Last month I gave a talk on a thorny issue in religious and intellectual history: the distinction between believing and knowing (or more simplistically, faith and reason) in Late Antiquity. My focus was on two #Syriac authors, Paul the Persian and Babai the Great.

1/16 This is the culmination of research I've been working on since 2018 (alongside so many other projects). I'm currently writing up the talk as a publication. For now, here's a research 🧵 with some broad outlines.

2/16

Christians and Muslims in the Middle Ages shared many intellectual pursuits. One of them was @astrology.

A 🧵on Gregory Barhebraeus' @syriac odes to the seven planets of the @zodiac. Barhebraeus wrote seven poems on the seven 'wandering stars' (kawkḇē ṭāʿayyā)—from the outer- to innermost—in a metre of seven syllables.

Text: Dolabani (pp. 77-8). Images: a bowl with astrological motifs (12th-early 13th ce., N. or C. Iran), in @metmuseum (link in ALT text).

Ever felt stuck reading a difficult text? Sergius of Rēshʿaynā (d. 536) has the answer—and it involves storks!

From his #Syriac treatise on Aristotle's writings addressed to Theodore (unedited; from MS Paris 354, fol. 1v): 'The saying among the Ancients goes, O our brother Theodore, that a bird called the stork rejoices and is strengthened when it detaches itself from cultivated lands, departs for the wilderness, and comes to to know its original dwelling place until the ends of its life. +

Manuscripts often provide precious glimpses into the lives of their copyists. Here's one copied by Dionysius Ibrāhīm-Shāh (fl. 16th ce.), Syrian Orthodox Archbishop of Cyprus. The colophon at the end tells us about an unfortunate episode in his life. A 🧵on bishops & burglary. 1/ Oxford, Hunt. 363 is a codex composed of Islamic & Christian texts bound together. @FKrimsti & I came across it in 2019.

The colophon by Dionysius is in Garshūnī (Arabic in Syriac letters). My Arabic transcription for the Syriacless + English translation in images 👇 2/

Hello! I am a social and intellectual historian of medieval inter-religious encounters, working mainly with Arabic & Syriac texts, with a passion for sharing my research & teaching.

Below👇 is a master thread of past tweets on my subject (to be updated every so often). (1) My publication of new finds in the history of Syriac philosophy:

https://twitter.com/salam_rassi/status/1197657282827505664?s=20

So the the source mentioning pact between the Christians of #Najran and the emergent Zaydī polity is ʿAlī b. Muḥammad b. ʿUbayd Allāh al-ʿAbbāsī al-ʿAlawī, Sīrat al-Hādī ilā l-Ḥaqq Yaḥyā b. al-Ḥusayn (ed. Suhayl Zakkār). 1/7

https://twitter.com/salam_rassi/status/1351530703905808391

The Sīra (biography) is of the founder of the Zaydī imamate in Yemen, Abū l-Ḥusayn b. Yaḥyā b. al-Ḥusayn (d. 911), caliphal name al-Hādī ilā l-Ḥaqq, grandson of the famous theologian, al-Qāsim ibn Ibrahīm al-Rassī (d. 860). 2/7

Re: the date of the newly found Syriac inscription from the region of Najran, Saudia Arabia. Here's a small suggestion of a late terminus ad quem of late 8th/early 9th ce. based on a Syriac literary source I worked with once. 1/6

https://twitter.com/HughSlaman/status/1351423506769190913

A letter sent by Timothy I (r. 780 to 823), patriarch-catholicos of 'Nestorian' Church of the East in Baghdad, to the monks of Mar Maron in Syria. Here, Timothy attempts to convince the monks to switch allegiance to his church. 2/6

A very interesting perspective from @jbralston. While I understand and respect Dr Ralston’s experience, I feel that it requires redress. I’m usually loath to making these kinds of interventions, but this is a subject close to me both personally & intellectually. 1/

https://twitter.com/jbralston/status/1338504314747281409

I hope this thread is taken in the spirit decorum, respect, & admiration with which it is intended. Disclosure: My forthcoming monograph is an intellectual-historical study of the Syriac & Christian Arabic apologetic tradition, focusing on the Trinity, Incarnation, and cult. 2/

I posted this way back on my Instagram account but thought it would be of interest here: an #Arabic #inscription on Sé Velha de Coimbra (Old Cathedral of #Coimbra, #Portugal). (Photo of inscription taken by me). 1/7 It reads كتبت وقد ابقيته لشكايتي ستفنا يدي يوما ويبقا كبر ('I wrote this as a permanent record of my suffering; my hand will perish one day, but greatness will remain'). This inscription and others from Portugal were published by A.R. Nykl (jstor.org/stable/4515632…). 2/7