Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 22.djvu/882

 846 SYRIAC LITERATURE CENT. at the hands of al-Ma'mun and his general Afshin. 1 On this journey Dionysius saw and examined the obelisks of Heliopolis, the pyramids, and the Nilometer. 2 In 835 he revisited Taghiith to settle' some disputes between the Taghritans and the monks of Mar Matthew at Mosul, and to ordain Thomas as maphrian in place of the deceased Daniel. 3 In the same year he went once more to Bagluladh to salute al-Ma'mun's successor al-Mu'tasim, and met there the son of the king of Nubia, who had come on the same errand. 4 The latter years of Dionysius were embittered by the oppressions and afflictions which the Christians had to endure at the hands of the Muhanimadans. He died on 22d August 845, and was buried in the convent of Ken-neshre. 5 He left behind him one great work, his Annals, covering the whole period of the world's history from the creation down to his own time. Of this there were two recensions, a longer and a shorter. The longer redaction was dedicated to John, bishop of Dara, and came down at all events to the year 837, or perhaps a little later. 6 Assemani has published an extract from it, which he was fortunate enough to find in Cod. Vat. cxliv., f. 89, in the B.O., ii. 72-77. 7 It would seem to have been written, after the manner of John of Asia, in a series of chapters dealing with particular topics. The shorter re- daction is extant in a single imperfect MS., Cod. Vat. clxii., 8 and is dedicated to George, chorepiscopus of Amid, Euthalius the abbot (of Zuknin ?), Lazarus the periodeutes, the monk Anastasius, and the rest of the brotherhood. It is arranged by successive years, and ended with the year of the Greeks 1087 = 776 A.D. 9 The author has adopted a division into four parts. Part first extends from the creation to the reign of Constantine. Here the chief authority is the Chronicorum Canonum Liber of Eusebius, supplemented by some extracts from other Greek sources, such as Eusebius's Ecclesiastical History and the Chronograph in of Julius Africanus. With these Dionysius has incorporated matter derived from sundry other works, e.g., the Chronicle of Edcssa (see above, p. 835), the Mffarrath Gazze or "Cave of Treasures," 10 Pseudo-Callisthenes's Life of Alexander the Great, the story of the seven sleepers, 11 and Josephus's Jewish War (see above, p. 823). 12 The second part of Dionysius's Chronicle reaches from Constantine to Theodosius II., and here he principally followed the Ecclesiastical History of Socrates (compare Cod. Vat. cxlv.). The third part extends from Theodosius II. to Justin II. Here Dionysius acknowledges himself chiefly in- debted to his countryman John of Asia (see above, p. 835), but has also incorporated the short Chronicle of Joshua the Stylite (see above, p. 832) and the epistle of Simeon of Beth Arsham on the Himyarite Christians (see above, p. 832). The fourth part, coming down to 158 A.H. =774-775 A. p., is his own compilation, partly from such written documents as he could find, partly from the oral statements of aged men, and partly from his own observation. Assemani has given an account of the whole work, with an abridgement or excerpt of the fourth part, in the Bill. Orient., ii. 98-116 ; but the labours of Dionysius of Tell-Mahre will never lie appreciated as they deserve till the appearance of the edition which is now being prepared by Guidi. Theo- Under Dionysius flourished his brother Theodosius, bishop of dosius of Edessa, also a student of Greek at Ken-neshre. Bar-Hebrseus Edessa. makes mention of him as accompanying Dionysius to Egypt in 825-826 to complain to 'Abdalliih ibn Tahir of the wrongs of the Christians. 13 At an earlier .period (802-803), when only a priest, he translated the homily of Gregory Nazianzen on the miracles of the prophet Elijah, 14 and Bar-Hebraeus says that he also rendered into Syriac the poems of the same author. 15 Antonius A friend of his was Antonius, a monk of Taghrith, surnamed " the the Rhe- Rhetorician." 