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Introduction INTRODUCTION MANUSCRIPT AND TITLE The Chronicle of Zuqnīn is a universal chronicle which begins with the creation of the world and ends with the time of writing, A.D. 775–776.1 The Chronicle is known from a single largely palimpsest manuscript of 179 folios, 173 of which are now housed in the Vatican Library (Codex Zuqninensis, Vat. Syr. 162), and an additional six are currently in the possession of the British Library (formerly British Museum), labelled Add. 14.665 folios 2 to 7.2 The Vatican Library purchased the manuscript from the Syrian Monastery of Saint Mary in the Egyptian desert of Naṭrūn, whereas the other six folios were acquired by the British museum between 1839 and 1842. That both were part of one and the same manuscript was confirmed on the basis of the Septuagint texts by Cardinal Eugène Tisserant, who wrongly dated to the 9th century in light of the Syriac script.3 As is often the case, the first and last folios of the manuscript of Zuqnīn have been lost. The preface of the work, however, has survived, albeit in a very damaged condition. It was written in Sel. 1087 (A.D. 775–776) “in which (year) Mahdi son of ʿAbd-Allāh is ruling over Syria, Egypt, Armenia, Azarbayjān, all of Persia, Sind, Kho[rasan], as well as over the Arabs, and over the Greeks Leo son of Constantine, and over the Romans Pepin.”4 The addressees in the preface are the “spiritual fathers (of the writer), George, chorepiscopos of Āmid, the abbot Euthalius, Lazarus the Visitor, the honorable Anastasius, and the rest of the monastic 1 Edition: Incerti Auctoris Chronicon Pseudo-Dionysianum vulgo dictum, ed. I.-B. Chabot, CSCO I 91/43 (hereafter C1) and II 104/53 (hereafter C2) (Louvain 1927–1933). Complete translation: Parts I–II: Incerti Auctoris Chronicon Pseudo-Dionysianum vulgo dictum I, inter. I.-B. Chabot, CSCO 121 (Louvain 1949). Study: W. Witakowski, The Syriac Chronicle of Pseudo Dionysius of Tel-Maḥre: A Study in the History of Historiography (Uppsala 1987). 2 W. Wright, Catalogue of Syriac Manuscripts in the British Museum, vol. II (London, 1871), xiii–xiv. 3 Eugène Tisserant, Codex Zuqninensis rescriptus Veteris Testamenti (Roma: Tipografia Poliglotta Vaticana, 1911), xxix, xxxi. On page v Tisserant oscillated between the 9th and 10th centuries. 4 C2 419:27–31. xi xii THE CHRONICLE OF ZUQNĪN community (of Zuqnīn).”5 Unfortunately, the Chronicler’s name, and perhaps indications of his status and origin have not survived, a fact which led to false attributions and unusual titles. Assemani6 attributed it to the early 9th-century west Syriac patriarch, Dionysius I of Tell-Maḥrē, and he was followed by Tullberg7 and (at first) Chabot.8 After Chabot edited the manuscript in the 1940s, he realized the attribution error since Dionysius was contemporary of Al-Maʾmun (813–833) and Al-Muʿtaṣim (833–842) whereas the Chronicler of Zuqnīn was contemporary of al- Manṣur (754–775), and as a consequence he gave it the title Pseudo-Dionysius of Tell-Maḥrē.9 Abramowski, who published a study on the real Dionysius, wisely called the Syriac content of Codex Zuqninensis, the Chronicle of Zuqnīn,10 since Zuqnīn was apparently the place where its author had lived. In one passage the Chronicler in fact mentions that several monks “from our monastery of Zuqnīn,” succumbed to a pestilence.11 Furthermore, he dedicated his work to the officials and monks of the monastery in question, as is clear from the Chronicle’s preface.12 Moreover, Zuqnīn as a concrete location seems somehow a more appropriate anchor for the anonymous Chronicle than a phantom author dubbed Pseudo-Dionysius. The latter is not only an imaginary person, but his name fosters confusion with the real Dionysius of Tell-Maḥrē, who had no connection whatsoever with the Zuqnīn Chronicle. For these reasons, Abramowski’s label has been used in the present translation. IDENTITY OF THE CHRONICLER AND HIS POSITION In discussing this subject, I have strongly defended that the author was none other than Joshua the Stylite, mentioned in a note appended to the source compiled in Part III of the Chronicle, and which deals with events relevant to the Jazīrah and Edessa (see below). This note of a script other than the one found in the entire codex, was written by the 9th century Elisha of Zuqnīn who repaired it. That the 5 C2 420:10–12. 6 G. S. Assemani, Bibliotheca Orientalis, vol. II (Romæ: Typis Sacræ Congregationi de Propaganda Fide, 1721), p. 98ff. 7 O. F. Tullberg, Dionysii Telmahhrensis Chronici Liber Primus e Codice Mss. Syriaco Biblithecae Vaticanae (Uppsala, 1851), i ff. 8 J.-B. Chabot, Chronique de Denys de Tell Maḥré: Quatrième Partie (Paris‏ 1895), 1ff. 9 Chabot had previously accepted Assemani’s identification, as the title given above of his French translation of Part IV of the Chronicle shows. 10 R. Abramowski, Dionysius von Tellmahre jakobitischer Patriach von 845–818.‏ Zur Geschiche der Kirche unter dem Islam, Abhandlungen für‏ die Kunde des Morgenlandes 25:2 (Leipzig, 1940), p. 11. 11 Harrak, Zuqnīn, p. 188. 12 C2 420:10–12. The Preface does not mention Zuqnīn as such, but the name of “George, chorepiscopus of Āmid,” the district in which the monastery was located, hints at it. Most importantly, “Euthalius, the abbot,” named in the Preface, is also mentioned elsewhere in the Chronicle as the abbot of Zuqnīn; see Harrak, Zuqnīn, p. 219 and note 3. INTRODUCTION xiii author of our Chronicle was almost certainly a resident in the monastery of Zuqnīn is suggested in Part IV as mentioned above. He was a priest and formerly a stylite, on the assumption that he is the Joshua of Elisha’s note. In Part IV of his work, Joshua discusses with bitterness the violence that engulfed northern Syria during the governorship of Mūsā son of Muṣʿab, including attacks against monks, recluses and stylites: “They attacked hermits, recluses, and stylites, bringing down many from their pillars …” He may well have been among them. There is clearly no reason to disqualify a stylite from having been a literary author. John, the Stylite of Litarb, near Aleppo, corresponded with Jacob of Edessa,13 and wrote a chronography at the beginning of the 8th century.14 Similarly, Joshua too appears to have been both a stylite and an author. Witakowski suggested that he was the ܐܪܘܥܣ “steward” of his monastery, because, according to Witakowski,15 only monks in that position could travel and gather information about the events he discusses in his Chronicle. Nonetheless, the author mentions a monk named Dionysius, who held that position until 766–767,16 although he became the bishop of Ḥarrān in 767–768, but he also mentions another monk of Zuqnīn, Lazarus, who served as “steward” in the year he finished his Chronicle, namely, S. 1087 (775–776). He also dedicated his work to this monk, as well as to the other fellow monks of his monastery.17 DATE OF THE MANUSCRIPT AND TIME OF WRITING I have previously given several reasons to believe that the Chronicle is an autographon: The script of the entire codex is different from that of Elisha, whom we know that he lived in the 9th century thanks to other dated manuscripts he copied in Egypt; the manuscript contains blank spaces found in Part IV of the Chronicle (folios 135v, 136r, 137r, 138r, and 144v), meant to be filled later on by the Chronicler, but then they were left blank; the Chronicler depicted heavenly portents (folios 121v, 136v, 146r, 150v, 154v, 155v) some of which bear captions of the same script of the entire codex; there are also notations made on two occasions in the margins of Part IV of the Chronicle (folio 137v, 138v) whose script is also identical to that of the main text – aides-memoire, since they consist of titles discussed later on by the author.18 In 1997, Andreas Luther published a translation of the Edessene Chronicle (the so-called Chronicle of Joshua the Stylite), and while he considered Codex 13 A. Harrak, “Jacob of Edessa as a Chronicler,” in Gregorios Ibrahim & George Kiraz (eds.), Studies on Jacob of Edessa, Gorgias Eastern Christian Studies 25 (Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press: 2010), pp. 58–77. 14 Michael II 358, after Dionysius of Tell-Maḥrē. 15 Witakowski, Study, p. 92. 16 See below p. 219. 17 See C2, p. 420:11 18 Harrak, Zuqnīn, pp. 9–17. xiv THE CHRONICLE OF ZUQNĪN Zuqninensis as an autographon, he took Joshua the Stylite of Zuqnīn as the author of the Edessene Chronicle.19 By contrast, Frank Trombley and John Watt, in their translations of the same short chronicle, wrote that Joshua was not the author of this work “but probably also the author of the Chronicle of Zuqnīn.”20 We know reasonably well when the Chronicler begun writing his universal history and when he completed it. In his introductory letter the Chronicler mentions the year in which he completed his Chronicle which he dedicated to the leaders of his monastery: Sel. 1087 (=AD 775–76), corresponding to the first year of Caliph al- Mahdī’s reign. Part IV of the Chronicle covers the entire reign of Caliph al-Manṣūr, the father of al-Mahdī, and while writing the former was still alive, a fact which explains why the Chronicler left a blank space meant to be filled with the total years of his reign. The author seems to have been very busy with his undertaking, since Caliph al-Manṣūr died in 775 and he failed to fill the gap with the necessary information about the sum of years he ruled.
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