This volume presents the original text, accompanied by an English translation and commentary, of ... more This volume presents the original text, accompanied by an English translation and commentary, of a hitherto unpublished Syriac composition, entitled the Marvels Found in the Great Cities and in the Seas and on the Islands. Produced by an unknown East Syrian Christian author during the late medieval or early modern period, this work offers a loosely organized catalogue of marvellous events, phenomena, and objects, natural as well as human-made, found throughout the world. The Marvels is a unique composition in that it bears witness to the creative adoption by Syriac Christians of the paradoxographical literary mode of ‘aǧā’ib that enjoyed great popularity among their Arabic- and Persian-speaking Muslim neighbours. In this composition, the East Syrian author blends together a number of different paradoxographical traditions: some inherited from the earlier Christian works in Syriac, such as the Alexander Romance, some borrowed directly or indirectly from Muslim geographical and other works, and some, apparently, circulating as a part of local oral lore. Combining entertainment and didacticism, he provides his audience with a fascinating panorama of imaginary geography, which at the same time has unmistakable Christian features.
Chapters gathered in Syriac Hagiography: Texts and Beyond explore a wide range of Syriac hagiogra... more Chapters gathered in Syriac Hagiography: Texts and Beyond explore a wide range of Syriac hagiographical works, while following two complementary methodological approaches, i.e. literary and cultic, or formal and functional. Grouped into three main sections, these contributions reflect three interrelated ways in which we can read Syriac hagiography and further grasp its characteristics: “Texts as Literature” seeks to unfold the mechanisms of their literary composition; “Saints Textualized” offers a different perspective on the role played by hagiographical texts in the invention and/or maintenance of the cult of a particular saint or group of saints; “Beyond the Texts” presents cases in which the historical reality behind the nexus of hagiographical texts and veneration of saints can be observed in greater details.
A part of our database material is now available for consultation. Please, visit our website and ... more A part of our database material is now available for consultation. Please, visit our website and use the database!
This article contains the unpublished Syriac text of the Story of the Dog Who Talked. Put down in... more This article contains the unpublished Syriac text of the Story of the Dog Who Talked. Put down in writing by the West Syrian monk ʿAzīz bar Ṣlīḇā bar Bassūs in the year 1503, the Story is, arguably, the earliest datable specimen of the fairy tale genre of folklore attested in the Syriac language. The text of the Story, published on the basis of manuscript Mardin, Church of the Forty Martyrs, 350, is accompanied by an English translation and discussion.
This essay focuses on one particular aspect of Jewish-Christian relations during the Sasanian per... more This essay focuses on one particular aspect of Jewish-Christian relations during the Sasanian period, namely various types of interaction between the two religious groups in the domain of magic. For that purpose, two distinctive bodies of textual evidence are examined: hagiographical literature produced by Syriac Christians, and Aramaic magic bowls, Jewish as well as Christian. Illuminating and complementing each other, the two corpora shed light on the dual dynamics of competition and cooperation between Jews and Christians in the field of popular religion.
This volume presents the original text, accompanied by an English translation and commentary, of ... more This volume presents the original text, accompanied by an English translation and commentary, of a hitherto unpublished Syriac composition, entitled the Marvels Found in the Great Cities and in the Seas and on the Islands. Produced by an unknown East Syrian Christian author during the late medieval or early modern period, this work offers a loosely organized catalogue of marvellous events, phenomena, and objects, natural as well as human-made, found throughout the world. The Marvels is a unique composition in that it bears witness to the creative adoption by Syriac Christians of the paradoxographical literary mode of ‘aǧā’ib that enjoyed great popularity among their Arabic- and Persian-speaking Muslim neighbours. In this composition, the East Syrian author blends together a number of different paradoxographical traditions: some inherited from the earlier Christian works in Syriac, such as the Alexander Romance, some borrowed directly or indirectly from Muslim geographical and other works, and some, apparently, circulating as a part of local oral lore. Combining entertainment and didacticism, he provides his audience with a fascinating panorama of imaginary geography, which at the same time has unmistakable Christian features.
Chapters gathered in Syriac Hagiography: Texts and Beyond explore a wide range of Syriac hagiogra... more Chapters gathered in Syriac Hagiography: Texts and Beyond explore a wide range of Syriac hagiographical works, while following two complementary methodological approaches, i.e. literary and cultic, or formal and functional. Grouped into three main sections, these contributions reflect three interrelated ways in which we can read Syriac hagiography and further grasp its characteristics: “Texts as Literature” seeks to unfold the mechanisms of their literary composition; “Saints Textualized” offers a different perspective on the role played by hagiographical texts in the invention and/or maintenance of the cult of a particular saint or group of saints; “Beyond the Texts” presents cases in which the historical reality behind the nexus of hagiographical texts and veneration of saints can be observed in greater details.
A part of our database material is now available for consultation. Please, visit our website and ... more A part of our database material is now available for consultation. Please, visit our website and use the database!
