Late Antique Historiography

Book of governors

Title(s):
  • Book of governors
  • ܟܬܒܐ ܕܖ̈ܫܢܐ
    (ktābā d-rešānē, Book of the superiors/abbots)
  • ܬܫ̈ܥܝܬܐ ܘܫܖ̈ܒܐ ܡܘܬܪܢܐ ܕܥܠ ܐܢܫ̈ܐ ܩܕܝܫ̈ܐ ܘܝܚܝܕ̈ܝܐ ܕܗܘܘ ܒܕܪ ܕܪ ܒܥܘܡܪܐ ܩܕܝܫܐ ܕܒܝܬ ܥܒ̈ܐ
    (taš‘yātā w-šarbē mawtrānē d-‘al ’nāšē qadīšē w-īḥīdāyē da-hwāw b-dār dār b-‘ūmrā qadīšā d-bēth ‘ābē, Useful stories and accounts of holy men and monks who generation after generation lived in the holy monastery of Bet ‘Abe)
  • Historia monastica
Author:
Period covered:
Late 6th-middle of 9th c.
Language:
Syriac
State of Preservation:
Full
Genre:
  • Ecclesiastical history
  • Biography (collective)
Remarks:
This is a history of monks. The story of the monks Cyprian and Gabriel, which is preserved in the manuscripts as the sixth book of the Book of governors, was initially an autonomous piece of writing and was included only later on in the author's main work.
Edition - Translation:
Fragments:
Users:
Sources:
Bibliography:
  • S. Brock, A.M. Butts, G.A. Kiraz, L. Van Rompay (2011) The Gorgias encyclopedic dictionary of the Syriac heritage. Piscataway (NJ): 417.
  • S. Brock, A.M. Butts, G.A. Kiraz, L. Van Rompay (2011) The Gorgias encyclopedic dictionary of the Syriac heritage. Piscataway (NJ): 417.
  • M. Debié (2010) 'Writing history as 'histoires': The biographical dimension of East Syriac historiography'. In: Writing 'true stories': Historians and hagiographers in the late antique and medieval Near East, ed. A. Papaconstantinou - M. Debié - H.N. Kennedy (Cultural encounters in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, 9). Turnhout: 43-75.
  • M. Debié (2015) L'écriture de l'histoire en syriaque: Transmissions interculturelles et constructions identitaires entre hellénisme et Islam (Late antique history and religion, 12). Leuven - Paris - Bristol: 354.
  • J.-M. Fiey (1965) 'Thomas de Marga: Notule de littérature syriaque'. Le muséon 78: 361-366.
  • R. Hoyland (1997) Seeing Islam as others saw it: A survey and evaluation of Christian, Jewish and Zoroastrian writings on early Islam (Studies in Late Antiquity and early Islam, 13). Princeton: 213-215.
  • S. Brock, A.M. Butts, G.A. Kiraz, L. Van Rompay (2011) The Gorgias encyclopedic dictionary of the Syriac heritage. Piscataway (NJ): 417.
  • M.P. Penn (2010) 'A temporarily resurrected dog and other wonders: Thomas of Margā and early Christian/Muslim encounters'. Medieval Encounters 16: 209-242.
  • C.F. Robinson (2000) Empire and elites after the Muslim conquest: The transformation of Northern Mesopotamia. Cambridge: 92-102.
  • H. Teule (2009) 'Thomas of Marga'. In: Christian-Muslim relations: A bibliographical history. Volume One: 600-900, ed. D. Thomas - B. Roggema (The history of Christian-Muslim relations, 11). Leiden - Boston: 688-690.
  • S. Brock, A.M. Butts, G.A. Kiraz, L. Van Rompay (2011) The Gorgias encyclopedic dictionary of the Syriac heritage. Piscataway (NJ): 417.
  • P. Wood (2013) The Chronicle of Seert: Christian historical imagination in late antique Iraq. Oxford: 153-160.
  • W.G. Young (1974) Patriarch, shah, and caliph: A study of the relationships of the Church of the East with the Sassanid empire and the early caliphates up to 820 A.D., with special reference to available translated Syriac sources. Rawalpindi: 106-127.