Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 22.djvu/866

 830 SYRIAC LITERATURE CENT.- us in 353 pages only as far as No. 37. x Some of these poems have a certain historical value, such as the second homily on fasting, probably written soon after 420, - the two homilies on the destruction of the town of Beth Hur by the Arabs (c. 457), 8 and the two against persons who resort to soothsayers. 4 Others possess some interest as bearing on the theological views of the author, who combats the errors of Nestorius and Eutyches. 5 One of the longest and most wearisome is a stupendous poem of 2137 verses on a parrot which proclaimed &yio$ 6 0eos in the streets of Antioch. 6 Another on repentance runs to the length of 1929 verses. In prose Isaac seems to have written very little ; at least Bickell 7 mentions only "various questions and answers, an ascetic narrative and ascetic rules." Dadlia. Concerning Isaac's contemporary Dadha we know but little. 8 He was a monk from the neighbourhood of Amid, who was sent by the people of that city to Constantinople on account of the ravages of war and famine, to obtain remission of the taxes or some similar relief, and was well received by the emperor. He is said to have written about three hundred tracts on various topics connected with the Scriptures and on the saints, besides poems (madhrdshe). Simeon Here, too, we may record the name of Simeon the Stylite, who the died in 459 or soon after. 9 The Monophysites contend that he held Stylite. their theological views, and accordingly we find in a MS. of the 8th century a letter of his to the emperor Leo regarding Theodoret of Cyrrhus, who had come to him and tried to pervert him to the opinions of the Dyophysites, 10 and in another MS., of about the same age, three letters to the emperor Leo, to the abbot Jacob of Kaphra Relrima, and to John I., patriarch of Antioch, all tending to prove that he rejected the council of Chalcedon. 11 A third MS., of the 6th century, contains certain " precepts and admonitions " addressed by him to the brethren. 12 There is extant in very old MSS. 13 a Life of Simeon, full of absurd stories, which has been edited by S. E. Assemani in the Acta Sanctorum Martyrum, vol. ii. 268 sq. At the end of it (p. 394) there is a letter by one Cosmas, 14 priest of the village of Pamr, written in the name of his congregation to the Stylite, promising implicit obedience to all his precepts and orders, and requesting his prayers on their behalf ; but there is nothing whatever to show that this Cosmas was the author of the Life or had any share in writing it. 15 Dadh- About this time we find Dadh-Isho', the catholicus of Seleucia isho'. (421-456), 16 composing his commentaries on the books of Daniel, Kings, and Bar-Sira or Ecclesiasticus. 17 But the chief seat of Nes- torian scholarship and literary activity was still the Persian school Bar- of Edessa, where Bar-sauma and other teachers were actively engaged sauma of in defending and propagating their peculiar tenets. Bar-sauma, if Nisibis. we may believe the scurrilous Monophysite Simeon of Beth Arsham, 18 was originally the slave of one Mara of Beth Kardu, 19 and bore at Edessa the nickname of Sake beth Mnaiyd. 20 He was at Edessa in 449, when his expulsion was called for by the rabble. 21 In what year it actually took place we do not know, but we afterwards find him busy in the East under the catholicus Babhoyah or Babuaius (from about 457 to 483) M and his successor Acacius (from about 484 to 496), during which period he was bishop of Nisibis. 23 Of his personal character and work this is not the place to attempt to form a judgment ; but the reader should beware of placing implicit trust in the statements of bitter and unscrupulous theological oppo- nents like Simeon of Beth Arsham, Bar-Hebraus, and Assemani. Bar-sauma does not appear to have written much, as 'Abhd-isho' - 4 mentions only parsenetic and funeral sermons, hymns of the class called turgdme, 2 * metrical homilies (madhrdshe), letters, and an anaphora or liturgy. Narsai. A fellow-worker with him both at Edessa and Nisibis was Narsai (or Narse), of Ma'alle'tha or Ma'althaya, 26 whom Simeon of Beth Arsham calls " the Leper," 27 whereas his co-sectarians style him " the Harp of the Holy Spirit." He was especially famous as a writer of hymns and other metrical compositions, his favourite metre being that of six syllables. 