A. Pritula

The Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia

HSE University, Moscow, Russia

E‑mail: pritulanna@gmail.com

East Syriac Poetry Embedded in the Manuscript Decoration: 17th—18th Centuries

Abstract. East Syriac poetry embedded in the manuscript decoration has not been studied despite its large popularity in this tradition. Such verse pieces, mostly quatrains, are known at least since the 16th century. The poems being discussed in the present paper represent a further development of this particular text group. It seems to have first appeared in the Gospel lectionaries. Later on, the other types of liturgical manuscripts also obtained different kinds of “decorative” scribal poetry. This process went on alongside the growth of the poetry's popularity in the East Syriac tradition during several centuries of the Ottoman period.

Keywords: East Syriac tradition, Syriac poetry, manuscript production, manuscript illumination, scribes, Ottoman Empire, scribal poetry

Acknowledgments. I am grateful to Heleen Murre‑van den Berg and Grigory Kessel for their help.

DOI: 10.31250/1238-5018-2020-26-2-3-11

References

• Balicka‑Witakowska, E. (1998), “Remarks on the decoration and iconography of the Syriac Gospels, British Library, Add. 7174”, in: Symposium Syriacum VII,R. Lavenant (ed.), Uppsala University, 11—14 August 1996, Roma: Pontificio Istituto Orientale, pp. 641—659.
• Borbone, P. G. (2006), “I blocchi con croci e iscrizione siriaca da Fangshan”, Orientalia Christiana Periodica, vol. 72, No. 1, pp. 167—187.
• Brock, S. P. (2007), “East Syriac pilgrims to Jerusalem in the early Ottoman period”, Aram, vols. 18—19, pp. 189—201.
• Habbi, Y. (1978), “Manuscripts of Al‑Qosh church”, Catalogue of the Syriac Manuscripts in Iraq, vol. 1, Baghdad: Iraqi Academy Press.
• Leroy, J. (1964), Les manuscrits syriaques à peintures, conservés dans les bibliothèques d'Europe et d'Orient. Contribution à l'étude de l'iconographie des églises de langue syriaque, vol. 1, Paris: Paul Geuthner.
• Murre‑van den Berg, H. L. (2011), “The Patriarch, the Scribe and Mr. Reader: the colophon of Jerusalem Ms. Syr 1, a Gospel Lectionary from Alqosh (1679)”, Journal of Eastern Christian Studies, vol. 63, Nos. 3—4, pp. 277—310.
• Murre‑van den Berg, H. L (2015), Scribes and Scriptures. The Church of the East in the Eastern Ottoman Provinces (1500—1850), Louvain: Peeters.
• Pritula, A. (2019), “From Tigris to Jerusalem: East Syriac poetic notes from the Ottoman time”, Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies, vol. 22, No. 1, pp. 193—234.
• Pritula, A. (2020), “East Syriac poetry embedded in the manuscript illumination: 16th century”, Manuscripta Orientalia, vol. 26, No. 1, pp. 26—36.
• Snelders, B. (2010), Identity and Christian‑Muslim Interaction: Medieval Art of the Syrian Orthodox from the Mosul Area, Louvain: Peeters.
• Wilmshurst, D. (2000), The Ecclesiastical Organization of the Church of the East, 1318—1913, Louvain: Peeters.

Received by the Editorial Board: 09.12.2019