‘Geographical knowledge of the Syrians’, [in:] The Professorship of Semitic Languages at Uppsala...

Witold Witakowski 219

Geographical knowledge of the Syrians*

Witold Witakowski, Uppsala University

Introduction An exhaustive presentation of Syriac geography cannot, of course, be provided in a short article like this. Yet it would also be impossible due to the state of research in the field, which is not advanced. Thus here I will only try to point to what can be regarded as more impor-tant areas within our theme, to some sources of geographical infor-mation in Syriac literature (without any ambition at completeness), in order to provide suggestions for research, which, in the future when enough primary studies have been carried out, will, hopefully, make it easier to produce such a monograph.

Scholars showed some interest in Syriac geography at the end of the 19th and at the beginning of the 20th century. Here, as in so many other areas of Syriac studies, the names of the French Syrologists Rubens Duval,1 François Nau,2 Jean-Baptiste Chabot,3 and the Ger-man–American Richard Gottheil,4 loom large. Unfortunately, in the

* Abbreviations used: BGHD – Bulletin de géographie historique et descriptive; BZ – Byzantinische Zeitschrift; CSCO SS – Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium, Scriptores Syri; JA – Journal Asiatique; PO – Patrologia Orientalis; ROCh – Revue de l’Orient Chrétien. Throughout the present paper the transcription applied will be as for early Classical Syriac, also for quotations from the writings of authors who lived in the thirteenth century, i.e. at the end of the late classical period of Syriac literature. 1 R. Duval, La littérature syriaque, 3e éd., (Bibliothèque de l’enseignement de l’histoire ecclésiastique: Anciennes littératures chrétiennes; 2), Paris 1907 (= Amsterdam 1970), pp. 278–282. 2 F. Nau, ‘Notice sur quelques cartes syriaques’, JA, 9:8 (1896), pp. 155–165. 3 J.-B. Chabot, ‘Notice sur une mappemonde syrienne du XIIIe siècle’, BGHD, 1897, pp. 98–112, 1 map; idem, ‘Notice sur une mappemonde syrienne du XIIIe siècle: Notes complémentaires publiés d’après les observations de MM. R. Gottheil et C.-A. Nallino’, BGHD, 1898, pp. 31–43. 4 R. Gottheil, ‘On a Syriac geographical chart’, Journal of the American Oriental Soci-ety, 13 (1889): Proceedings, pp. ccxc–ccxciv, tabl.; idem, ‘Contributions to the History of Geography, II: Candelabrum Sanctorum and Liber Radiorum of Gregorius Bar

220 Geographical knowledge of the Syrians

subsequent period little was done, apart from publishing one or two relevant texts. In fact, it is only recently that, as it seems, a new ep-och of research was launched by Dr. Hidemi Takahashi, with his ex-cellent paper on the marine geography of Gregory Bar‘Ebroyo (Gr�ghoryos Bar�Ebhr�y�), published in 2003 in the Hugoye.5

Geography as a separate field of intellectual, literary or other in-terests was not much developed among the Syrians in the classical period. There was no Syrian Eratosthenes of Alexandria (3rd century B.C.), who calculated the circumference of the earth and wrote Geographika, the first exposition of mathematical and physical geog-raphy, or a Ptolemy (100–178 A.D.), the famous astronomer but also a geographer whose work – in which he provided geographical coor-dinates for over 8000 places, cities, mountains, rivers, etc.,6 – was the basic manual of geography for the subsequent 1400 years. The Syri-ans had neither a Pausanias (4th century A.D.), the author of the Travels in Greece,7 nor a Strabo (68 B.C. – ca. 26 A.D.), who wrote a Geographika in 17 books.8 We do not have in Syriac anything like Expositio totius mundi et gentium (4th century),9 an account of market places and harbours from India to Britain, or a Periplus Maris Eryth-raei, a similar account limited to the basin of the Red Sea.10 More-over, as far as is known, none of these Greek works was ever trans-lated into Syriac. Also, although we know that pious Syrians did go on pilgrimage to Jerusalem11 (for which they earned a honorific title of maqd�š�y�12), no itinerary that would describe the journey – like

�Ebhr�y��, Hebraica, 7 (1890–91), pp. 39–55; idem, ‘Contributions to the History of Geography, III: Mimra �al šabh�� l�m��, Hebraica, 8 (1891–92), pp. 65–78; idem, ‘Contributions to the History of Geography’, Hebraica, 9 (1892–93), pp. 117–118; (ad art. in Hebraica 8). 5 H. Takahashi, ‘Observations on Bar ‘Ebroyo’s Marine Geography’, Hugoye, 6:1 (2003). 6 Claudios Ptolemaios, ca. 100–178 (?) A.D., one of the greatest scholars of Antiq-uity, known mostly for his astronomical work Almagest, but also for his �� . 7 Ca. 115 – after 180 A.D., the author of �� (Travels in Greece), geographical description of Greece in 10 books. 8 Ca. 68 B.C. – ca. 26 A.D., his �� μ��μ�� (Geography), is a summa of antique descriptive geography. 9 An anonymous Latin work of the middle of the 4th century A.D., based on a not preserved Greek original. 10 Anonymous work of unknown date, written sometime between the 1st century B.C. and the 3rd A.D. 11 J.M. Fiey, ‘Le pèlerinage des Nestoriens et Jacobites à Jérusalem’, Cahiers de Civilisation Médiévale Xe – XIIe siècles, 12 (1969), pp. 113–126. 12 H. Kaufhold, ‘Der Ehrentitel “Jerusalempilger” (syrisch maqdš�y�, arabisch maqd�s�, armenische mahtesi)’, Oriens Christianus, 75 (1991), pp. 44–61.


that of the Pilgrim of Bordeaux (333) or of Egeria (380’s) – exists. In general, there are no travelogues in Syriac, with one exception to which we shall return.

I believe that there is an explanation of this relative, as we shall see, lack of interest in geography. Many factors which stimulate geo-graphical interests were missing from the Syriac culture: the Syrians did not have an empire to run, which would compel them to main-tain communication between its provinces and to commute to its various parts, as the Romans and later the Arabs did. They did not have need to measure the land or to list regions and homesteads from which taxes would be levied. Nor had they the need, let alone the possibility, to send ambassadors or envoys to other countries, who would then write narrative accounts of their missions (again with one exception), as was the case with the Byzantines. Nor had they any need to describe the vast lands conquered, as the Arabs had. Moreover, the Syrians were no maritime nation,13 and thus had no incitement to produce any description of, say, the sea way to India to be used by merchants, let alone to measure it, as Greek sailors did in the works called Stadiasmoi.14

Although we know all that it is nevertheless surprising to read in the Acts of Thomas, that the apostle, sold as a slave to an Indian mer-chant, went aboard a ship bound to India, but he did so in Jerusa-lem!15

In this respect the literature of the Church of the East, or rather the lack of it, concerning the missions, is also disappointing. The Church’s missionary activities were almost worldwide, and the mis-sionaries reached such far-away countries as Tibet, Mongolia and China. But notwithstanding this religious achievement no account of any mission is extant, and it is doubtful if one was ever written.

13 Only some of the so-called Syri who could be found in early Middle Ages living in the West were really Syrians; most of them were Greeks; L. Bréhier, ‘Les colonies d’Orientaux en Oxident au commencement du moyen-âge, Ve–VIIIe siècles’, BZ, 12 (1903), p. 3, 18 (1–39). 14 Stadiasmos by Timosthenes of Rhodes, ca. 270–240 B.C. and an anonymous work of the 3rd century A.D., the two being accounts of sailing around the Mediterranean, provided data on the distance between the harbours visited; see Ad. Bauer, Die Chro-nik des Hippolytos im Matritensis Graecus 121: nebst einer Abhandlung über den Stadi-asmus Maris Magni, vom Otto Cuntz, (Texte und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der altchristlichen Literatur, N.F. 14:1), Leipzig 1905. 15 The Acts of Thomas, introd., text, commentary by A.F.J. Klijn, (Supplements to Novum Testamentum, volume 5), Leiden 1962, pp. 65–66. Although the place of his embarkment (§ 2) is not specified, it is a logical consequence of the scene presented in § 1.


