The Syriac Chronicle of Pseudo-Dionysius of Tel-Mahrē: A Study in the History of HistoriographyActa Universitatis Upsaliensis, Studia Semitica Upsaliensia 7Syriaca.org: The Syriac Reference PortalThe National Endowment for the HumanitiesThe International Balzan Prize FoundationDavid A. Michelsoncbsc_adminRecord added to Zotero bycbsc_adminSyriaca.org: The Syriac Reference Portalhttp://syriaca.org/cbss/RUT3P26M/tei
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CREATED: This bibl record was autogenerated from a Zotero record.WitoldWitakowskiThe Syriac Chronicle of Pseudo-Dionysius of Tel-Mahrē: A Study in the History of Historiographyhttp://syriaca.org/cbss/RUT3P26Mhttps://www.zotero.org/groups/a_comprehensive_bibliography_on_syriac_studies/items/RUT3P26Mhttps://www.zotero.org/groups/4861694/items/RUT3P26MUppsala / StockholmUniversity of Uppsala1987Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis, Studia Semitica Upsaliensia 7The purpose of this dissertation is to give a metahistoriographic analysis of the Syriac chronical written in 775 A.D. by an anonymous Monophysite monk, conventionally called Pseudo-Dionysius, of the North Mesopotamian monastery of Zuqnin. The chronicle is mainly based on the Old Testament, the Chronicle of Eusebius and the Church Histories of Socrates and John of Ephesus, all of them supplemented with material from many other sources often otherwise unknown. The last part of the chronicle covering roughly the epoch contemporary with the author in his original contribution. The present work begins with an outline of the political, social, economic and cultural conditions of the Syriac speaking Monophysite Church and community during the two first centuries of Muslim rule, i.e. up to the chronicler’s life-time. Further, the influence of the historiographic tradition on the work of Pseudo-Dionysius is stressed by sketching the origins of the genre he pursued--the Christian universal chronicle--as well as its development in Syriac literature up to the end of its classical period. Pseudo- Dionysius’ work is the first so-called developed chronicle, a type which came into being as the result of filling the short chronicle scheme, built of short, chronologically arranged date lemmas, with material from sources of non-chronicle character. The effect of this development is that the classical (Eusebian) scheme of the chronicle vanishes and the work formally comes close to the genre of ‘history.’ As appears from the metahistoriographic analysis of the chronicle, it is permeated by the Christian view of history, including such indispensable elements as the belief in immanent justice and the annunciative relationship between historical facts (prophecies, tokens in the sky). What is related in the work can be grouped as follows: God’s deeds, people’s good and evil doings together with appropriate retribution, and the gradual development of mankind. All this is told with the purpose of admonishing the people, especially posterity, not to sin. Exhaustive descriptions of catastrophes conceived as punishments of recalcitrant people serve as deterrent examples in the chronicler’s moral lessons. The value of the chronicle as an historical source is not very high, since it contains many errors. However, as the author writes, showing the punishments of previous generations for their sins will suffice for achieving his aim, whereas such details as exact dates are irrelevant to it. As to the historiographic terminology of Pseudo- Dionysius, analyzed in the last chapter, it is little developed and inexact, but in this he does not differ from other Syriac historians (with some exceptions), whether their aims were similar to his or not.
Witakowski, Witold. The Syriac Chronicle of Pseudo-Dionysius of Tel-Mahrē: A Study in the History of Historiography. Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis, Studia Semitica Upsaliensia 7. Uppsala / Stockholm: University of Uppsala, 1987.
Witold Witakowski, The Syriac Chronicle of Pseudo-Dionysius of Tel-Mahrē: A Study in the History of Historiography, Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis, Studia Semitica Upsaliensia 7 (Uppsala / Stockholm: University of Uppsala, 1987).Chronicle of ZuqninEusebius of CaesareaJacobitesPseudo-Dionysius of Tel-MahreVIII CEchronicleshistoriography