Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 22.djvu/891

 14TH CENT.] SYRIAC LITERATURE 855 ghah, he undertook to make a recension in Arabic of the political history, which he all but finished within the space of one month before his last illness came on. 1 This edition is enriched with many references to Muhammadan writers and literature which are wanting in the Syriac. It is entitled al-Mukhtasar fi 'd-Duwal, or "Com- pendious History of the Dynasties." 2 Asa poet Bar-Hebrseus is admired by his countrymen, and even Renan has thought the poem on the theme Bonn Lex sed Melior Philosopliia to be worthy of publi- cation. 3 Some of the poems were badly edited and translated by Von Lengerke in 1836-38 according to the Paris MS. Ancien fonds 130 ; others have been published by the Maronite priest Augustinus Scebabi (.^LiJI) at Rome, 1877. The Carmen de Divina Sapi- cntia was brought out so long ago as 1638 by Gabriel Sionita, and has been republished at Rome in 1880 by Yohanna Notayn J :> r '' t  s ' J Darauni ( .JjC^JJl yaj uayi). 4 In his youth Bar-Hebrreus wrote a book on the interpretation of dreams, pushshdk Jiclme 5 ; and in his later years he made a collection of entertaining and humorous stories in Syriac, entitled Kethdbhd, d/ie- Thunndye MeghahMkJidne, with an - 'n "' Arabic counterpart under the title of Daf al-Hamm (+$ Jiid), "the Driving away of Care." 6 The contents of the Tunnaye are, however, more varied than the title seems to promise, as may be seen from Assemani's enumeration of the chapters, B.O., ii. 306. 7 Daniel Contemporary with Bar-Hebraus, though somewhat younger, we bar may place Daniel bar Khattab, to whom Assemani has devoted two Khattab. articles in the B. 0., ii., at pp. 244 and 463. Among the poems of Bar-Hebrseufl we find verses addressed to this Daniel by the Nestorian Khamls bar Kardahe with his reply and another by Bar-Hcbrseus. 8 He composed abridgements in Arabic of several of Bar-Hebrreus's works, e.g., the Nomocanon,* Ethics, Ausar Raze, Mendrath Kudh- she, Kethdbha dM-BMlMthd, and the larger grammar. 10 An inde- pendent work of his, also in Arabic, treats of The Bases, or First Principles, of the Faith and Consolation of the Hearts of Believers. With Daniel bar Khattab we may close our list of Jacobite writers in the literature of Syria. The Nestorians kept the lamp burning for a little, though not much longer, as we shall presently see. Solomon Shelemon, or Solomon, of Khilat or Akhlat, on the shores of of al- Lake Van, was present as metropolitan of Perath de-Maishan or Basrah. al-Basrah at the consecration of the catholicus Sabhr-Isho' in 1222. 12 Besides some prayers and short discourses (memrone), he wrote a treatise on the figure of the heavens and the earth, 13 and compiled a volume of analecta, partly theological, partly historical, which he entitled Kethdbhd dhS-Dhcbbdrlthd or "the Bee." It is dedicated to his friend Narsai, bishop of Khom-Shabhor or Beth "Vaxik, called by the Arabs al-Bawazig or al-Bawazij, 14 on the lesser Zab. Of this work an analysis has been given by Assemani in the B.O., iii. 1, 309-324, and there is a German translation of it by Schon- felder, 1866. It has been recently edited by Mr E. A. W. Budge, of the British Museum, with an English translation, Oxford, 1886. 15 George This was an age of song with the Nestorians, in which lived some Warda. of their favourite writers of hymns. (1) One of the most conspicu- ous of these is George Warda (the Rose) of Arbel or Irbil, whose poems have entered so largely into the use of the Nestorian Church that one of their service books is to this day called the IVardd. His date may be gathered from certain of his hymns, which speak of the calamities of the years 1535-38 = 1224-27 A.D. 17 (2) About Mas'ud. the same time flourished Mas'ud of the family Beth Kashsha (in Arabic Ibu al-Kass), who was physician (Jiakim] to the caliph al- Musta'sim (1242-58), and outlived his patron. 