On The Incoherence of Some Orientalists and Their False Charges Against Our Learned Men and Their Refutation – BIOGRAPHIES OF SYRIAN SCHOLARS AND WRITERS – Mor Ignatius Aphram Barsoum – Translated : By Dr. Matti Moosa
On The Incoherence of Some Orientalists and Their False Charges Against Our Learned Men and Their Refutation Although we recognize the excellence of Orientalists, their industry, effort and adroitness in studying our Syriac sciences and literature as well as the manuscripts which they edited or translated into their living languages, we find it imperative to allude to the incoherence of some of them and their false charges against our learned men or against historical facts connected with our dear country. They were motivated either by pride in their learning and skill, or vanity, or for...
Read MoreSergius of Reshaina as Translator: The Case of the De Mundo / Adam McCollum
Introduction The De Mundo (hereafter DM) occupies somewhat of a unique position in the history of philosophical and scientific transmission from Greek to Syriac and Arabic in that the complete work is extant in all three languages. What is more, there are in fact three separate versions in Arabic,1 not to mention two Armenian translations,2 as well as an early Latin version, the work of Apuleius (c.125-c.180).3 Too often we have only testimonia that this or that text was translated into Syriac or Arabic, but we lack either the original or the translation(s); the DM gives us all this, and then...
Read MoreTHE SYRIAC CHANT TRADITIONS IN SOUTH INDIA / Joseph J. Palackal
The Syriac (Aramaic) liturgy and liturgical chants that originated in the Middle East found their way into South India through immigrant Christians sometime before the fifth century. Continuous contact between the “Syrian Christians” (descendants of Hindu converts and immigrant Christians)1 in India and the Persian Church kept the chant tradition rejuvenated in the subsequent centuries. Due to divisions and varying ecclesiastical allegiances starting from the sixteenth century, there are now two liturgical and three chant traditions among the Syrian Christians. The Syro-Malabar...
Read MoreBAR HEBRAEUS ܒܪ ܥܒܪܝܐ
One of the major motifs of my poetry, is the exploration of the historical evolution, adoption and transformation of elements of Hellenic culture in literary traditions of non-Hellenic areas that have been touched somehow by Greek civilization. For while it is often claimed that ours is the parent of Western civilization, I would argue that in fact it is the Middle Eastern civilizations that are united closer to us in kinship and which have drawn more heavily on the corpus of our tradition, whereas with the West, it is more precise to refer to an adoptive, rather than a sanguinary...
Read More(تاريخ الحضارات السامية ( الحلقة الأولى
تاريخ الحضارات السامية ( الحلقة الأولى ) * : لعل من الضروري القول : انَّ الحضارة ، أية حضارة ، ليست ثمرة جهود فرد ، أو شعب ، أو مجموعة أمم ، بل هي صنع الإنسان في مختلف عصوره القديمة والحديثة والمستقبلية .. يتضافر ويتكافل لخلقها مع أخيه الإنسان للسير والانتقال من حسن إلى أحسن ..وقد تولي أمة ما اهتمامها لناحية حضارية من دون الأخرى ،...
Read MoreSYRIAC SOURCES AND RESOURCES FOR BYZANTINISTS / Sebastian Brock
1 SYRIAC SOURCES AND RESOURCES FOR BYZANTINISTS Sebastian Brock Oriental Institute, Oxford, UK All the Oriental Christian languages have a great deal of interest to offer to the Byzantinist, but of them it is perhaps Syriac which has the most, especially for the early and middle Byzantine periods. It so happens that the last quarter century has witnessed a burgeoning of studies in the general field of Syriac studies.1 The present survey is organised under the following main headings: New developments; Where to find publications; How to find them; Some recently published texts and...
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