Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 22.djvu/889

 13TH CENT.] SYRIAC LITERATURE 853 in 1231 and died in 1241, l on his way to visit the aged patriarch Ignatius II. (inaphrian 1215-22, patriarch 1222-53). He possessed a great many books, which were all conveyed to the demosion- of the ruler of Mosul. His works are as follows. (1) The Book of Treasures, a theological treatise in four parts, viz. , part i., of the three-one God; part ii. , of the incarnation of the Son of God; part iii., of the Divine Providence; part iv., of the creation of the universe, the angels, the different kinds of life, the soul of man, the resurrection, and the last judgement. 3 (2) The Dialogues, in two books. Book i., dial. 1, on grammar, followed by a discourse on the same in twelve-syllable metre ; dial. 2, on rhetoric ; dial. 3, on the art of poetry or metres ; dial. 4, on the eloquence and copiousness of the Syriac language. Book ii., dial. 1, on logic and the syl- logism ; dial. 2, on philosophy, its kinds, divisions, and subdivisions, in five sections, viz., (a) on the definitions of philosophy, its divi- sions, &c. ; (b) on the philosophic life and conduct ; (c) on physics or physiology ; (d) on the four disciplines, arithmetic, music, geo- metry, and mathematics ; (e) on metaphysics and theology. 4 Of his letters two are extant, in verse, addressed to Fakhr ad-Daulah Mark bar Thomas and his brother Tfy ad-Daulah Abu Tahir Sa'id. 5 He also wrote a confession of faith regarding the Trinity and the incarnation, which he himself cites in the Book of Treasures, part ii. , chap. 14, and an exposition of the services and prayers of the church, which is referred to in the same work, part, ii., chap. 31 (on the addition of the words " who was crucified for us " to the Trisagiou). 6 Under the name of Jacob of Maiperkat we have an admonition addressed to persons seeking ordination as priests, which is found in many service books. 7 Aaron Aaron bar Ma'dani (or Ma'dani ?) had been recently appointed bar bishop of Mardin, under the name of John, when he was promoted Ma'dani by the patriarch Ignatius II. to the dignity of inaphrian in 1232. 8 His bodily presence seems to have been somewhat insignificant, and he was no orator, for which reasons he was unpopular. a In 1237 he went to Baghdad h, where in the following year he composed his panegyric on the holy Mar Aaron, and ingratiated himself with the three brothers Shams ad-Daulah, Fakhr ad-Daulah, and Taj ad- Daulah, the sons of the archiatcr Thomas, who were in high favour at the court of al-Mustansir bi'llah. He learned to speak and write Arabic thoroughly. 10 In 1244 he was recalled to Mosul and received with every mark of respect. 11 On the death of Ignatius in 1252, Dionysius (Aaron 'Angiir) was created patriarch, 12 but a rival faction set up John bar Ma'dani 13 ; and so the two ruled in a divided church till Dionysius was murdered in the convent of Bar-sauma near Melitene in 1261, u after which time his rival sat alone till 1263. 15 John bar Ma'dani compiled an anaphora 16 and wrote a great many poems, of which Bodl. Hunt. 1 contains no less than 60. 17 Some of the more important of these are the poem on the soul, entitled "the Bird" (Pdrattethd), on the high origin of the soul and its degradation by sin, 19 on the excellent path of the perfect, 20 and on the capture of Edessa and other places by the Seljiik sultan 'Alii'u 'd-din Kaikobadh in 1235. 21 Of his homilies Cod. Vat. xcvii. contains eighteen for various feasts in Arabic. 22 Bar- These writers are, however, all cast into the shade by the impos- Hebrseus. ing figure of Bar-Hebrseus, as we are accustomed to call him, one of the most learned and versatile men that Syria ever produced. 23 Abu '1-Faraj Gregory 24 was the child of a physician at Melitene (Malatiah) named Aaron, a convert from Judaism or of Jewish descent, whence his son got the name of Bar 'Ebhrayfi or Ibn al- 1 Assemani (B.O., ii. 455) is mistaken ; see also pp. 237 and 477. 