E. W. Brooks and the Chronicle of James of Edessa

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Chronica Minora III (CSCO 6, AD 1906) contains Latin translations of a number of Syriac historical texts, each with an introduction.  I thought that I would give the introduction to the Chronicle of James of Edessa here in English, since this text is an important one for the early history of ambien Islam.  Notes by me are in square brackets.

The text was around 340 words of Latin, and took me about 45 minutes, although I read over it last night first, and only had to look up about 3 words. 

II. Chronicle of James of Edessa, translated by E. W. Brooks.

Fragments of this chronicle are preserved in British Museum manuscript Additional 14,685, which according to Wright [the cataloguer of the BM Syriac mss] was written in the 10th or 11th century.  The author given as is James Philoponus, or “lover of work”, who is the same as James of Edessa, in Wright’s opinion, because excerpts from the work of James of Edessa are quoted by Michael the Syrian.  The canon-table itself, which begins on folio 10r, is a continuation of the Chronicle of Eusebius of Caesarea; to it a preface is prefixed in which the work of Eusebius is corrected and supplemented.

 In the manuscript as we now have it, the fragments are wrongly ordered: fol. 12v must be read before fol. 12r, and fol. 18v before 18r [i.e. these pages have clomid cheap been bound in backwards], fol. 11 and 13 come from the same folio, and likewise fol. 19 and 20; and two fragments which contain fol. 19 are stuck together.

The fragments go no further than 942 A. S. [=the Seleucid era, or year of the Greeks], = 631 AD, but the canon, as we learn from Michael the Syrian, was continued to 1021 A.S.  Michael notes that James died two years before this, so that the last two years must be supposed to be the work of a pupil.  But Elias of Nisibis says that James composed the Chronicle in 1003 A.S. = 692 AD; and if this is true, then 18 years must be ascribed to the continuator.  The canon of years was copied by Michael, so portions now missing from the manuscript can easily be restored.  The same author quotes several places from the preface in a complete form which are now mutilated in our manuscript.  We have also edited from Elias of Nisibis material klonopin online both from the preface, which he calls the Chronicle, and excerpts from the canon itself, to fill up the gaps.

Among the sources for the Chronicle the following must be included: Socrates, Theodoret, the Chronicle of Edessa, John of Ephesus, the history generally ascribed to Zacharias Rhetor, and perhaps lists of emperors, kings and bishops.  In the preface, besides Eusebius, James used certain Alexandrian chronographers, perhaps Anianus and Andronicus, and, as we see, a catalogue of kings of the Persians.

The beginning of the preface was translated [not so; edited] in the Catalogue by the excellent Wright; I myself edited the Canon in 1899 with an English translation and commentary: the complete text of the whole work is now translated for the first time [into Latin].  Many places which in the previous edition of the canon were left lacunose or wrongly filled up I have now restored from Michael and corrected. [Michael was published between 1899 and 1906] I have imitated the layout of the manuscript where possible in both text and translation; in the translation I have prednisone restored lacunas in the canon of years, but in the text it did not seem worthwhile to do so.

Bibliographical note:

You can read a description of the manuscript in Wright, Catalogue of Syriac MSS in the British Museum, p. 1062-1064  [online here, vol. 3; the PDF is p.1062 also.  This gives the text of the start of the work, not a translation].
Editions: W. Wright, op. cit., p. 1062, 1063, London, 1872.  Text of the start.
E. W. Brooks, The Chronological Canons of James of Edessa (Zeitschr. d. Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft, Bd. LIII, p. 261 ff and p. 550).  Canon with English translation. — Cf. also ibid. p. 534 ff (notes by Sigismund Fränkel) — See also F. Nau, Notice sur un nouveau ms. de l’Octoechus de Severe d’Antioche et sur l’auteur Jacques Philoponus (Journ. asiatique, ser. IX, tom. XI, p. 346 ff).

*      *     *

From Wright:

DCCCCXXI.  Paper, about 12 in. by 7, consisting of 23 leaves, all of which are more or less stained and torn.  There are from 36 to 40 lines in each page.  This volume is written in a good, regular hand of the 10th or 11th century and contains…

Share

Microfilms of the Ambrosian library in the USA

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Christopher Ecclestone has sent me this link which shows that a US university has microfilm copies of all the manuscripts in the Ambrosian library in Milan.  Good to know these exist; now what about getting them online where we can see them?

