Gorgias Handbooks

The history of Near and Middle Eastern Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study dates back to 1935, and it is the one area of scholarship that has been continuously represented at the Institute ever since. The volume opens with a historical sketch of the study of the Near and Middle East at the Institute. The second part of the volume consists of essays and short studies by IAS scholars, past and present, covering fields such as the ancient Near East and early Islamic history, the Bible and the Qurʾān, Islamic intellectual history within and beyond denominational history, Arabic and other Semitic languages and literatures, Islamic religious and legal practices, law and society, the Islamic West, the Ottoman world, Iranian studies, the modern Middle East, and Islam in the West.

Clavis Syriaca furnishes a complete analysis of the text of the Gospels of the Peshitta New Testament and is an excellent study tool for students who wish to study it. The Clavis begins with the Gospel of St. John, as its language is the simplest, and ends with that of St. Luke. It is an indispensable tool for any student of the New Testament or the Syriac language. Words are analyzed according to text placement, translation, grammar, and Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic cognates.

The small Assyrian community proved to be loyal, dedicated and hard-working citizens of Australia during the years 1914–1947. For the first time the Assyrian issue will be seen through the eyes of Australian official documents and it is hoped that this monograph will raise awareness of these people within Australia and abroad.

The Ostraca of the Coptic Museum, written on pottery pieces, limestone flakes and wood, present the lives of ordinary people in their interactions with one another, and includes their economic and personal affairs. This volume is a catalog of the 1,127 ostraca in the museum.

Sergius of Reshaina (d. 536), translated the (pseudo-)Aristotelian text known as the De Mundo from Greek into Syriac in the early sixth century. The earlier period of Greek-Syriac translation was characterized by freer versions, while in the seventh century there are very good examples of literalism. Since Sergius worked at a time between these two periods, his translation will be of special interest to Greek and Syriac scholars.

This coursebook is designed for students who have completed at least one year of college study in Biblical Hebrew. It helps students make the transition from the basic grammar books to use of the comprehensive reference grammars and to more advanced analysis of Biblical Hebrew. Constant reference is made to recent works of grammar, and also to the grammatical comments of the medieval Jewish exegetes. A central theme is that medieval and modern Biblical Hebrew scholars have reached essentially similar conclusions, even if the medievals lacked modern terminology

The British Library possesses one of the most important collections of Syriac manuscripts in the world, with large numbers dating back to the second half of the first millennium CE. The publication of important Syriac texts from these manuscripts has been going on for some 180 years and still continues. The aim of the present volume is to provide a guide to these scattered publications: following the sequence of the shelf-marks (call numbers), for each manuscript indication is given of what texts have been published from it. For convenience, a concordance between Wright’s Catalogue numbers and shelf-marks is provided, along with a list of palimpsests and of joins with manuscripts in other libraries, in particular with those still in the Library of Dayr al-Surian in Egypt, the monastery which was the source of over 500 manuscripts and fragments purchased by the British Museum in the mid nineteenth century.

`Enbe men Karmo Suryoyo is a chrestomathy intended primarily for students who have covered the essentials of Syriac morphology and syntax, but it should also interest anyone who enjoys Syriac literature in general. The twenty-six selections consist of examples of Syriac prose and poetry from the second until the thirteenth centuries AD. The readings reflect a wide and varied range of subject matter. Inevitably, selections of a religious nature predominate, but historical, ethnographic, chemical, astronomical, and linguistic excerpts produced by famous Syriac authors, as well as less familiar ones, have been included. A Syriac-English glossary and an index of grammatical points are included.

This introduction to Jerome's Vulgate Old Testament is useful for students with a limited background in Latin. Several familiar and interesting selections are included, such as the stories of Joseph, Moses, David and Goliath, Job, Daniel, and Jonah. The book also contains several Psalms as well as selections from wisdom and prophetic literature.

Clavis Syriaca furnishes a complete analysis of the text of the Gospels of the Peshitta New Testament and is an excellent study tool for students who wish to study it. The Clavis begins with the Gospel of St. John, as its language is the simplest, and ends with that of St. Luke. It is an indispensable tool for any student of the New Testament or the Syriac language. Words are analyzed according to text placement, translation, grammar, and Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic cognates. This is a very useful Victorian book for any student of Syriac.

The colophon, the ultimate or “crowing touch” paragraphs of a manuscript or a book, provides readers with a the historical context in which the scribe produced the manuscript (or the publisher, a book). At its most fundamental level, the colophon gives us the “metadata” of the manuscript: who was the scribe? When and where was the manuscript produced? For whom was it produced and who paid for it? But colophons are far more rich. They are literary works in their own right, having a style and rhetoric independent of the main literary text of the manuscript. Some are assertive, providing contextual data about the scribe/publisher and manuscript/book; others are expressive, demonstrating the scribe’s feelings and wishes. Some are directive, asking the reader for an action; others declarative, providing all sorts of statements about the scribe/publisher or even the reader. The latter sometimes provide historical facts otherwise lost to histories: wars, earthquakes, religious events, legal agreements, etc. This edited volume brings together scholars from various disciplines to study colophons in various languages and traditions across space and time.

