235.
69
M. Wallraff, “The Beginnings of Christian Universal History: From Tatian to Julius Africanus”, Zeitschrift
für Antikes Christentum / Journal of Ancient Christianity 14:3 (2011): 540-555.
70
S. Toda, “The Syriac Version of Eusebius’ Ecclesiastical History Revisited”, Studia Patristica 46 (2010):
333-338. See also Toda, Satoshi, “Eusebius and Syriac Literature”, Parole de l’Orient 36 (2011): 515-524.
71
M. Debié and D. Taylor, ‘Syriac and Syro-Arabic Historical Writing, c.500–c.1400’, in C. Robinson & S.
Foot, eds., The Oxford History of Historical Writing, vol. II (OUP, 2012) chapter 8, 155-179.
72
S.P. Brock, ‘Syriac Historical Writing: A Survey of the Main Sources’ in Journal of The Iraqi Academy
(Syriac Corporation) 5 (1979-80): 296-326 [rpr. in his Studies in Syriac Christianity (London 1992) ch. I].
73
Wood, Philip, ''The Chroniclers of Zuqnin and Their Times (c. 720-75)'', Parole de l’Orient 36 (2011): 549-
568; M. Debié, ''Syriac Historiography and Identity Formation'', Church History and Religious Culture 89:1-3
(2009): 93-114. Also see M. Debié, ''Writing History as ‘Histoires’: The Biographical Dimension of East Syriac
Historiography'', Pages 43-75 in Writing ‘True Stories’: Historians and Hagiographers in the Late Antique and
Medieval Near East. Edited by Papaconstantinou, Arietta and Debié, Muriél and Kennedy, Hugh N.. Cultural
Encounters in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages 9. Turnhout: Brepols, 2010; Weltecke, Dorothea, ''Michael
the Syrian and Syriac Orthodox Identity'', Church History and Religious Culture 89:1-3 (2009): 115-125;
Hoyland, Robert G., Theophilus of Edessa’s Chronicle and the Circulation of Historical Knowledge in Late
Antiquity and Early Islam. Translated Texts for Historians 57. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2011.
Pinggéra, Karl, ''Nestorianische Weltchronistik. Johannes Bar Penkâyê und Elias von Nisibis'', Pages 263-283
in Julius Africanus und die christliche Weltchronik. Edited by Wallraff, Martin. Texte und Untersuchungen zur
Geschichte der altchristlichen Literatur 157. Berlin / New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2006.

21
the new hegemony.74 Moreover, the methodology of Syriac historiography has excited the
interest of a good number of scholars.75

The earliest Syriac world history was written by Jacob of Edessa (d. 708), and the
oldest Syriac church history is the Ecclesiastical History of John of Ephesus (late sixth
century). The most important local histories are the Chronicle of Edessa, written in 540, and
the Chronicle of Pseudo-Joshua the Stylite, written in the early sixth century.76 Syriac
historiography was produced up until the thirteenth century, with the composition of
Barhebraeus’ world chronicle.77 Barhebraeus (1226-86), known as Bar Ebroyo in Syriac and
as Gregory Abu’l Faraj in Arabic, was a maphrian (high-ranking clergyman) in the East
Syrian church and is one of the most important later historians, particularly for the period of
the Crusades. His world chronicle was written in both Syriac and Arabic, and although most
of the early material repeats the still extant history of Michael the Syrian, it is the later
material for which Barhebraeus is best known.78

Ascetic literature

Although Egypt was undoubtedly the cradle of Christian monasticism, it was in Mesopotamia
and the Syrian desert that the ‘ascetic stars’, as Peter Brown calls them, lived and flourished

