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Syriac Literature
Syriac literature is literature in the Syriac language. It is a tradition going back to the Late Antiquity. It is strongly associated with Syriac Christianity. Terminology In modern Syriac studies, and also within the wider field of Aramaic studies, the term ''Syriac literature'' is most commonly used as a shortened designation for ''Classical Syriac literature'', that is written in Classical Syriac language, an old literary and liturgical language of Syriac Christianity. It is sometimes also used as a designation for ''Modern Syriac literature'' or ''Neo-Syriac literature'', written in Modern Syriac ( Eastern Neo-Aramaic) languages. In the wider sense, the term is often used as designation for both ''Classical Syriac'' and ''Modern Syriac'' literature, but its historical scope is even wider, since Syrian/Syriac labels were originally used by ancient Greeks as designations for Aramaic language in general, including literature written in all variants of that language. Such plurali ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Estrangela
The Syriac alphabet ( ) is a writing system primarily used to write the Syriac language since the 1st century AD. It is one of the Semitic abjads descending from the Aramaic alphabet through the Palmyrene alphabet, and shares similarities with the Phoenician, Hebrew, Arabic and Sogdian, the precursor and a direct ancestor of the traditional Mongolian scripts. Syriac is written from right to left in horizontal lines. It is a cursive script where most—but not all—letters connect within a word. There is no letter case distinction between upper and lower case letters, though some letters change their form depending on their position within a word. Spaces separate individual words. All 22 letters are consonants, although there are optional diacritic marks to indicate vowels and other features. In addition to the sounds of the language, the letters of the Syriac alphabet can be used to represent numbers in a system similar to Hebrew and Greek numerals. Apart from Classical ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mara Bar Serapion
Mara bar Serapion ( syc, ܡܪܐ ܒܪ ܣܪܦܝܘܢ) was a Syriac Stoic philosopher in the Roman province of Syria. He is only known from a letter he wrote in Syriac to his son, who was named Serapion,''The Cradle, the Cross, and the Crown: An Introduction to the New Testament'' by Andreas J. Köstenberger, L. Scott Kellum 2009 p. 110''Evidence of Greek Philosophical Concepts in the Writings of Ephrem the Syrian'' by Ute Possekel 1999 pp. 29–30 which refers to the execution of "the wise king of the Jews” and may be an early non-Christian reference to Jesus of Nazareth. The letter indicates that Mara's homeland was Samosata, i.e. modern-day Samsat, Turkey (on the west bank of the Euphrates), but his captivity appears to have been in Seleucia, in modern-day Iraq (on the west bank of the Tigris River).''The Cambridge History of Early Christian Literature'' edited by Frances Young, Lewis Ayres, Andrew Louth p. 168 Mara's captivity took place after the AD 72 annexation of Samos ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jacob Of Edessa
Jacob of Edessa (or James of Edessa) ( syr, ܝܥܩܘܒ ܐܘܪܗܝܐ, Yaʿqub Urhoyo) (c. 640 – 5 June 708) was Bishop of Edessa and prominent Syriac Christian writer in Classical Syriac language, also known as one of earliest Syriac grammarians. In various works, he treated theological, liturgical, canonical, philosophical and historical subjects, and contributed significantly to scholarly and literary development of Syriac Christianity. He is considered to be one of the most important scholars of the Christian-Aramean tradition. Life Jacob of Edessa was born in Aindaba (Arabic: عيندابا) at 50 km west of Aleppo, around 640. He studied at the famous monastery of Qenneshre (on the left bank of the Euphrates) and later at Alexandria. On his return from Alexandria he became a monk at Edessa, where he was known for his learning. Ordained a priest in 672, he was appointed List of bishops of Edessa, metropolitan of Edessa by his friend Athanasius II, Patriarch of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Isaac Of Nineveh
