Download or read book Syriac Polemics written by Wout Jac. van Bekkum and published by Peeters Publishers. This book was released on 2007 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Festschrift honours Dr. Gerrit Reinink on the occasion of the end of his professional career as a senior lecturer of Syriac and Aramaic studies at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands. The Festschrift includes, in addition to a brief biography and a complete bibliography of Reinink's scholarly writings, fifteen articles, arranged according to the chronology of their topics and covering a wide variety of subjects, ranging from the days of Julian the Apostate to the year of the fall of Constantinople, through the period of Late Antiquity, the Byzantine period, early Islam and the Middle Ages. The authors are all prominent experts in the field of Syriac studies and adjacent areas. The title of the book, Syriac Polemics, is a clear reference to one of Reinink's favourite research topics: Eastern Christian reactions to the rise of Islam. This volume is a valuable contribution to the study of Syriac literature and culture in general.

Download or read book Jacob of Edessa and the Syriac Culture of His Day written by Bas Ter Haar Romeny and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2009-03-31 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jacob of Edessa (c.640-708) is considered the most learned Christian of the early days of Islam. In all fifteen contributions to this volume, written by prominent specialists, the interaction between Christianity, Judaism, and the new religion is an important issue. The articles discuss Jacob’s biography as well as his position in early Islamic Edessa, and give a full picture of the various aspects of Jacob of Edessa’s life and work as a scholar and clergyman. Attention is paid to his efforts in the fields of historiography, correspondence, canon law, text and interpretation of the Bible, language and translation, theology, philosophy, and science. The book, which marks the 1300th anniversary of Jacob’s death, also contains a bibliographical clavis.

Download or read book The Third Lung New Trajectories in Syriac Studies written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2023-08-21 with total page 429 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: No one mentions Syriac, – a dialect of the Aramaic language Jesus spoke –, without referring to Sebastian P. Brock, the Oxford scholar and teacher who has written and taught about everything Syriac, even reorienting the field as The Third Lung of early Christianity (along with Greek and Latin). In 2018, Syriac scholars world-wide gathered in Sigtuna, Sweden, to celebrate with Sebastian his accomplishments and share new directions. Through essays showing what Syriac studies have attained, where they are going, as well as some arenas and connections previously not imagined, flavors of the fruits of laboring in the field are offered. Contributors to this volume are: Susan Ashbrook Harvey, Shraga Bick, Briouria Bitton-Ashkelony, Alberto Camplani, Thomas A. Carlson, Jeff W. Childers, Muriel Debié, Terry Falla, George A. Kiraz, Sergey Minov, Craig E. Morrison, István Perczel, Anton Pritula, Ilaria Ramelli, Christine Shepardson, Stephen J. Shoemaker, Herman G.B. Teule, Kathleen E. McVey.

Download or read book The Making of the Medieval Middle East written by Jack Tannous and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2018-12-04 with total page 664 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A bold new religious history of the late antique and medieval Middle East that places ordinary Christians at the center of the story In the second half of the first millennium CE, the Christian Middle East fractured irreparably into competing churches and Arabs conquered the region, setting in motion a process that would lead to its eventual conversion to Islam. Jack Tannous argues that key to understanding these dramatic religious transformations are ordinary religious believers, often called “the simple” in late antique and medieval sources. Largely agrarian and illiterate, these Christians outnumbered Muslims well into the era of the Crusades, and yet they have typically been invisible in our understanding of the Middle East’s history. What did it mean for Christian communities to break apart over theological disagreements that most people could not understand? How does our view of the rise of Islam change if we take seriously the fact that Muslims remained a demographic minority for much of the Middle Ages? In addressing these and other questions, Tannous provides a sweeping reinterpretation of the religious history of the medieval Middle East. This provocative book draws on a wealth of Greek, Syriac, and Arabic sources to recast these conquered lands as largely Christian ones whose growing Muslim populations are properly understood as converting away from and in competition with the non-Muslim communities around them.

