Thoughts on Antiquity, Patristics, putting things online, freedom of speech, information access, and more
After my last post, I realised that I had a copy of Amir Harrak’s translation of parts 3 and 4 of the Chronicle of Zuqnin, which, for the section about Montanus, is based on John of Ephesus. Here it is (Harrak, 1999, p.123-4): 549-550 The year eight hundred and sixty-one: Concerning the flood of the river [...]
Vivian Nutton’s paper From Galen to Alexander, Aspects of Medicine and Medical Practice in Late Antiquity,1 continues to give interesting pieces of information. On page 6 he discusses the relationship of antique medicine to Christianity at the opening of the Byzantine period, and tells us: … John of Ephesus denounced in the persecutions of Justinian an [...]
Amir Harrak, who published an English translation of parts 3 and 4 of this world chronicle, introduces the manuscript in the following, very interesting way. The Chronicle of Zuqnin is a universal chronicle which begins with the creation of the world and ends with the time of writing, A.D. 775-776. The Chronicle is known from [...]
Brent Landau’s online thesis of the Revelation of the Magi contains a Syriac text of this work, extracted from the first part of the Chronicle of Zuqnin. The third and fourth parts were translated into English by the excellent Amir Harrak. Landau has some interesting things to say about the manuscript: II. The Chronicle of [...]
Quite by accident I came across an online dissertation of an interesting yet obscure text here, via Flow of Consciousness: Oklahoma has been hiding one of its most interesting secrets for two years, namely its very own Syriac scholar. Dr. Brent Landau, graduate of Harvard Divinity School, is Assistant Professor at University of Oklahoma’s Religious [...]
The next installment makes clear how the Moslems even of this period behaved largely as bandits rather than rulers. In the year 1062 (749-750), the Arabs of Maipherkat spread themselves across the region and began to do much harm to the inhabitants of the mountain and to all the country. Qore (Korah) Ibn Thabit went [...]
The unknown 9th century chronicler from the abbey of Zuqnin in Mesopotamia, known to us as pseudo-Dionysius of Tell-Mahre, is continuing his tale of events after the Persians overthrew the Arabic Ummayad dynasty of Caliphs. Of the pastors of the Church who flourished at that time. After holy Athanasius, holy Mar John was patriarch of [...]
This continues as follows: In the year 1057 (745-746), Marwan went out from the Gate of the Turks. It is written in the prophet Jeremiah: “Therefore thus says the Lord: See I will put pitfalls before this people: fathers and son will fail together; neighbour and friend will perish.” All these things happened to the [...]
The plague is raging in the East in the 740′s AD. We’ve already seen quite enough about it, but the chronicler is not finished. He ends his description of it as follows: Everywhere, those who remained – a very small-number –removed the dead, and all day without pause carried them away, threw them down as one would [...]
The next passage of the anonymous 9th century Syriac chronicle is as follows. After the widespread flooding, which of course polluted the water supply, the inevitable plague struck. This is happening towards the end of the Ummayad caliphate, in the early 700′s. It is interesting to note that, while the Arabs and Jews buried their [...]