The holdings of the Biblioteca Ambrosiana (named after Ambrose of Milan, of course) are very rich, and include the manuscripts from the abbey of Bobbio.  These remained unknown through much of the renaissance, and were only discovered in 1493.  The abbey was founded in the early Dark Ages by the Irish monk St. Columbanus, and many of its books were made by reusing old parchment.  Consequently the books include many palimpsests of classical texts not known elsewhere.

PS: A sinister note.  Apparently the Ambrosian have banned this US library from making microfilms available.  All requests must go to the library itself.  The library has a site — only in Italian, of course — in which I was unable even to locate the microfilm-ordering service.  I think I will write and ask why they do such a thing.

Share

New fragments of the Turin King-list

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Our knowledge of the dynasties of the Pharaoh’s derives in the first place from Manetho, a Greek working for the Ptolemies. Actually that well-worn statement is misleading; Manetho is lost, and our knowledge of the contents of his work derives from quotations by Eusebius, mostly in the Chronicle.

In the 19th century Drovetti discovered a papyrus roll, dated to the 12th century BC, containing a list of kings so far.  This he sold to the Italians, and in the process of being passed around the nearly complete roll was reduced to a heap of fragments. 

From this article I understand that some mislaid fragments have been located, and that the British Museum will be trying to piece them into the remains.

Share

A curious problem with discussing Islam online

Posted on by Roger Pearse

The number of threats to freedom of speech online seems to increase daily; far more than I can reasonably blog about here, on a blog dedicated to patristics and manuscript studies.  So I try to discuss only really important stuff.  By chance I came across this post, which contained the following statement:

My video IS classified as hate speech. At least, that’s what thousands of Muslims said whilst flooding YouTube with constant “flagging.” In case you haven’t yet heard, there are actual online Muslim networks that exist solely for this purpose. The minute anything even remotely critical of Islam pops up online, thousands of members are notified and are commanded to flag, spam and utilize comment suppression techniques that ultimately result in the video’s removal and permanent banning of the user. The frightening part is that their “Denial of Service” tactics are devastatingly effective, extremely covert and easily mobilized.

Is this right?  Is all online discussion of Islam taking place under an unreported threat of this kind of intimidation?

Share

95% of UK ISP’s implementing censorship machinery

Posted on by Roger Pearse

From slashdot.org:

“The UK government stated in 2006 that they wished to see 100% of UK consumer broadband ISPs’ connections covered by blocking, which includes” — but is not limited to — “images of child abuse. 95% of ISPs have complied, but children’s charities are calling for firmer action by the government as the last 5% cite costs and concerns over the effectiveness of the system. According to Home Office Minister Alan Campbell, ‘The government is currently looking at ways to progress the final 5%.’ With a lack of transparency in the IWF list, firm government involvement, and blocking that only ‘includes’ (but may not be limited to) images of child abuse, it looks like the writing is on the wall for unfiltered, uncensored Internet connections in the UK.”

It will soon be 100%, it seems, with the IWF – an unelected quango – deciding which sites may be accessed from the UK.  No-one wants child porn on the web, of course.  But child-porn is the excuse, not the reason.  What this gives the establishment — not even the elected government, for heaven’s sake! — is the power to block sites they don’t like, without appeal or control or, indeed, even our knowledge.

Now that the establishment has a list of sites which every ISP is blocking, how long before entries in it are added for political reasons?  That sites which are (e.g.) seen to be politically incorrect are added?

I give it two years at most.

Share

Agapius on a boat

Posted on by Roger Pearse

I’m still translating the world history of the 10th century Arabic Christian writer Agapius.  I’ve just come across this:

This sea contains also on the coast of Persia a gulf which is called the Persian Gulf;  its length is 1,400 miles, its width at the beginning is 500 miles and its end is 150 miles.  Between these two gulfs is the country of Hedjaz and Yemen;  the distance between the gulf of Aylah and the Persian Gulf is 1,500 miles.

Today we encounter Arabs determined to rename the Persian gulf as “the Arabian sea.”  But here is evidence that in the Middle Ages they had no such qualms.

He also mentions Britain!

Share

New Department of Syriac at Mardin University

Posted on by Roger Pearse

I learn from George Kiraz on the Hugoye list of a newspaper announcement that Mardin University in Eastern Turkey is to create a department of Syriac studies.  Apparently Oxford University is the only other university in the world with such a department.   The university is based in the middle of the remaining Syriac-speaking population, which makes it a natural place for such study.  This is good news! Let’s hope that they hunt for books in the region and publish texts which have escaped the attention of researchers.  Who knows what may sit on rural shelves, awaiting attention?

