X-Nico

5 unusual facts about Michael the Syrian


Jean-Baptiste Chabot

Four years later he obtained a copy of the original Syriac version of Michael the Syrian's Universal Chronicle, which had been rediscovered in a church at Edessa in 1887 by Ephrem Rahmani, subsequently patriarch of the Syriac Catholic Church.

Michael the Syrian

However the French scholar Jean-Baptiste Chabot arranged for a copy to be made by hand in 1888 and published a photographic reproduction in four volumes (1899–1910), with a French translation.

Both towns were at the time part of the Latin crusader states, and Michael established excellent relations with the crusader lords, especially with Amaury de Nesle, Latin patriarch of Jerusalem.

In 2009, the facsimile of Edessan-Aleppo codex was published by Gorgias Press in the first volume (edited by Mor Gregorios Yuhanna Ibrahim) of a series on the Chronicle of Michael the Great.

Zoara

The Syriac Chronicles of Michael the Syrian (12th century) and of Bar Hebraeus (13th century) contain some obscure traditions regarding the founding of some of the "cities of the plain".


Josephus on Jesus

In 1971, a 10th-century Arabic version of the Testimonium due to Agapius of Hierapolis was brought to light by Shlomo Pines who also discovered a 12th-century Syriac version of Josephus by Michael the Syrian.


see also