Sources for the history of the School of Nisibis / translated with an introduction and notes by Adam H. Becker.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Becker, Adam H., 1972-

Series:

Translated texts for historians ; v. 50.

Translated texts for historians

Language:

English

Syriac

Subjects (All):

Madrasat Naṣībīn--History--Sources.

Madrasat Naṣībīn.

Church history.

History.

Iraq--Church history--Sources.

Iraq.

Genre:

Sources.

Physical Description:

viii, 217 pages : maps ; 21 cm.

Other Title:

Sources for the study of the School of Nisibis

Sources for the history of Nisibis

Place of Publication:

Liverpool : Liverpool University Press, 2008.

Summary:

The Aramaic-speaking Christian community of late antique and early Islamic period Mesopotamia developed a school culture that persisted for several centuries. Not unlike the Rabbinic academies, the East-Syrian schools were innovative as centres of learning where study was formally institutionalized, in contrast to the informal study circles of the past. This school culture played an important role in the early translation of Greek philosophical texts into Arabic in the 'Abbasid period. The most influential and prominent of these schools was the School of Nisibis, and this volume provides an annotated translation of the major sources for the School. A polemical document composed by Simeon of Bet Arsham, a theological enemy of the School, describes the foundation of the School as a significant step in the supposed spread of 'Nestorianism' throughout the Sasanian Empire. The more extensive East-Shrian Cause of the Foundation of the Schools offers a history of learning from God's creation of the world to the time of the text's composition at the School of Nisibis in the late sixth century CE, recasting patriarchal, Israelite, 'pagan' and Christian history as a long series of schools. The last two chapters of the Ecclesiastical History describe the lives of the two most important head exegetes at the School. These sources have never been translated into English and this is the first time that any of them has received close historical, linguistic and thematic analysis.

Contents:

The School of Nishibis 1

Identifying Barhadbeshabba 11

On the Manuscripts, Translation, Notes and Terms 16

The Transliteration of the Syriac Alphabet in this Volume 18

Texts

Simeon of Bet Arsham, 'Letter' on the 'Nestorianization' of Persia 21

Translation and Notes 25

Barhadbeshabba, Ecclesiastical History 40

Translation and Notes 47

Chapter Thirty One: 'The Life of Narsai' 47

Chapter Thirty Two: 'The Life of Abraham of Bet Rabban' 73

Barhadbeshabba, The Cause of the Foundation of the Schools 86

Translation and Notes 94

Mingana Fragment of the Cause 161

Translation and Notes 161

Portion of the Memra on the Holy Fathers by Rabban Surin 163

Translation and Notes 163

Appendix I On the Manuscript Tradition of the Cause of the Foundation of the Schools 165

Appendix II The Tree of Porphyry in the Cause of the Foundation of the Schools 172

Appendix III The Literary Dependence of the Cause of the Foundation of the Schools on the Ecclesiastical History 181.

Notes:

Translated from the Syriac.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [196]-202) and indexes.

ISBN:

9781846311611

1846311616

OCLC:

225875942