Syriac Christian Culture Syriac Christian Culture ܀ Beginnings to Renaissance ܀ Aaron Michael Butts and Robin Darling Young, Editors The Catholic University of America Press Washington, D.C. Copyright © 2020 The Catholic University of America Press All rights reserved The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standards for Information Science Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984. ∞ Cataloging-in-Publication Data available from the Library of Congress ISBN 978-0-8132-3368-0 Introduction Many scholars and students in North America cultivate an interest in Syriac studies, even though there is only a small number of university programs or faculty positions dedicated to the Syriac language or the history, culture, and religion of the historically Syriac-speaking communities. Scholars of early Christianity continue to investigate the distinctive culture of the Syriac-speaking regions in Syria and Mesopotamia expressed in biblical translations and subsequent compositions, while historians of late antiquity or early Islam trace the connections between this region and culture and their neighboring or competitor cultures, such as those of Sassanian Persia or the realm of Islam. The growing number of digitized collections of Syriac manuscripts and Syriac scholarship expresses this continuing interest, as do the essays published here. They are just a small part of the scholarly work on Syriac studies being pursued in North America. The articles published in this volume represent a selection of the papers presented at the Seventh North American Syriac Symposium (NASS VII), which was convened at The Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C. on June 21-24, 2015. Held every four years, the North American Syriac Symposium brings together university professors, graduate students, and scholars from the United States and Canada as well as from Europe, the Middle East, and India, in particular from the State of Kerala. The Symposium offers a unique opportunity for exchange and discussion on a wide variety of topics related to the language, literature, and cultural history of Syriac Christianity, which extends chronologically from the first centuries CE to the present day and geographically from v vi Introduction Syriac Christianity’s homeland in the Middle East to South India, China, and the worldwide diaspora. The first North American Syriac Symposium met at Brown University in 1991. It was followed by symposia at the Catholic University of America (1995), the University of Notre Dame (1999), Princeton Theological Seminary (2003), the University of Toronto (2007), and Duke University (2011).1 With the 2015 symposium, the Catholic University of America became the first university to host this prestigious event for a second time. The theme for NASS VII was Ad Fontes, or literally, ‘to the sources’. This Latin phrase is found in the Latin vulgate version of Ps 42:1: ‘As a deer longs for sources (ad fontes) of water, so my soul longs for you, God’.2 The phrase ad fontes is, however, better known as an epitomization of the renewed study of Greek and Latin classics during the Renaissance. It was, for instance, used by Erasmus of Rotterdam, who stressed that ‘above all, one must hasten to the sources themselves (ad fontes ipsos)’.3 For Erasmus, these sources were in Greek and Latin, but we wanted to extend this to Syriac as well. Thus, one of our goals with NASS VII was to celebrate the rich and varied sources on which the field of Syriac studies is built, from manuscripts and inscriptions to architecture, from objects of art to oral tradition. Symposium participants were encouraged to re-evaluate well-known sources, investigate lesser-known sources, and bring to light entirely new sources. The symposium was also a time to reflect on disciplinary, theoretical, and methodological approaches to these sources. We have included in this volume those papers that explore or reflect this theme of Ad Fontes. In order to make a coherent volume, we selected papers that focused on texts as sources and especially literary texts. We are grateful to the contributors, and to all who attended and supported the conference, for their participation. Aaron Michael Butts Robin Darling Young 1. For the history of the North American Syriac Symposium, see S. P. Brock and A. M. Butts, “Syriac Conferences,” in GEDSH, 389–390. 2. This is ʿal pṣidā in the Syriac Peshiṭta translation. 3. Erasmus, De ratione studii ac legendi interpretandique auctores (Paris: G. Biermant, 1511), edited in Desiderii Erasmi Roterodami Opera omnia, vol. 1.2, 120.11 (Amsterdam: North-Holland, 1969). Table of Contents Introduction v Abbreviations ix Aphrahaṭ and Ephrem: From Context to Reception 1 1. Making Ephrem One of Us 3 ܀ Joseph Amar, University of Notre Dame 2. The Significance of Astronomical and Calendrical Theories for Ephrem’s Interpretation of the Three Days of Jesus’ Death 37 ܀ Blake Hartung, Arizona State University 3. Reconsidering the Compositional Unity of Aphrahaṭ’s Demonstrations 50 ܀ J. Edward Walters, Hill Museum and Manuscript Library 4. From Sketches to Portraits 66 The Canaanite Woman within Late Antique Syriac Poetry ܀ Erin Galgay Walsh, University of Chicago Divinity School Translation 83 5. The Syriac Reception of Plato’s Republic 85 ܀ Yury Arzhanov, Ruhr University, Bochum 6. Did the Dying Jacob Gather His Feet into His Bed (MT) or Stretch Them Out (Peshiṭta)? 97 Describing the Unique Character of the Peshiṭta ܀ Craig Morrison, Pontifical Biblical Institute vii viii Table of Contents Hagiography: Formation and Transmission 111 7. The Invention of the Persian Martyr Acts 113 ܀ Adam Becker, New York University 8. The Sources of the History of ʿAbdā damšiḥā 149 The Creation of a Persian Martyr Act ܀ Simcha Gross, University of Pennsylvania 9. Stories, Saints, and Sanctity between Christianity and Islam 174 The Conversion of Najrān to Christianity in the Sīra of Muhammad ܀ Reyhan Durmaz, University of Pennsylvania Christians in the Islamic World 199 10. Syriac in the Polyglot Medieval Middle East 201 Digital Tools and the Dissemination of Scholarship Across Linguistic Boundaries ܀ Thomas A. Carlson, Oklahoma State University 11. Christian Arabic Historiography at the Crossroads between the Byzantine, the Syriac, and the Islamic Traditions 212 ܀ Maria Conterno, Ghent University 12. Seeing to be Seen 226 Mirrors and Angels in John of Dalyatha ܀ Zachary Ugolnik, Stanford University 13. On Sources for the Social and Cultural History of Christians during the Syriac Renaissance 251 ܀ Dorothea Weltecke, Goethe Universität Epilogue 277 14. Syriac Studies in the Contemporary Academy 279 Some Reflections ܀ Kristian Heal, Brigham Young University Bibliography 287 Index 343 Abbreviations General Abbreviations ca. circa, approximately ms(s). manuscript(s) PMA Persian Martyr Acts, or Acts of the Persian Martyrs Journals, Serials, and Reference Works AB Analecta Bollandiana AJSLL American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literature AKM Abhandlungen für die Kunde des Morgenlandes BF Byzantinische Forschungen BHG Bibliotheca Hagiographica Graeca BHO Bibliotheca Hagiographica Orientalis, SH 10, edited by Socii Bollandiani. Brussels: Societe des Bollandistes, 1910. BZ Byzantinische Zeitschrift CCSG Corpus Christianorum Series Graeca CH Church History CRINT Compendia Rerum Iudaicarum ad Novum Testamentum CSCO Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium DOP Dumbarton Oaks Papers ECA Eastern Christian Art ECS Eastern Christian Studies ECS Eastern Christian Studies ix