Gorgias Handbooks

This a Syriac reader for the Gospels. It guides the reader through the Syriac Peshitta Gospels, glossing the uncommon words and parsing difficult word forms.

This is the first Syriac reader for the New Testament. It guides the reader through the Syriac New Testament Peshitta, glossing the uncommon words and parsing difficult word forms.

Lexical Aids to the Syriac New Testament provides an essential tool to students of Syriac. A frequency-based glossary guides the student through the text of the Syriac New Testament’s most significant terms. In addition, verbal paradigms demystify the language’s structure, fostering a deeper understanding. The volume includes: Frequency-based glossary of common words, proper nouns, and Greek loan-words; Lists of consonantal homographs; Verbs arranged by paradigm and nouns arranged by stem; Words arranged by Part of Speech; Words arranged by root; Hebrew and Arabic cognate lists; List of compound words. Lexical Aids to the Syriac New Testament is an essential tool for students of Syriac, especially of the New Testament Peshitta.

The Fourth Revised Edition of George A. Kiraz's Syriac Primer.

An Arabic translation of George Anton Kiraz's 'The Syriac Orthodox in North America (1895–1995)' – a short history of the Syriac Orthodox community in North America between 1895, the year of the First Sayfo that triggered the first wave of immigration to North America, and 1995, marking the passing away of Metropolitan Mor Athanasius Yeshue Samuel, the first and only Archbishop of the Syriac Orthodox Archdiocese of the United States and Canada.

The dot is used for everything in Syriac from tense to gender, number, and pronunciation, and unsurprisingly represents one of the biggest obstacles to learning the language. In this Arabic-language edition of his book, Dr. Kiraz peels back the evolution of the dot layer by layer to explain each of its uses in detail and to show how it adopted the wide range of uses it has today.

The purpose of this modest volume is to aid beginning students of Syriac in acquiring facility in reading the language. It contains thirty stories taken from the Book of Entertaining Stories of Gregory Bar ʿEbrāyā (1226–1286 AD). Each story includes an analysis of its grammar and vocabulary. There is also a discussion of cognates to the Syriac vocabulary in Arabic and Hebrew.

The Tale of Peter Rabbit in Classical Syriac is a retelling of Beatrix Potter’s classic tale for students of Classical Syriac as well as heritage readership. The vocabulary and expressions woven by George Kiraz draw not only on the language of the Peshitta Bible, but also on the language used in other texts, especially tales and colophons. Partially vocalized, the text aims to be readable to students of the language after completing a semester at the university level.

This is not a conventional history book. It is rather a study of the sociology of historical writing about a period that, although quite distant in time (330 B.C. to A.D. 670), still influences political discourse about the Arab world, and especially the relationship between the West and the Middle East. This book focuses on the riddle of the disappearance of the Arabs from history before Islam, their sudden appearance behind the banners of the Prophet, and the powerful and traumatic effect this emergence into world history has had on the relationship between the Arabs and the West. Although the mainstream Western historical narrative does not see the Arabs before Islam as a political or cultural force, or even as members of a defined cultural unit, Arab historians and more traditional Western sources do permit a rather different picture once misguiding or obscuring labels have been removed. In this study, Arabia and the Arabs appear as a region and people that enjoyed considerable linguistic, cultural, religious, and political unity centuries before Islam. The appearance of the Prophet was, from this perspective, the culmination of a historical process that had already been long underway – perhaps delayed by Roman interference in the East and the establishment of the Roman diocese of Oriens, but also reinforced by Hellenistic-Roman culture and religious thought. In this scenario, the rise of Islam is in no way surprising or in need of explanation as a retrospective forgery, as the revisionist school would have it.

The Eastern Church venerates among its saints several Early Christian women whose teaching and wisdom contribute to the depth of our theological heritage. Their inspired voices can be heard at work witnessing: in the New Testament, in the early centuries of the Church Fathers and throughout the Byzantine era. Readers will find this volume bringing female leaders from the Early Church to life from the traditional ancient sources and sharing their experience of the presence of God. Their remembered advice to followers still illuminates issues of faith and justice which bind us together as Christians today.