Download or read book The Sermons on Joseph of Balai of Qenneshrin written by Robert R. Phenix and published by Mohr Siebeck. This book was released on 2008 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Robert Phenix investigates the collection of twelve Syriac poetic sermons recounting the story of Joseph in Genesis 37 and 39-50. The authorship of these poems has been disputed, but this is the first study to attempt to argue from all aspects of the evidence that Balai of Qenneshrin is the author. The study then examines all of the data that can be associated with Balai: the religious environment of Qenneshrin and nearby Aleppo, Balai's connections with the monk-bishops of central Syria in the late fourth and early fifth centuries, particularly Acacius of Beroea/Aleppo and Rabbula of Edessa, the status of chorbishops, and the presence of Syriac speakers. Since it is argued in this study that Balai's source for the Sermons on Joseph was a Jewish text, this section also carefully examines the evidence for the Jewish community in Qenneshrin. As part of the background of the author, links between characters and the physical setting of the Sermons on Joseph and Qenneshrin are investigated. The relationship of the Sermons on Joseph to other Syriac Joseph sources and Joseph material in the Pseudepigrapha and at Qumran is discussed, followed by the question of the origin of the story, which is located in a lost Greek Jewish composition. The last section of the work examines the author's use of Hellenistic rhetoric and literary themes. The many speeches in the Sermons on Joseph reveal rhetorical arrangements that are strikingly close to the models of arrangement found in Late Antique handbooks, such as the Hermogenic Corpus . Several of these arguments are examined, as are the elaborate prefaces that introduce some of the individual Sermons on Joseph . The literary themes and motifs of the Sermons on Joseph are explored. It can be shown that some motifs known only in Syriac religious literature are employed in the Sermons on Joseph in non-religious literary contexts.

Download or read book The Last Pagan Emperor written by H. C. Teitler and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Flavius Claudius Julianus was the last pagan to sit on the Roman imperial throne (361-363). Born in Constantinople in 331 or 332, Julian was raised as a Christian, but apostatized, and during his short reign tried to revive paganism, which, after the conversion to Christianity of his uncle Constantine the Great early in the fourth century, began losing ground at an accelerating pace. Having become an orphan when he was still very young, Julian was taken care of by his cousin Constantius II, one of Constantine's sons, who permitted him to study rhetoric and philosophy and even made him co-emperor in 355. But the relations between Julian and Constantius were strained from the beginning, and it was only Constantius' sudden death in 361 which prevented an impending civil war. As sole emperor, Julian restored the worship of the traditional gods. He opened pagan temples again, reintroduced animal sacrifices, and propagated paganism through both the spoken and the written word. In his treatise Against the Galilaeans he sharply criticised the religion of the followers of Jesus whom he disparagingly called 'Galilaeans'. He put his words into action, and issued laws which were displeasing to Christians--the most notorious being his School Edict. This provoked the anger of the Christians, who reacted fiercely, and accused Julian of being a persecutor like his predecessors Nero, Decius, and Diocletian. Violent conflicts between pagans and Christians made themselves felt all over the empire. It is disputed whether or not Julian himself was behind such outbursts. Accusations against the Apostate continued to be uttered even after the emperor's early death. In this book, the feasibility of such charges is examined.

Download or read book A Companion to Byzantine Epistolography written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2020-06-22 with total page 543 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Companion to Byzantine Epistolography offers the first comprehensive introduction and scholarly guide to the cultural practice and literary genre of letter-writing in the Byzantine Empire.

