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The Syriac writers of Qatar themselves produced some of the best and most sophisticated writing to be found in all Syriac literature of the seventh century, but they have not received the scholarly attention that they deserve in the last half century.

Questions concerning sacred spaces and their relationship to ritual is of interest to historians of religion and others as well. How sacred spaces emerge and are constructed and what relationship they have to rituals are some of the areas that are dealt with in this study in relation to Syriac Orthodox liturgy. The purpose of this study is to create a better understanding of how the Sedr¿ of Entrance has been practiced in earlier periods and architectural contexts and to investigate what role the entrance rite may have had in constructing the sanctuary as sacred space and the worshipping community as church. The Sedr¿ of Entrance is a prayer employed during the rite of entrance into the altar in Syriac Orthodox Eucharistic liturgy. This study uses ritual theory to frame the rite of entrance and studies the intersection of ritual text, action and place. Two research questions are addressed: a) How is the rite of entrance into the altar, in the Syriac Orthodox liturgy, performed during the 9th-13th centuries? b) How does the rite of entrance construct the sanctuary as sacred space and the worshipping community as church? The study builds on historical material, manuscripts from the 9th to the 13th centuries, architecture, and other historical textual material. The rite of entrance is framed with ritual theory. Theological analysis is also used to support the ritual theory. The themes of the dissertation include, among others, the relationship between ritual process, ritual place, and the ritual body. It also explores the role of language in the ritual process.

Each chapter highlights a thematic feature of the literary form, demonstrating that Christian and Muslim authors did not part ways in the first century of Islamic rule, but rather continued a dialogue commending God's faithful believers.

Among the earliest known sources from the Persian Church, the 4th-century Demonstrations of Aphrahat reflect a form of Christianity much closer to its Jewish roots than contemporary Western forms.

The Maronite Library of Aleppo is one of the most important collections of manuscripts in Syria. This catalogue gives the first detailed description of the Syriac manuscripts, also containing images and indices of titles, personal names, subjects and places.

This book presents a rare study of a text, taking into account its transmission in multiple languages, accompanied by newly re-edited Coptic and Syriac versions of the Life. This book also provides a commentary on the life of the "historical Macarius", as well as the Life seen as a literary, hagiographical, work.

A collection of studies on the Syriac sixth century writer Jacob of Sarug by a team of international scholars, including Susan Ashbrook Harvey, Sebastian P. Brock, Sharbil Iskandar Bcheiry, Khalid Dinno, Sidney Griffith, Mary Hansbury, Amir Harrak, George A. Kiraz, Edward Matthews, Aho Shemunkasho, and Lucas Van Rompay.

In this volume, a reprint of his 1966 monograph, H. J. W. Drijvers investigates the life and teachings of Bardaisan of Edessa, determining his place in the religious and cultural life of Edessa in the second half of the second century of the common era.

Kassia the Nun offers a unique glimpse into ninth-century Byzantium in the only woman whose works were included in the corpus of liturgical hymns.

Despite having been written over a century ago, the 3rd edition of Rubens Duval's History of Syriac Literature remains one of the best - and most readable - introductions to Syriac literature. This edition provides the first English translation of the work, translated by Olivier Holmey.

Although his life and writings came to our knowledge in Syriac, gaining him the title "Crown of the Syriac Literature," many texts relating to his life and works survived in the Coptic and Copto-Arabic tradition, as well as a number of other texts that were traditionally attributed to him.

A sensitive and evocative treatment of the role of the Holy Spirit in worship. With a keen awareness of the tradition of Syrian Christianity, Brock begins his exploration with the role of the Holy Spirit in the Syriac Bible.

The account of the Martyrs of Najran has hitherto been known only through the Greek and the Syriac textual tradition, but this book offers an analysis of the original Arabic account to provide information about the most important details, and for identifying the original text of the Arabic version.

Jacob of Edessa was a seventh century polymath who witnessed the coming of Islam. In this collection of papers, specialists discuss the life and works of this figure with emphasis on the cultural landscape of the seventh century. Brock, Richard Price, Andreas Juckel, Alison Salvesen, Theresia Hainthaler, Amir Harrak, and Khalid Dinno.

The Bodleian Library in Oxford currently holds an unpublished historical document in Syriac containing precious historical information about the ordination of bishops, priests, monks, and deacons.

This book is a classic in the history of the Oriental Churches, which are sometimes portrayed as heretical in general church history books, if mentioned at all.

This book examines the function and development of the cult of saints in Coptic Egypt, focusing primarily on the material provided by the texts forming the Coptic hagiographical tradition of the early Christian martyr Philotheus of Antioch, and more specifically, the Martyrdom of St Philotheus of Antioch (Pierpont Morgan M583).

The Malabar Independent Syrian Church is the smallest of the jurisdictions into which the St Thomas Christian community is divided today. The present work shows how the bishops of this tiny, one-Diocese Church, now largely forgotten, once stood at the centre of the events that shaped the present ecclesiastical situation.

This monograph presents an unpublished historical resource in the form of a register of dues collected for the Syriac Orthodox Patriarchate during the second half of the nineteenth century. Bcheiry provides the original text, an English translation, and an extensive socio-economic study.

This comprehensive study offers a critical, comparative analysis of the sources available on Bardaisan and a reinterpretation of his thought. Bardaisan's thought emerges as a deeply Christian one, depending on the exegesis of Scripture read in the light of Greek philosophy.

Twenty-four contributions on matters dealing with Byzantine and Oriental lands, people, and cultures through different perspectives, including history, maritime trade, documents, travelers, and art.

The main purpose of the book is to demonstrate that as early as the first phase of his activity (386-393 AD), Augustine did make use of some Origenian works, and that basic elements of his early theology were derived from the Alexandrian master.

Common Heritage, Divided Communion examines the various religious and secular events related to the Council of Chalcedon (451) and the so-called "Monophysite" schism. It includes a detailed overview and analysis of contemporary Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox ecumenical efforts to re-establish ecclesial communion.

Origen's construal of the Bible as a textual incarnation of the Word encourages an assimilationist interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures as a proto-Christian gospel. Although in partial agreement with this thesis, this study suggests a non-assimilationist reading of Origen's biblical exegesis.

This work explores the points of contact, as well as the differences between the distinct notions of divine embodiment developed by Maximos the Confessor (580-662), one of the greatest Greek Fathers, and Tsong kha pa (1357-1419), arguably the most important thinker in the history of Tibetan Buddhism.

Explores the potential insights provided by a distinct tradition of biblical interpretation that has its roots in both the patristic School of Antioch and in the Syriac Fathers, such as Ephrem and Jacob of Sarug, and which has survived and developed in the Churches of the Antiochene Patrimony, such as the Maronite and Syriac.

Gigineishvili's study is a comprehensive exposition of the philosophical system of twelfth-century Georgian Christian Neoplatonist philosopher Ioane Petritsi. The translation needed the creation of a philosophic language-a medium for transmitting the extravagant philosophic ideas into Georgian-which Petritsi effectively achieved.

A popularly-written study of the biblical roots of the Eastern Orthodox Church's mystical understanding of the knowledge of God. This unique study brings together the best of contemporary exegesis with the tradition of Eastern Christianity and illustrates the biblical roots of the Eastern Church's understanding of grace as the energy of God.

This volume contains papers from the First International Congress on Eastern Christianity held in Cordoba, Spain, November 2005. The encounter of medieval Christian writers with several linguistic traditions through the Middle Ages produced one of the most important branches of Middle Eastern literature.