Initially, there was not even a Syriac word for ‘geography’ or ‘ge-ographers’, but at the end of the classical epoch of Syriac literature it was borrowed, as it seems by Bar‘Ebroyo, from Arabic, which itself borrowed it from Greek, Syr. zughr�ph�y�16 (< Ar. �u�r�fiy�). Jacob of Edessa (d. 708) in his Hexaemeron, when mentioning Greek geog-raphers, calls them periphrastically “those who wrote on Oik-oumene” (h�nn�n d-(�)akhtebh(w) l�-methamr�n�th�17). In the case of terminology, medieval Europe provides a parallel, as also there the term ‘geography’ was unknown throughout the Middle Ages. It is also difficult to see whether the Syrians had geography as a separate branch of intellectual activity. But to take another parallel with me-dieval Europe, geography was not accorded there the status of a scholarly discipline either, and it stood outside the system of the rec-ognised disciplines within the group of seven liberal arts (trivium & quadrivium).18

Nevertheless, we do find substantial geographical material in Syriac writings from at least the seventh century (Jacob of Edessa, see below), but it seems that it was Greghoryos Bar‘Ebroyo (1226–86) who first placed it consciously within the realm of scholarly dis-ciplines. In any case that is how we should understand the placing of geographical material in his Candelabra of the Sanctuaries (M�n�rath Qudhš), a monograph of theological disciplines, in part two, just after the general introduction (= part one) which is a statement of his philosophy of knowledge (On knowledge in general19). Implicitely, by the sheer presence of geographical material among the theological themes dealt with in the other parts of this work, geography has eventually gained recognition among other scholarly disciplines of the epoch.

To approach our theme, we may start with ‘natural’, so to speak, geographical knowledge, without which a society can hardly func-tion. This includes orientation in the region one lives in, and the knowledge that from Edessa one should go eastwards, if one wants to arrive in, say, Nisibis. Regions farther away are usually less known, yet we may assume that most of the people knew the direction to-wards Jerusalem and other loca sancta in Palestine, as well as the

16 As the title of Ptolemy’s work, Grégoire Aboulfaradj dit Barhebraeus, Le candélabre des sanctuaires, éd. et trad. en français par Jan Bákos [corr. Bákoš], (PO 22:4), Paris 1930, p. 583,2. 17 Iacobi Edesseni, Hexaemeron, seu in opus creationis libri septem, ed. I.-B. Chabot, (CSCO [92], SS 2: 66, textus [= 44]), Parisiis 1928, p. 108 (fol. 126v) col. a, last line. 18 G.H.T. Kimble, Geography in the Middle Ages, London 1938, p. 1. 19 Grégoire Aboulfaradj, op. cit., p. 517 (517–541).


direction towards other Christian religious centres, Antioch, the siege of the patriarch, and Constantinople, the centre of the Church to which the Western Syrians once belonged.

Such knowledge would not leave any traces in written sources, but in addition to this, there have always been practical reasons to de-velop geographical knowledge, for instance in the administration of both Syriac-speaking Churches.

Ecclesiastical geography The Churches had to possess some geographical knowledge, no doubt very detailed and correct, as far as their respective nets of the bish-oprics and parishes were concerned. This was simply necessary for ecclesiastical administration. Some registers of the bishoprics, par-ishes, monasteries, and the like were certainly kept in the patriarchal and episcopal archives of the Churches. In the case of the Syrian Or-thodox Church, such registers may have been inherited from the Byzantine documents of the type of Notitia (episcopatum) Antiochena, which found its way into Syriac. The Notitia Antiochena was put to-gether in Greek in 570 A.D. by Anastasios, the patriarch of Antioch, but is known only from later testimonies in Greek, Armenian and Syriac. The latter version is known as the Record of the Chairs (of Antioch), (Uhd�n� d�-khursaww�th� (d-(�)An�yukh)).20 It lists the me-tropolises and bishoprics of the patriarchate of Antioch. As has been said, the original Greek document has not survived, but it was re-stored by Ernst Honigmann with the help of all the surviving later reworkings, including the Syriac.21

That such lists were also kept by the dissident miaphysite church is clear, for instance, from the very detailed list of 52 bishops of Syria and Asia Minor who were deposed in 518 by the new regime of Justin and Justinian after the apogee of the miaphysite theology in Antioch, during the pontificate of Severus. This list has been pre-served by some chroniclers, but the most complete one is provided by John of Asia, in the second part of his Ecclesiastical history, which

20 Ignazio Efrem II Rahmani, I Fasti della Chiesa Patriarcale Antiochena, Roma 1920, pp. I–VII. 21 E. Honigmann, ‘Studien zur Notitia Antiochena’, BZ, 25 (1925), pp. 60–88. See also further discussion in: V. Laurent, ‘La Notitia d’Antioche: origine et tradition’, Revue des Études Byzantines, 5 (1947), pp. 67–89.


has survived having been copied by the author of the Zuqnin Chroni-cle, also known as Pseudo-Dionysius of Tel-Mahre.22

Another document which shows the ecclesiastico-geographical knowledge, perhaps also an offshot of the Notitia Antiochena, al-though much developed and organized differently, can be found as an appendix (the third) in the Chronicle of Michael the Elder (M�kh��l Rabb�).23 The list provides the names and the sees of the bishops consecrated by every patriarch of the Syrian Orthodox Church, starting with Quriaqos (ordained 793) until Michael himself (1166–1199). One more, a shorter, appendix (the fourth), brings lists of bishops of the most important sees (Edessa, Melitene, Amid and Tagrit, in addition to Jerusalem) of the Syrian Orthodox Church. All these lists show the geographical knowledge of at least the hierarchy, if not of an average Syrian.

Historiography Michael the Elder’s Chronicle is an example of what geographical information can be found in historiography. The list mentioned pro-vides such information only about the territory under the sway of the Syriac-speaking Church(es) inhabited by the Syrians, which we may call Aramea24 (the toponym ‘Syria’ not being adequate). Naturally, this area is almost always in the focus of the Syriac historiographic narratives. Quite often, however, we find information about coun-tries or cities far away from Aramea. Such information is often taken over from a non-Syriac source. Of course, the focus will change from one historian to another, and from one epoch to another. Such breaks or changes can also be found within one work, as is the case, for in-stance, with the Miscelaneous History of the so-called Pseudo-Zachariah of Mitylene.25 The geographical focus of the part taken over and translated by the anonymous Syriac compiler from the real

22 Incerti auctoris Chronicon Pseudo-Dionysianum vulgo dictum, ed. I.-B. Chabot, (CSCO SS, 3:2, Textus), Parisiis 1933, pp. 17–18; Pseudo-Dionysius of Tel-Mahre, Chronicle (known also as the Chronicle of Zuqnin) Part III: transl. with notes and in-trod. by W. Witakowski, (Translated Texts for Historians, 22), Liverpool 1996, pp. 19–20. 23 Chronique de Michel le Syrien, patriarche jacobite d'Antioche (1166–1199), éd. et trad. en français par J.-B. Chabot, t. I-IV, Paris 1899–1924; repr. Bruxelles 1963 with the Syriac text in vol. IV; pp. 752–769, tr. III, 448–482, 492–495. 24 We disregard here the fact that other peoples might have been living there along-side the Syrians. 25 Historia ecclesiastica Zachariae Rhetori vulgo adscripta, t. I–II, ed. E.W. Brooks, (CSCO SS 3:5–6, textus [= 38–39]), Parisiis 1919–1921; interpretatus est E.W. Brooks, (CSCO SS 3:5–6, versio [= 41–42]), Lovanii 1924.