Download or read book Ideas in Motion in Baghdad and Beyond written by Damien Janos and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2015-10-05 with total page 489 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume contains a collection of articles focusing on the philosophical and theological exchanges between Muslim and Christian intellectuals living in Baghdad during the classical period of Islamic history, when this city was a vibrant center of philosophical, scientific, and literary activity. The philosophical accomplishments and contribution of Christians writing in Arabic and Syriac represent a crucial component of Islamic society during this period, but they have typically been studied in isolation from the development of mainstream Islamic philosophy. The present book aims for a more integrated approach by exploring case studies of philosophical and theological cross-pollination between the Christian and Muslim traditions, with an emphasis on the Baghdad School and its main representative, Yaḥyā ibn ʿAdī. Contributors: Carmela Baffioni, David Bennett, Gerhard Endress, Damien Janos, Olga Lizzini, Ute Pietruschka, Alexander Treiger, David Twetten, Orsolya Varsányi, John W. Watt, Robert Wisnovsky

Download or read book The Making of the Medieval Middle East written by Jack Tannous and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-03-31 with total page 664 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the second half of the first millennium CE, the Christian Middle East fractured irreparably into competing churches and Arabs conquered the region, setting in motion a process that would lead to its eventual conversion to Islam. Largely agrarian and illiterate, Christians often called "the simple" outnumbered Muslims well into the era of the Crusades, and yet they have typically been invisible in our understanding of the Middle East's history

Download or read book Gog and Magog in Early Eastern Christian and Islamic Sources written by E.J. van Donzel and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2010-05-17 with total page 291 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Alexander's alleged Wall against Gog and Magog, often connected with the enclosure of the apocalyptic people, was a widespread theme among Syriac Christians in Mesopotamia. In the ninth century Sallam the Interpreter dictated an account of his search for the barrier to the Arab geographer Ibn Khurradadhbih. The reliability of Sallam's journey from Samarra to Western China and back (842-45), however, has always been a highly contested issue. Van Donzel and Schmidt consider the travel account as historical. This volume presents a translation of the source while at the same time it carefully looks into other Eastern Christian and Muslim traditions of the famous lore. A comprehensive survey reconstructs the political and topographical data. As so many other examples, also this story pays witness to the influence of the Syriac Christian tradition on Koran and Muslim Traditions.

Download or read book The Practical Christology of Philoxenos of Mabbug written by David Allen Michelson and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2014 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines doctrinal conflicts concerning the dual nature of Christ in the period after the Council of Chalcedon by considering the life and works of Philoxenos of Mabbug (c.440-523), a Syriac theologian whose surviving corpus amounts to some 500,000 words.

Download or read book The Library of Paradise written by David A. Michelson and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2023-01-13 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contemplative reading is a spiritual practice developed by Christian monks in sixth- and seventh-century Mesopotamia. Mystics belonging to the Church of the East pursued a form of contemplation which moved from reading, to meditation, to prayer, to the ecstasy of divine vision. The Library of Paradise tells the story of this Syriac tradition in three phases: its establishment as an ascetic practice, the articulation of its theology, and its maturation and spread. The sixth-century monastic reform of Abraham of Kashkar codified the essential place of reading in East Syrian ascetic life. Once established, the practice of contemplative reading received extensive theological commentary. Abraham's successor Babai the Great drew upon the ascetic system of Evagrius of Pontus to explain the relationship of reading to the monk's pursuit of God. Syriac monastic handbooks of the seventh century built on this Evagrian framework. 'Enanisho' of Adiabene composed an anthology called Paradise that would stand for centuries as essential reading matter for Syriac monks. Dadisho' of Qatar wrote a widely copied commentary on the Paradise. Together, these works circulated as a one-volume library which offered readers a door to "Paradise" through contemplation. The Library of Paradise is the first book-length study of East Syrian contemplative reading. It adapts methodological insights from prior scholarship on reading, including studies on Latin lectio divina. By tracing the origins of East Syrian contemplative reading, this study opens the possibility for future investigation into its legacies, including the tradition's long reception history in Sogdian, Arabic, and Ethiopic monastic libraries.

Download or read book The Imam of the Christians written by Philip Wood and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2021-04-20 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lay Elites under Arab Rule -- Patriarchs and Bishops -- Tithes, Authority and Hierarchy -- Changing Centres of Power : Harran, Kakushta and Cyrrhus -- Takrit and Mosul : the Jacobite east -- World Views and Communal Boundaries -- Dionysius and al-Maʼmun -- Patriarchate and Imamate : Dionysius' Use of Muslim Political Thought -- Conceptions of Suryaya Identity.

