Syriac Renaissance

The Syriac Renaissance is a modern scholarly term for a revival of Syriac literary, scholarly, artistic, and ecclesiastical culture, usually dated from the eleventh to the thirteenth centuries. It's breadth resembles an earlier era of Syriac literature, the "Syriac Golden Age", which took place in the 3rd–7th centuries. This Renaissance (not to be confused with the European Renaissance) is often associated with the learned culture of the Syriac Orthodox Church and the Church of the East under Islamic and Mongol rule, especially in northern Mesopotamia, Syria, and adjoining regions. The period is noted for renewed work in Classical Syriac, the compilation and reworking of older traditions, the production of grammars, lexica, major works of historiography, theological and legal treatises, poetry, and the Syriac reception of Arabic and Persian learning.

The term was introduced by Anton Baumstark in his 1922 history of Syriac literature and has remained common, though scholars use it with caution. It is not equivalent to the concept of the European Renaissance, and it does not denote the return to the expression of Syriac literature in late antiquity.