Zachariah of Mitylene was on the Greek-speaking areas of the East Mediterranean world, whereas Pseudo-Zachariah’s Sondergut, focuses on Northern Mesopotamia (as it seems, he must have been an inhabi-tant of Amid).26 We will come back to his work later.

A different geographical “spectrum” is displayed in the Chronicle of the Sasanides (or the Chronicle of Khuzistan), just to take an East Syr-ian example.27 The focus here has, naturally, moved to the east, to Persia, although the actual word ‘Persia’ does not occur in it. Yet other toponyms clearly show which territory the narrative concen-trates on.

To take another example, quite a few geographical data can be found in the historiographic narratives concerning Caucasus, which were studied by Rauf Guseynov.28

Bible stimulated accounts Theoretical geography Another place where geographical knowledge would be displayed comprises texts testifying to what may be called theoretical geogra-phy, that is bookish knowledge, not based on empirical experience, but rather on material traditionally transmitted in literature of a formally theological character. Needless to say, such data are based on preconceived notions, most often based on the Bible, but also on Greek scholarship.

There are two places in the Bible which evoked specific geographi-cal or geographico-ethnographical comments. One is the Creation Story in the book of Genesis, chapter 1, and the other the so-called Table of Nations in the the same book, chapter 10.

I had the opportunity to deal with the latter in another place,29 so here only a few words should suffice.

26 Cp. W. Witakowski, ‘The Miscellaneous History of Pseudo-Zacharias of Mitylene’, forthcoming. 27 W. Witakowski, ‘L’horizon géographique de l'historiographie syriaque: aperçu préliminaire’, [in:] Des Sumériens aux Romains d'Orient: la perception géographique du monde: Espaces et territoires au Proche-Orient ancien: Actes de la table ronde du 16 novembre 1996 organisée par l'URA 1062 Études Sémitiques", éd. par Arnaud Sérandour, Paris 1997, pp. 199–209. 28 R.A. Guseynov, ‘Siriyskiye istochniki po istorii Zakavkaz'ya X–XIV vekov’, Patma-banasirakan Handes, 2 (= 65) (1974), pp. 47–54; R.A. Guseinov, [= Guseynov], ‘Les sources syriaques des XIIème et XIIIème siècles concernant l'Azerbaidjan’, Bedi Kartlisa, 15–16 (= 43–44) (1963), pp. 78–81.


Table of Nations Geographical material, but also ethnographical and even linguistic data, amassed in connection with the Table of Nations, can be found in the treatises of the cycle called ��μ��μ� �� , i.e. the Divi-sion of the earth (scil. between the sons of Noah). These are derived, in more than one way, from the Chronicle of Hippolytus of Rome (ca. 170 – ca. 235). They contain lists of rivers, islands, mountains, and so on, and of peoples and the languages they spoke. The various peo-ples or nations presented there are conceived as members of three groups taking their origin from the sons of Noah – Shem, Ham and Japheth. The result is an account in which the ethno-geographical world contemporary with the authors of such treatises is interpreted in terms of a genealogical tree. Sometimes it is even presented graphically in this form, as e.g. in the Chronicle of Michael the Elder.30 The idea, for example, of the tri-partition of mankind led to the belief that each of the three groups inhabited a continent: Shemites – Asia, Hamites – Africa (this continent was usually called Libya), and Japhethites – northern Asia and Europe, the concept originating most probably from the Book of Jubilees. (8:11–9:15)31

This scheme, which encapsulated the ethno-geographical pano-rama of the world, proved to be very tenacious and consequently we find it applied in the whole classical period, up to and including the writings of Bar‘Ebroyo.

Story of the Creation The other biblical place which stimulated the development of geo-graphical thought among the Syrians (and of course not only among the Syrians) was the Story of the Creation. As a fact of tremendous importance in God’s economy of salvation, this evoked a large num-ber of commentaries.32 However, in addition to “normal” commentar-

29 W. Witakowski, ‘The Division of the Earth between the Descendants of Noah in Syriac Tradition’, Aram Periodical, 5 (1993), publ. 1996 (= A Festschrift for Sebastian P. Brock), pp. 635–656. 30 Chronique de Michel (above, n. 23), p. 17, transl. I, p. 31. 31 F. Schmidt, ‘Imago mundi et pèlerinage’, [in:] Moïse géographe: recherches sur les représentations juives et chrétiennes de l’espace, pub. sous la dir. de A. Desreumaux et F. Schmidt, (Études de psychologie et de philosophie 24), Paris 1988, p. 19 (13–30). James M. Scott, Geography in early Judaism and Christianity: The Book of Jubilees, (Society for New Testament Studies Monograph Series 113), Cambridge 2002, pp. 135–158. 32 See a list of such works in Yves-M.J. Congar, ‘Le thème de Dieu-créateur et les explications de l’Hexaméron dans la tradition chrétienne’, [in:] L’Homme devant Dieu: mélanges offerts au Père Henri de Lubac, 1, Paris 1963, pp. 215–222 (189–222).


ies, such as exist for any book of the Old Testament, which would explain difficult loci in the text and list opinions of several Church Fathers on the matter, we are faced here with a commentary of a special kind called hexaemeron, after “the six days” (of creation) in Greek,33 in Syriac š�th�th-yawm or �ešt�th-yawm, a calque of the Greek term. On the third day of creation, God had “dry ground” ap-pear, after “the water under the sky” had “gathered to one place”. A description of the result of the third day could, and in fact did, de-velop into a small treatise on geography. Furthermore, nothing God made could be bad or evil,34 so the physical world, by virtue of being created by God, was good and thus worth reflecting and commenting upon. The latter, however, often required an unusual amount of in-formation which the Bible did not provide, and it was here that the secular knowledge about the physical world found its way into what was originally intended as an exegetical text. Such knowledge could not be found in Jewish or Christian traditions, so the works of Greek authors writing about philosophy and science had to be used. Conse-quently, hexaemera were supplied with astronomical, physical, min-eralogical, meteorological, geographical, physical, botanical, zoologi-cal and medical material.

This approach was initiated by Basil of Caesarea (329/30 – 379), whose work was translated into Syriac quite early, as it seems, since the earliest manuscript comes from the fifth century.35 The tradition initiated by this translation was continued by Syriac scholars: Jacob of Edessa, Moshe BarKepha, Emmanuel BarShahhare and others.36

33 Initially ��μ�� was grammatically an adjective meaning “of six-days”, but with the article it acquired the meanings of “the (Creation) of six days”, and later on: “a commentary on the (Creation) of six days”; N.C.M. van Winden, ‘Hex-aemeron’, Reallexikon für Antike und Christentum, 14, 1988, col. 1251. 34 According to Erik ten Napel, ‘The textual tradition of Emmanuel bar Shahhare’s Hexaemeron in the light of the monastic school-tradition’, [in:] Studia Patristica, vol XVIII,4: Papers of the 1983 Oxford Patristic Conference, ed. by E. A. Livingstone, Kalamazoo & Leuven 1990, p. 289, n. 2 (289–295), the idea comes from Plato, (Ti-maios, 42DE, Rep. 379B, 617E), and was taken over by hexaemeral literature, occur-ring already in Philo’s De opificio mundi 6,13, and in Basil the Great’s Hexaemeron, 132D. It seems however that the idea is purely Christian (and Jewish), as in Gen. 1:4.10.12.18.21.25, and especially 1:31: “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.” 35 R.W. Thomson, in the introduction to his translation of the Syriac version, The Syriac version of the Hexaemeron by Basil of Caesarea, transl. by R.W. Thomson, (CSCO 551; SS 223), Lovanii 1995, p. V. 36 Not all the hexaemera contain scientific information. For instance, Narsay (Homé-lies de Narsaï sur la Création, éd. critique du texte syriaque, intr. et trad. française par Ph. Gignoux, (PO, 34:3 & 4 = 161–162), Turnhout 1968) does not seem to have been interested in such material.


