Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 22.djvu/877

 STH CENT.] SYRIAC LITERATURE 841 Isagog';, which is found in Brit. Mns. Add. 14660. l At the request of Matthew, bishop of Aleppo, and Daniel, bishop of Edessa, he undertook in 669 a translation of select epistles of Severus of Antioch, and of these the sixth book survives in two MSS.- He also busied himself with Gregory Nazianzen, as is evidenced by a scholion introductory to the homilies 3 and the version of the ZvvaywyT) Kal e^i^cns Iffropiuv.* The only other writings of his with which we are acqxiainted are an encyclical letter, prohibiting Christians from partaking of the sacrifices of their Muliainmadau rulers, 5 and a couple of sedriis. 6 Januar- Contemporary with him, and probably an alumnus of the same ius Can- school, was the translator of the poems of Gregory Nazianzen, in the didatus. year 655, whom Assemani calls Senorinus Chididatus of Amid. 7 He has, however, misread the name. In the MS., as Professor Guidi informs us, it stands uIDQ^j^j,*^ ^.-JOl^, not The former part of the name seems to be ' lavovdpios ; the latter is apparently (as Guidi suggests) a corruption of Ka.v5i5a.Tos. Whether the poems in Brit. Mus. Add. 18821 and 14547 s belong to the trans- lation of Jauuarius Candidatus or not, we cannotatpreseut determine. George, Another scholar of note at this time is George, bishop of the Arab bishop of tribes, the pupil and friend of Athanasins II. and Jacob. 9 He was the Arab ordained, it would seem, in 687 or 688, two months after the death tribes. o f Athanasius, and is said to have died in the first year of Athanasius III., who was consecrated in April 724. His diocese comprised the 'Akolaye or Arabs of 'Akolii (al-Kufah), the Tu'aye (?), the Tanukh, the Tlia'labites, the Taghlibites, and in general the nomad Arabs of Mesopotamia. Of his works the most important is his translation of the Organon of Aristotle, of which there is a volume in the British Museum, Add. 14659, com prising, in its imperfect condition, the Cate- gories, Tlepl epfj-Tiveias, and the first book of the Analytics, divided into two parts, with introductions and commentaries. 10 Of this ver- sion a specimen has been edited by Hoffmann, De Heniuiwuticis, &c., p. 22 sq., besides small fragments at pp. 30, 38, 45, and 53. He also compiled a large collection of scholia on the homilies of Gregory Nazianzen, which exhibits a wide range of reading, 11 and completed the Hexaemeron of Jacob of Edessa (see above, p. 839). 12 His other writings are a commentary, or more likely scholia, on the Scriptures, cited in the Catena of Severus and by Bar-Hebneus in his Ausar Raze 13 ; a short commentary on the sacraments of the church, treat- ing of baptism, the holy Eucharist, and the consecration of the chrism 14 ; a homily in twelve-syllable metre on the holy chrism in two shapes 15 ; another homily on solitary monks, in heptasyllabic metre 16 ; and a treatise on the Calendar in twelve-syllable metre, 17 cited by Elias bar Shinaya. 18 Like Jacob of Edessa, he carried on an extensive literary correspondence, of which some specimens have luckily been preserved in Brit. Mus. Add. 12154, ff. 222-291, dated from 714 to 718. Several of them are addressed to John the Stylite of Litarba, one of whose letters to Daniel, an Arab priest of the tribe of the Tu'aye, is appended, f. 291. The most important of them is one written to the priest and recluse YesluY of Innib (near 'Aziiz, north of Aleppo), part of which relates to Aphraates and his works (see above, p. 827 ). 19 Daniel of Contemporary with these scholars was Daniel of Salah (a village Sulah. north-east of Midyad in Tur-'Abdin), 20 who wrote commentaries on the Psalms and Ecclesiastes.' 21 The former was in three volumes, and was composed at the request of John, abbot of the convent of Eusebius at Kaphra dhS-Bhartha (Kafr al-Barah, near Apamea). 2 - 1 See Wright, CataL, p. 1101, and conip. Kenan, op. cit., p. 81. 2 Brit. Mus. Add. 12181 and H'inO (Wright, CataL, pp. 558-569). 3 Wright, CataL, p. 441. * Ibiit., p. 425. 8 Zotenberg, Cutal., p. 28, col. 2. 