Late Antique Historiography

Book of chastity

Title(s):
  • Book of chastity
  • ܟܬܒܐ ܕܢܟܦܘܬܐ
    (ktābā d-nakpūtā, Book of chastity)
  • Liber castitatis
Author:
Period covered:
4th-9th c.
Language:
Syriac
State of Preservation:
Full
Genre:
  • Biography (collective)
Remarks:
Whether the text we have is Ishodnah's original work or an abridgement/reworking of it is an open question: according to Chabot (1896: 1-3) it is an 'abrégé'; according to Hoyland (1997: 212) it is a version that presents numerous glosses and some reworking; in Fiey's (1966: 447) opinion it should be considered as by and large the original text, until proven otherwise. Only very late copies survive (end of the nineteenth century), according to Fiey (1966: 435-437) all copied from the same manuscript that was once preserved in northern Iraq and is now lost.
Edition - Translation:
Fragments:
Users:
Sources:
Bibliography:
  • J.S. Assemani (1725) Bibliotheca Orientalis Clementino-Vaticana. Volume Three, Part One. Rome: 195-196.
  • 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: 621-622.
  • J.-M. Fiey (1966) 'Īchō'dnah, métropolite de Basra et son oeuvre'. L'orient syrien 11: 431-450.
  • J.-M. Fiey (1975-1976) 'Īšō'dnāḥ et la "Chronique de Seert"'. Parole de l'Orient 6-7: 447-459.
  • J. Howard-Johnston (2011) Witnesses to a world crisis: Historians and histories of the Middle East in the seventh century. Oxford.
  • 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: 211-213.
  • S.F. Johnson (2016) Literary territories: Cartographical thinking in Late Antiquity. Oxford.
  • C. Jullien (2009) 'Recherches sur le Livre de la Chasteté: Contribution à la géographie historique de l'empire sassanide'. In: Sources pour l'histoire et la géographie du monde iranien (224-710), ed. R. Gyselen (Res orientales, 18). Bures-sur-Yvette: 173-181.
  • C. Jullien (2010) 'Recherches de géographie historique sur le Livre de la Chasteté (suite)'. In: Sources for the history of Sasanian and post-Sasanian Iran, ed. R. Gyselen (Res orientales, 19). Bures-sur-Yvette: 165-176.
  • P. Nautin (1974) 'L'auteur de la "Chronique de Séert": Išō'denaḥ de Baṣra'. Revue de l'histoire des religions 186: 113-126.
  • A. Palmer (2013-2014) ‘Gegenseitige territoriale Ansprüche der Ost- und Westsyrer im 7./8. Jahrhundert im Lichte des Liber Castitatis und dreier unedierter Heiligenviten’. Oriens Christianus 97: 24-44.