The Syriac hexaemera did not simply copy the material from the Greek ones. It is not sure if, for instance, Jacob of Edessa (d. 708) knew the Hexaemeron of Basil, but he may be credited with an inde-pendent use of Greek scholarship. His material was arranged more systematically than Basil’s.37 Jacob’s treatise is, of course, also di-vided into seven chapters, the third of which is devoted to geogra-phy.38 Much of it was borrowed from Ptolemy’s Geography,39 but in any case it provides a richer material than Basil’s Hexaemeron.40

We may compare his work with that of Basil on the example of their material on Africa.

Basil knows about rivers flowing from the south towards the Medi-terranean,41 crossing the country of the Cushites, and that Egypt is lower than the Red Sea. He also knows that nard trees grow in Egypt and Libya. Moreover, he says that the fishermen of Mauretania and those fishing in the Egyptian Sea know different kinds of fish (scil. from those known to the fishermen of the Mediterranean).42

Jacob provides more information. He differentiates between Libya’s (i.e. Africa’s) regions close to the Mediterranean, such as Mauretania, (Roman) Africa and Egypt, and those beyond Ethiopia, called Agizymba.43 The latter, due to high temperatures and wild beasts, are, so he assures us, uninhabitable (l� methamr�n�th�).44 These are the regions which extend to the East and go over into In-dia, thus making what we know as the Indian Ocean an inland sea,

37 The Hexaemeron was his last and incomplete work, but it was finished by his friend George Bishop of the Arab Tribes. 38 Some fragments of Jacob’s work and an analysis were published as early as 1888 by abbé Martin, ‘L’Hexaméron de Jacques d’Édesse’, JA, 8:11 (1888), pp. 155–219, 401–490. The geographical part only, with a Latin translation, was published by Arthur Hjelt, Études sur l’Hexaméron de Jacques d’Édesse, Helsingfors 1892, and the whole work, in a facsimile edition by J.-B. Chabot: Iacobi Edesseni Hexaemeron, seu in opus creationis libri septem, ed. I.-B. Chabot, (CSCO [92], SS 2: 66, textus [= 44]), Parisiis 1928; of which a Latin translation was provided by A. Vaschalde: Iacobi Edesseni Hexaemeron, seu in opus creationis libri septem, interpretatus est A. Vas-chalde, (CSCO [97], SS 2: 66, versio [= 48]), Lovanii 1932. 39 Th. Nöldeke, Literarisches Centralblatt, 1888, p. 1743; James Darmesteter, ‘Jacques d'Édesse et Claude Ptolémée’, Revue des études grecques, 3 (1890), p. 180–188; A. Hjelt, op. cit., p. 30. 40 A. Hjelt, op. cit., pp. 5, 47, LXXX; 41 Basil does not use the word ‘Mediterranean’, only ‘the sea by us’, The Syriac ver-sion…, op. cit. (n. 35): rivers, Syr. p. 45 /tr. p. 39, 42 Op. cit.: Egypt, Syr. p. 57 /tr. 48, nard, 80/68, fishes, 117/97. The two latter pieces of information are placed in botanical and zoological homilies, not geographi-cal. 43 Iacobi Edesseni, Hexaemeron, op. cit. (above n. 38), p. 116a, 23–30 /tr. p. 96, 44 Ibid., 111b,3–22/92.


called the Red Sea (Yamm� Summ�q�). The Indo-African area itself is not only uninhabited but also unknown.45 That such a continent ex-isted was one of the ideas that Jacob took from Ptolemy.

In the ninth century, Moses BarKepha (d. 903) composed a Hex-aemeron in five books.46 He used the work of Jacob, but also other sources, thus his dependence on his great predecessor is only partial. The proportion of the scientific material versus the theological is also different. Whereas in Jacob’s work the former is in “Übergewicht”, in that of Moses BarKepha the two are in balance.47 The geographical part of his work is rather brief, although he does provide information on the division of the oikoumene into three continents and seven kli-mata (see below). He does not say anything specific about Libya, i.e. Africa, which for him is simply the area south of the Adria, or the Adriatic Sea, as the Mediterranean Sea was named. This is totally in accordance with his map, as we shall see in a moment.

Another Hexaemeron is that of Emmanuel BarShahhare (d. 980), written ca 950, in the form of a long poem of 28 memre, some of which are in seven-syllable verses (Ephrem’s) and others in twelve-syllabe verses (Jacob of Serug’s). The work is not published, but François Nau provided a table of contents.48 According to Erik ten Napel, who studied BarShahhare’s work,49 excurses on geography are in the fifth memra entitled “On the third day (of creation) and (on) the constitution of the seas”.50 It seems, in any case, that the material presented there is not as extensive as that in the Hexaemeron of Jacob of Edessa.

But the material of profane sciences, once introduced into Syriac intellectual circulation, did not stay within the boundaries of the hexaemera. In fact, we have other works which include such material. One might say that the sciences within the realm of Syriac culture also eventually became artes liberales.

Jacob or Severus BarShakko (Škkw), also known as Jacob of Bartella (Bar�ell�), composed in 1231 the Book of Treasures (K�th�bh� d�-s�m�th�), which is a theological compilation in four parts. The last

45 Ibid., 102b,3–9/84. 46 Der Hexaemeronkommentar des Moses Bar Kepha, Einleitung, Übersetzung und Untersuchungen von Lorenz Schlimme, (Göttinger Orientforschungen, I Reihe: Syriaca, 14), Wiesbaden 1977, I–II. F. Nau translated a fragment of the Hexaemeron of Moshe BarKepha in: Bardesane l’Astrologue, Le livre de lois de pays, Paris 1899, p. 59 (non vidi). 47 Schlimme, op. cit. II, p. 688. 48 F. Nau, ‘Note sur le manuscrit du British Museum Or. 1300 (Hexaméron d’Emmanuel Bar Schahharé)’, ROCh, 19 (1914), pp. 101–103. 49 E. ten Napel, op. cit. (n. 34), 50 Ibid., p. 292, n. 15.


part is devoted to cosmography and geography,51 and it even includes two maps, one of the klimata, and the other showing continents and seas (see below).

In connection with the Bible, one more source of geographical knowledge should be taken into consideration. It is the Onomasticon of Eusebius of Caesarea (c. 265 – c. 339/40), which was translated (rather early) into Syriac. It belongs partly to exegetical literature, but in fact it is a commented list of the toponyms mentioned in the Bible, and not only those in Palestine (there is, for instance, an entry on Babylon), together with information on their topographical posi-tions, distance from other places and, occasionally, on what monu-ments from the Old Testament times were still there in Eusebius’s ep-och.52

Grigoryos Bar‘Ebroyo We may now approach Grigoryos Bar‘Ebroyo (1226–86), in whose works quite a substantial amount of geographical knowledge can be found. Two works of his come to the fore in this respect: The Cande-labra of the Sanctuaries (M�n�rath qudhš), and The Ascent of the Mind (Sull�q� hawn�n�y�),53 but as it appears from the research of H. Ta-kahashi, such material can also be found in compositions where it would not be expected: in the grammatical treatise The Book of Rays (or Splendors, K�th�bh� d�-zalg), in an encyclopaedic work compris-ing Aristotelian material The Cream of Wisdom (�(�)wath ekhm�th�) and even in the Ethicon (�Îth�q�n).54

The Candelabra of the Sanctuaries is a monograph of ecclesiastical disciplines on which the Church, or rather its teaching, is based, which is why the parts of the work are called bases (šeth�est). In the second “base”, On the Nature of the Universe (me��ul k�y�n�y�th� d�-

51 Fragments were published by F. Nau, ‘Notice sur le Livre des trésors de Jacques de Bartela, évêque de Tagrit’, (Littérature cosmographique syriaque inédite), JA, 9:7 (1896), pp. 286–331. His analysis was made on the Paris ms. Bibl. Nat., Syr. 316. In the British Library ms., Additional 7193, these are folios 96 r – to the end. 52 ‘L’Onomasticon d’Eusèbe dans une ancienne traduction syriaque’, [ed. & tr.] Ignace Éphrem II Rahmani, E. Tisserant, E. Power & R. Devreesse, ROCh, 23 (1922–23), pp. 225–270. 53 Le Livre de l’Ascension de l’Esprit sur la forme du ciel et de la terre, Cours d’astronomie rédigé en 1279 par Grégoire Aboulfarag, dit Bar-Hebraeus, publié par F. Nau, 1: Texte Syriaque, 2: Traduction française, (Bibliothèque de l’École des Hautes Études; Sciences philologiques et historiques, 121), Paris 1900. 54 Bar‘Ebroyo’s works are dealt with by H. Takahashi in the paper quoted above in note 5.


h�n� kul),55 we find an exposition of geography, here again arranged in the form of a hexaemeron. Thus in the chapter entitled “On the knowledge of every thing (h�wy) (created), according to the classifica-tion (m��akk�s�th�) of the Church”, he deals with the things “which were created on the first day”.56 Since in addition to the “elements” heaven, water, and air, earth also came into being on that day, he devotes to it a section entitled: “Examination of the earthly element (bu �n� d-(�)es�ukhs� �ar�n�y�)”.

