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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![the Jew into a Christian, and made him write in Syriac instead of Hebrew, was evidently powerful, and must have been exerted on him early in life. He continued his reading of Syriac and Arabic works all his life, and this fact is proved by his quotations from authors whom he names in his various works. He read widely in Arabic and understood the history, language, and religion of the Arabs better than any other Syrian writer.1 Assemani has given (B.O. ii, p. 311) a list of several writers in Greek, Syriac, and Arabic whose works are quoted by Bar Hebraeus. Whether he was able to read Greek is a question which is not easy to decide. Noldeke said that he could not, but with all respect to this great Orientalist, it is difficult to believe. Bar Hebraeus quotes the LXX apparently at first hand, and there are several references to Greek authors which suggest that he possessed at least a bowing acquaintance with this language. The Greeks and others, philosophers, physicians, historians, &c., whose works were extant in Syriac or Arabic, he, no doubt, used freely. Among the Greek writers quoted by him are Hermes Trismegistus,2 Anianus, Africanus, Andronicus, Eusebius, Apollonius, Euclid, and Archimedes. In dealing with the history of Persia his narrative suggests that his know¬ ledge of the facts which he is giving was obtained at first hand, and in the Preface to the Chronography he says, ‘Therefore, according to what time hath brought, I, having entered the Library of the city of Maraghah of ’Adhorbijan,3 have loaded up this my little book with narratives which are worthy of remembrance from many volumes of the Syrians, Saracens (Arabs), and Persians which are [preserved] here.5 Arab writers describe Maraghah as a very pleasant town on the river Safi, about seventy miles south of Tabriz, and it was surrounded by a great wall within which were situated the citadel and its fortifications. It was originally called Karigat al-Maraghah or the ‘Town of Meadows’, in allusion to the plantations and gardens and orchards among which it was situated. Under the earlier Mongols it became the capital of ’Adhorbijan, and assumed an importance it had never before known. The Mongols were patrons of science and learning generally, and Hulagu, the brother of Mangu Khan, immediately after he had taken and destroyed Baghdad in February 1258, ordered his astronomer Nasir ad-Din of Tus to build an observatory at Maraghah. This observatory stood just outside the town, and in it the famous tl-khani astronomical plates with their tables of calculations were preserved. The library which Bar Hebraeus mentions may have been connected with the 1 Compare Baumstark (p. 312): ‘Der Sprosse einer judischen Familie . . . hat wie kein anderer syrischer Schriftsteller das geistige Erbe der islamischen mit demjenigen der national-kirchlichen christlichen Kultur verschmolzen.* 2 The original was written in the Babylonian (Aramaic ?) language, but a Syriac version was known (B.O. ii, p. 310). 3 The Atropatene of the Greeks.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b31365334_0057.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