16 He was the author of a treatise on rhetoric in torician. seven chapters, 17 of a work on the good providence of God in four 1 Bar-Hebraeus, Chron. Ecdes., i. 373; Weil, Gesch. d. Klialifen, ii. 246; Wiistenfeld, Die Statthalter von Aegypten, Ite Abth., pp. 40-43. 2 Bar-Hebrseus, Chron. Ecdes., i. 377-381. 3 Ibid., 381. 4 Ibid., 381. 5 Ibid., 385. 6 ibid., 383-385. 1 See Catal. Vat., in. 253. 8 See Caial. Vat., iii. 328. Assemani's account of this MS. is not so clear as could have been wished. In the Gated. Vat., iii. 329, he says that it is "untis ex iis codicibus, quos Moses Nisibenus coenobiarcha e Mesopotamia in Scetense S. Marios Syrorum monasterium intulit" (viz., in 932); but there is now no note whatever in the MS. to show that this was the case. 9 B.O., ii. 99. At present the MS. ends in the year 775, a few leaves being wanting at the end. 10 Translated into German by Bezold, Die Schatzhb'hle (1883). The Syriac text is not yet published. 11 Guidi, Testi Orientals inediti sopra i Sette Dormienti di Efeso (Reale Accad. dei Lincei), 1885 ; see in particular p. 34, note 3. 12 The Syriac text of this first part was edited by Tullberg, Dionysii Telma- harensis Chronici liber primus, 1850 (compare Land, Joannes Bischof von Efihesos, pp. 39-41). The Eusebian extracts have been translated and compared with the Greek original (so far as possible), the Latin version of Jerome, and the Armenian version, by Siegfried and Gelzer, Ensebii Canontim Epitome ex Dionysii Telmaharensis Chronico petita (1884). On this work see Gutschmid, Untersuchungen iiber d. syrische Epitome der Eusebischen Canones (1886). The editors have not always correctly rendered the text of their " blatero Syrius " ; see a flagrant example on p. 79, last paragraph. Bar-Hebraeus, Chron. Ecdes., i. 361 ; B.O., ii. 345. H Owl. Vat. xcvi., Catal. Vat., ii. 521 ; B.O., ii. p. cxlix, No. 17. 15 Bar-Hebrseus, Chron. Ecdes., i. 363 ; B.O., ii. 345. To this version perhaps belong the poems contained in Brit. Mus. Add. 14547 (Wright, Catal., p. 433) and 18821 (ibid., p. 775). 16 Bar-Hebrseus, Chron. Eccles., i. 363 ; B.O., ii. cl. and 345. " Brit. Mus. Add. 17208 (Wright, Catal., p. 614). discourses, 18 and of various encomia, thanksgivings, consolatory epistles, 111 and prayers,- in many of which he makes use not merely of metre but also of rime.'- 1 Lazarus bar Sfibhetha, called as bishop Philoxenus and Basil, " 2 Lazarus ruled the see of Baghdadli in the earlier part of the 9th century, bar As mentioned above, he was deposed by Dionysius in 829. He Sabhe'tha. compiled an anaphora or liturgy, a and wrote an exposition of the office of baptism.- 4 The latter may be only part of a larger work on the ollices of the church, from which Bar-Hebraeus may have derived the information regarding the musical services quoted by Assemani, B.O., i. 166. Contemporary with these was John, bishop of Dara, to whom John of Dionysius dedicated the larger recension of his history (see above). Daru. He compiled a liturgy,- 5 and was the author of the following works a commentary on the two books of Pseudo- Dionysius Areopagita De Hierarchies Cselcsti ct Eeclcsiasiica,' x four books on the priesthood,-'" four books on the resurrection of the dead, 28 and a treatise on the soul.- 9 Nonnus was an archdeacon of the Jacobite Church at Nisibis Normus during the first half of this century, the Nestorian bishop Cyprian of Nisibis. having allowed the Monophysites to resume possession of the church of St Domitius in 767 (see above, p. 844). He is mentioned by Bar- Hebrseus as bringing charges against the bishop Philoxenns, who had sided with the anti- patriarch Abraham, and was therefore deposed by a synod held at Ras'ain in 827 or 828. 30 We know also that he was in prison at Nisibis when he wrote his work against Thomas bishop of Marga and metropolitan of Beth Garmai, who flourished under the Nestorian catholics Abraham (837-850) and Theodosius (852-858). Besides this controversial treatise in four discourses, Nonnus was the writer of sundry letters of a similar character. 31 Ronianus the physician, a monk of the convent of Kartamin, Roma- was elected patriarch at Amid in 887, and took the name of Theo- uus the dosius. 