The British Library possesses one of the most important collections of Syriac manuscripts in the world, with large numbers dating back to the second half of the first millennium CE. The publication of important Syriac texts from these manuscripts has been going on for some 180 years and still continues. The aim of the present volume is to provide a guide to these scattered publications: following the sequence of the shelf-marks (call numbers), for each manuscript indication is given of what texts have been published from it. For convenience, a concordance between Wright’s Catalogue numbers and shelf-marks is provided, along with a list of palimpsests and of joins with manuscripts in other libraries, in particular with those still in the Library of Dayr al-Surian in Egypt, the monastery which was the source of over 500 manuscripts and fragments purchased by the British Museum in the mid nineteenth century.

This book deals with various linguistic elements of Gǝʿǝz (Classical Ethiopic). More than two hundred and thirty-four linguistic elements are discussed, categorized into seven lexical categories: Adverbs, conjunctions, prepositions, relative pronouns, interrogative pronouns, interjections, and particles. Dealing with their etymologies, meanings and grammatical functions is the particular focus of the work. To make the study clearer and easier to understand, appropriate examples and relevant textual sources are given for each theory or analysis.

The colophon, the ultimate or “crowing touch” paragraphs of a manuscript or a book, provides readers with a the historical context in which the scribe produced the manuscript (or the publisher, a book). At its most fundamental level, the colophon gives us the “metadata” of the manuscript: who was the scribe? When and where was the manuscript produced? For whom was it produced and who paid for it? But colophons are far more rich. They are literary works in their own right, having a style and rhetoric independent of the main literary text of the manuscript. Some are assertive, providing contextual data about the scribe/publisher and manuscript/book; others are expressive, demonstrating the scribe’s feelings and wishes. Some are directive, asking the reader for an action; others declarative, providing all sorts of statements about the scribe/publisher or even the reader. The latter sometimes provide historical facts otherwise lost to histories: wars, earthquakes, religious events, legal agreements, etc. This edited volume brings together scholars from various disciplines to study colophons in various languages and traditions across space and time.

A Spanish translation of George Kiraz's popular New Syriac Primer. This fruitful integration of scholarly introduction and practical application provides a primer that is more than a simple grammar or syntactic introduction to the language. Written in a style designed for beginners, Kiraz avoids technical language and strives for a reader-friendly inductive approach.

The study of medieval Christian Arabic texts interacting with Islam is a steadily growing scholarly field. Numerous unedited Christian Arabic texts, covering a variety of fascinating topics, await deeper analysis and study. How did early Arabic-speaking Christians respond to the Islamic claims against the Bible, the Trinity, and the incarnation? How did these Christians view Islam, Muḥammad, and the Qur’ān? How did these theologians employ Arabic to defend their faith and its tenets? To what extent were Christians able to advance the Christian belief of a Triune God in opposition to the Islamic view of strict monotheism? Can today’s Church, particularly in the West, benefit in any way from the earliest arguments articulated, developed, and advanced by these medieval Arabic-speaking Christians? These questions, and many more, are at the heart of this important volume. This volume examines nine key medieval Arabic-speaking Christian figures. It discusses their responses to Islamic criticisms, aiming to provide interested students—both undergraduate and graduate—with an accessible resource that includes historical background for each figure, major arguments they posed, and partial translations of their works. This volume is decidedly easy to read. It aims to provide an entry point for students interested in the history of Christian-Muslim encounters and in Middle Eastern Christianity more generally. Our hope is that the reading of this book will make some of the most important voices of medieval Arabic-speaking Christianity—and their contributions to the Christian-Muslim theological encounter—more easily and widely accessible in the English-speaking university context.