Klimata After sections devoted to what we could term geology (rocks, sands, metals etc.) comes an exposition of the klimata. Klimata (Syr. q�l�m) were originally (i.e. by the Hellenistic geographers, who invented them)57 understood as latitudes, but due to their cartographical rep-resentation in the form of lines, the latter came to be understood rather as limits of longitudinal zones. The Greek word ��μ� (pl. ��μ��) over time came to mean a ‘zone’, and in the Byzantine ep-och also simply a ‘region’. Strabo, from whom the earliest preserved data on the klimata come, says58 that they extended from Meroë up to Borysthenes (Dnepr). Although geographers sometimes stated various numbers of klimata (up to twelve), the usual number was seven, per-haps under the influence of the Chaldean astrological tenets. We owe the most influential use of the klimata system to Ptolemy, who had it both in his astronomical work, the Almagest, and in the Geography.

As a matter of fact, seven is the number stated in Syriac literature already by BarDay��n (154–212 AD), who evidently knew the idea of klimata. In the Book of the Laws of Countries, his disciple Philippos says that “… the Chaldeans say that the earth is divided into seven parts called q�l�m, and every one of the Seven (stars) rules these parts.”59 This teaching is refuted by BarDay��n, who argues that the Seven stars do not rule the destiny of people because people of one

55 Le candelabre, op. cit. (in n. 16), (PO 22:4), pp. 517–541. 56 Ibid., p. 562. 57 E. Honigmann, Die sieben Klimata und die �� μ��: eine Untersuchung zur Geschichte der Geographie und Astrologie im Altertum und Mittelalter, Heidelberg 1929; D.R. Dicks, ‘The ��μ�� in Greek geography’, Classical Quarterly, 49 (1955), pp. 250–260. 58 Following Hipparchos, the astronomer, 162–126 B.C.; Strabon, Géographie, t. I – 2e partie (Livre II), texte établi et trad. par G. Aujac, (Collection des universités de France), Paris 1969, pp. 117–123, 59 [BarDay��n], Bardesanes, Liber legum regionum, cuius textum syriacum vocalium signis instruxit, latine vertit F. Nau, annotationibus locupletavit Th. Nöldeke, [in:] Patrologia Syriaca I:2, Paris 1907, col. 600 (492–657).


and the same q�l�m�, born under the same Zodiac sign, evidently behave differently, so these differences cannot be due to the power of the Stars but rather to the ‘laws of the countries’.

In the Ascent of the Mind (Sull�q� hawn�n�y�), which is not kept in theological frames but rather scientific ones, astronomical to be more exact, in the geographical section (Ch. II:1,1)60 Bar‘Ebroyo repeats what he has already written in the Candelabra, but in any case we learn the extent of the inhabited earth. In addition to the western-most extremity, The Fortunate Isles (Canary Islands, or Madeira),61 already known from the Candelabra, the easternmost is Shamkut in China (Šamkuth b�-��n),62 the southernmost is the fortress of Kankadid (Knkdyd), and the northernmost the Isle of Thule (Twly; probably the Shetland Islands). Shamkut and Kankadid come from the Arab geog-raphers,63 whereas Thule and the Fortunate Isles are inherited from Greek geography.

The works of Bar‘Ebroyo were provided with scientific figures and maps, which in a moment will lead us to another area of his contri-bution: cartography.

Other sources We turn to other sources to the geographical knowledge of the Syri-ans, which we have to deal with only summarily. We have already mentioned BarDay��n, who in the process of proving his theory of free will shows considerable geographical knowledge. He mentions various regions and peoples living there, and shows that the Chris-tians who live in the same regions do not obey the laws or customs of those countries; for instance, the Christians in Persia do not marry their sisters or daughters as the Persians do. He draws into his argu-mentation the laws or customs of the Chinese (Š�r�y), Indians, Bac-

60 Lack of space does not allow us to pursue other geographical topics, such as the shape of the earth, the equator etc., which BarEbroyo deals with in this work. 61 See the discussion in: G. Amiotti, ‘Le Isole Fortunate: mito, utopia, realtà geografica’, [in:] Geografia e storiografia nel mondo classico, a cura di M. Sordi, (Con-tributi dell’Istituto di storia antica, 14), Milano 1988, pp. 166–177; P.T. Keyser, ‘From myth to map: The Blessed Isles in the first century B.C.’, The Ancient World, 24 (1993), pp. 149–168. 62 Le Livre de l’Ascension de l’Esprit sur la forme du ciel et de la terre, Cours d’astronomie rédigé en 1279 par Grégoire Aboulfarag, dit Bar-Hebraeus, publié... par F. Nau, I: Texte syriaque, II: Traduction française, (Bibliothèque de l’École des Hautes Études ; Sciences philologiques et historiques, 121), Paris 1900, Syr. p. 130, transl. p. 115. 63 Nau, ibid., transl. p. 115, n. 1 & 2.


trians or Kushans, Gilanians, Reqemians, that is, the Nabateans, 64 Edessenes, Arabs, Hatrenes, Greeks, Romans, Germans, Gallians, Britons, Parthians and also the Amazones. The Christians who live among these peoples behave differently, that is, not according to “the laws of the countries” but according to their own.65

Occasionally, geographical material is put in poetical form, like in the work of the Jacobite David BarPawlos of Beth Rabban (8th cen-tury), the Memra on the limits of the climates or countries. Interestingly, he also wrote a commentary on Genesis 10 (i.e. the Table of Nations).66

Geographical material is quite often combined with astronomical and astrological information. Such was the case with the Hexaemera and with BarEbroyo’s The Ascent of the Mind, but it is also true of other authors. Severus Sebhokht (Syr. S�bwkt), bishop of Qenneshre (7th century) is the author of a Memra on the figures of the Zodiac (Mmr� d�-al demw�th� d�-mawzalt�),67 in which Chapters 13–18 deal with geographical matters such as klimata, the dimensions of the earth, and inhabitable and uninhabitable land.

To Berossos68 (Syr. Brwzy), the famous Babylonian historian who wrote in Greek, is attributed a small treatise On the composition of the earth (Me��ul muzz�gh�h d-(�)ar�), which seems to be a fragment of an astrological work. Its geographical material is mostly about water.