74
Муравьев, Алексей Владимирович, ''Легенда о Юлиане Отступнике у Табарӣ и ее сирийские
источники'', Символ 61 (2012): 258-279; Haar Romeny, Robert Bas ter, ''From Religious Association to Ethnic
Community: A Research Project on Identity Formation among the Syrian Orthodox under Muslim Rule'', Islam
and Christian-Muslim Relations 16:4 (2005): 377-399; Harrak, Amir, ''Ah! The Assyrian is the Rod of My
Hand!: Syriac View of History after the Advent of Islam'', Pages 45-65 in Redefining Christian Identity:
Cultural Interaction in the Middle East since the Rise of Islam. Edited by Ginkel, Jan J. van and Murre-van den
Berg, Hendrika Lena and Lint, Theo M. van. Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 134. Leuven: Peeters, 2005;
Фурман, Юлия Владимировна, ''“Хроника” Йōханнāна Бар Пенкāйē о времени арабского
завоевания'', Символ 58 (2010): 365-385; Reinink, Gerrit J., ''East Syrian Historiography in Response to the
Rise of Islam: The Case of John bar Penkaye’s Ktâbâ d-rêš mellê'', Pages 77-89 in Redefining Christian Identity:
Cultural Interaction in the Middle East since the Rise of Islam. Edited by Ginkel, Jan J. van and Murre-van den
Berg, Hendrika Lena and Lint, Theo M. van. Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 134. Leuven: Peeters, 2005.
75
Ginkel, Jan J. van, ''Michael the Syrian and his Sources: Reflections on the Methodology of Michael the Great
as a Historiographer and its Implications for Modern Historians'', Journal of the Canadian Society for Syriac
Studies 6 (2006): 53-60. See also Ginkel, Jan J. van, ''The Perception and Presentation of the Arab Conquest in
Syriac Historiography: How Did the Changing Social Position of the Syrian Orthodox Community Influence the
Account of Their Historiographers?'', Pages 171-184 in The Encounter of Eastern Christianity with Early Islam.
Edited by Grypeou, Emmanouela and Swanson, Mark and Thomas, David. The History of Christian-Muslim
Relations 5. Leiden / Boston: Brill, 2006. Morony, Michael G., ''‘For Whom Does the Writer Write?’: The First
Bubonic Plague Pandemic according to Syriac Sources'', Pages 59-86 in Plague and the End of Antiquity: The
Pandemic of 541–750. Edited by Little, Lester K.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. Parvis, Paul
M., ''Theodoret’s Bias: The Aim of the Historia Ecclesiastica'', Studia Patristica 47 (2010): 21-26.
76
For a survey on Syriac historical texts, see S.P. Brock, ‘Syriac sources for seventh-century history’, BMGS 2
(1976), 17-36.
77
English translation: E.A.W. Budge, The Chronography of Gregory Abû’l Faraj, the Son of Aaron, the Hebrew
Physician, Commonly Known as Bar Hebraeus. Being the First Part of his Political History of the World.
Translated from the Syriac (2 vols.; London, 1932).
78
Cf. H. Takahashi, Barhebraeus: A Bio-Bibliography (Piscataway: Gorgias Press, 2005).

22
in the fifth and sixth centuries.79 This ascetical element of Christianity ‘assumed unusually
large and broad dimensions’, becoming ‘an integral part of the Gospel message and a
constituent of the Christian phenomenon.’80 Syriac literature thus records the flamboyant
ascetic practices of monks who perched on pillars as well as those who wandered through the
desert. The paradigmatic Syrian ascetic was Symeon the Stylite (d. 459), whose biography
was written by his contemporary, Theodoret of Cyrrhus (d. ca. 466). Even earlier than
Symeon, however, Aphrahat, the Persian Sage (d. ca. 375), was a famous ascetic whose
Demonstration 6 ‘On the Bnay Qyama [‘children of the covenant’ though this translation is
debated]’, a treatise addressed to ascetic Christians, is one of the most important sources for
the early Syriac tradition. The sixth-century collection of 58 stories of Mesopotamian and
Syrian ascetics written by John of Ephesus must also be counted among the most important
sources for understanding Syrian attitudes toward the interaction of the social and religious
realms.81