This article contains the unpublished Syriac text of the Story of the Dog Who Talked. Put down in... more This article contains the unpublished Syriac text of the Story of the Dog Who Talked. Put down in writing by the West Syrian monk ʿAzīz bar Ṣlīḇā bar Bassūs in the year 1503, the Story is, arguably, the earliest datable specimen of the fairy tale genre of folklore attested in the Syriac language. The text of the Story, published on the basis of manuscript Mardin, Church of the Forty Martyrs, 350, is accompanied by an English translation and discussion.
This essay focuses on one particular aspect of Jewish-Christian relations during the Sasanian per... more This essay focuses on one particular aspect of Jewish-Christian relations during the Sasanian period, namely various types of interaction between the two religious groups in the domain of magic. For that purpose, two distinctive bodies of textual evidence are examined: hagiographical literature produced by Syriac Christians, and Aramaic magic bowls, Jewish as well as Christian. Illuminating and complementing each other, the two corpora shed light on the dual dynamics of competition and cooperation between Jews and Christians in the field of popular religion.
This article contains the original unpublished Syriac text of the Story of the Holy Friday, an an... more This article contains the original unpublished Syriac text of the Story of the Holy Friday, an anonymous hagiographic composition that promotes an idiosyncratic form of Friday veneration, which demands that Christians refrain from work on that day completely. The text of the Story, published on the basis of manuscript Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, syr. 234, is accompanied with an English translation and discussion of its unusual message, possibly related to the early period of Muslim-Christian relations in the Near East.
(Texts and Studies in Eastern Christianity; XXI), Postscript by Hartmut Leppin., 2021
The studies composing this book are written by twenty nine scholars from USA, Switzerland, Sweden... more The studies composing this book are written by twenty nine scholars from USA, Switzerland, Sweden, Russia, Netherlands, Italy, Israel, Great Britain, Germany, France, Belgium and Armenia. They explore the transmission of apocrypha in Ethiopia, Egypt, the Holy Land, Syria, Iran, Armenia, Asia Minor, the Balkans, the Slavic world and Italy. Frequently rejected by Churches, apocryphal texts and legends had their own process of development, often becoming a medium of literary, artistic and ritual elaboration. Apocrypha also inspired esoteric thinking. Kindred apocryphal themes can be observed in Judaism since Late Antiquity. The book investigates the common roots of such traditions, as well as the interactions of Judaism and Christianity with Mystery cults and with the religions of Iran. Dissenting groups, such as the Samaritans, the followers of John the Baptist and the mediæval dualists, are also considered. Local adaptations of Biblical stories reveal the interests of the narrators, the painters and their intended audiences, which often conceived of themselves as living not in a post-Biblical era, but in direct continuity with Biblical heroes.
Reviews: P. Lanfranchi, in Rivista di Storia e Letteratura Religiosa 58/1 (2022), 139-42; M.H. Sellew, in Church History. Studies in Christianity and Culture 92/2 (2023), 417-19; Network for the Study of Esotericism in Antiquity (17.06.2021).
The series consists of monographs, collected volumes, as well as original texts and translations ... more The series consists of monographs, collected volumes, as well as original texts and translations of sources whose primary focus is contact or ongoing interactions between Eastern Christian communities from the age of Patristics down to the late Ottoman Empire. The series will focus on Syriac, Armenian, Georgian, Arabic, Coptic, Nubian and Ethiopic Christians. Contacts between these communities are severely understudied in favour of their interactions with the Greek and Latin churches, which are frequently presented in terms of influence and reception within a Roman-or Constantinople-centered perspective. Yet, throughout centuries Eastern Christian communities enriched each other through multi-layered interactions that could also be a result of their opposition to these so-called imperial (in the case of Eastern Roman) and centralized (in the case of the Catholic) churches. Furthermore, academic publications on Eastern Christianities often address each highly sophisticated and specialized field with a small audience of scholars separately, rather than in conversation with each other. This new series, on the one hand, will take us beyond both Byzantino-centric paradigms, serving as a corrective to any binary and limited views and, on the other, will emphasise the existence of polycentric Christianities in ongoing and centuries-long interactions with each other. The publications should explore evidence for entanglements in terms of literary contacts, such as in hagiographical and polemical texts, translations between and among the relevant languages, circulation of texts, topoi, themes and/or persons across languages, as well as aspects of material culture, such as artistic and architectural exchanges or archeological evidence. The series, thus, will fill a gap in targeting and encouraging publications in an innovative field of research, which is not covered by any available academic series. Method of peer review Double-blind undertaken by a specialist member of the Board or an external specialist.
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Reviews: P. Lanfranchi, in Rivista di Storia e Letteratura Religiosa 58/1 (2022), 139-42; M.H. Sellew, in Church History. Studies in Christianity and Culture 92/2 (2023), 417-19; Network for the Study of Esotericism in Antiquity (17.06.2021).