History of Mar Yabhallaha (Y(h)abh(�)all�h�) and Rabban Sauma (awm�) We have mentioned above the existence of an exceptional Syriac travelogue. It is the History of Mar Yabhallaha (Y(h)abh(�)all�h�) and

64 ‘Reqem’ is the Semitic name of Petra, the capital of the Nabatean state. 65 Op. cit., (in n. 47) coll. 606–609. 66 A. Baumstark, Geschichte der syrischen Literatur, Bonn 1922, p. 272 (in n. 13 the manuscripts are listed). It was first published by G. Cardahi, Liber thesauri de arte poetica Syrorum necnon de eorum poetarum vitis et carminibus, Roma 1875, pp. 41–46, and again, together with an English translation, by R. Gottheil, ‘Mimra �al šabh�� l�m�’, (Contributions to the History of Geography, 3), Hebraica, 8 (1891–92), pp. 65–78; his additional note, ‘Contributions to the History of Geography’, (Contributed Notes), Hebraica, 9 (1892–93), pp. 117–118, contains a collation of the text with another manuscript. 67 Severus Sabukht, ‘Geographische Fragmente’, [in:] Inedita Syriaca: Eine Sammlung syrischer Übersetzungen von Schriften griechischer Profanliteratur, mit einem Anhang aus den Handschriften des Britischen Museums, hrsg. [von] Eduard Sachau, Halle 1870 (= Hildesheim 1968), pp. QKZ-QLD [= 127–134]. See too the analysis by F. Nau, ‘La cosmographie au 7e siècle chez les Syriens, ROCh, 15 (1910), pp. 236–239 (225–254). 68 G. Levi Della Vida, ‘Pseudo-Beroso siriaco’, Rivista degli Studi Orientali, 3 (1910), pp. 7–43; idem, ‘Nota a RSO III, 7 ss.’, ibid., pp. 611–612.


Rabban Sauma (�awm�), an Eastern Syriac anonymous narrative of the 13th century. 69 This composition can be regarded as a biography of a Mongolian monk, Markos, who together with another monk de-cided to embark upon a pilgrimage from China to Jerusalem. When, however, they came to Iraq Markos – as a Mongol70 – was elected patriarch of the Church of the East (1281) and took the name Mar Yabhallaha (d. 1317 Maragha). But this is mostly an account of his and Rabban Sauma’s journey from China to Baghdad, and that of the journey of Sauma to Europe. The latter was sent by Argoun, the Ilk-han of Persia, on a political mission to several European courts to explore the possibilities of a Mongolian-European alliance directed against the Muslims, which, however, was not a success.

In any case, we have here a sort of travelogue. Rabban Sauma vis-ited Naples, Rome and Paris, and before that Constantinople. Taking as an example his visit there, the anonymous author puts down what the messenger saw in the capital of the Byzantine Empire: the church of Aya Sofia with allegedly 360 gates; the portrait of the Virgin Mary painted by the evangelist Luke, John the Baptist’s hand, relics of Lazarus and Mary Magdalene, the stone from Jesus’ grave on which Mary wept and therefore it for ever remained wet, and others.71

Touristic account Another, shorter, ‘touristic account’, as we would say today, is in-cluded in the Miscellaneous History by Pseudo-Zachariah the Rhetor, already referred to. This is a gazetteer on Rome and its Sehenswürdig-keiten, in which we find data on how many churches, streets, houses, palaces, amphitheatres, statues and other monuments there are in the

69 Histoire de Mar Jab-Alaha, patriarche, et de Raban Sauma, éd. par Paul Bedjan, 2ème éd. revue et corrigée, Paris-Leipzig 1895; there are two English translations: The History Yaballaha, Nestorian Patriarch and his vicar Bar Sawma, Mongol ambassador to the Frankish courts at the end of the thirteenth century, transl. … by J. A. Montgomery, (Records of Civilizations: Sources and Studies), New York 1927; and: The monks of �ûblai Khân Emperor of China, or the History of life and travels of Rabban �âwmâ, envoy and plenipotentiary of the Mongol Khâns to the kings of Europe, and Mar�os who as Mâr Yahbh-allâhâ III became patriarch of the Nestorian Church in Asia, transl. … by E.A. Wallis Budge, London 1928. 70 Apparently a wise decision on the part of the elector bishops, since most of their dioceses were under Mongol rule. 71 S. P. Brock (‘Rabban Sauma à Constantinople’, [in:] Mémorial Mgr Gabriel Khouri-Sarkis (1898–1968), fondateur et directeur de l’Orient syrien 1956–1967, Louvain [1969], pp. 245–253) identifies most of the objects mentioned.


city.72 A similar account can also be found in the Chronicle of Michael the Elder73 and in the Chronicle to the year 1234.74 The latter also in-cludes a list of the major cities (Alexandria, Carthage, Ephesus, Ni-comedia and Antioch), an account of the architectonical miracles (tedhm�r�th�) of the ancient world, although the list provided is not equal to the one known to us in the West.75

But Ps.-Zachariah is also important for another part of his histo-riographical work, in which he has a purely geographical excursus, entitled The Outline of the World (Sqryps (< Gr. �� – ‘sketch, ground plan’) d�-thbhl),76 being an epitome of the Geography of Ptolemy.77 This is a survey of the oikoumene divided into its major parts: Europe, Libya, Aethiopia, Asia, Persia, and India. It presents a list of all the regions of those ‘continents’, and gives the numbers of cities in each of them, and sometimes other pieces of information, for example what the peoples of the regions in question eat, or how they are dressed.

Notwithstanding the presence of the material from Ptolemy which, as we have noticed, can be found in Jacob of Edessa, Ps.-Zachariah and Bar‘Ebroyo, it is doubtful whether Ptolemy’s Geography was ever translated into Syriac. Since such a translation is unknown,78 it seems that all the three authors used Ptolemy independently, the first two

72 Hist. Eccl. Zachariae, (n. 25), pp. 195,5–198,12; the Latin transl., pp. 131–133; The Syriac Chronicle known as that of Zachariah of Mitylene, transl. into English by F.J. Hamilton and E.W. Brooks, London 1899, (= New York 1979), pp. 317–319. See too the comments by I. Guidi, ‘Il testo siriaco della descrizione di Roma, nella storia attribuita a Zaccaria Retore’, Bulletino della Commissione Archeologica Comunale di Roma, 2:12 (1884), pp. 218–239. 73 Chronique de Michel (op. cit. above, n. 23), pp. 49–50, tr. I, 81–82. 74 Anonymi auctoris Chronicon ad annum Chirsti 1234 pertinens, ed. I.-B. Chabot, I, (CSCO [81], SS 3:14 [= 36], textus), Parisiis 1920, p. 110,16–111,16, Latin tr.: Chronicon anonymum ad annum Christi 1234 pertinens, I, interpretatus est I.-B. Chabot, (CSCO [109], SS 3:14 [= 56], versio), Lovanii 1937, p. 87. 75 Ibid. p. 111,16–112,20, tr. p. 88. 76 Hist. Eccl. Zachariae, t. II, pp. 202,20–213,15; the Latin transl., pp. 137–144; Both the German translation (Die sogenannte Kirchengeschichte des Zacharias Rhetor in deutscher Übersetzung hrsg. von K. Ahrens, G. Krüger, (Scriptores sacri et profani 3), Leipzig 1899), and the English by Hamilton & Brooks (p. 326–327) omit the Skariphos. This was studied by J.P.N. Land, ‘Aardrijkskundige fragmenten uit de syrische literatuur der zesde en zevende eeuw’, Verslagen en Mededelingen der Konink-lijke Akademie van Wetenschappen, Afdeeling Letterkunde, 3:3 (1887), pp. 164–193. 77 Ps.-Zachariah takes him to be Ptolemy Philometor, the king of Egypt. 78 On the other hand, there was once, but it has not survived, a Syriac translation of Ptolemy’s astronomical work, the Almagest, P. Kunitzsch, ‘Über einige Spuren der syrischen Almagestaübersetzung’, [in:], �!"#$%&%: Naturwissenschaftsgeschichtliche Studien: Festschrift für Willy Hartner, hrsg. v. Y. Maeyama und W.G. Saltzer, Wies-baden 1977, pp. 203–210.


in Greek, whereas Bar‘Ebroyo in an Arabic translation, as the title of Ptolemy’s work he provides79 betrays an Arabic intermediary.