23 He fled from Edessa to escape the wrath of the bishop Cyrus (471-498), probably in the year 489, and died 1 S. Isaaci Antiocheni, Doctor-is Syrorum, Opera Omnia, ed. G. Bickell, part i., 1873 ; part ii., 1877. We hope soon to receive the remaining parts at his hands. 2.B.O.,i. 227; Bickell, i. 280. 3B.O., i. 225 ; Bickell, i. 207, 227. 4 Bickell, ii. 205 sq. 5 See Bickell's translations in Thalhofer's Bibliothek, 44. 6 Bickell, i. 85. 7 Opera, i. p. viii. 8 See Land, Anecd. Syr., Hi. 84. 9 gee Bar-Hebneus, Chron. Eccles., i. 142, 181, and note 2 ; B.O., i. 252, 405. i Wright, Catal., p. 951, No. xxix. U Ibid., p. 986, No. 33. I 2 Ibid., p. 1153, col. 1. 13 E.g., Cod. Vat. clx., tran- scribed 473 ; Brit. Mus. Add. 14484, of the 6th century. 14 B.O., i. 237. 15 Assemani is also mistaken in supposing that the Life was composed at the request of Simeon, the son of Apollonius, and Bar-Hatar (?), the son of Udhan (Uranius?). These are merely the persons who paid for the writing of this portion of Cod. Vat. clx. 18 See Bar-Hebraeus, Chron. Eccles., ii. 57, note 1. 17 B.O., iii. 1, 214. 18 Ibid., i. 351. 19 On the left bank of the Tigris, over against Jazirat Ibn 'Omar. 20 "The Swimmer, or Bather, among the Reeds," meaning " the wild boar. See Hoffmann, Verhandl. d. Kirchenversam. zu Ephesus, &c., p. 91, note 114. 21 Hoffmann, op. cit., p. 14 ; Bar-Hebraeus, Chron. Eccles., ii. 55, note 1. 22 Bar-Hebraeus, Chron. Eccles., ii. 57, note 1. 23 See B.O., iii. 1, 66, note 7, compared with i. 351, note 4, and ii. 407, note 2. I Ibid., iii. 1, 66. 25 gee Badger, The Nestorians, ii. 19. 6 Hoffmann, Ausziige, p. 208 ; Badger, The Nestorians, i. 174. 27 Perhaps in a spiritual sense only, though Assemani thinks otherwise ; see B.O., i. 352 and note 5, 354 ; iii. 1, 63. 28 B.O., iii. 1, 65, note 6. at Nisibis early in the next century. 29 Narsai's works, as enu- merated by 'Abhd-isho', 30 consist of commentaries on the first four books of the Pentateuch, Joshua, Judges, and Ecclesiastes, Isaiah and the twelve minor prophets, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel, twelve volumes of metrical discourses (360 in number), 31 a liturgy, expositions of the order of celebrating the Eucharist and of baptism, parametic and funeral sermons, hymns of several sorts, 3 - and a book entitled On the Corruption of Morals. Marl the Persian has been already mentioned as the correspondent Marl the of Ibas. Besides the commentary on the epistles of Acacius (see Persian, above, p. 829), he wrote a commentary on the book of Daniel and a controversial treatise against the magi 33 of Nisibis. 34 Acacius, catholi- Acacius cus of Seleucia (c. 484-496), composed discourses on fasting and on of Seleu- the faith, as also against the Monophysites, and translated into Per- cia. sian for the king Kawadh a treatise on the faith by Elisha, bishop of Nisibis, the successor of Bar-sauma. 35 Assemani tries hard to cleanse Acacius from the stain of Nestorianism, but, as Abbeloos remarks, 36 " vereor ne ^thiopem dealbare voluerit ; nam omnia turn Jacobitarum turn Nestorianorum monumenta, quse ipse recitat, contrarium testantur." Mikha or Micah, another member of the MIkha. band of exiled Edessenes, 37 became bishop of Lashom. 38 He wrote a commentary on the books of Kings, a discourse on his predecessor Sabhr-isho', another on a person whose name is written Kntropos, 39 and a tract entitled The Five Reasons of the Mautebhe. 40 To these writers may be added two others, Yazldadh, 41 who is also said to Yazidadh- have belonged to the Edessene school and to have compiled "a book of collectanea (lukkdte)," 42 and Ara, who wrote a treatise against the magi or Persian priesthood, and another against the followers of Bardesanes with the contemptuous title of ffabhshosh- ydthd or " the Beetles." 