Isaac of Nineveh (; Arabic: إسحاق النينوي ''Ishaq an-Naynuwī''; grc-gre, Ἰσαὰκ Σῦρος; c. 613 – c. 700), also remembered as Saint Isaac the Syrian, Abba Isaac, Isaac Syrus and Isaac of Qatar, was a 7th-century Church of the East Syriac Christian bishop and theologian best remembered for his written works on Christian asceticism. He is regarded as a saint in the Assyrian Church of the East, the Catholic churches (Chaldean Catholic, Syro-Malabar Church), and Eastern Orthodox tradition. His feast day falls, together with 4th-century theologian and hymnographer St. Ephrem the Syrian, on January 28. Life He was born in the region of Beth Qatraye in Eastern Arabia, a mixed Syriac and Arabic speaking region encompassing the south east of Mesopotamia and the north eastern Arabian peninsula. When still quite young, he entered a monastery where he devoted his energies towards the practice of asceticism. After many years of studying at the library attached to the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Babai The Great
Babai the Great ( , c. 551 – 628) was an early church father of the Church of the East. He set several of the foundational pillars of the Church, revived the monastic movement, and formulated its Christology in a systematic way. He served as a monastic visitor and coadjutor with Mar Aba as unofficial heads of the Church of the East (often called the "Nestorian Church" by those in the West) after Catholicos Gregory until 628 AD, leaving a legacy of strong discipline and deep religious Orthodoxy. He is revered in the modern Assyrian Church of the East. Biography Babai the Great (not to be confused with Mar Babai I, the first autonomous leader of the Church of the East) was born in Beth Ainata in Beth Zabdai, on the west bank of the Tigris, near Nisibis. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Philoxenus Of Mabbog
Philoxenus of Mabbug (Syriac: , ') (died 523), also known as Xenaias and Philoxenus of Hierapolis, was one of the most notable Syriac prose writers and a vehement champion of Miaphysitism. Early life He was born, probably in the third quarter of the 5th century, at Tahal, a village in the district of Beth Garmaï east of the Tigris. He was thus by birth a subject of Persia, but all his active life of which we have any record was passed in the territory of the Byzantine Empire. His parents were from the Median city of Ecbatana. The statements that he had been a slave and was never baptized appear to be malicious inventions of his theological opponents. He was educated at Edessa, perhaps in the famous "school of the Persians," which was afterwards (in 489) expelled from Edessa on account of its connection with Nestorianism. Background The years which followed the Council of Chalcedon (451) were a stormy period in the Syriac Church. Philoxenus soon attracted notice by his stren ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Narsai
Narsai (sometimes spelt ''Narsay'', ''Narseh'' or ''Narses''; syc, ܢܪܣܝ, ''Narsai'', name derived from Pahlavi ''Narsēh'' from Avestan ''Nairyō.saȵhō'', meaning 'potent utterance', the name of a yazata; ) was one of the foremost of Assyrian poet-theologians, perhaps equal in stature to Jacob of Serugh, both second only to Mar Aprem of Nisibis. He is the most important writer of the East Syriac Christianity after Mar Aprem. Narsai is highly venerated in the Churches that descend from the Church of the East which are the Assyrian Church of the East, the Ancient Church of the East, Chaldean Catholic Church and the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, in which he is known as the 'Flute of the Holy Spirit'. Although many of his works seem to have been lost, around eighty of his mêmrê survive. (), or verse homilies are extant. Life Narsai was born at ‘Ain Dulba () in the district of Ma‘alta () in the Sassanid Empire (today in Dahuk Governorate, Iraq). Being orphaned at ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jacob Of Serugh
