History

The work is not preserved independently, but it is entirely included in the so-called Chronicle of Zuqnin, a composite historical work compiled in 775, and preserved in the codex Vaticanus Syriacus 162. Folio 66 of the manuscript has been replaced. Elias of Zuqnin, the monk who replaced the folio, inserted a colophon in it, where he asks the reader to pray for him and for 'the priest Mar Joshua the Stylite from the convent of Zuqnin, who wrote this book'. The word 'book' was interpreted by Assemani (1719: 262-263) as referring to that specific section of the Chronicle of Zuqnin, which he labelled as 'chronicle of Joshua the Stylite'. This view is still held by Luther (1997: 12-16). According to Trombley - Watt (2000: xxiii-xxvi), on the contrary, a more accurate analysis of the text of the colophon suggests that the word refers to the manuscript, and that Joshua the Sylite was simply the copyist of the whole Codex Vaticanus Syriacus 162. Therefore the text is now commonly referred to as 'Chronicle of Pseudo-Joshua the Stylite'. According to Palmer (1990: 273-274) and Harrak (1999: 7-8), Joshua was not only the copyist of the codex, but the author of the whole Chronicle of Zuqnin, a hypothesis deemed unlikely by Witakowksi (1996: xxii-xxiii).