18 One of his poems 1 B.O., ii. 264. 2 Edited by Pocock,with a Latin translation, in 1663. MSS. Cod. Vat. olxvii. ; Brit. Mus. Add. 6944, 6952, 1, 23304-5 ; Bodl. Pocock 54, 162 ; Palat. Medic, cxvii. 3 De Philos. Peripat. ap. Syros, p. 67. 4 B.O., ii. 308. MSS. Cod. Vat. clxxiv.; Bodl. Hunt. 1, Marsh. 201 ; Paris, Anc. fonds 118, 130, 157 ; Palat. Medic. Ixii. (Catcd., p. 110); see also Cod. Vat. ccccxxii.; Bodl. Poc. 298 ; Berlin, Alt. Best. 41, 2, 3, and Sachau 61, 4-6. 6 B.O., ii. 271, No. 20. 6 Ibid., ii. 268, note, col. 2, No. 31 ; p. 272, note 1. 7 See a few short specimens in Kirsch and Bernstein's Chrest. Syr., pp. 1-4, and in an article by L. Morales in the Z.D.M.G., xl. p. 410 sq. MSS. Cod. Vat. clxxiii.; Ind. Off. No. 9, "Tracts in Syriac," fi". 351-413. The Daf al-Hamm is contained in Paris, Anc. fonds 100. The catalogue of Bar - Hebrams's works in Jl.O., ii. 268, note, adds one Arabic book to this long list (col. 1, No. 19, at the foot) of which we know nothing but the title there given in Syriac, Kethdbhd dhe-Henydh Yuthrane, " On the Pleasure of Gain." 8 Payne Smith, Catal., p. 377 ; Catal. Vat., iii. 358. 9 B.O., ii. 463 ; Cod. Vat. Arab, dcxxxvi. (Mai, Scriptt. Veil. Nova Coll., iv. 573). 10 B.O., ii. 464. 11 Ibid., ii. 244 ; Cod. Vat. Arab. Ixxiv. (Mai, op. cit., iv. 153). 12 B.O., ii. 453, No. 75 ; Bar-Hebrs>us, Chron. Eccles., ii. 371. 13 B.O., iii. 1, 310. 14 See Hoffmann, Ausziige, pp. 189 and 296. 15 MSS. Cod. Vat, clxxvi., clxxvi. ; Brit. Mus. Add. 25S75 ; RAS. Add. 76; Munich, Cod. Syr. 7 (with an Arabic translation). Bodl. Pocock 79 and Paris, Anc. fonds 113, contain only an Arabic translation, different from that in the Munich MS. !6 Badger, The Nestorians, ii. 25. A few specimens are giren by Cardalu in the Liber Thrsmiri, p. 51. Badger has translated one, op. cit., pp. 51-57. 17 Catal, Vat,, iii. 391, at the top. Important MSS. of Warda" s hymns are Cod. Vat. clxxxiv: ; Berlin, Alt. Best. 24, Sachau 1SS ; Cambridge, coll. of the 8.P.C.K. 18 B.0.,in. 1, 561 ; Bar-Hebreeus, Hist. Dynast., pp. 522-523 (transl., pp. 341-342). for the feast of the Epiphany occurs in Cod. Vat. clxxxiv. (Catal. iii. p. 389). 19 (3) Khamis bar Karduhe of Arbel was a younger contemporary of Bar-Hebrteus, as appears from his correspondence Khamls. with Daniel bar Khattab (see above). He too has bequeathed his name to one of the Nestorian service books, which is still called Gabriel the Khamls. w (4) Gabriel Kamsa (the Locust) was a monk of Beth- Kamsa. Kukfi. He became metropolitan of Mosul, and was present at the consecration of Yabh-alaha III. in 1281. a There is a long poem of his in Cod. Vat. clxxx. (Catal., iii. 376), treating of the creation, the incarnation, the life of our Saviour, the preaching of the apostles, and the praises of the fathers of the church, and concluding with an encomium on Sabhr-isho', the founder of Beth-Kiika. (5) John John of of Mosul was a monk of the convent of St Michael hear that city. 2 ' 2 Mosul. His work entitled KZthabhd dlil-Skapplr Dubbdre was published at Rome in 1868 by E. J. Millos, archbishop of 'Akra, as a school- book, under the title of Directorium Spirituale. It is, of course, impossible to say to what extent the original has been tampered with in such an edition, but there is a MS. in the Brit. Mus. Or. 2450. 23 The composition of the work is placed by Millos in 1245, and the death of the author by Cardalu (Lib. Thes., p. 120) in 1270. 'Abhd-isho' bar Berlkha holds nearly the same position in regard 'Abhd- to the Nestorian Church that Bar-Hebrseus does in relation to the Isho' bar Jacobite, though far inferior in talent and learning to "the Son of Berlkha. the Hebrew." He nourished under Yabh-alaha III., being firstly bishop of Shiggar (Sinjar) and Beth-'Arbaye about 1285, 24 and after- wards, before 1291, 25 metropolitan of Nisibis and Armenia. He died in 1318. 