Zaydism, a branch of Shiʿi Islam dating to the eighth century CE, has historic roots in the Northern Highlands of Yemen and the Caspian regions of Northern Iran, and its literary tradition is among the richest within Islamic civilization. The most significant and by far largest collections of Zaydi manuscripts are housed by the many public and private libraries of Yemen, an endangered cultural heritage tradition, currently at risk due to the conflict and warfare in Yemen. Of great importance are also holdings of Yemeni manuscripts that are kept elsewhere. In view of the poor state of scholarship in the area of Zaydi studies, the challenges that result from the significant dispersal of the material are manifold. Yemeni Manuscript Cultures in Peril contributes to the history of books and libraries and their role in the scholastic culture in Yemen, past and present. The contributions brought together in this volume address a wide spectrum of aspects concerning Yemeni manuscript cultures, with some focusing on their history and present state within Yemen and others discussing the collections of manuscripts of Yemeni provenance in Europe and elsewhere. Contributions from Hassan Ansari, Stefanie Brinkmann, Gabriele vom Bruck, Bernard Haykel, Brinkley Messick, Christoph Rauch, Anne Regourd, Valentina Sagaria Rossi, Karin Scheper, Sabine Schmidtke, Jan Thiele, Daniel Martin Varisco, Arnoud Vrolijk, and Zayd al-Wazir.

When Beatrix Potter wrote The Tale of Peter Rabbit at the turn of the twentieth century, a Koine Greek translation of her work would never have crossed her mind. Almost no one writes anything, especially works of fiction, in the language of the New Testament anymore. Almost no one has for centuries. This is why students of Koine Greek are largely limited in their selection of reading material to the New Testament, Septuagint, and Apostolic Fathers. But wouldn’t it be nice if Greek students could immerse themselves more fully in the language? If students had access to a wide variety of reading materials, ancient and modern, they would have even more opportunities to read and learn how the language works. They might even read for pleasure. Beatrix Potter would surely have supported such an enterprise. Because of our purpose and intended audience, this translation is written in Koine style and only uses vocabulary found in the Greek New Testament and Septuagint (including the Apocrypha). Because students of biblical Greek typically learn all the words that appear in the New Testament fifty times and more, translational glosses for all words appearing fifty times and fewer are included at the bottom of each page. English equivalents for proper names are only given at their first occurrence in the book. We have also included an English translation of the Greek text in the back of the book.

This is a basic introduction to the various Syriac translations of the Bible and the ways in which they were used in the Syriac tradition. This new edition has been brought up to date and the bibliography expanded. An initial overview of the Syriac Bible is offered, along with an exploration of how the Bible comes down to us, and problems of biblical translation in general. The different surviving Syriac translations are outlined, as well as biblical manuscripts, lectionaires, printed editions, and translations. A reception history of the Syriac Bible covers the ways in which it has been interpreted, the commentary tradition, its use in preaching, in liturgy, and in spirituality. An appendix offers some comparative samples (in translation) to illustrate some of the differences between the different Syriac translations. Sebastian Brock was born in 1938 and studied Classics (Greek and Latin) and Oriental Studies (Hebrew and Aramaic) at Cambridge University before doing a DPhil. at Oxford University on the text of the Septuagint. He has taught at the Universities of Birmingham, Cambridge, and (from 1974 until his retirement in 2003) Oxford, where he was Reader in Syriac Studies. He has published extensively in the field of Syriac and has edited a number of new texts.

What we know in European literature as One Thousand and One Nights was born as a transnational text 300 years ago. In the exact same manner, the ‘original’ tales of those early translations were born prior to the ninth century in Baghdad, by collecting and incorporating earlier tales from other cultures and literary traditions and elaborating them while appropriating them into the local culture at the same time. At times, these tales are transformations of other, earlier tales, and at times, they have striking parallels with other and later tales, which clearly demonstrates how entangled the literary world is in the past and in present times. This volume deals with One Thousand and One Nights in yet another and novel way, bringing old and new together by exploring parallels and possible origins of its tales, as well as the wealth of modern and contemporary material that it has originated and continues to inspire. The chapters included bridge any borders imposed by time and space as well as genre, and – most of all – language. They address the theory and practice of the adaptation and appropriation of One Thousand and One Nights into literature, arts, and media, while approaching a definition of our contemporary knowledge and understanding of the Nights. Thus, it underlines the dynamic nature and autonomous life that the tale collection acquired and contributes to analyzing its role in Middle Eastern narrative culture as well as its influence on world literature on one hand, and its colourful manifestations in the performing arts on the other.