2 According to Abbeloos, Bar-Hebraus, Chron. Eccles., ii. 412, "in serariuin publieum principis Mossulae assumpti fuerunt." We suspect that the Christian bishop's library went to light the fires of the public bath. 3 Cod. Vat. clix. (Catal., iii. 307) ; Brit. Mus. Add. 7193 (Rosen, Catal., p. 84) ; and in the collection of the S.P.C.K. An extract in Cod. Vat. ccccxi. (Mai, Script!. Vett. Xova Coll., v.) ; see B.O., ii. 237-240. 4 Brit. Mus. Add. 21454 (Wright, Catal., p. 1165); Gottingen, Cod. Orient. ISc ; Bodl. Marsh. 52S (apparently imperfect, P. Smith, Catal., p. 642). Ex- cerpts in Berlin, Alt. Best. 38, 1. Book i., dial. 3, has been edited by Martin, " De la Metrique chez les Syriens," in Abhandlungen far d. Kunde d. Morgen- landes, Bd. vii., No. 2, 1879. 5 Brit. Mus. Add. 7193 (Rosen, Catal., p. 84); see Bar-Hebrseus, Chron. Eccles., ii. 407, where the third brother Shams ad-Daulah is also mentioned. 6 B.O., ii. 240. 7 E.o., Cod. Vat. Ii. 9 (Catal., i. 318); ccciv. (Mai, Scriptt. Vett. Nova Coll., v.); Paris, Suppl. 22, 23, 38, 94 (the last in Arabic), see Zotenberg, Catal., pp. 68, 72, 76 ; coinp. B.O., ii. 241. 8 B.O., ii. 454. *> Bar-Hebraeus, Chron. Eccles., ii. 407. 10 Ibid., ii. 411. U Ibid., ii. 413. 12 Ibid., i. 697, 701 ; B.O., ii. 376. 13 Bar-Hebrseus, Chron. Eccles., i. 707 ; B.O., ii. 377. 14 Bar-Hebrieus, Chron. Eccles., i. 737. 15 Ibid., i. 743. 16 See Renaudot, ii. 512. 17 See Payne Smith, Catal., pp. 379-382, and MS. Berlin, Sachau 207, 3. 18 Bodl. Hunt. 1 ; Poc. 298 (P. Smith, Catal., p. 641); Cod. Vat. cciv. (Catal., iii. 489) ; Berlin, Sachau 61, 8. 19 Bodl. Hunt. 1 ; Cod. Vat. cciv. -'0 Bodl. Hunt. 1 ; Poc. 298 ; Vat. cciv. Edited in part by Cardalu in the Liber Tlii'aaitri, pp. 66-08. 21 Hunt. 1. Palat. Medic. Ixii. contains two poems on the love of God and the love of wisdom (Catal., p. 108). 22 Catal., ii. 523. There is one, also in Arabic, on repentance and death in Cod. Vat. ccxx. (Catal., iii. 60S). 23 B.O., ii. 244 sq. See Gibbon's eulogy of him, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, ed. Smith, 1855, vol. vi. p. 55. 24 His baptismal name was John, as appears from the inscription on his tombstone ; Badger, The Nestorians, i. 97. Gregory lie probably adopted when he became a bishop. 'Ibri, "the son of the Hebrew." He was born in 1226, 25 and de- voted himself from his boyhood to the acquisition of Greek and Arabic. A little later he applied himself also to theology and philosophy, besides practising medicine under his father and other distinguished physicians. His lot was cast, however, in evil days. In 1243 many of the inhabitants of Malatiah fled to Aleppo before the advancing hordes of Hulagu and his Tatars, and his father would have been among the fugitives, had it not been for a lucky accident. 26 In the following year his father had actually to attend as physician upon one of the Tatar generals, whom he accompanied to Khartabirt, and on his return retired almost immediately from Malatiah to the safer city of Antioch. 27 Here Bar-Hebraus com- pleted his studies and commenced his monastic life. 28 Thence he went to Tripolis, where he and Salibha bar Jacob Waglh, of Edessa, were studying medicine and rhetoric with a Xestorian teacher named Jacob, when they were summoned before the patriarch Ignatius U., on 14th_ September 1246, and ordained bishops, the former of Gubos (Gfibas) near Malatiah, the latter of 'Akko.- 8 Bar- Hebrams was then just twenty years of age. In the following year he was transferred to Lakabhin, another diocese adjacent to Mala- tiah, 30 by the patriarch Ignatius. 31 After the death of Ignatius, Bar-HebrjEus took the part of Dionysius (Aaron 'Angur) against John bar Ma'dani, and was transferred by him in 1253 to Aleppo, 32 but quickly deposed by his old friend Salibha (who sided with John bar Ma'dani) 33 ; nor did he recover this see till 1258. 34 The next patriarch, Ignatius III. (Yeshu'), abbot of Gevikath near Mopsu- estia, 35 advanced him to the dignity of maphrifm in 1264. 