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
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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![in Syriac into the Saracenic language so that they also might read and enjoy it. To this the Maphrian agreed, and straightway he began to turn the [book into Arabic] in noble and exceedingly eloquent language. [He worked] for a month of days, until he had very nearly finished it, and there remained of it [untranslated] perhaps three folios. But in the night of the Sabbath of the 28th day of tammuz (july), he felt somewhat feverish, and he was burnt up with the heat thereof the whole of that night. And on the first day of the week the physicians came, and they contended that he must drink a root (or drug) and physic his body. But he would not agree to this, for, said he, ‘The drug will not do any good, for [my] time hath come,5 although he was like a lion, and that year his body was stronger, and his constitution healthier than it had been in former years. But to speak briefly in these three days he had become so weak that when on the [following] Sunday he asked for a reed and paper that he might write and bequeath his cell to his disciples, he was unable to hold the reed and to write at all. But in every hour once and twice he smote his left hand with his right, saying, ‘My strength hath come to an end and is exhausted. Thou hast wronged me, my brother, in that thou didst not let me die and be surrounded by the bishops, and monks, and elders and deacons, at the head of whom I have this day stood for two-and-twenty years. My brother, thou didst make me flee from death, and behold my flight hath not profited me. Nevertheless, be strong and of good courage, and thou shalt neither weep nor mourn excessively as if [my death] was something new in the world. Certainly not.’ These encouragements and others like thereunto he uttered throughout that day, and he was cheerful, and laughed, and he did not dread and fear death like other men. And forthwith he called sa id, the deacon and physician, and said unto him, ‘Write down what I am going to say unto thee.’ And he made the beginning of his discourse thus: ‘Man, his days are like the grass, and he springeth up like the flower of the field.’ Then after he had finished the Confession of his Faith, as was fitting, he brought forth two orders, one concerning the throne of the Patriarch, and the other the throne of the Maphrian and the administration of his cell. And he delivered them into the hands of his brother. And he began to lay commands on his disciples, and said, ‘Dwell ye in love, and separate not yourselves from each other, for every time in which ye shall be gathered together in love I shall be in your midst.’ Then those miserable men rent their garments, and poured dust on their heads, and wept until about three hours of the night had passed; mean¬ while he never ceased from telling stories with laughter and a cheerful face. [Suddenly] he went out like a lamp. I ought not to say ‘like a lamp’, but like a glorious and brilliant beacon, and the great pillar [of fire] of the few and feeble Jacobites. And he went to his Lord on the third [day of the](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b31365334_0041.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