Based on Sabar's 2002 Jewish Neo-Aramaic dictionary, this dictionary serves a functional purpose for readers and scholars who would like to know the Neo-Aramaic vocabulary. It does not include grammatical or semantic details but does include the origin of the words, be it native Old Aramaic, and, in the case of loanwords, the original lending language, Arabic, Kurdish, Persian, Turkish, etc.

As part of the Gorgias Handbook Series, this book provides a political and military history of the Sasanian Empire in Late Antiquity (220s to 651 CE). The book takes the form of a narrative, which situates Sasanian Iran as a continental power between Rome and the world of the steppe nomad.

This handbook explores beliefs of ancient Jews and Christians surrounding death and the afterlife through the lens of texts ranging from the Old Testament and New Testament, to Second Temple period and rabbinic literature, to early Christian writings. Figueras further brings together eschatological texts from Iran, Egypt, Greece, and Rome as comparanda, and provides context and bibliography to guide readers in their study of ancient Jewish and Christian views of death and the afterlife.

The Syriac language is one of the classical tongues of early Christian thought, and, as such, garners a lot of interest particularly from theologians, historians, and culturologists. As an Aramaic dialect, it is also of considerable interest to scholars of Semitic languages. This manual is conceived as an academic one and is primarily intended for college and theological academy students; it can also be used as a “self-teaching” grammar book. An introductory course of eight lessons presents the Syriac phonology and script, followed by the basic course of 40 lessons. The book is specifically designed to cover one academic year. Accompanying study materials are available for download.

An English translation of Arman Akopian's comprehensive Introduction to Aramean and Syriac Studies, from the earliest appearances of Arameans in the historical record, through to the modern day.

This Introduction aims to provide basic guidance to important areas of Syriac studies. The relevance of Syriac studies to a variety of other fields is explored. A brief orientation to the history of Syriac literature is offered, and Syriac is set within the context of the other Aramaic dialects. A thorough discussion on important tools (Instrumenta Studiorum) is presented; topics include grammars, dictionaries, the Bible in Syriac, histories of Syriac literature, bibliographical aids and relevant series, periodicals, and encyclopedias. This Introduction should prove useful both for the student beginning Syriac studies and for scholars working in adjacent fields.

The Pocket Dictionary is both a convenient academic resource and a door into the world of Modern Literary Syriac. With 13,000 entries drawn from the major existing works, it is a practical tool for all but the most specialized Classical Syriac texts.

A short guide for studying, editing and translating medieval texts in manuscript form, outlining the technical steps for preparing a medieval manuscript for print: evaluating and describing the manuscript itself (transmission, provenance, and physical description), textual criticism (reconstruction, emendation, authenticity, dating, and authorship), and steps to preparing an edition or translation.

This is the first-ever study of Judeo-Urdu, that is, the Hindi/Urdu language written in Hebrew script. It provides background and an introduction to the Judeo-Urdu corpus, presents nearly two hundred entries from one text — a Hebrew-Judeo-Urdu glossary — and analyzes the orthography, phonology, and morphology of Judeo-Urdu. Comparison is made to standard Hindi and Urdu, from which Judeo-Urdu diverges in many interesting ways.

El Diccionario Gorgias Siriaco-Español, basado en el Gorgias Concise Syriac-English, English-Syriac Dictionary de Brock y Kiraz, ha sido concebido como un recurso académico, concebido tanto para el siriaco clásico como para el siriaco literario moderno. A Concise Syriac-Spanish Dictionary. Based on Brock and Kiraz's 2015 Gorgias Concise Syriac-English, English-Syriac Dictionary, it is designed to be a convenient academic resource for Classical Syriac.

This volume sets out an exposition of the seven key iconic moments of Christian intellectual history that formulate the classical profession of Jesus Christ as the Word of God Incarnate.

As the first two-way Syriac-English/English-Syriac dictionary, the Concise Dictionary is both a convenient academic resource and a door into the world of Modern Literary Syriac. With 13,000 entries drawn from the major existing works, the Syriac-English section is a practical tool for all but the most specialized Classical Syriac texts, while the English-Syriac entries open up new opportunities for scholars to compose their own texts and to participate in modern Syriac usage.

