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T.C. ÜNĠVERSĠTESĠ ĠLAHĠYAT FAKÜLTESĠ

I. ULUSLARARASI KATILIMLI BĠLĠM DĠN VE FELSEFE TARĠHĠNDE HARRAN OKULU SEMPOZYUMU

28-30 Nisan 2006

I. CĠLT

Editör

Prof. Dr. Ali BAKKAL

ġANLIURFA 2006 150 I. Uluslararası Katılımlı Bilim, Din ve Felsefe Tarihinde Harran Okulu Sempozyumu

THE INTELLECTUAL AND CULTURAL MĠLĠEU OF HARRAN AND

John F. Healey*

t a recent symposium held in Manchester to mark the opening of an exhibition A devoted to the history of Islamic science, I delivered a paper on the subject of the role of Christians and Harranians in the of Greek scientific works into during the Abbasid period. In preparing the paper I was struck by the fact that the western perception of this contribution and to some extent the perception of it even among scholars from the Middle East have conspired together to marginalize, or at least play down, the fact that Hellenic culture was well entrenched in a number of Middle Eastern cities, even in Mesopotamia, before the Islamic period. This in turn is in danger of adding, falsely, to the popular misconception or myth that there is somehow a great cultural chasm between the Middle East and the West. The kind invitation of the organizers of this present symposium gives me the opportunity to counter this, to show how deeply Hellenic thought had become part of the local intellectual tradition in northern in the pre-Islamic period and how this set the scene for later developments in Harran in the Islamic period. But how could I, in any case, have resisted such an invitation, to a university which carries the name of one of these august centres of scientific and philosophical thought in the pre-Islamic period, and to visit again its near neighbour, Edessa, which also played it own, rather more Christianized role, in the same period? J. B. Segal‘s inaugural lecture on ―Edessa and Harran‖ (1963a) presents the two cities as rivals and enemies, especially when Edessa became Christian and Harran remained pagan. But as centres of Hellenistic cultural impact on the Near East, they came from the same matrix, along with other important cities in the region such as /Antakya and Apamaea/Afamia in Syria. All four were, even in ancient times, within a few days‘ journey of each other.

* Prof. Dr., University of Manchester, [email protected] I. Uluslararası Katılımlı Bilim, Din ve Felsefe Tarihinde Harran Okulu Sempozyumu 151

Antioch (Downey 1963) Antioch (Antakya) hardly needs any introduction. Founded as the Seleucid capital in 300 BC by Seleucus I, to it he brought thousands of Athenian and Macedonian settlers. It had a port, in Pieria, actually founded before Antioch. There are foundation myths connected with both cities (sacrifices, eagles removing and dropping sacrificial flesh: see Strabo and on foundations) (Healey forthcoming a). Under the Romans, it became the capital of the Syrian Province, with temples of Jupiter, Apollo and Artemis; in it the emperors Vespasian and were proclaimed; the emperor made it his headquarters. Under in c. 211-17 it became a Roman colony. Given this history, it is not surprising that Antioch became a major centre of Graeco-Roman culture in the Middle East, with schools and law-courts and philosophers in abundance. The culture of the city is well represented by its splendid mosaics (Kondoleon 2000; Cimok 1994). It continued to prosper into the Christian era, becoming one of the great theological and ecclesiastical centres of and the seat of a patriarchy. Constantine built a famous church in the city. It became the home of many theologians, such as John Chrysostom (c. 347- 407), Theodore of (c. 350-428) and (c. 351-451), and the setting for theological disputes in the period of the great church councils. But the pagan tradition did not disappear, especially among the upper classes. This is especially well represented by the author Libanius (b. Antioch 314, died there c.393). This rhetorician and literatus came from a wealthy family; he was very Greek in outlook and had studied in , which remained a centre of pagan learning, teaching subsequently in and then Antioch; his pupils included John Chrysostom and , possibly Basil the Great (c. 330-79) and (c. 330-95). He corresponded with the emperor Julian (361-3), the restorer of paganism, whom he admired. His orations on cultural and educational matters and lots of his letters survive, including the Antiochikos, an oration in praise of the city of Antioch (Norman 2000). Antioch was attacked several times by the Sasanians and occupied by them in 611-28. It was then regained by (610-41) before falling to the in 637-8. The emperor Julian was a Hellenizing activist when paganism was in its last throes: his sacrifices offered on Mount Kasion near Antioch have been described as the last pagan sacrifices of antiquity (Weulersse 1940: 48). Some of Julian‘s writings survive and they are based in Neoplatonist mysticism as taught by Iambilichus of Apamaea in Syria (to whom I will refer again shortly).