32 He died in 896. He was the author of a medical syn- physi- tagma (kunnasha) of some repute. 33 He wrote a commentary on ciau or Pseudo -Hierotheus, On the Hidden Mysteries of tlie House of God, 3 * Theo- and dedicated it to Lazarus, bishop of Cyrrhus. 35 The work is dosius. divided into five books, the first and second of which he finished at Amid, before going down to the East, and the third at Samosata. He also compiled a collection of 112 Pythagorean maxims and proverbs, with brief explanations in Syriac and Arabic, addressed to one George." 6 A synodical epistle of his is extant in Arabic, written to the Egyptian patriarch Michael III., 37 and a Lenten homily in Arabic. 38 Moses bar Kepha, was the son of Simeon Kepha (or Peter) and Moses his wife Maryam. The father was from the village of Mashhad bar al-Kohail, on the Tigris opposite al-Hadlthah, 39 the mother a Kepha. native of Balad, in which town their son was born somewhere about 813. He was taught from his early youth by Rabban Cyriacus, abbot of the convent of Mar Sergius on the Tura Sahya, or Dry Mountain, near Balad, and there assumed the monastic garb. He was elected bishop of Beth Remmfui (Barimma), 40 Beth Kiyonaya, 41 and Mosul, 42 about 863, and took the name of Severus. He was also for ten years periodeutes or visitor of the diocese of Taghrith. He died A. Gr. 1214 = 903 A.D., 43 "aged about ninety years, of which he had been bishop for forty," and was buried in the convent of Mar Sergius. His works are numerous. He wrote commentaries on the whole Old and New Testaments, 44 which are often cited by Bar-Hebraeus in the Ausar Raze. Of these that on the book of 18 Brit. Mus. Add. 14720 (Wright, Catal., p. C17). 19 Brit. Mus. Add. 17208. - Brit. Mus. Add. 14726. 21 See a specimen in Ilodiger's Chrcstom. Syr., 2d ed., pp. 110-111. 22 See Wright, Catal., p. 496, col. 2. 23 See Renaudot, ii. 399. 24 Cod. Vat. cxlvii., Catal., iii. 276. 25 B.O., ii. 123. 26 B.O., ii. 120-121 ; Cod.Vat. e. (Catal., ii. 539), ccclxiii. (Mai, Scriptt.Vett. Nova Coll., v.) ; Bodl. Or. 264 (Payne Smith, Catal., pp. 487-492). There is an extract in Cod. Vat. ccccxi. p. 1 (Mai, op. cit.). 27 B.O., ii. 121 ; Cod. Vat. c. (Catal., ii. 542), ccclxiii. (Mai, op. cit.) ; Bodl. Or. 264 (P. Smith, pp. 492-496). Extracts from bks. ii. and iv. in Zingerle, Monum. Syr., i. 105-110 ; from bk. iv. in Overbeck, S. Ephraemi, &c., Opp. Sel., pp. 409- 413 ; see Bar-Hebraeus, Chron. Ecdes., ii. 394, note 1, No. 13. 28 B.O., ii. 119; Cod. Vat. c. (Catal., ii. 531), ccclxii. (Mai, op. cit.). 29 B.O., ii. 219, note 1. From it there are extracts in Cod. Vat. cxlvii. (Catal., iii. 276). 3i) Bar-Hebraeus, Chron. Ecdes., i. 363 ; B.O., ii. 34ti, col. 1. 31 These writings are all contained in Brit. Mus. Add. 14594 (Wright, Catal., pp. 618-620). 32 Bar-Hebra'iis, Chron. Ecdes., i. 391 ; ii. 213. 33 Ibid., i. 391. Assemani suggests that it may be the work contained in Cod. Vat. cxcii. (Catal., iii. 409). Compare Frothingham, Stephen bar Stidaili the Syrian Mystic and the Book ofHierotheos, 1886, p. 84 sq. 34 A forgery of Stephen bar Sudh-aile ; see above, p. 832. 35 Brit. Mus. Add. 7189 (Rosen, Catal., p. 74). This is the very copy which was procured with some difficulty for the use of Gregory Bar-Hebraeus (Wright, Catal., p. 1205). 36 Paris, Ancien fonds 118, 157 (Zotenberg, Catal., p. 147 col. 1, 166 col. 1); Bodl. Marsh. 201, f. 58 (Payne Smith, Cata!., p. 507) ; B.O., ii. 125. It is admir- ably edited by Zotenberg in the Journ. Asirit., 1870, pp. 426-476. 37 B.O., ii. 124. 38 Brit. Mus. Add. 7206, f. 73 (Rosen, Catal., p. 103). 39 See Hoffmann, Auszucie, p. 190. 40 rbid., p. 190. 41 B.O., ii. 218, note 1, col. 2 ; Hoffmann, Ausxuge, p. 30, note 243. In Wright's Catal., p.620, col. 2, the name is written Beth Kiyona ; in B.O., ii.127, Beth Kena. 42 In Wright's Catal., p. 621, col. 1, he is called bishop of Beth Remman and Beth 'Arbaye (Ba-'arbaya). 43 As correctly given in B.O., ii. 218 ; Bar-Hebr.Tus, Chron. Ecdes., ii. 217 (and. by MS. C. also in i. 395). B.O., ii. 130, note 3 ; 218, col. 2.