This complete grammar of Code of Hammurabi is formally arranged and can be the basis for learning the rest of Akkadian grammar. Students of Biblical Hebrew or Arabic will find it a most convenient introduction to this sister language. The cuneiform text has been set out in columns opposite a phonetic transcription, thus enabling the comprehensive set of citations illustrating various points of Akkadian grammar to be easily checked within their wider linguistic context. This book, when used in conjunction with the author’s previous book “Hammurabi’s Laws”, makes it possible for a student to learn to read and understand the whole text of Hammurabi’s Stele.

A general introduction to the origin and development of Christianity, from its Jewish background in the land of Israel up to its contribution to the thought and art of medieval Europe.

Moral insights and comments about Tzedakah ("Charity") are found throughout the vast body of rabbinic literature. This book attempts to present a survey of the rabbinic sources concerning Tzedakah and to provide the reader with an analysis of the system of Tzedakah as created and understood by the Rabbis.

This book is intended to provide a quick introductory overview of the Tiberian Masoretic tradition of the Hebrew Bible and its background. It was this tradition that produced the great Masoretic codices of the Middle Ages, which form the basis of modern printed editions of the Hebrew Bible. Particular prominence is given to the multi-layered nature of the Masoretic tradition. The volume contains a section describing the Tiberian reading tradition, which is essential for a correct understanding of the vocalization system.

A truly useful introduction to the Syriac language is a rare find. This practical initiation to the study of this ancient language of the Christian church speaks with clarity and authority. A fruitful integration of scholarly introduction and practical application, this primer is more than a simple grammar or syntactic introduction to the language. Written in a style designed for beginners, Kiraz avoids technical language and strives for a reader-friendly inductive approach. Readings from actual Syriac texts allow the student to experience the language first hand and the basics of the grammar of the language are ably explained. The book comes with downloadable material so that readers may listen to all reading sentences and text passages in the book.

Too many incoming students are fluent in English but unable to discuss the language grammatically. Introductory language courses and textbooks often assume a proficiency and familiarity with grammatical terms that is not possessed by the students. This guide delivers an understanding of English grammar starting from simple concepts and presupposing no background or vocabulary. This book is designed as a textbook and a reference for students beginning a New Testament Greek, Biblical Hebrew, Aramaic or Latin course.

This volume provides an introduction and engagement with the major critical issues in the study of Luke-Acts. As the study of Acts has become, once again, one of the major areas of focus within New Testament scholarship, this collection of essays presents an orientation to the major issues of Luke-Acts study, while providing fresh scholarship by senior scholars. This holistic overture addresses fundamental questions such as authorship, dating, textual concerns, sources, speeches and literary form(s).

This volume contains the contents of George Kiraz’s catalogue of over 1300 people and places related to the Syriac tradition, expanded to include Latin names and citations as well as references to the Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage.

This volume introduces the letters of the Syriac alphabet a few at the time, and each set of letters is accompanied by guides to pronunciation and the correct way to write the letters, including helpful charts and illustrations. Practice exercises at the end of each section provide the user with copious opportunities for review to facilitate rapid acquisition. This volume will be helpful to all who want to learn the basics of Syriac pronunciation and orthography without being inundated with technical linguistic jargon.

This publication is an index to Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies, Volumes 1–10. It includes indices organized by volume contents, article titles, authors, books reviewed, and subject keywords.

The book is designed for students who wish to learn the principles of Latin phonetics as well as for more advanced students who wish to review or reevaluate these principles in the light of further philological and linguistic evidence. The body of the book comprises an extensive discussion of the various historical changes that went into the making of Latin, analyzing the development of the vocalic and consonantal systems in light of literary and epigraphical sources.

With a written history of nearly five thousand years, the Semitic languages comprise one of the world’s earliest and longest attested families. This volume provides an overview of this important language family, including both ancient and modern languages. After a brief introduction to the history of the family and its internal classification, subsequent chapters cover topics in phonology, morphology, syntax, and lexicon. Each chapter describes features that are characteristic of the Semitic language family as a whole, as well as some of the more extraordinary developments that take place in the individual languages.