Apamaea Apamaea, founded by Seleucus I and named after his Persian wife, became the main Seleucid military base, and was further developed by the Romans. It was destroyed in A.D. 115 by an earthquake and then rebuilt dramatically with an impressive main street and temples (including a temple of Belos = Bel). It is 152 I. Uluslararası Katılımlı Bilim, Din ve Felsefe Tarihinde Harran Okulu Sempozyumu especially well known for its mosaics, like Antioch. Apamaea also became an intellectual centre. Numenius, who was active there in the late 2nd cent, was a leading Platonist. He shared ideas with the prominent gnosticism of his age (a kind of secondary creator god; matter as evil) and related his teachings to those of the Egyptians and Jews (whose scriptures he knew in Hebrew). The city of Apamaea became the centre of a school of Neoplatonic philosophy, especially under Iambilichus (c. 245-c. 325). Iambilichus was born in Chalcis in Syria, studied under Porphyry in Rome, wrote much, and founded his own school at Apamaea. He followed the Neoplatonism of Plotinus (204-70), a mystical version of Plato, which saw the soul of man as rising to contemplation of heavenly archetypes (the Soul, the Intellect, the One or the Good = God). Pythagorean elements were incorporated into his system and he used mathematical ideas in philosophy. Again, like Numenius, he claimed a connection with the wisdom of the Egyptians, Chaldaeans, etc. This formed a more or less coherent alternative to Christianity which was spreading at the same time. Apamaea also became a monophysite stronghold during the christological controversies of the 5th-6th centuries. It was sacked by the Persians in 573 and held by them (with Antioch) in 611-28. The mosaics for which Apamaea is famous, like Antioch, come from the pagan context and many have mythological and philosophical themes (such as a famous fourth-century depiction of Socrates surrounded by the Sages: this is essentially a counterpoint to the image of surrounded by his disciples [Balty 1995: 266- 67]). Both Antioch and Apamaea were, therefore, heavily Hellenized centres of Graeco-Roman culture, religion, philosophy and art. They show what I am concerned to emphasize today, that the Middle East was steeped in Greek culture in the pre-Islamic period. Indeed, although I teach in a Middle Eastern languages department, I have often told my students that by this period Greek had become a major Middle Eastern language: it was no longer foreign, but had put down its roots in Syrian soil. But I wish to concentrate on Harran and Edessa and to indicate how Hellenized they were already in the pre-Islamic period. I am not using the term ―Hellenized‖ in a crude sense — I do not mean that these two cities were simply Greek cities located in an alien environment. What I mean by using the short-hand term ―Hellenization‖ is that local, largely Aramaean and Mesopotamian culture had, through long and intimate contact with the Greek-speakers, first under the Seleucids ruling from Antioch, but later under the , evolved in a distinctive way, absorbing some Greek and Roman ideas and standards and obsessions, but retaining also distinctively Middle Eastern, indeed Semitic, characteristics. Throughout it is clear that the general population continued to speak Syriac, the use of Greek being associated with the elite and with educational contexts. I. Uluslararası Katılımlı Bilim, Din ve Felsefe Tarihinde Harran Okulu Sempozyumu 153