Share

Persepolis tablets and US law courts

Posted on by Roger Pearse

There is a curious story here, and elsewhere on the web.  Currently some cuneiform tablets from Persepolis were loaned by the Iranians to a US museum.   Some people in the US, related to people killed in Iranian-organised bombings in Israel in 1997, and of the US marine barracks in Beirut in 1983, have filed a lawsuit demanding “compensation” from the state of Iran.  The Iranians naturally declined to appear in any such lawsuit, so this court gave judgement against them.  The plaintiffs are now demanding that the tablets, Iranian state property, be seized and sold off so that they can get “their” money. 

I doubt that I am the only one who feels really angry about this.

It is hard to understand how any US court would suppose that it has jurisdiction over a claim such as this, between two — or three! — nation states.  But then like many people I have little faith in the US justice system. I am told that Britons find these courts unwilling to rule against US citizens, and that in their law-suits, justice takes second place to inflicting injury on your enemy.  

I found that reports of the case in the Iranian media did not mention the Beirut bombing, only the Jerusalem one.  This makes it a question of an Iranian attack on an Israeli target being adjudicated in a US court as if it was a property dispute in Minnesota.  Again, what jurisdiction do they have?

Finally how does the US benefit from destroying the chance of any loans of artefacts from any nation against which some group of its citizens may feel ire?  In the Arab world there is a general perception that US policy is shaped by Jewish groups, even to the detriment of US interests.  The Iranian articles made this link here too. 

In this context I can’t avoid remembering that, when Sir Walter Scott was found to be accidentally responsible for the debts of a publishing firm, and made arrangements to pay all of the money due by stages, only a Jewish firm refused to take part in the settlement.  Knowing that no-one in Scotland wanted this well-loved figure in prison, they deliberately started to harass him and began proceedings to imprison him, believing (correctly) that the other debtors would ensure they were paid, even if everyone else had to wait.  This lawsuit would seem to be of a similar nature; to get the money, perhaps from the US government, by threatening to damage massively the international reputation of the USA.

It’s a dirty, nasty law-suit, from some dirty, nasty people.  The judge who allowed it should be fired.  The law firm involved should be struck off.  At least some of the plaintiffs need to be prosecuted for vexatious litigation *.  No-one should get money for this.  The US government should have the guts to come down very hard here; in the interests of us all. 

In war, no questions of compensation arise between the combatants, except as the spoils of war. For there is no real doubt that an undeclared war is being fought between Iran and the West.  The choices for action seem to be to either make this war much more uncomfortable for the Iranians — invade Iran, or whatever –; or to endure the constant Iranian attacks and pretend they don’t matter; or else to make peace, although I doubt the Iranians want to do this.   But whatever option is chosen — and this is not the place to decide –, petty and hateful rubbish like trying to sell the Persepolis tablets is not the answer. 

* No doubt some of the plaintiffs are honest but mistaken people, of course.

Share

Biblia Patristica now online

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Want to know where a verse of scripture is referenced in the Fathers?  The answer has always been the Biblia Patristica volumes.  These are now embedded in BIBLIndex, and so accessible to us all.  Well done, chaps!  (Thanks to Ben Blackwell for publicizing this).

Share

More letters of Isidore of Pelusium

Posted on by Roger Pearse

27. (1.27) TO THE PALACE EUNUCH PHARISMANIUS.

I understand that it is said that you are interested in the divine books and that you make an appropriate use of their testimonies in every circumstance, but that you are a covetous man, furiously grabbing for yourself from the lives of others.  I am extremely astonished that this assiduous reading has not blessed you with the divine love, a love which should have modified your former behaviour, something which not only prevents us from desiring the goods of others, but further prescribed us to distribute our own goods.  So, when you read, understand, or, if you do not understand, read!

36. (1.36) TO THE PALACE EUNUCH ANTIOCHUS.

Since you unroll the sacred books and, so it is said, you are very attached to reading them, you must know the history of the admirable Daniel:  upright in the middle of floods of error, he would not undergo the fate of the prisoners, not even to take his share of common meals, even when they did not happen to make unclean those who touched them.  And since not only you are the servant of the imperial power but that you direct it as you want, hurry up and make effective again the justice which has fallen into a state of weakness or rather which is moribund:  you will thus find the court of justice benevolent to you, even if for an hour the idea does not often come to you, blinded as you are by the vain spectacle of grandeur.  

Share