35 Hence- forth his life was an active and busy one, and it seems almost marvellous that he should have studied and written so much, while in no way neglectful of the vast diocese committed to his charge. The story is told by himself in simple language in his Ecclesiastical History, 37 with a continuation by his surviving brother Bar-sauma Safl, giving a nearly complete list of his works. 38 He died at Maraghah in Adhurbaigan on 30th July 1286, and the greatest respect was shown to his memory by Greeks, Armenians, and Nestorians alike, the shops being closed and no business trans- acted. 39 His body was conveyed to the convent of Mar Matthew at Mosul, 40 where his grave was seen by Badger in October 1843. 41 Bar-Hebraus cultivated nearly every branch of science that was in vogue in his time, his object being on the one hand to reinvigo- rate and keep alive the Syriac language and literature, and on the other to make available to his co-religionists the learning of the Muharnmadans in a suitable form. Hence his treatment of the Aristotelian philosophy, following in the footsteps of Ibn Sinil (Avicenna) and other Arabian writers. 42 The Kethabhd dh$-Bhd- bhdthd, or " Book of the Pupils of the Eyes, " is a compendium of the art of logic or dialectics, comprising an introduction on the utility of logic and seven chapters in which the author deals suc- cessively with the Isagoge of Porphyry, the Categories, De Inter- pretatione, Aiialytica Priora, Topica, Aiialytica Posterior a, and Da Sophisticis Elenchis. 43 In connexion with it we take the Ktthdbhd dha-Seivddh Sophia or "Book of the Speech of Wisdom," a com- pendium of dialectics, physics, and metaphysics or theology. 44 The large encyclopaedia entitled Heivath HekhmMhd, " Butyrum Sapientise," or less correctly Hek'hmath Hckhmdthd, "Sapientia Sapientiarum," comprises the whole Aristotelian discipline. The first volume contains the Logic, viz., the Isagoge, Categories, De Interpret., Anal. Pri. and Poster., Dialectica, De Sophist. Elcncltis, Rhetoric, and Art of Poetry. The second comprises the Physics, viz., De Auscult. Physica, De Cselo et Mundo, De Meteoris, DC Genera- tione et Corruptione, De fossilibus, De Plantis, De Animalibus, and De Anima. The third, in its first section, treats of the Metaphysics, viz., of the origin and writers of philosophy, and of theology ; in its second section, of ethics, economics, and politics. 45 An abridge- 25 B.O., ii. 203. 26 Ibid., ii. 244; Bar-Hebraus, Hist. Dynast., p. 481 (transl., p. 315); Chron. Syr., p. 503 (transl., p. 521). 27 B.O., ii. 245 ; Bar-Hebrieus, Hist. Dynast., pp. 4S6-4S7 (transl., pp. 318-319) ; Chron. Syr., 504-505 (transl., p. 522). 28 See the poem No. 29 in Cod. Vat. clxxiv. (Catal., iii. 356). 29 Bar-Hebrseus, Chron. Eccles., i. 667 ; B.O., ii. 245, 374. From 'Akko Salibha was transferred to Aleppo, under the name of Basil (B.O., ii. 375), and promoted in December 1252 by the patriarch John bar Ma'dani to be maphrian, under the name of Ignatius (B.O., ii. 377, 455). He died in 1258. 30 B.O., ii. 260. 31 Ibid., ii. 246 ; Bar-Hebrpeus, Chron. Eccles., i. 685. 32 B.O., ii. 246 ; Bar-Hebrteus, Chron. Eccles., i. 721. 33 lUd., i. 721. 34 Ibid., i. 727. 35 He sat from 1264 to 1282. 36 B.O., ii. 246 ; Bar-Hebrseus, Chron. Eccles., i. 749, ii. 433. 37 Ibid., ii. 431-467 ; B.O., ii. 248-263. 38 Bar-Hebrajus, Chron. Eccles., ii. 467-485 ; B.O., ii. 264-274. Two brothers died before him, Michael and Muwaffak. See the poems Xos. 166 and 170 in Cod. Vat. clxxiv. (Catal., iii. 358). 39 B.O., ii. 266 ; Chron. Eccles., ii. 473. 40 B.O., ii. 460. 41 The Nestorians, i. 97. For "1536 " read 1537, and for " August " July. 42 Compare Renan, De Philos. Peripat. apud Si/ros (1852), p. 65 s</. 43 Brit. Mus. Or. 1017; Paris, Anc. fonds 138; Berlin, Alt. Best. 38,2, 39; Sachau 140, 2, and 198, 8 ; Cambridge, collection of the S.P.C.K. 44 Brit Mus. Or. 1017 ; Paris, Anc. fonds 138 (Syr. and Arab.) ; Berlin, Alt. Best. 38, 4 ; Sachau 91 (Syr. and Arab.), also 140, 1, and 198, 9 ; Cambridge, coll. of the S.P.C.K. 45 Palat. Medic, clxxxvi.-vii., clxxvi.-ix. (=clxxxvi. ; see Renan, DC Philos. Peripat. apud Syros, p. 66); Bodl. Hunt. 1 (imperf.); compare also Palat Medic, clxxxiii.-iv. and Ixii. (p. 109).