Strategius was a 7th-century monk of Mar Saba. He wrote a sermon on the siege and sack of Jerusalem in 614 and its aftermath, the forcible relocation of some of its inhabitants to Ctesiphon and the efforts of the Patriarch Zacharias to stiffen their faith in the face of persecution. Despite some deficiencies, this "account is of great value to the historian, as long as it is handled judiciously" [1] and is "perhaps the single most important historical source for events in Jerusalem and the Holy Land in the decades immediately prior to the Islamic invasion and conquest". [2]
Although originally written in Greek, the Greek text is lost. The sermon survives in Georgian, Arabic, and Syriac translations, [1] with the Syriac being a translation of the Arabic. [3] The Georgian text is found in three manuscripts. The earliest dates to around 1040 and was copied at the Monastery of the Cross in Jerusalem. [4] In a later 13th-century copy, it covers sixty-six octavo pages. [5] The full Arabic translation is found in three manuscripts and an abridged version in two more. [1] Both the Georgian and Arabic versions have been published along with translations into Latin. [6] Nikolai Marr translated the Georgian text into Russian. He argued that the Georgian translation was made from an Arabic version in the 10th century. [5] There is also a partial English translation from Georgian. [7]
Strategius, sometimes called Antiochos Strategos, has been tentatively identified with the monk Antiochus of Palestine, but this is unproven. [8]
Jacob of Serugh, also called Jacob of Sarug or Mar Jacob, was one of the foremost poets and theologians of the Syriac Christian tradition, second only to Ephrem the Syrian and equal to Narsai. He lived most of his life as an ecclesiastical official in Suruç, in modern-day Turkey. He became a bishop near the end of his life in 519. He was a Miaphysite, albeit moderate compared to his contemporaries.
May 16 - Eastern Orthodox Church calendar - May 18
Isḥaq of Nineveh, also remembered as Saint Isaac the Syrian, Isaac of Nineveh, Abba Isaac, Isaac Syrus and Isaac of Qatar, was a 7th-century Syriac Christian bishop of the Church of the East, and theologian best remembered for his written works on Christian asceticism. He is regarded as a saint in the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Church and Church of the East traditions. His feast day falls, together with 4th-century theologian and hymnographer St. Ephrem the Syrian, on January 28.
Frederick Cornwallis Conybeare, was a British orientalist, Fellow of University College, Oxford, and Professor of Theology at the University of Oxford.
Antiochus of Palestine, also known as Antiochus the Monk or Antiochus Monachus, was a Christian monk and writer.
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The Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium is an important multilingual collection of Eastern Christian texts with over 600 volumes published since its foundation in 1903 by the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium and the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. The present Secretary General is Andrea Schmidt of the University of Louvain (UCLouvain) in Louvain-la-Neuve.
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The Sasanian conquest of Jerusalem was a significant event in the Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628, having taken place in early 614. After the conquest of Jerusalem and the defeat of the Byzantines, Khosrow II ordered to transfer the true cross to Tisophon.
Enrico Cerulli was an Italian scholar of Somali and Ethiopian studies, a governor and a diplomat.
Agapiusof Hierapolis, also called Maḥbūb ibn Qusṭanṭīn, was a Melkite Christian historian and the bishop of Manbij in Syria. He wrote a universal history in Arabic, the lengthy Kitāb al-ʿunwān. He was a contemporary of the annalist Eutychius, also a Melkite.
The Chronicle of 1234 is an anonymous West Syriac universal history from Creation until 1234. The unknown author was probably from Edessa. The Chronicle only survives in fragments, from which it is known to be divided into two parts: the first on ecclesiastical history, the second on secular. It was critically edited and translated by the French Orientalist Jean-Baptiste Chabot in 1920 and by Albert Abouna in 1974.
Joseph Lebon was a Belgian priest and professor of theology at the University of Louvain.
Saint Modestus of Jerusalem was Patriarch of Jerusalem from 632-634.
André de Halleux (1929–1994) was a Belgian Franciscan, and professor at the University of Louvain at the Theological Faculty and at the Oriental Institute.
Syriac studies is the study of the Syriac language and Syriac Christianity. A specialist in Syriac studies is known as a Syriacist. Specifically, British, French, and German scholars of the 18th and 19th centuries who were involved in the study of Syriac/Aramaic language and literature were commonly known by this designation, at a time when the Syriac language was little understood outside Assyrian and Maronite Christian communities, as well as larger communities adhering to Syriac Christianity. In Germany the field of study is distinguished between Aramaistik and Neuaramaistik.
Jean-Baptiste Chabot was a Roman Catholic secular priest and the leading French Syriac scholar in the first half of the twentieth century.
Zacharias of Jerusalem was the Patriarch of Jerusalem of the Church of Jerusalem from 609 to 632. Zacharias spent most of his patriarchate as a prisoner of the Sasanian Emperor Khosrow II following the Sasanian conquest of Jerusalem. He is commemorated by the Orthodox Church on February 21. He is also venerated in the Catholic Church, where he is known mostly for the sacramental called the "Plague Cross of Saint Zacharias of Jerusalem".
Nuhrā d-Tešmeštā ʿEdtānāytā, better known by its Latin title, Expositio officiorum ecclesiae, is an anonymous Syriac commentary on the East Syriac liturgy. Its author is usually referred to as Pseudo-George of Arbela. The work is dedicated to a certain Daniel.
Leontius of Damascus was a Syrian monk who wrote a biography in Greek of his teacher, Stephen of Mar Saba. It emphasises Stephen's asceticism and thaumaturgy (miracle-working), but is also a rich source for the history of Palestine in the eighth century. It has been translated into English.