Mythical geography In a future more comprehensive study, mythical geography will also have to be dealt with. Material of this character can be found in texts such as biblical apocrypha or pseudepigrapha. For instance, in the Cave of Treasures and in the Story of the Magi, preserved in the Zuqnin Chronicle (Ps.-Dionysius of Tel-Mahre’s) such areas more or less mythical are named: the Land of Nod and the Great East. Further-more the area of Gog and Magog, the Inclosed Nations, and so on, occur in literature connected with Alexander the Great, which uses and develops topics known from apocalyptic literature.

Here, too, belongs material on the location of the earthly paradise (Paradisus terrestris). As we shall see, views on its locations are shown in Syriac maps, to which we now turn.

Cartography Evidently, over time the Syrians developed cartography. The maps which have survived come from a rather late period, that is not be-fore the 10th century (BarKepha). There are, however, maps which continue antique patterns, suggesting a longer cartographical tradi-tion. The most intensive period of development of Syriac cartography fell within the last phase of the classical epoch of Syriac culture (12th–14th centuries), when influence from Arabic cartography is cer-tain. Some of the maps of Bar‘Ebroyo even have Arabic legends; nev-ertheless these maps were meant to be used by the Syrians, some of whom apparently were no longer fluent in Syriac. The Muslim Arabs would consult their own maps.

O-T maps Syriac cartography developed along two lines, both with roots in Mediterranean classical culture. One stream of the antique carto-graphic tradition is attested by the so-called O-T maps, the name coming from the scheme of such a map which has, as it appears, the letter “T” inscribed in an “O”, that is in a circle. We can see a scheme of such a mappamundi published in a paper by Anna-Dorothee von

79 See above, note 16.


den Brincken,80 or in that of David Woodward.81 Two European medi-aeval examples, which continue the antique pattern, were published by Wanda Wolska-Conus.82 Both have the east in the upper part, that is, they are ‘oriented’, or, to express it in German, geostet. In the sec-ond, the cartographer has represented the three continents of the Old World in an “O” circuit, whereas the letter “T”, which inside the cir-cuit separates the continents from each other, represents the waters treated as if they were of equal dimensions: the rivers Tanais (Don) and Nile represented each by the northern respectively southern half of the horizontal beam of the letter “T”, as if one were a continuation of the other, and the Mediterranean sea as the vertical beam of the “T”, as if it were another river.

The same T-in-O pattern can be found in the map in the manu-script of Moses BarKepha’s Hexaemeron of the Bibliothèque national in Paris (Syr. 241, f. 169r).83 Here, the orientation is reverted: the east is to the left of the drawing, that is, the map is – to use again a German term, English not having the word – gesüdet. The Asiatic con-tinent fills the left half of the “O”, while the other parts of this sche-matic map are: the continents of Libya (Lwbyw) and Europe (�Wrpy), and the Mediterranean Sea, called the Adriatic (�Dryws yamm�).84 All these areas are surrounded by an outer circle, about which it is stated that This is Okeanos, the Great Sea, which, as (people) say, encir-cles the entire earth, as a crown (encircles) a head and as a belt the loins; (H�n� ��thaw �Qynws yamm� rabb�: haw d�- �dhar l�-kull�h �ar� �a(y)kh k�l�l� l�-rš� w-(�)a(y)kh qamr� l�- a��. �a(y)kh ��mr�n).85

80 A.-D. v. den Brincken, ‘Mappa mundi und Chronographia: Studien zur imago mundi des abendländischen Mittelalters’, Deutsches Archiv für Erforschung des Mittelalters, 24 (1968), p. 131 (118–186). 81 D. Woodward, ‘Medieval Mappaemundi’, [in:] Cartography in Prehistoric, Ancient, and Medieval Europe and the Mediterranean, ed. by J.B. Harley and D. Woodward, (The History of Cartographjy, 1), Chicago 1987, p. 297, fig. 18.4. 82 W. Wolska-Conus, ‘Geographie’, Reallexikon für Antike und Christentum, 10, 1978, coll. 167–168 (155–222); the first from a 12th-century manuscript, the second from an incunable of the Orbis terrarum by one Zacharias Lilius, printed in Florence in 1493. 83 It was first published by J.-B. Chabot (‘Notice sur une mappemonde syrienne du XIIIe siècle’, BGHD, 1897, p. 104), but in his tracing of the map he did not include all the Syriac texts. The schematic drawing of this map has been published by L. Schlimme, in his translation of BarKepha’s Hexaemeronkommentar, (above, n. 46), II, p. 653. 84 BarKepha writes about them in a chapter devoted to the tripartite division of the earth, Hexaemeronkommentar, II, p. 561–562. In the next chapter BarKepha presents the klimata. 85 The Syriac text in J.-B. Chabot, op. cit., (n. 83), 1897, p. 104.


Another example of the same type of map (Fig. 1), also gesüdet, comes from the British Library ms. Add. 7193, fol. 117r. This is from The Book of Treasures (K�th�bh� d�-s�m�th�) of the already-mentioned Jacob of Bartella.86 This map has similar legends to those of BarKepha’s map: Asia the Great (�Asy� rabb�th�),87 and the western hemisphere, divided into three fields as in the former map, are de-scribed: Libya, (the Sea of) Adria, Europe (Lybw�y, �Dr[y]ws, �Wrwpy), the cardinal points are added, and the outer circle is specified to rep-resent Okeanos: “This is the Great Sea of Okeanos, which, as people say, encircles the whole world, as a crown a head...” (H�n� ��thaw yamm� �Wqynws rabb� haw d�- �dhar l�-kull�h �ar� �a(y)kh k�l�l� l�-r[]š� �aykann� d�-(�)n�š[�]n (?) ��mr�n). In relation to the text of the manu-script, the horizontal legends of the map are written upside down. It seems probable that Jacob’s map was based on that of BarKepha’s, or that the two had a common source.

The next example (Fig. 2) is from a Paris ms. of the 13th century containing the Syriac-Arabic Lexicon of Isho� Bar�Ali († 1001).88 This is a map of a different type, which includes elements of mythical geog-raphy in two additional (compared to Jacob of Bartella’s map) con-centric circles. The earth, represented in the central circle, is de-scribed as the one “on which we live” (�ar� h�dh ��thh da-lh �mr�nnnan). The directly adjacent circle is Okeanos, which is said to be unnavigable (H�n� ��thaw´ �Wqynws yamm� rabb� d�- �dhar l�-khull�h �ar� h�dh d�-�mr�nnan �lh w-(�)�thaw´ l� meth��ph[�n�]). The next two (counted from the centre) circles represent respectively:

the outer circle: The land of Paradise (about which) Mar Ephrem said that it is in this entire land, and it encircles and encompasses the whole earth on all sides, as the halo of the moon encircles and encompasses the moon (�Ar� d�-Phardays�. M�r �Aphrm ��mar da-bh-kull�h h�dh �ar� ��thaw(hy) wa- dh�r wa-khr�kh l�-khull�h �ar� men kulhn peny�th�. �akhm� da- dh�r� wa-khrikh� ugg�th� d�-sahr� l�-sahr�);

the inner circle (i.e. the third from the centre): This is the land in which the family of Adam lived after he had been expelled from Paradise. They were ten generations until the day when the flood took place. (H�dh �ar� h�y d�-dayyar b�h d�-bhth ��dh�m men b�thar d-(�)eth��redh men Pardays�. henn�n esr� d�r �dhamm� l�-yawm� da-

86 F. Nau, op. cit. (above, n. 48). 87 To differenciate – after the antique geographers – between the whole continent and the Asia Minor peninsula. 88 In the Paris ms. Bibliothèque nationale, Syr. 299; Chabot, op. cit., p. 100.


hw� �awp�n�). The two legends allude to Ephrem’s Hymns on Para-dise, 1:8–10.89

The next Syriac map (Fig. 3) is extant in the British Library manu-script Add. 7193, fol. 114v, containing the Book of Treasures of Jacob of Bartella, from which Fig. 1 has also been taken. This map shows new cartographic features, namely the klimata. Jacob of Bartella in-dicates only east and north (the map is genordet, like the maps of our days), and presents the seven q�l�m, the first of which includes Outer (?) India (q�l�m� qadhm�y� d-(�)�th beh Hend� barr�yt�), the second Kush, the third Alexandria, the fourth Rhodes, and so on.90 To these seven q�l�m two other zones are added, the legends of which are not easily legible; the northern one seems to represent the equator.91 A surprise is that Jacob’s q�l�m are all put in the southern hemisphere, while otherwise the reverse is common (as we shall see). It is possi-ble that we are faced here with an error: the map should be gesüdet, that is, the cardinal points should be indicated as taym�n� and mar�bh�, rather than arb�y� and madhn� �, respectively.92 The northern hemisphere is, as we learn, The sea in (which) there is water and therefore it is not known whether people live there or not (yamm� [d-]�th beh mayy� w�-bha-dh-g�n l� y�dh�nnan �th beh m�n� da-bhnay n�š� �aw l�).