Edessa and Harran This thesis about the synthesizing of Greek and Semitic ideologies is easiest to illustrate for Edessa and Harran in terms of religion. Both Edessa and Harran were cities in which traditional Ancient Near Eastern deities were predominant, in Edessa Bel and Nabu, in Harran the moon-god Sin. Indeed Harran was much older and had considerable importance in Babylonian religious and political history. But Edessa too, which probably existed already in some form before the Seleucid development of the place from c. 300 B.C. (to be identified, perhaps, with Adme: Harrak 1992), was firmly wedded to the old religious traditions of Babylon until it was converted to Christianity. Even then the pagans of Edessa continued to be a significant force, as is clear from the fact that of Edessa were constantly struggling to get rid of pagan cults (Drijvers 1982). The emperor Julian in A.D. 363, as part of his programme of turning the Empire back to the old religion, favoured Harran, as a place which had resisted the general drift towards Christianity, and as we know, the Harranians continued to maintain their distinctive religious line well into the Islamic period. Han Drijvers took Edessa as an example of Syrian syncretism, referring to ―the poly-interpretable character of a syncretistic culture which still functions as a unity‖ (Drijvers 1980: 17). We may note especially his detailed work on , sometimes called ―the Aramaean philosopher‖, who lived c. A.D. 154-222 (Drijvers 1966). He was born in (according to traditions preserved in ), another important Hellenized religious centre nearby in Syria (). Bardaisan had converted to Christianity and he was active at the court of Abgar VIII (177-212), who may have been the first Edessan king to adopt Christianity. His works survive in fragments, notably the Book of the Laws of Countries, a dialogue on fate and the power the stars have over human life and free will (Drijvers 1965). There are also quotations from him in later works. Although Bardaisan was a nominal Christian, his views show features which have much in common with Numenius of Apamaea‘s Neoplatonism and Neopythagoreanism, as well as gnostic features. He tried to synthesize local philosophical thought in these traditions with astrology and Christianity. His cosmology involved the mingling of the primal elements of earth, water, fire and light with darkness, leading to decline. Fate has a certain role in human life, but man is at least morally free. Bardaisan was also in contact with ideas found in the Hermetic tradition (Drijvers 1970). It is interesting, however, that Bardaisan wrote only in Syriac so far as we know: he may have been part of a culturally Greek elite, and his ideas are based in Greek philosophical traditions. He uses some Greek-derived philosophical terminology, but his ideas were expressed in his own Semitic language, Syriac, and there was no Semitic v. Greek conflict. Indeed Edessa had come to be known as the ―Athens of the East‖. Incidentally, Edessa is also known for its mosaics, dated from the period c. A.D. 190-230, like Antioch and Apamaea (and, it may be added, , the spledour of whose mosaics match those of Antioch), and although there are distinctive local 154 I. Uluslararası Katılımlı Bilim, Din ve Felsefe Tarihinde Harran Okulu Sempozyumu features in some of them, notably the result of supposed Parthian influence, Hellenic themes also appear. There are mythological scenes, and a second mosaic depicting Orpheus charming the animals has recently surfaced. Orpheus was a major figure in myth in the Roman period and the cluster of ideas attached to what is called ―Orphism‖ came later to be associated with such Neopythagorean doctrines as that of reincarnation. Orpheus functioned at Edessa as a symbol of life in paradise (Healey forthcoming b). In the period after the Christianization of Edessa, its Persian School engaged in the christological disputes which rocked the Church in the fourth and fifth centuries. The Greek works associated with these disputes were translated into Syriac, along with the works of Aristotle, who was especially favoured by the theologians (Teixidor 1992: 126-36). We may note the extensive translations of Greek works into Syriac and the many original works composed in Syriac. The Persian School was eventually closed under monophysite pressure in 489 and moved eastwards to Nisibis, where its enthusiasm for Theodore of Mopsuestia was acceptable. But the work of translation and commentary continued. Thus, for example, Sergius of Ra¡>ayna (d. 536) translated and commented on the works of Aristotle, effectively introducing Aristotle to a new readership. He was also involved in scientific translation, especially of Galen.