6 Wright, Catul., p. 218, col. 1 ; Zotenberg, CntaL, p. 47, col. 1, No. 23, d. 7 Cod. Vat. xcvi. (CataL, ii. 521) ; see B.O., ii. cxlix., 502, col. 2 ; iii. 1, 23, note. 8 Wright, CataL, pp. 775, 433, col. 1. B.O., i. 494 ; Bar-Hebreeus, Cliron. Eccks., i. 293, 303 ; Hoffmann, De Her- tneneuticis apud Syros Aristotclcis, pp. 148-151 ; Renan, De Philos. Peripat. ap. Syros, pp. 32-33. 10 See Wright, CataL, p. 1163. 11 Brit. Mus. Add.14725, ff. 100-215. It was evidently written after the death of Athanasius II., as shown by the remark on f. 132a (Wright, CataL, p 443, col. 1). The commentary contained in Brit. Mus. Add. 17197 ,_ if. 1-25 (Wright, i.'utuL, p. 441) is perhaps that of Elias, bishop of Shiggar (Sin jar), who flourished about 750, and is expressly stated (B.O., ii. 339) to have compiled a commentary on the first volume of Gregory Nazianzen (as translated by Paul). He followed the older exposition of Benjamin, bishop of Edessa. This Benjamin was the writer of a letter on the Eucharistic service and baptism (Wright, CataL, p. 1004, col. 2). 12 See Land, Anecd. Syr., i. p. 4. 13 B.O., i. 494-495 ; comp. Wright, CataL, p. 909, col. 2. " Wright, CataL,?. 985. 15 B.O., i. 332 ; CataL Vat., iii. 102, No. 188 ; Wright, CataL, p. 848, No. 78. 16 Bodleian CataL, p. 425, No. 88. 17 B.O, i. 405 ; CataL Vat., iii. 532. 18 Rosen, CataL, p. 88, Nos. 32, 33 ; comp. also the " Table of the New Moons," hi CataL Vat.,u. 402. ! It has been printed by De Lagarde, Anal. Syr., pp. 108-134, and partly re- printed by Wright, The Homilies of Aphraates, pp. 19-37. Ryssel has translated and annotated it in Ein Brief Georgs, Bischofs der Araber, a d. Presbyter Jesiis, 1883. 20 See Hoffmann in Z.D.M.G., xxxii. 741. 21 According to a note in Payne Smith's CataL, p. 62, he was bishop of Telia dhe-Mauzelath ; but at the time when he wrote his commentary on the Psalms he was certainly only a priest and abbot of a convent (see Wright, CataL , p. 005, col. 2). S2 MSS. part i., Pss. i.-l., Brit. Mus. Add. 17187; part ii., Pss. li.-c., Add. 14679, 14COS (only three leaves) (see Wright, CataL, pp. 005-600) ; Cod. Vat. cly., Pss. i.-lxviii. (CataL Vat., iii. 297); part iii., Pss. ci.-cl., in Arabic, Berlin, ijachau 55. It is frequently cited by Bar-Hebr.vus in the Atuar Haze in Seve- rus's Catena, and also by Antonius Rhetor (Wright, CataL, p. 831, col. 1). There is an abridgement of it in Brit. Mus. Add. 17125, f. 81 sq. The commentary on Ecclesiastes is known to us only from the extracts preserved in Severus's Catcn. '-' Regarding George, bishop of Martyropolis,- 4 we can add little orGeorgec nothing to the scanty information collected by Assemani. 25 This Martyrc scholar has, however, made a mistake in placing him so early as polls. " circa annum Christi 580." About a century later would probably be nearer the mark. Two of his pupils were Constantine, bishop of Hamui, who may have flourished during the latter part of the 7th century, and his successor Leo, who lived at the very end of it and the beginning of the 8th. i6 Constantine wrote several contro- versial works against the Monophysites, viz., an exposition of the creeds of the councils of Nicrea and Chalcedon, a treatise against Severus (of Antioch), an " anagnosticon " concerning an alleged mutilation of the Trisagion, 27 and a reply to a treatise of Simeon (II., Mouophysite bishop of Harrta).* Leo's only literary effort appears to have been a letter to the Jacobite patriarch Elias, whom we have next to notice. Elias belonged originally to the Dyophysite party in the Syrian Patri- Church, but was converted to the Monophysite sect by the study arch of the writings of Severus. He was a monk of the convent of Gubba Elias. Barraya, and for eighteen years bishop of Apavnea (or Famiyah), before he was raised to the patriarchate of Antioch (in 709). He died in 724. 29 The only work of his known to us is an Apology, addressed to Leo, bishop of Harran, in answer to a letter from him asking the reasons for Elias's change of creed. 