Norman McLean

“ It is mainly as an historian that Bar-Hebraeus interests the modern student. His great historical work—the Syriac Chronicle—is made up of three parts. The first [1] is a history of secular events from the Creation to his own time, and in its later portions gives valuable information regarding the history of south-east Europe and western Asia. A compendium in Arabic of this secular history was made by Bar-Hebraeus under the title al-Mukhtaṣar fi ʽd–Duwal (Compendious History of the Dynasties) . ”

“ An anti-patriarch had been appointed in the person of Abraham of Ḳartamīn, who insisted on the use of the phrase in opposition to the recognized authorities of the church. The council of bishops who met at Raḳḳa in the summer of 818 to choose a successor to Cyriacus had great difficulty in finding a worthy occupant of the patriarchal chair, but finally agreed on the election of Dionysius, hitherto known only as an honest monk who devoted himself to historical studies. ”

“ His two main theses which they attacked were (1) the limited duration of the future punishment of sinners, (2) the pantheistic doctrine that “all nature is consubstantial with the Divine essence—”that the whole universe has emanated from God, and will in the end return to and be absorbed in him. ”

“ The homilies of Aphraates are intended to form, as Professor Burkitt has shown, “a full and ordered exposition of the Christian faith.” The standpoint is that of the Syriac-speaking church, before it was touched by the Arian controversy. Beginning with faith as the foundation, the writer proceeds to build up the structure of doctrine and duty. The first ten homilies, which form one division completed in 337, are without polemical reference ”

“ The son of a physician of Jewish descent, Bar-Hebraeus was born in 1226 at Malaṭiah on the upper Euphrates. His youth was passed in the troublous times of the Mongol advance into western Asia, and his father eventually retired to Antioch, where Bar-Hebraeus completed his education. ”

“ It gives a detailed history of the great monastery of Beth ʽĀbhē during its three centuries of existence down to the author’s time. It is full of interesting narratives of saintly men told in a naïve and candid spirit, and it throws much light on the history of Christianity in the Persian dominions. ”

“ DIONYSIUS TELMAHARENSIS (“of Tell-Maḥrē”) , patriarch or supreme head of the Syrian Jacobite Church during the years 818–848, was born at Tell-Maḥrē near Raḳḳa (ar-Raḳḳah) on the Balīkh. He was the author of an important historical work, which has seemingly perished except for some passages quoted by Barhebraeus and an extract found by Assemani in Cod. ”

“ But his greatest title to fame was furnished by his hymns, which, according to St Ephrem, numbered 150 and were composed in imitation of the Davidic psalter. He thus became the father of Syriac hymnology, and from the favour enjoyed by his poems during the century and a half that intervened between him and St Ephrem we may conclude that he possessed original poetic genius. ”

“ The work owes its preservation to having been incorporated in the third part of the history of pseudo-Dionysius of Tell-Maḥrē, and may probably have had a place in the second part of the Ecclesiastical History of John of Asia, from whom (as Nau has shown) pseudo-Dionysius copied all or most of the matter contained in his third part. The chronicle in question is anonymous, and Nau has shown that the note of a copyist, which was thought to assign it to the monk Joshua of Zuḳnīn near Āmid, more probably refers to the compiler of the whole work in which it was incorporated. ”

“ Of his originality it is hard to judge, as he does not usually indicate in detail the sources of his arguments and interpretations. He does not, however, claim for himself to be more than a compiler, at least in his commentaries. ”

“ Kĕthābhā dhĕ-Ṣemḥē (Book of Ravs) , a treatise on grammar; (6) ethical works; (7) poems; (8) Kĕthābhā dhĕ-Thunnāyē Mĕghaḥḥĕkhānē (Book of Entertaining Stories) , edited and translated by E. A. W. Budge (London, 1897) . ”

“ Anyhow the author was an eyewitness of many of the events which he describes, and must have been living at Edessa during the years when it suffered so severely from the Persian War. His view of events is everywhere characterized by his belief in overruling Providence ”

“ On the other hand, he is full of cumbrous repetition, he lacks precision in argument and is prone to digression, his quotations from Scripture are often inappropriate, and he is greatly influenced by Jewish exegesis. He is particularly fond of arguments about numbers. ”