Harran (Green 1992) So far as Harran itself is concerned, excavation and early sources show that Harran existed as early as the 3rd millennium B.C. In the later Assyrian and Babylonian periods Harran was an important centre of trade and religion. It was also in the heartland of the Aramaeans. A series of Assyrian tablets survives which records a census of the Harran region in the 7th century B.C. and this provides one of our most important sources for Aramaean personal names. Frequently incorporated in these personal names is the name of the god Sin, the moon-god so well known in Mesopotamian sources. A number of other inscriptions have been found at Harran and elsewhere which tell us that ancient Harran contained an important cult-centre dedicated to Sin, the temple called eœ-∆ul-∆ul in Sumerian, ¡ubat ∆idåti, ―joyous dwelling‖, in Akkadian. Late in the Assyrian Empire the Assyrians moved their capital to Harran, while during the neo-Babylonian period the emperor Nabonidus (555-538 B.C.), whose mother had been a priestess of the god Sin at Harran, restored the Sin temple and brought there from Babylon the divine statues of Sin, Ningal (a female lunar deity) and Nusku (another astral deity). Nabonidus, of course, is well known for having gone off his head and abandonned Babylon and its god, Marduk. He went to live in Tayma‘ in the Arabian desert, taking the moon cult with him. After the decline of the Babylonian empire, there continued a strong local religious tradition of worship of Sin. Numerous monuments give evidence of it. We may note especially the nearby site of Sumatar Harabesi to the east. The I. Uluslararası Katılımlı Bilim, Din ve Felsefe Tarihinde Harran Okulu Sempozyumu 155 monuments scattered over the site include a series of polygonal buildings on hilltops, interpreted by J. B. Segal (1953; 1963b) as of significance in relation to an astral cult of the kind associated with the Harranians by the Muslim historian al- Mas>¥di (d. 958), but perhaps better understood as at least in origin a the series of tombs, though there is also a temple at the site (Green 1992: 71-72). The central hill at Sumatar has inscriptions dated A.D. 165, including references to the god called Måralåh∑, ―lord of the gods‖, certainly to be identified here with Sin, who in various cuneiform inscriptions, including inscriptions from Harran, is called ¡ar ilåni, ―king of the gods‖, and b∑l ilåni, ―lord of the gods‖. There is a carved bust on the rock outcrop with a crescent moon on its shoulders which is identified as an image of the god Sin. For the later period, Ammianus Marcellinus records that Julian in the middle of the 4th century A.D. worshipped the god Sin at Harran. When Edessa was Christianized, its inhabitants treated Harran with scorn as the centre of evil ideas. of (c. 393-c. 460) described it a ―barren spot, full of the thorns of paganism‖ (Ecclesiastical History IV, 15). Saint Ephrem and Jacob of Sarug say similar things (Segal 1963a: 16-17). The Hellenic school of thought there was probably reinforced by the arrival of refugee scholars from the pagan philosophical school of Athens, closed by Justinian in 529 (Texidor 1992: 127; Tardieu 1990: 13). In the Islamic period Harran was a centre of Íåbian tradition. I do not want to encroach on this aspect of the matter, which is well covered in this symposium (and see Gündüz 1994). But the whole purpose of my presentation today is to indicate the Hellenization of Edessa and Harran and the whole region in the pre-Islamic period and I want to end my presentation by referring again to the tradition, already well-established in the pre-Islamic period, as we have seen, of translating Greek philosophical, religious and scientific works into Syriac, the language which was dominant in this area in pre-Islamic times. For the Syrian Christians and the Harranians had come to be at home in two cultures, their own, native and very ancient culture (with its roots in ancient Mesopotamia and the world of the Bible) on the one hand, and on the other hand that of the intellectual tradition of the Greeks. Their scholars were used to reading texts in Greek, sometimes translating them into Syriac for local purposes. Thus for example the Christians translated the works of (4th/5th centuries), St Basil of Caesarea (5th century), Theodore of Mopsuestia (5th century) and Nestorius (6th century) (list in Brock 1997:120-23). But the Greek intellectual tradition which they engaged with included not only religious texts, but also philosophical, mathematical, astronomical, pharmacological and medicinal literatures. The ―Nestorian‖ Christians especially went on to make a major contribution in the translation of Greek scientific works into Arabic. I am thinking especially of Óunayn ibn Is˙åq (809-73), but there were also Harranians involved in the translation movement, such as Thåbit ibn Qurra (c. 836-901). 156 I. Uluslararası Katılımlı Bilim, Din ve Felsefe Tarihinde Harran Okulu Sempozyumu

Let me sum up my main points. 1. The area of Edessa and Harran and Antioch was thoroughly Hellenized in the pre-Islamic era; 2. The religious and philosophical traditions of the area included a heady mixture of ancient Mesopotamian cults, gnosticism, Hermetism and Neoplatonism as well as, of course, a distinctively Middle Eastern form of Christianity; 3. The translation of Greek works into Syriac was common in this multicultural and multilingual environment. In short, this was the fertile ground in which the Harran of the Islamic period had its roots.

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