Jacob of Sarug ( syr, ܝܥܩܘܒ ܣܪܘܓܝܐ, ''Yaʿquḇ Sruḡāyâ'', ; his toponym is also spelled ''Serug'' or ''Serugh''; la, Iacobus Sarugiensis; 451 – 29 November 521), also called Mar Jacob, was one of the foremost Syriac poet-theologians, perhaps only second in stature to Ephrem the Syrian and equal to Narsai. Where his predecessor Ephrem is known as the 'Harp of the Spirit', Jacob is the 'Flute of the Spirit' in the Antiochene Syriac Christianity. He is best known for his prodigious corpus of more than seven-hundred verse homilies, or ''mêmrê'' ( ), of which only 225 have thus far been edited and published. Life Jacob was born around the middle of the fifth century in the village of Kurtam () on the Euphrates in the ancient region of Serugh, which stood as the eastern part of the province of Commagene (corresponding to the modern Kurdish districts of Suruç and Birecik). He was educated in the famous School of Edessa and became chorepiscopus back in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post- Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterranean Sea in Europe, North Africa, and Western Asia, and was ruled by emperors. From the accession of Caesar Augustus as the first Roman emperor to the military anarchy of the 3rd century, it was a Principate with Italia as the metropole of its provinces and the city of Rome as its sole capital. The Empire was later ruled by multiple emperors who shared control over the Western Roman Empire and the Eastern Roman Empire. The city of Rome remained the nominal capital of both parts until AD 476 when the imperial insignia were sent to Constantinople following the capture of the Western capital of Ravenna by the Germanic barbarians. The adoption of Christianity as the state church of the Roman Empire in AD 380 and the fall of th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hymn
A hymn is a type of song, and partially synonymous with devotional song, specifically written for the purpose of adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification. The word ''hymn'' derives from Greek (''hymnos''), which means "a song of praise". A writer of hymns is known as a hymnist. The singing or composition of hymns is called hymnody. Collections of hymns are known as hymnals or hymn books. Hymns may or may not include instrumental accompaniment. Although most familiar to speakers of English in the context of Christianity, hymns are also a fixture of other world religions, especially on the Indian subcontinent ('' stotras''). Hymns also survive from antiquity, especially from Egyptian and Greek cultures. Some of the oldest surviving examples of notated music are hymns with Greek texts. Origins Ancient Eastern hymns include the Egyptian '' Great Hymn to the Aten'', composed by Pharaoh Akhenaten; the Hu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ephrem The Syrian
Ephrem the Syrian ( syc, ܡܪܝ ܐܦܪܝܡ ܣܘܪܝܝܐ, Mār ʾAp̄rêm Sūryāyā, ; grc-koi, Ἐφραὶμ ὁ Σῦρος, Efrém o Sýros; la, Ephraem Syrus; am, ቅዱስ ኤፍሬም ሶርያዊ; ), also known as Saint Ephrem, Saint Ephraim, Ephrem of Edessa or Aprem of Nisibis, was a prominent Christian theologian and writer, who is revered as one of the most notable hymnographers of Eastern Christianity. He was born in Nisibis, served as a deacon and later lived in Edessa. Ephrem is venerated as a saint by all traditional Churches. He is especially revered in Syriac Christianity, both in East Syriac tradition and West Syriac tradition, and also counted as a Venerable Father (i.e., a sainted Monk) in the Eastern Orthodox Church. He was declared a Doctor of the Church in the Roman Catholic Church in 1920. Ephrem is also credited as the founder of the School of Nisibis, which, in later centuries, was the centre of learning of the Church of the East. Ephre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Persian Empire
The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire (; peo, 𐎧𐏁𐏂, , ), also called the First Persian Empire, was an ancient Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC. Based in Western Asia, it was contemporarily the largest empire in history, spanning a total of from the Balkans and Egypt in the west to Central Asia and the Indus Valley in the east. Around the 7th century BC, the region of Persis in the southwestern portion of the Iranian plateau was settled by the Persians. From Persis, Cyrus rose and defeated the Median Empire as well as Lydia and the Neo-Babylonian Empire, marking the formal establishment of a new imperial polity under the Achaemenid dynasty. In the modern era, the Achaemenid Empire has been recognized for its imposition of a successful model of centralized, bureaucratic administration; its multicultural policy; building complex infrastructure, such as road systems and an organized postal system; the use of official languages acro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