Our last three maps are Bar‘Ebroyo’s. All of them clearly show the seven klimata and indicate the peoples who live in each of them. Only one hemisphere is shown – the northern.

The first of Bar‘Ebroyo’s maps comes from a Paris manuscript (Bib-liothèque nationale ms. Syr. 210, f. 38 r), which contains his Cande-labra of the Sanctuaries (M�n�rath qudhš)93 (Fig. 4). Conforming to the classical tradition, the cartographer has placed all the seven kli-mata in the northern hemisphere, the southern still being believed uninhabitable. The legends are written in various positions, including upside down, but to judge by the letter ‘H’ outside the map, at the bottom of the page, which shows the position of the text in the

89 Des heiligen Ephraem des Syrers, Hymnen de Paradiso und Contra Julianum, hrsg. von Edmund Beck, (CSCO 174; SS 78), Louvain 1957, pp. 2–3; Engl. tr.: Saint Ephrem, Hymns on Paradise, introd. & transl. by Sebastian Brock, Crestwood, NY, 1990, p. 81; cp. Tryggve Kronholm, ‘Paradiset enligt Efraim Syrern’, Religion och Bibel, 37 (1978), pp. 49 (44–54). 90 The map is not well preserved and providing all the legends will require a deeper study than the one possible here. 91 The words .. [s]ur�� d�-šawy�th� are legible. 92 See a scheme of a gesüdet map, which looks exactly like Jacob of Bartella’s, in A.-D. v. den Brincken, op. cit. (n. 80), p. 135. 93 First published and analysed by J.-B. Chabot, ‘Notice sur une mappemonde syrienne du XIIIe siècle: notes complementaires’, BGHD, 1898, p. 40.


manuscript, the map is gewestet. The names of the peoples that in-habit the zones and those of various regions are clearly legible. Among the peoples, cities and seas on the map, we find inter alia: in the first (i.e. the southernmost) q�l�m� “The Black Barbarians” (Barb�r�y �ukk�m), Ethiopians (�abb�š�y) and Nubia (N�bh�y�);94 in the second, Arabs (�ayy�y), and “All the countries of Egypt” (�athraww�th� kulhn d-�Ygwb�ws), as well as Mount Sinai and the “Indian Sea”; in the third, Damascus (Drmswq), Jerusalem, Bagdad, Alexandria and Egypt (Me�r�n); in the fourth, Samarqand, Isphahan, as well as the Mediterranean Sea (yamm� d-(�)Adhr�yas), Sicily and Cyprus; in the fifth, the Huns (H�n�y) “that is Turks” (�wrqys), along with Italy, Byzantium (Bth R�m�y) and Lesser Armenia (�Armany� Z��rt�); in the sixth, Constanstinople, the Black Sea (Yamm� d�-Pn�ys) and Trabzon; and in the seventh, Bulgars, the Bal-tic Sea (Yamm� d-�Wrng)95 and “the City of Gog and Magog”. As usual, the oikoumene is surrounded by the Okeanos.

Another version of Bar’Ebroyo’s map (Fig. 5), of the 14th century, comes from his Candelabra of the Sanctuaries too (Paris. Bibl. Nat., ms. syr. 299, f. 204 v.96). It has more geographical and ethnographi-cal names than map no. 4; for example, in the first q�l�m�, Yemen, Oman, Hadhramaut and az-Zafar have been added, or the Qipchaq Plain (P�qat� d�-Q[�]phš�q�y), the Franks (Phrang�y) and the Slavs (Al-Saq�l(i)bah) in the sixth. Influence from Arabic geography is clear, as the Arabic name of the Slavs shows, but there are, more-over, also ethnonyms written in Arabic (“Turks” in the seventh q�l�m�) and the numbers of the q�l�m are written both in Syriac and Arabic.

Still another copy of the map of Bar‘Ebroyo is reproduced in The History of Cartography (1992).97 This includes even more toponyms in Arabic, although the q�l�m are numbered only in Syriac. This map seems even more precise than those in Figs. 4 and 5, since the out-lines of the seas and continents are more clear, be it due to a better state of preservation or to more careful execution.

In Bar‘Ebroyo’s maps the influence of Arabic cartography is clear. However, since in Byzanium in the thirteenth century interest in

94 Perhaps to be read N�bh�y - ‘Nubians’, but the word does not have the s�y�m. 95 I.e. Varangians – Norsemen in Byzantine military service. 96 Published and discussed by J.-B. Chabot, ‘Notice sur une mappemonde syrienne du XIIIe siècle’, BGHD, 1897, Fig. C, planche. 97 First published (and studied) by R. Gottheil, ‘On a Syriac geographical chart’, Journal of the American Oriental Society, 13 (1889): Proceedings, Table after p. ccxciv; Cartography in the traditional Islamic and South Asian societies, ed. by J.B. Harley and D. Woodward, (The History of Cartography, 2:1), Chicago 1992, p. 148.


Ptolemy reemerged,98 influence from the latter cartography in Syriac cannot be a priori excluded.

The field of Syriac geography reviewed here needs more attention from scholars, as the studies carried out so far have barely initiated research. Finding connections between the works named, and those yet unnamed, as well as influences from outside, remains to be inves-tigated. The abundance of the source material, only a fraction of which has been presented here, whereas much still remains to be discovered and published, makes it a promising field of research.

98 O.A.W. Dilke (with additional material supplied by the editors), ‘Cartography in the Byzantine Empire’ [in:] Cartography in Prehistoric, Ancient and Medieval Europe and the Mediterranean, edited by J.B. Harley and D. Woodward, (The History of Car-tography, vol.1), Chicago 1987, pp. 266–274, (258–275), with a list of the manu-scripts of Ptolemy’s Geography, the oldest ones reaching back to the thirteenth cen-tury.


Fig. 1: Mappa mundi from The Book of Treasures of Jacob of Bartella (Severus BarShakko), London, British Library, ms. Add. 7193, fol. 117r. By permis-sion of the British Library.


Fig. 2: Mappa mundi from the Lexicon of Isho� Bar�Ali, Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, ms. Syr. 299; after J.-B. Chabot, Notice sur une mappemonde syrienne du XIIIe siècle’, BGHD, 1897, p. 100.


Fig. 3: Mappa mundi with klimata; The Book of Treasures of Jacob of Bartella, London, British Library, ms. Add. 7193, fol. 114v. By permission of the Brit-ish Library.


Fig. 4: Mappa mundi from The Candelabra of Sanctuaries of Gregory Bar‘Ebroyo, Paris, Bibl. Nat., ms. syr. 210; after J.-B. Chabot, ‘Notice sur une mappemonde syrienne du XIIIe siècle: notes complementaires’, BGHD, 1898, p. 40.


Fig. 5: Mappa mundi from The Candelabra of Sanctuaries of Gregory Bar‘Ebroyo, Paris, Bibl. Nat., ms. syr. 299, fol. 204v; after J.-B. Chabot, ‘Notice sur une mappemonde syrienne du XIIIe siècle’, BGHD, 1897, fig. C, planche.

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