30 It was probably written during the time of his episcopate. In it, besides George of Martyropolis and Constantine of Harran, he cites John of Damascus, among whose Greek works is a tract against the Jacobites, addressed to the bishop Elias in defence of Peter, archbishop of Damascus. Lazarus of Beth Kandasa is known to us only through his dis- Lazarus ciple George of Beth Neke as the compiler of a commentary on the of Beth New Testament, of which there are two volumes in the British Kamlas; Museum, the one (Add. 14682) containing the Gospels of St John and St Mark, the other (Add. 14683) the third and fourth parts erf the Pauline epistles from Galatians to Hebrews. 51 The commentary on the epistles is merely an abridgement of Chrysostom ; in that on the Gospels use is also made of Jacob of Serugh, and occasionally of Theodore of Mopsuestia, 32 Cyril of Alexandria, and Ephraim. He also quotes a passage of nine lines from the Sibylline oracles (eel. Friedlieb, riii. 287-296). At the end of part third of the Pauline epistles there is in Add. 14683 a chronological section, terminating with the accession of the 'AbbiisI caliph al-Mahdi in 775, which probably fixes the date of the author. 33 Much later he cannot have lived, as Add. 14683 is a MS. of the 10th century, having been presented to the convent of St Mary Deipara in Skete by the patriarch Abraham (or Ephraim), who sat from 977 to 981. In Brit. Mus. Add. 18295 there is a scholion by Lazarus explana- tory of a passage in (pseudo-)Dionysius Areopagita. 34 About this time too may have lived the chronicler Daniel bar Daniel Moses the Jacobite, who is cited as an authority by Elias bar bar Shinaya in the years 122, 127, and 131 of the Hijrah, i.e., from Moses. 740 to 749 A.D. 35 Theophilus bar Thomas of Edessa ^ is stated by Bar-Hebraeus 37 Theo- to have been by religious profession a Maronite. He was addicted philus to the study of astrology, and an anecdote is related by Bar- of Hebneus of his correspondence with Hasanah, the concubine of Edessa. the caliph al-Mahdi, which fixes the date of his death in 785. He was the author of a history, which Bar-Hebraus cites 3S and com- mends. He also translated into Syriac "the two books of the poet Homer on the conquest of the city of Ilion." 39 This evi- dently means a version of the entire Iliad and Odyssey, incredible as it may appear. De Lagarde was, we believe, the first to discover citations of this work by Jacob, or Severus, bar Shakko, bishop of -: r,,tfiL J'at., iii. 17 ; Wright, CataL, p. 909. -* I.e., Maiperkat or Maiyafarikin. Assemani calls him bishop of Taglmth or Tekrit, 25 B.O., i. 465 ; ii. 96. The epistles to Christopher against Probus and John Grammaticus of Alexandria, and to the monks of the convent of Mar Matthew, are also cited in Brit. Mus. Add. 17197 (Wright, Cahd., p. G07). 26 Assemani places Constantine as early as 630 and Leo about 640 (B.O., i. 466-467). But in the CataL Vat. they are more correctly described as "uterque S. Johannis Damasceni requalis" (vol. iii. 255). 27 These three are mentioned by Assemani, B.O., i. 466. 28 Wright, CataL, p. 607, col. 2. 29 B.O., ii. 95,337 ; Bar-Hebranis, Cliron. Ecclcs., i. 297 ; Baethgen, Fragment*, pp. 46, 123. Dionysius of Tell-Mahre wrongly places his death some years later, in 729. 3 Two MSS. of this work survive, but both imperfect, the one at Rome, Cod. Vat. cxlv. (CatdL, iii. 253), the other in the British Museum, Add. 17197 (Wright, CataL, p. 600). 31 gee Wright, CataL, pp. 608-612. 3- Sachau, Theodori Mops. Fragmcnta Syr., pp. 101 and 62. 33 The words of George of Beth Neke, buhhdna dhe-dhogmd (Wright, CataL, p. 611, col. 2), probably refer to the litiirgical'disputes which arose among the Jacobites about this time (B. 0. ii. 341) and attained considerable importance a little later (p. 343). See Bar-Hebranis, Chron. Ecdes., i. 331. 34 See Wright, CataL, p. 1184. 35 See Baethgen, Fragments, p. 2 ; Bar-Hebrrvns, Cltrm. Eeeles., ii. 152, note 2. 36 B.O., i. 521 ; Cardahl, Liber Thesauri, p. 39. 37 Hist. Dynast., p. 228 (transl., p. 147). 38 Op. cit., p. 98 (transl., p. 63). 39 Op. c.,'p. 228 (transl., p. 148). Also at p. 40 (transl., p. 20) Bar-Hebrasns says that "the poet Homer bewailed her (fall) in two books, vhirh Theophilus the astrologer of Edessa translated from Greek into Syriac." XXII. 1 06