John Psaltes was the abbot of

Qenneshre Qenneshre (also ''Qēnneshrē'' or ''Qennešre'', Syriac language, Syriac for "eagle's nest"; Arabic ''Qinnisrī'') was a large Syriac Orthodox Church, West Syriac monastery between the 6th and 13th centuries. It was a centre for the study of anci ...

in the late 6th century. He wrote hymns in

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

that were translated by

Paul of Edessa Paul of Edessa (died 30 October 526) was the Syriac Orthodox bishop of Edessa from 510 until his death with the exception of two periods of exile in 519 and 522–526. Paul was consecrated in 510, succeeding Peter. In the first year of his episco ...

into

Syriac Syriac may refer to: *Syriac language, an ancient dialect of Middle Aramaic *Sureth, one of the modern dialects of Syriac spoken in the Nineveh Plains region * Syriac alphabet ** Syriac (Unicode block) ** Syriac Supplement * Neo-Aramaic languages a ...

, probably while he was on Cyprus in the 620s. The Syriac text was revised in 675 by

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 grammaria ...

. Around 600, John wrote a hymn in honour of the

martyrs of Najran The existence of a Christian community in the city of Najran is attested by several historical sources of the Arabian peninsula, where it recorded as having been created in the 5th century AD or perhaps a century earlier. According to the Arab Musl ...

. He may have relied on the Syriac ''

Book of the Himyarites The ''Book of the Himyarites'' (''Ktābā da-ḥmirāye'') is an anonymous Syriac account of the persecution and martyrdom of the Christian community of Najran in the Kingdom of Himyar around 523 AD and the ensuing Aksumite interventions. It was ...

'', since the hymn's brief introduction gives the name of

Dhū Nuwās Dhū Nuwās, ( ar, ذُو نُوَاس), real name "Yūsuf Asʾar Yathʾar" ( Musnad: 𐩺𐩥𐩪𐩰 𐩱𐩪𐩱𐩧 𐩺𐩻𐩱𐩧, ''Yws¹f ʾs¹ʾr Yṯʾr''), "Yosef Nu'as" ( he, יוסף נואס), or "Yūsuf ibn Sharhabīl" ( ar, يُ� ...

, the persecutor of Najran, as Masrūq, a name otherwise only attested in the ''Book''. The hymn has been translated into English by

Ernest Walter Brooks Ernest Walter Brooks, FBA (30 August 1863 – 26 March 1955) was an English ancient historian and scholar of Syriac. The son of a priest, he was educated at Eton College (as a King's Scholar) and then at King's College, Cambridge, where he read c ...

Notes

Works cited

* * *{{cite book , first=Jack B. , last=Tannous , title=The Making of the Medieval Middle East: Religion, Society, and Simple Believers , year=2018 , publisher=Princeton University Press 5th-century Byzantine monks Syrian Christian monks Oriental Orthodox monks Christian abbots Christian hymnwriters