Notes to Readers
- Looking up a place name in the Thesaurus Syriacus1 can often be a quick way to identify what you have encountered. The index to volume 3 of Wright’s Catalogue of mss in the British Museum2 can be helpful when dealing with toponyms. Another important resource is , Auszuge aus syrischen Akten persischer Martyer. Leipzig: F.A. Brockhaus, 1880..
- , “Mu’jam al-buldan”. .. Yaqut’s Mu’jam al-buldan is the most important medieval Arabic geographic dictionary. It is organized alphabetically and one need only have very basic Arabic to make use of it. There is much useful information contained in Yaqut for the student of Syriac; he has well over 100 entries, for example, on monasteries, using information culled from other medieval sources, such as Shabushti’s Kitab al-diyarat, or Book of Monasteries (as well as other, now-lost books of monasteries.)
- There are Byzantine geographical works as well, such as , Hieroclis Synecdemvs; accedvnt fragmenta apud Constantinum Porphyrogennetum servata et nomina urbium mutata. Leipzig: B.G. Teubner, 1893. and , Georgii Cyprii descripto orbis Romani: accedit Leonis imperatoris Diatyposis genuina adhuc inedita. Leipzig: B.G. Teubner, 1890., both by George of Cyprus, which can be helpful, too, e.g., in understanding the impact of Alexander and his successors on the Middle East.
- The easiest and most convenient and best map to use when trying to figure out where a place is in a Syriac text is still the map that accompanies , La littérature syriaque. Paris: Victor Lecoffre, 1907.. You can see a copy here. And here is a map that was made to help you if you are reading Eusebius.
Works Cited
Born-digital Mapping Resources
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“The Syriac Gazetteer”. 2014.
- Part of the syriaca.org project. A geographical reference work for places relevant to Syriac studies. Includes an initial publication of over two thousand place records and continues to grow.
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“Pleiades”. .
- Contains everything in the Barrington Atlas, and much more. A wonderful resource!
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“Digital Atlas of Roman and Medieval Civilizations”. .
- Mapping project at Harvard.
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“ORBIS: The Stanford Geospatial Network Model of the Roman World”. .
- Geo-spatial project at Stanford. Can help you calculate travel times between different points in the ancient world.
Geographical Works of Note
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, Topographie historique de la syrie antique et medievale. Paris: Paul Geuthner, 1927.
- A classic work on the historical geography of Syria.
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, Baghdad during the Abbasid Caliphate. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1900.
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, The Lands of the Eastern Caliphate. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1905.
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, Palestine Under the Moslems. Boston and New York: Alexander P. Watt, 1890.
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, Churches and Monasteries of the Tur 'Abdin and Neighbouring Districts. Heidelberg: Carl Winter, 1913.
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, Monk and mason on the Tigris frontier. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
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, “Zur Geographie des Ṭur ‘Abdīn”, Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft, vol. 35, pp. 237-269, 1881.
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Baedeker
- Old Baedeker Guides for Syria and Palestine can be read to give the student of Syriac literature a sense for travel and life in the region before the great changes brought about by the upheavals and technological advances of the twentieth century.
- , Palestine and Syria: handbook for travellers. Leipzig: Karl Beideker, 1876.
- , Palestine and Syria: handbook for travellers, 3rd ed. Leipzig: Karl Beideker, 1898.
- , Palestine and Syria: handbook for travellers, 5th ed. Leipzig: Karl Baedeker, 1912.
- 1. , Thesaurus Syriacus, vol. 1, 2 vol. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1879.; , Thesaurus Syriacus, vol. 2, 2 vol. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1901.
- 2. , Catalogue of Syriac Manuscripts in the British Museum acquired since the year 1838, vol. 3, 3 vol. London: British Library, 1872.