Philosophy

Although most philosophy in Syriac comprises translations of Aristotle from the Greek, there
this does not mean that Syriac writers did not compose original philosophical works.82 The
philosophical tradition in Syriac begins with Bardaisan (CE 154-222), who wrote a Socratic
dialogue contrasting fate and free will.83 Bardaisan’s views were considered heretical by the
church. Other philosophical and similarly heretical texts include an eleventh-century
composition attributed to Jacob of Edessa (d. 708) titled Causa causarum, in which the
author proposes the unification of Jews, Muslims and Christians on the basis of what each
religion accepts as true of God.84 Moses bar Kepha (d. 903) wrote a treatise on predestination
and free will, and Barhebraeus wrote The Candelabra of the Sanctuaries to refute

79
P. Brown, ‘The Rise and Function of the Holy Man’, Journal of Roman Studies 61 (1971) 82.
80
A. Vööbus, Celibacy, a requirement for admission to baptism in the early Syrian church (Stockholm, 1951),
9.
81
E.W. Brooks, John of Ephesus: Lives of the Eastern Saints (Patrologia Orientalis 17.1 (1923); 18.4 (1924);
19.2 (1926), Paris; rpr. Brepols, Turnhout 1983), with English translation. See also Susan Ashbrook Harvey,
Asceticism and Society in Crisis. John of Ephesus and The Lives of the Eastern Saints (Berkeley, 1990). A
volume on the Syriac ascetic tradition appeared in 2011 that may be of interest to Byzantinists: Alain
Desreumaux, ed., Les mystiques syriaques (Paris, 2011), esp. the contribution of M. Cassin, ‘Mystique:
réflexions à partir de quelques auteurs grecs’.
82
H. Hugonnard-Roche, La logique d’Aristote du grec au syriaque (Paris, 2004).
83
H.J.W. Drijvers, The Book of the Laws of the Countries. Dialogue on Fate of Bardaiṣan of Edessa (repr.
Gorgias Press, Piscataway NJ, 2006). For more on the philosophical background of the text, see Albrecht Dihle,
‘Zur Schicksalslehre des Bardesanes’ in A. Dihle, Antike und Orient. Gesammelte Aufsätze (Heidelberg, 1984)
161-73.
84
German translation by Carl Keyser, Das Buch von der Erkenntniss der Wahrheit, oder, Der Ursache aller
Ursachen (Leipzig, 1889).

23
monophysite theology.85 Abdisho of Nisibis wrote a book summarizing East Syrian theology,
entitled The Pearl (The truth of the faith) in 1298, and translated it into Arabic in 1312.86

Syriac writers also translated many philosophical works from Greek. Sixth-century
translations were reworked in the seventh century to be more literal, and then in the ninth
century further revisions of translations were undertaken as part of the widespread
transmission of Greek texts into Arabic, most often via Syriac.87 Aristotle’s logical works
were widely known and translated into Syriac, partly to aid in arguments of Christological
doctrine.88 Sergius of Reshaina (d. 536) wrote introductions for Aristotle’s Organon, and
later writers provided commentaries on them.89 The Syrian Orthodox cleric Barhebraeus (d.
1286) compiled a lengthy encyclopaedic work on Aristotelian philosophy, titled the Book of
the Cream of Wisdom, but this text has not yet been fully translated.90

Sciences

There is little extant Syriac literature dedicated to the sciences – that is, to geography,
mathematics, astronomy, or medicine: Job of Edessa’s Book of Treasures (III.73), and
Commentaries on the Six Days of Creation (Hexameron) by Jacob of Edessa and Moses bar
Kepha address some of these areas. The ninth-century Medical Questions of the famous
translator and scholar Hunayn ibn Ishaq, which circulated in both Syriac and Arabic, was
hugely influential; it was translated into Latin with the title Isagoge of Ioannitius and was the
most widely known Arabic text on medicine.

