Syrians and the Others: Cultures of the Christian Orient in the Middle Ages

This volume contains the first editions of a number of works of Syrian authors (in Syriac and Arabic) including two excerpts from John bar Penkaye's "Ktaba de-resh melle", an excerpt from "The Blessed Compendium" of Jirjis al-Makin ibn al-Amid, an excerpt from the "Kitab al-Majdal", and hymns from the "Warda" collection, as well as a publication of a series of Coptic prayers for travellers. It also contains a discussion of the letters of Nicetas Stethatos available only in Georgian. Other contributions deal with the hagiography (Byzantine, Old Russian, and Syrian, with a special attention to the so-called "verbal hagiography" which is an intermediary field between the written hagiography and the folklore) and the patrology (with a special attention to philosophical problems of Byzantine patristics). Some detailed book reviews discuss, among others, various problems of the late Byzantine and the 19th- and 20th-century Ethiopian and Russian theology.