26 He has left us a list of his own publications at the end of the Catalogus Librorum, in the B.O., iii. 1, 325 sq. Several of these seem to be lost, at least they do not appear in the cata-. logues of our collections, such as the commentary on the Old and New Testaments, 27 the Kethdbhd Katholikos on the marvellous dis- pensation or life of our Lord on earth, 28 the Kethdbhd Skolastikos against all the heresies, 29 the book of the mysteries of the Greek philosophers, 30 the twelve discourses comprising all the sciences, 31 and the ecclesiastical decisions and canons, 32 as also an Arabic work with the title Sliah-marwarid or "the King-pearl." 33 The Mar- gdnithd or "Pearl" is a theological work in five sections, treating of God, the creation, the Christian dispensation, the sacraments of the church, and the things that prefigure the world to come. There is a careful analysis of its contents in B.O., iii. 1, 352-360. It has been edited, with a Latin translation, in Mai, Scriptt. Vctt. Nova Coll., x., and done into English by Badger, The Nestorians, ii. 380 sq. The date of composition is 1298. 34 'Abhd-Isho' himself translated this work into Arabic in 1312, as we learn from 'Amr ibn Matta in the Majdal, where large portions of it are quoted. 35 The Collection of Synodical Canons or Nomocanon is also fully analysed by Assemani, B.O., iii. 1, 332-351. It has been edited, with a Latin traiislation, in Mai, Scriptt. Vctt. Nova Coll., x. 36 As a poet 'Abhd-isho' does not shine according to our ideas, although his countrymen admire his verses greatly. Not only is he obscure in vocabulary and style, but he has adopted and even exaggerated all the worst faults of Arabic writers of rimed prose and scribblers of verse. 37 His principal effort in poetry is the Paradise of Eden, a collection of fifty poems on theological subjects, which has been analysed by Assemani, B.O., iii. 1, 32S-332. 38 This volume was pub- lished by the author in 1291, and in 1316 he found that it was necessary to add an explanatory commentary. 39 Another collection of twenty-two poems, which may be regarded as parts of one com- position, treating of the love of wisdom and knowledge, is found in Cod. Vat. clxxiv. (Catal, iii. 359) and Bodl. Marsh. 201 (P. Smith, Catal., p. 510) ; and a third, including the above and a selection from the Paradise, is contained in Bodl. Marsh., 361. 4 Of his minor works, enumerated in the B.O., iii. 1, 361, the con- solatory discourses, the letters, and the commentary on the epistle of Aristotle to Alexander concerning the great art (alchemy) seem 19 See Cardalu, Liber Thesauri, pp. 12."i-12S. 1300 at the end. Berlin, Sachau 229, contains a poem of Bar-Hebrseus, amplified by Khamis and later poets ; compare B.O., ii. 308, iii. 1, 566. 21 B.O., ii. 456. Cardahl has published a specimen, Liber Thesauri, pp. 107-113. the Protaye (Protestants), who believe in nothing at all " ; see p. 14, 1. 12. 24 B.O., i. 539. K Ibid,, i. 538 ; iii. 1, 327, col. 2. - Ibid., i. 539 ; iii. 1, 3 notes 2, 3, 325 note 1. 27 ibid,, iii. 1, 325. ' Id., ibid. 29 Id., p. 360. 30 id., ibid. 31 Id., ibid. 32 ld. L i6id. 33 Perhaps only an Arabic recension or abridgement of the Marganltha, 34 M88.-Cod.vat clxxv.-vi., eccclvi. ; RAS. Add. 76 ; Berlin, Sachau 4, 312 ; Cambridge, coll. of the S.P.C.K. 35 R.O., iii. 1, 360, note 4 ; see Cod. Vat. Ixv., cccvii., and Cod. Vat. Arab, ex. (Mai, Scriptt. Vett. Nova Coll., iv.); compare B.O., iii. 1, 589. 36 MSS. Cod. Vat. cxxviii., cxxix., ccclv. 37 See Payne Smith's minute descriptions in his Catal., p. 523 87. 38 MSS. Cod. Vat. ccxlv., ccclxxix.; Paris, Anc. fonds 166; Berlin, Alt. Best. 41, 1, Sachau 1, 21, 80 ; Brit. Mus.Orient. 2302-3 ; Cambridge, coll. of the S.P.C.K. 39 B.O., iii., 1, 327, col. 2. 40 Payne Smith, fatal., p. 523 ; see also p. 531, Nos. 30, 31. In Paris, Anc. fonds 104, there is a poem explanatory of the ecclesiastical calendar (Zotenberg, Catal., p. 128).