43 The Persian school at Edessa was, as we have already hinted, Trans- the chief seat of the study of Greek during the early days of the lations Syrian literature. Of the most ancient translators we know no- from thing; but the oldest MSS. are Edessene, viz., the famous MS. in the Greek. British Museum, Add. 12150, dated towards the end of 411, and the equally well known codex at St Petersburg, written in 462. The former contains the Rccognitiones of Clement, the discourses of Titus of Bostra against the Manichees, the Theophania of Eusebius, and his history of the confessors in Palestine ; the latter, the Ecclesiasti- cal History of Eusebius. Now, as the text presented by these MSS. has evidently passed through the hands of several successive scribes, it seems to follow that these books were translated into Syriac in the lifetime of the authors themselves, or very soon after, for Euse- bius died in 340 and Titus in 371. Very likely the one or the other may have had a friend at the chief seat of Syriac learning who was willing to perform for him the same kind office that Rabbiila under- took for Cyril. 44 A little later on our information becomes fuller and more exact. Ma'na, 45 a Persian by race, 46 from the town of Beth Ma'na. Hardasher, was resident at Edessa in the earlier part of the 5th century, and is mentioned by Simeon of Beth Arsham among the distinguished Nestorian scholars whom he holds up to ridicule. 47 His nickname was Shdthe ketmd, "the Drinker of Ashes." Ma'na devoted himself to the task of translating into Syriac the comment- aries of Theodore of Mopsuestia during the lifetime of that great theologian, who did not die till 429. He must, however, have with- drawn from Edessa at a comparatively early period, as he was bishop of Persis 48 prior to 420, in which year (the last of his reign) Yazde- gerd I. made him catholicus of Seleucia, in succession to Yabh-alaha. 49 He had, it appears, translated a number of books from Syriac into 29 See Bar-Hebrseus, Chron. Eccles., ii. 77 ; B.O., ii. 407. 30 B.O., iii. 1, 65, 66. 31 Some of these are probably contained in the Berlin MSS. Sachau 174-170 (memre dha-medhabberdnuthd, on the life of our Lord) aud 219 (two poems on Joseph, and two others). 32 Two of them are often found in the Nestorian Psalter. See, for example, Brit. Mus. Add. 7156 (Rosen, Catal., p. 12, col. 2. No. 3a, c) and Add. 17219 (Wright, Catal., p. 134, col. 2, No. 3 a, c). 33 Meghushe, from magu, mag, the Persian priesthood, the head of whom in each district was the magujiat, mogpet, or mobedh. See Noldeke, Geschichte der Perser und Araber zur Zeit der Sasaniden, p. 450. 34 B.O., iii. 1, 171. 35 Ibid., iii. 1, 389. Elisha is called by some authorities Hosea ; ibid., ii. 407, iii. 1, 429. 36 Bar-Hebraeus, Chron. Eccles., ii. 74, note 2. 37 B.O., i. 352-353. His enemies gave him the nickname of Dagon. 38 Now Lasim,a short distance south-west of Dakuk or Ta'uk, in Beth Garmai ; see Hoffmann, Ausziige, p. 274. 39 Vocalized Kentropos or Kantropos ; B.O., iii. 1, 170, 1. 2. 40 Meaning probably the division of the Psalter into three kathismata (Bickell, Conspectus, p. 92) ; see B.O., iii. 1, 71, note 2. 4! For Yazed-dadh or Izad-dadh, like Yazed-panah, Yazed-bozedh ; see Hoff- mann, Ausziige, p. 88, No. 796. 42 B.O., iii. 1, 2-20. 43 Of Ara we seem to know absolutely nothing ; his zvy floruit is uncertain, and he may have belonged to the previous century ; B.O., iii. 1, 230. mentioned that the literature of Armenia is largely indebted in its earliest days to that of Syria, not only for the translation of Eusebius's Eccles. History, but for such works as the Doctrine of Addai and the Homilies of Aphraatcs, wrongly ascribed to Jacob of Nisibis. 45 So the name is written by Marl bar Sh81emon, whom Assemani follows, B.O., iii. 1, 376, pronouncing it, however, Ma'ne or Maanes. Elias of Nisibis also gives Ma'na (Bar-HebraRUs, Chron. Eccles., ii. 53, note 2) ; but Bar-Hebraeus himself (loc. cit.) has Maghna, which Abbeloos Latinizes Magnes. 46 His Persian name is unknown to us. V B.O., i. 352. 48 Bar-IIebi-;ui.s, Citron. Eccles., ii. 55, 63. 49 B.O., ii. 401.