Chrestomathies

85
The treatise on predestination is preserved in a British Museum manuscript (Add. 14,731), but is as yet
unpublished. For Barhebraeus, there is a French translation of books 1-4 and 6-12 (all in the Patrologia
Orientalis series); a German translation of book 5 by R. Kohlhaas (1959).
86
English translation: George Percy Badger, The Nestorians and their Rituals with the Narrative of a Mission to
Mesopotamia and Coordistan in 1842 to 1844 (London, 1852), vol. II, p. 380; Eshai Shimun (tr.), The Book of
Marganita (the Pearl) on the Truth of Christianity (Chicago, 1965); Syriac text: Angelo Mai, Scriptorum
veterum nova collectio e Vaticanis Codicibus (Rome, 1938), vol. X, pp. 744-780; Yosip E.H. Kellaita, Kṯāḇā d-
meṯqre marğānīṯā d-ʿal šrārā d-ḵresṭyānūṯā (2nd ed.; Mosul, 1924).
87
For more on this, see J.W. Watt, ‘Syriac translators and Greek philosophy in early Abbasid Iraq’, Journal of
the Canadian Society for Syriac Studies 4 (2004), 15-26.
88
A. Baumstark, Aristoteles bei den Syrern vom 5. Bis 8. Jahrhundert (Leipzig, 1900).
89
J.W. Watt, Rhetoric and philosophy from Greek into Syriac (Ashgate Variorum, 2010); Daniel King, The
Earliest Syriac Translation of Aristotle’s Categories. Text, Translation and Commentary (Leiden, 2010).
90
For a full bibliography of manuscripts, studies and editions, see H. Takahashi, Barhebraeus: A Bio-
Bibliography (Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias, 2005), 245-54. Some parts have been translated. See H. Takahashi,
Aristotelian meteorology in Syriac: Barhebraeus, Butyrum sapientiae, books of mineralogy and meteorology
(Leiden: Brill, 2004); N. Peter Joosse, A Syriac Encyclopedia of Aristotelian Philosophy. Barhebraeus (13th c.)
Butyrum sapientiae Books of Ethics, Economy and Politics. A Critical Edition with Introduction, Translation,
Commentary, and Glossaries (Leiden: Brill, 2004).

24
A chrestomathy is a brief anthology of texts compiled to help students improve their reading.
They are accompanied by short glossaries and sometimes a few grammatical points, designed
to help reading comprehension. Two very good ones are found in older German grammars:
one is at the end of Brockelmann’s Syrische Grammatik, and the other is found in Nestle’s
second edition of his 1881 Brevis linguae syriacae grammatica, litteratura, chrestomathia
cum glossario, which provides an English translation.91 Another very good chrestomathy
with grammatical, historical and geographical notes in English and German was published by
Jessie Payne Margoliouth in 1909.92 A very helpful modern volume, published in 2006,
includes 26 extracts from Syriac literature dating from the second to the thirteenth centuries.93
Each writer is introduced briefly, and all three Syriac scripts are used, both vocalized and
unvocalized.

Conclusion

Although much more could be said about the field of Syriac studies and its relevance
for Byzantinists and other historians, it is hoped that this survey might provide a basic
starting point for locating relevant material. The author would like to thank her colleagues at
the Oriental Institute, Oxford, for significant help and encouragement in compiling this
information. I am especially thankful to Professor Sir Fergus Millar for the inspiration to
write this article, Dr Sebastian Brock for invaluable suggestions, and Dr David Taylor for
thorough criticism.

Oxford, Trinity Term 2012

91
Carl Brockelmann, Syrische Grammatik (Leipzig, 1899); Eberhard Nestle, Syriac grammar with bibliography,
chrestomathy and glossary, translated from the German by R.S. Kennedy, 2nd. ed. of the Brevis linguae
syriacae grammatica (Berlin and New York, 1889).
92
J.Payne Margoliouth, Extracts from the Ecclesiastical History of John Bishop of Ephesus (Leiden, 1909).
93
Martin Zammit, ‘Enbe men Karmo Suryoyo. A Syriac Chrestomathy (Piscataway NJ, 2006).

25