The chronography of Gregory Abû'l Faraj, the son of Aaron, the Hebrew physician, commonly known as Bar Hebraeus : being the first part of his political history of the world / translated from the Syriac by Ernest A. Wallis Budge.

  • Bar Hebraeus
Date:
1932
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The chronography of Gregory Abû'l Faraj, the son of Aaron, the Hebrew physician, commonly known as Bar Hebraeus : being the first part of his political history of the world / translated from the Syriac by Ernest A. Wallis Budge. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    middle of the chest was a coffer [made] of alabaster. And when they had opened it by force, they found in it portions of bones which had been treated with sweet-smelling unguents; and they rejoiced with a great joy. And they sent and informed bartalli, and the Elders and the Deacons and all the clergy went out to meet them, and with hymns and psalms they brought the coffer into the haikal of the new church and placed it in the martyrium which was therein. And on the first day of the week after the discovery of these relics the Maphrian ordained Gabriel, a monk of bartalli, [and] mattai, bishop of gazarta, a city of kardo, and he called him dionysius. This man was the architect of this monastery which the Maphrian built, and he built it over the relics of the holy man bar naggare, after the diocese had remained a widow for a period of five years. And in the year 1597 (a.d. 1286), which was the sixtieth year of the birth of the Maphrian, he feared death and he expected it. For he said, Tn that year in which kronos and zeus were in conjunction in the Zodiacal Sign of Aquarius I was born. And twenty years after, when they were in con¬ junction in the Zodiacal Sign of libra, I was ordained bishop. And twenty years after, when they were in conjunction in the Zodiacal Sign of Gemini, I undertook the office of Maphrian. And after another twenty years, when they will be again in conjunction in the Zodiacal Sign of Aquarius, I think that I shall go out of this world.5 And he used to say, ‘O net of the worlds, in the year 1537 (a.d. 1226) thy snare seized me, and I think that in the year 1597 (a.d. 1286) I shall not be in thee.5 [The Death of Bar Hebraeus] From this point and onwards, bar-sawma, the brother of the writer, setteth on record the narrative of his death, [showing] when and where and how it took place. Now in this year, when he was continually brooding on this evil thing, and it was wholly impossible to make him escape from it, he was living in the region of nineveh. And because the thieves and robbers from Syria were in the habit of raiding it every year in the summer, and they plundered and looted, and killed and carried off into slavery the people of the country of Mosul, his brother, disturbed by the state of affairs, thought and said, ‘Peradventure, they might accidentally fall into the hands of the robbers, and the words of the Maphrian [as to his death] actually be fulfilled.5 And bar-sawma began to urge the Maphrian, and to importune him, and to press him incessantly concerning the departure to maragha, a city of ’adhorbijan, so that perchance the Maphrian might be saved from this death upon which he was brooding continually. And being pestered by his brother, he consented at length and departed thither. And when he was living there, honoured by both great and small, the foremost men among the arabs asked him to turn the Chronography which he had composed