Outsiders or Insiders? The Changing Fortunes of Syrian Christians

Christian Sahner

Tuesday, November 29, 2016
5:00pm
Bizzell Memorial Library, Community Room (LL118)
View Course Flyer [PDF]

Dr. Christian Sahner is a historian of the Middle East and a Research Fellow at St John’s College, University of Cambridge. His work deals with the transition from late antiquity to the early Islamic period, relations between Muslims and non-Muslims (especially Christians and Zoroastrians), and the history of Syria. Born in New York City, he received an AB in Art and Archaeology from Princeton University, an M.Phil in Late Antique and Byzantine Studies from the University of Oxford, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar, and a Ph.D. in History also from Princeton. He is the author of Among the Ruins: Syria Past and Present (Oxford/Hurst, 2014), a blend of history and memoir from his time in the Levant. He is currently at work on a second book which explores the little known Christian martyrs of the early Islamic period. It examines episodes of conversion, apostasy, and blasphemy as a way of understanding how an Islamic society first arose amidst the predominantly Christian population of the Middle East and Spain in the early centuries after the Arab conquests.

Online Resources for Learning and Practicing

LEARNING

DARIUS Online learning Platform, Steve Caruso
Well designed online modules for Classical Syriac/Aramaic
http://darius.rogueleaf.com/

Lessons for Surayt/Turoyo dialect, Freie Universität Berlin
http://surayt.com/

Biblical Aramaic
Online PDFs of "Introductory Lessons in Aramaic" by Eric D. Reymond, Yale/UMich
http://www.introlessonsinaramaic.com/

Beith Souryoyé Morounoyé
Series of PDF documents, Maronite
http://www.beith-morounoye.org/syriac/index1.html

Elementary Western Syriac letter and word descriptions.Little to no grammar instruction.
http://www.syriacstudies.com/category/learn-syriac/

DIGITIZED MANUSCRIPTS & MODERN PRAYER SOURCES

Digitized Manuscripts online
https://www.vhmml.org/readingRoom/

Online Syriac verse and English translation
https://thehiddenpearl.org/

Sh'heemo, Daily prayers of the week, PDFs
http://www.soc-wus.org/worship/prayer.htm

Maronite daily prayers
http://www.maronitefaith.com/maronite-library/

Includes prayers, verse, and explanation of liturgical terms
by anonymous
http://www.qadishat.com/

Online modern Prayer book, Malankara Syriac Orthodox use
https://sites.google.com/site/syrianorthodox/praying-the-shimo

"Symeon the Stylite and Syrian Monasticism" lecture at University of Oklahoma

The University of Oklahoma Department of Classics and Letters Lecture Series

Dina Boero (Princeton), Tuesday October 25
Boero holds a MA and PhD in Classics from the University of Southern California. Her research focuses saints and their cults in the late antique Near East, integrating literary, codicological, and archaeological sources. Her current book project, The Anatomy of a Cult, traces the history of Symeon the Stylite the Elder’s (d. 459) cult in the fifth and sixth centuries and by identifying the various transformations of veneration to Symeon, takes a step towards clarifying the origins of Syrian monasticism.

Jack Tannous "Christians, Muslims, and the End of the Ancient World"

The University of Oklahoma Department of Classics and Letters Lecture Series


Jack Tannous, Monday, October 3
Tannouse's research and teaching focuses on the Syriac-speaking Christian communities of the Near East in in the Late Antique and early medieval period, as well as other aspects of Eastern Christian Studies and translation. Tannouse edited and translated the Syriac letters of George, Bishop of the Arab Tribes (d. 724)

vHMML's new online Lectorium

From the vHMML website:

The Hill Museum & Manuscript Library is happy to announce the launch of the vHMML Reading Room, which provides access to complete digitized manuscripts and improved cataloging. 

You can find vHMML Reading Room here: https://www.vhmml.org/readingRoom/

Full access to Reading Room requires a one-time, no-cost, registration. Once your registration has been approved, you'll be able to use Reading Room freely. On the Reading Room landing page you'll see information about which collections have already been uploaded; for others you'll need to use our legacy catalog or consult the list of uncataloged collections accessible from the Reading Room landing page.

Syrian Christianity: From Jesus to Refugees

The University of Oklahoma Department of Classics and Letters Lecture Series

Monday, September 19
"The Apostle Thomas and the Origins of Syrian Christianity"
Charles Stang, Harvard

Charles Stang's research and teaching focus on the history and theology of Christianity in late antiquity. His most recent book, Our Divine Double (Harvard University Press) traces the rise of the ancient idea that each person has a divine counterpart, twin, or alter-ego, and the eventual eclipse of this idea with the rise of Christian conciliar orthodoxy.

For More information contact Dr. Scott Johnson, OU


Full semester program below...

Major update on Syriaca.org

Introduction from the website: The Syriac Reference Portal is a digital project for the study of Syriac literature, culture, and history.

Today, a number of heritage communities around the world have linguistic, religious or cultural identities with roots in Syriac language and culture.

Syriaca.org exists to document and preserve these Syriac cultural heritages.



The online tools published by Syriaca.org are intended for use by a wide audience including researchers and students, members of Syriac heritage communities and the interested general public. In order to meet the diverse needs of users, the design of Syriaca.org is inherently collaborative and fluid.

Taste and See: Syriaca.Org

The primary function of Syriaca.org is to be a reference hub for digitally linking research findings. Syriaca.org's publications compile and classify core data for the study of Syriac sources, offer the scholarly community digital tools for freely disseminating that data, and facilitate further research through the creation of shared digital tools and infrastructure.