An English translation of Arman Akopian's comprehensive Introduction to Aramean and Syriac Studies, from the earliest appearances of Arameans in the historical record, through to the modern day.

This coursebook is designed for students who have completed at least one year of college study in Biblical Hebrew. It helps students make the transition from the basic grammar books to use of the comprehensive reference grammars and to more advanced analysis of Biblical Hebrew. Constant reference is made to recent works of grammar, and also to the grammatical comments of the medieval Jewish exegetes. A central theme is that medieval and modern Biblical Hebrew scholars have reached essentially similar conclusions, even if the medievals lacked modern terminology.

This companion volume to Literary Snippets: Colophons Across Space and Time (Gorgias Press, 2023) gives examples of colophons (and their translations) from the Ancient Near East up to the pre-modern world, in Akkadian, Hebrew, Arabic, Syriac, and Persian.

This volume deals with One Thousand and One Nights in yet another and novel way as it brings old and new together by exploring parallels and possible origins of its tales, as well as the wealth of modern and contemporary material that it has originated and continues to inspire. The papers included in this volume address the theory and practice of the adaptation and appropriation of One Thousand and One Nights into any type of literary text and media, while approaching a definition of our contemporary knowledge and understanding of the Nights. Through this, it will be possible to underline the dynamic nature and autonomous life that the tale collection acquired and how it originated works like Jorge Luis Borges’s essays, Naguib Mahfouz’s works, Miguel Gomes’s trilogy, a Turkish soap opera that became popular around the world and made it to Netflix, or Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s well-known symphonic suite.

This volume contains the contents of George Kiraz’s catalogue of over 1300 people and places related to the Syriac tradition, expanded to include Latin names and citations as well as references to the Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage.

Since the 1850s until the outbreak of World War I, the Dominican Press in Mosul, Iraq, produced scholarly, liturgical, and pedagogical publications to service the local Christian communities. These hard to find publications have now been cataloged in detail by J. F. Coakley and David G. K. Taylor.

A grammar of Classical Syriac. An introductory course of eight lessons presents the Syriac phonology and script, followed by the basic course of 40 lessons. The book is designed to cover one academic year.

This volume sets out an exposition of the seven key iconic moments of Christian intellectual history that formulate the classical profession of Jesus Christ as the Word of God Incarnate.

As part of the Gorgias Handbook Series, this book provides a political and military history of the Sasanian Empire in Late Antiquity (220s to 651 CE). The book takes the form of a narrative, which situates Sasanian Iran as a continental power between Rome and the world of the steppe nomad.

Too many incoming students are fluent in English but unable to discuss the language grammatically. Introductory language courses and textbooks often assume a proficiency and familiarity with grammatical terms that is not possessed by the students. This guide delivers an understanding of English grammar starting from simple concepts and presupposing no background or vocabulary. This book is designed as a textbook and a reference for students beginning a New Testament Greek, Biblical Hebrew, Aramaic or Latin course.

A general introduction to the origin and development of Christianity, from its Jewish background in the land of Israel up to its contribution to the thought and art of medieval Europe.

This complete grammar of Code of Hammurabi is formally arranged and can be the basis for learning the rest of Akkadian grammar. Students of Biblical Hebrew or Arabic will find it a most convenient introduction to this sister language. The cuneiform text has been set out in columns opposite a phonetic transcription, thus enabling the comprehensive set of citations illustrating various points of Akkadian grammar to be easily checked within their wider linguistic context. This book, when used in conjunction with the author’s previous book “Hammurabi’s Laws”, makes it possible for a student to learn to read and understand the whole text of Hammurabi’s Stele.

This volume provides an introduction and engagement with the major critical issues in the study of Luke-Acts. As the study of Acts has become, once again, one of the major areas of focus within New Testament scholarship, this collection of essays presents an orientation to the major issues of Luke-Acts study, while providing fresh scholarship by senior scholars. This holistic overture addresses fundamental questions such as authorship, dating, textual concerns, sources, speeches and literary form(s).

This handbook explores beliefs of ancient Jews and Christians surrounding death and the afterlife through the lens of texts ranging from the Old Testament and New Testament, to Second Temple period and rabbinic literature, to early Christian writings. Figueras further brings together eschatological texts from Iran, Egypt, Greece, and Rome as comparanda, and provides context and bibliography to guide readers in their study of ancient Jewish and Christian views of death and the afterlife.