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.
55/676
![the reading of the text, and he was fortunate enough to be assisted in this mighty task by Dr. Chamizer-Lenoir of the firm of Messrs. W. Drugulin of Leipzig, who was at once a fine Semitic scholar and a marvellous proof¬ reader. The book is a triumph of the art of the typographer, and it is the most accurate publication of a text in the Nestorian character that has appeared. In this respect very few of the most carefully written Nestorian manuscripts can be compared with it. Bar Hebraeus himself and all Syriac scholars must ever be greatly indebted to Pere Bedjan not only for his work on the Chronography, but also for his edition of the History of Yahb- ’Allaha III,1 and for his volumes of the Acta Sanctorum. In the ‘Note’ prefixed to his edition Bedjan summarizes the life of Bar Hebraeus thus: Mar[y] Gregory ’Abulfaragh was born in the year of our Lord 1226, in the city of Melitene, which is in the country of Cappadocia, which is to-day called Malatya (Malatiah). By race he was a Syrian, and in his religion a Jacobite. And the writers say that he was called ‘Bar 'Ebhraya* (i.e. son of the Hebrew) because ’Ahron his father was a Jew; and he turned and became a Christian. Because of the rebellions and wars which took place, his parents set out and went and dwelt in Antioch, and there ’Abulfaragh became a monk. And after¬ wards he was ordained Bishop of Gubbos, and they translated him to the throne of L&kabhin, and from L&kabhin to the diocese of Beroea and Halab (Aleppo). In the year of our Lord 1264, on the 19th day of the month of the Latter Kanon, they ordained him Maphrian of the East, that is, head of the Jacobite bishops of Beth Nahrin, and ’Athor, and Babel and of the other eastern countries. During the twenty-two years in which he was Maphrian, he came several times to this our country of ’Adhorbijan. And in Maragha he compiled this famous and admirable [book of] MakhtSbhanuth Zabhne. And there he departed from this world, on the 30th day of the month of Tammuz, in the year of our Lord 1286. And that feeble man who toiled at the correcting of this book and over the printing of the same was a Chaldean from ’Adhorbijan. O our Lord pardon Thou the shortcomings thereof. 1 See Budge, The Monks of Kubhlai Khan, p. 8.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b31365334_0055.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