Download or read book The Syriac World written by Daniel King and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-12-12 with total page 1064 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume surveys the 'Syriac world', the culture that grew up among the Syriac-speaking communities from the second century CE and which continues to exist and flourish today, both in its original homeland of Syria and Mesopotamia, and in the worldwide diaspora of Syriac-speaking communities. The five sections examine the religion; the material, visual, and literary cultures; the history and social structures of this diverse community; and Syriac interactions with their neighbours ancient and modern. There are also detailed appendices detailing the patriarchs of the different Syriac denominations, and another appendix listing useful online resources for students. The Syriac World offers the first complete survey of Syriac culture and fills a significant gap in modern scholarship. This volume will be an invaluable resource to undergraduate and postgraduate students of Syriac and Middle Eastern culture from antiquity to the modern era. Chapter 26 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

Download or read book Religious Polemics in Context written by Theo Hettema and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2021-10-11 with total page 623 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Studies in Theology and Religion,11 Polemics, as “the art or practice of disputation or controversy”, is a living issue in matters of religion, and is a major object of research for scholars in religious studies and theology. The second international conference of the Leiden Institute for the Study of Religions (LISOR), held at Leiden in April 2000, was devoted to the subject of Religious Polemics in Context, aiming at a further exploration of the notion of religious polemics, together with the unfolding of a wide variety of case-studies from various religious traditions. The volume contains most of the papers read at the conference, and offers contributions on general issues (e.g., by M. Dascal), as well as on particular topics in the fields of history of religion (e.g., Islam), ancient Israel and early Christianity, the history of Christianity, and the social sciences of religion. An annotated bibliography is added to this collection, which may stimulate a further study of the topic.

Download or read book Money Power and Politics in Early Islamic Syria written by John Haldon and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-04-22 with total page 383 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The transformation of the eastern provinces of the Roman empire from the middle of the seventh century CE under the impact of Islam has attracted a good deal of scholarly attention in recent years, and as more archaeological material becomes available, has been subject to revision and rethinking in ways that radically affect what we know or understand about the area, about state-building and the economy and society of the early Islamic world, and about issues such as urbanisation, town-country relations, the ways in which a different religious culture impacted on the built environment, and about politics. This volume represents the fruits of a workshop held at Princeton University in May 2007 to discuss the ways in which recent work has affected our understanding of the nature of economic and exchange activity in particular, and the broader implications of these advances for the history of the region.

Download or read book Entre m moire et pouvoir written by Antoine Borrut and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2010-11-11 with total page 568 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cet ouvrage entend démontrer qu’une solide culture de l’écriture de l’histoire existait dans la Syrie du 2e/8e siècle, et propose de nouvelles approches méthodologiques afin d’offrir un accès vers cette historiographie perdue, tiraillée entre mémoire et oubli. En étudiant la fabrique des héros omeyyades ou des mythes d’origines abbassides, cette étude s’efforce de mettre au jour les significations successives données à l’histoire syrienne, et d’identifier les différentes strates d’écritures et de réécritures de l’histoire au cours des premiers siècles de l’islam. L’ensemble de ces éléments conduit à proposer une histoire du sens de l’espace syrien, articulée autour de la thématique du pouvoir, qui donne une profonde cohérence à la période, par-delà la césure dynastique de 132/750. This book intends to demonstrate that a robust culture of historical writing existed in 2nd/8th century Syria, and to offer new methodological approaches to access this now lost history, torn between memory and oblivion. By studying the making of Umayyad heroes or Abbasid origins-myths, this study aims to reveal the successive meanings granted to Syrian history, and to identify the various layers of historical writing and rewriting during the first centuries of Islam. Taken together, these elements make possible a history of the meaning of the very space of Syria, articulated around power and its expression, which grants a clear coherence to the period, extending well beyond the dynastic caesura of 132/750.