St. Francis of Assisi is as popular today as ever before. This book deals with the training St. Francis received in undertaking the life of discipleship to Christ and the training St. Francis gave to others to help them live their vocation as disciples of Christ. St. Francis of Assisi was constantly aware of God's hand being ever operative in his own life. Helping others perceive God's direct and personal intervention in their lives highlights St. Francis' way of training others in Christian discipleship.

The small Assyrian community proved to be loyal, dedicated and hard-working citizens of Australia during the years 1914–1947. For the first time the Assyrian issue will be seen through the eyes of Australian official documents and it is hoped that this monograph will raise awareness of these people within Australia and abroad.

This handbook tabulates the most common verbal paradigms and conjugations. It begins by explaining the various types of verbs and how they differ from each other. Every table is spread over two pages in width. Columns and rows are marked to make easy references.

The Ostraca of the Coptic Museum, written on pottery pieces, limestone flakes and wood, present the lives of ordinary people in their interactions with one another, and includes their economic and personal affairs. This volume is a catalog of the 1,127 ostraca in the museum.

Since the 1850s until the outbreak of World War I, the Dominican Press in Mosul, Iraq, produced scholarly, liturgical, and pedagogical publications to service the local Christian communities. These hard to find publications have now been cataloged in detail by J. F. Coakley and David G. K. Taylor.

Sergius of Reshaina (d. 536), translated the (pseudo-)Aristotelian text known as the De Mundo from Greek into Syriac in the early sixth century. The earlier period of Greek-Syriac translation was characterized by freer versions, while in the seventh century there are very good examples of literalism. Since Sergius worked at a time between these two periods, his translation will be of special interest to Greek and Syriac scholars.

This coursebook is designed for students who have completed at least one year of college study in Biblical Hebrew. It helps students make the transition from the basic grammar books to use of the comprehensive reference grammars and to more advanced analysis of Biblical Hebrew. Constant reference is made to recent works of grammar, and also to the grammatical comments of the medieval Jewish exegetes. A central theme is that medieval and modern Biblical Hebrew scholars have reached essentially similar conclusions, even if the medievals lacked modern terminology

This is a basic introduction to the various Syriac translations of the Bible and the ways in which they were used in the Syriac tradition. After an initial discussion of the general problems of biblical translation, the different surviving Syriac translations are outlined, as well as biblical manuscripts, lectionaires, printed editions, and translations. A reception history of the Syriac Bible covers the ways in which it has been interpreted, the commentary tradition, its use in preaching, in liturgy, and in spirituality. An appendix offers some comparative samples (in translation) to illustrate some of the differences between the different Syriac translations.

Clavis Syriaca furnishes a complete analysis of the text of the Gospels of the Peshitta New Testament and is an excellent study tool for students who wish to study it. The Clavis begins with the Gospel of St. John, as its language is the simplest, and ends with that of St. Luke. It is an indispensable tool for any student of the New Testament or the Syriac language. Words are analyzed according to text placement, translation, grammar, and Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic cognates.

John Healey’s, Leshono Suryoyo, is an introductory grammar for those wishing to learn to read Classical Syriac, one of the major literary dialects of Aramaic and the language of one of the main groups of Middle Eastern churches, including the Syrian Orthodox Church, the Church of the East, and the Chaldaean Church. From the first centuries of the Christian era, Syriac was used by the main theological and historical writers of this tradition (Ephrem the Syrian, Philoxenus of Mabbogh, Thomas of Marga, and Barhebraeus). It also continues to be used in worship.

This introduction to Jerome's Vulgate Old Testament is useful for students with a limited background in Latin. Several familiar and interesting selections are included, such as the stories of Joseph, Moses, David and Goliath, Job, Daniel, and Jonah. The book also contains several Psalms as well as selections from wisdom and prophetic literature.

An anthology of texts of Hispano-Arabic poems of exceptionally high literary quality and cultural significance. The texts are accompanied by literal translations and explanatory notes for the use of students of Arabic and Romance literatures.