East Syrian Historiography at the Dawn of Islam: Study and Digital Edition of “The Book of the Main Points” by John bar Penkaye

• Applicant: Dr. Yulia Furman
• Subject Area: Islamic Studies, Arabian Studies, Semitic Studies
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 495073427

The focus of the present project lies on a universal history ‘The Book of the Main Points, or The History of the Temporal World’, written in the Classical Syriac language at the end of the 7th century in Northern Mesopotamia by a monk of the Church of the East, named John (Yoḥannān) bar Penkāyē.The way in which histories were composed provides important information on how the authors of these histories saw themselves, their community and the outer world, which system of values they shared. It also shows the paths of intellectual history: how certain patterns and ideas roamed from one culture to another, how they were adopted in the target culture and how they were then modified. The main objective of the present project is to study 'The Book of the Main Point' in its historical and literary setting and provide a key as to how this work should be understood and what it can tell us about the intellectual culture of the author’s community. In addition to that, a comprehensive critical edition of the text, a digital and printed one, will be prepared together with an English translation and a philological commentary.The results of the project will be of interest for scholars working primarily on the Christian culture and literature of Late Antiquity as well as for those who specialize in Islamic Studies, the history of the early caliphate and intercultural and interreligious relations in Middle Eastern society.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants