JACOB OF THE GRAMMARIAN

Rafael Talmon l˜˜z

1. Introduction*

It is quite common among historians of and culture to describe Jacob of Edessa’s Turr¯as. mamll¯anahr¯ay¯a as the most im- portant contribution in the history of Syriac grammar.1 Later treatises, written by Elias of S. oba (d. 1049), Elias of T. irhan (d. 1049), Joseph bar Malkon (d. thirteenth cent.), John bar Zo,bi (thirteenth cent.), and Severus bar Sakkoˇ (d. 1241), all known to us, exhibit either a servile attitude to grammar or poor coverage of grammatical issues. Appreciation of Barhebraeus’s Kt¯ab¯ad-S. emh. ¯e does not fail to mention how much he owes to Jacob’s fine observations and comprehensive cov- erage of the language structure.2 But it is just as clear to everybody that the evaluation of Jacob’s contribution to Syriac grammar is based on speculation more than facts because of the loss of the greater part

* The author expressed his thanks to Prof. G. Goldenberg and Prof. L. Van Rompay who encouraged him to participate in the 1997 symposium on Jacob of Edessa in Leiden. Prof. Goldenberg read a draft of this paper and offered important corrections and clarifications. The author also thanked the British Library Board for their permission to publish the excerpt of BL Add. 12154 in Appendix B. 1 Implicitly, this is Th. N¨oldeke’s view in his review of A. Merx, Historia artis grammaticae apud Syros (Leipzig 1889) in Literarisches Centralblatt 35 (1890), 1216, and more explicitly in his review of F. Baethgen, Syrische Grammatik des Mar Elias von Tirhan (Leipzig 1880), in G¨ottingische gelehrte Anzeigen (1880), 721. See also R. Duval, La Litt´erature Syriaque (Paris 1907; repr. Amsterdam 1970), 286 (‘ ... et ce trait´efit longtemps autorit´een Syrie’); A. Baumstark, Geschichte der syrischen Literatur mit Ausschluß der christlich-pal¨astinensischen Texte (Bonn 1922), 254–255, omits an evaluation of Jacob’s achievements in the field; J.B. Segal, The Diacritical Point and the Accents in Syriac (London 1953), 38, 136; E.J. Revell, ‘The Grammar of Jacob of Edessa and the Other Near Eastern Grammatical Traditions’, ParOr 3 (1972), 365–374, emphasizes Jacob’s originality. More recent statements about Jacob’s importance can be found in R. Contini, ‘Greek Linguistic Thinking and the Syriac Linguistic Tradition’, Sprawozdania z Posiedzen Komisji Naukowych 40 (1996), 47–48, and R. Talmon, ‘The Establishment of Syriac Linguistics – Foreign Influence in the Syrian Grammatical Tradition’, in S. Auroux et al. (eds.), History of the Language Sciences 1 (Handb¨ucher zur sprach- und Kommunikationswissenschaft 18.1; Berlin–New York 2000), 338–339. 2 Merx’s conclusion of Ch. 5 on p. 62 (see also pp. 232–233, where, however, Zamah.ˇsar¯ı’simpact is emphasized); Segal, The Diacritical Point, 38, 56–57, where he cites Barhebraeus’s own recognition; Revell, ‘Grammar’, 370. 160 RAFAEL TALMON of his book of grammar. In what follows I shall offer several vantage points for a re-evaluation of Jacob’s status as an original grammarian. The opportunity provided by the editor of this book to create a large- scale picture of Jacob’s creative life has challenged me to include in my contribution an extensive report of the state of the art, with the hope that it will encourage future interest in Jacob the grammarian.

2. What is Known of Jacob’s Grammatical Teaching?

The study of Jacob’s grammatical inquiries reached its climax with the works of Merx (1889) and Moberg (1907),3 who maintained a larger view of his work, whereas others concentrated on specific topics in it. Phillips (1869) published Jacob’s letters concerning Syriac orthography (see specification below) and Wright edited the remnants of Jacob’s grammar book Turr¯as. mamll¯anahr¯ay¯a immediately afterwards (1871).4 Martin was the first to study intensively Jacob’s contribution to massoretic studies, which culminated in the introduction of a complex vocalization system and doubling of the number of accents for the utility of reading of the holy scripts.5 Segal’s comprehensive work on the Syriac diacritical points and accents (1953) made Jacob’s role in these two fields much clearer.6 Revell’s assessment of Jacob’s grammar (1972), in addition to several useful observations, was mainly concerned with defence of his originality.7 In a recent study Voigt (1997) reconstructs Jacob’s vocal system by scrutiny of the relevant texts of Barhebraeus’s grammars.8 Let us turn now to a survey of the sources which document parts of Jacob’s teaching in the field of grammar. These sources are the following:

3 Merx, Historia, Ch. 4–5, pp. 34–62, esp. 50–62, and A. Moberg, Buch der Strahlen. Die gr¨ossere Grammatik des Barhebr¨aus 2 (Leipzig 1907), 3*–120*. 4 G. Phillips, A Letter by M¯ar Jacob, Bishop of Edessa, on Syriac Orthography; Also a Tract by the Same Author, and a Discourse by Grigory on Syriac Accents (London 1869), ed. 1–24, trans. 1–33; W. Wright, Fragments of the Qj]z Q¥sswv Š^– or Syriac Grammar of Jacob of Edessa. Edited from MSS. in the British Museum and the Bodleian Library (London 1871), 2–5 (and see note 8 below). 5 J.P.P. Martin, ‘Jacques d’Edesse´ et les voyelles syriennes’, JA 6.13 (1869), 447–482; idem, Jacobi Edesseni Epistola ad Georgium Episcopum Sarugenum de orthographia Syriaca (Paris 1869); idem, ‘Histoire de la ponctuation, ou de la massore chez les Syriens’, JA 7.5 (1875), 81–208. 6 See Segal’s Index of Authors Cited. References to specific passages in his book will be made where relevant below. 7 Revell, ‘Grammar’, and his lecture in Jerusalem (1984), kindly summarized for me in personal communication. 8 R. Voigt, ‘Das Vokalsystem des Syrischen nach Barhebraeus’, OrChr 81 (1997), 36–72.