Thomas the Presbyter (fl. 640) was aSyriac Orthodox priest from the vicinity ofReshaina inUpper Mesopotamia who wrote theSyriacChronicle of 640, which is also known by many other names.[1]
TheChronicle of 640 is an idiosyncraticuniversal history down to the year AD 640. It survives only in a single manuscriptcodex, nowBritish Library, Add MS 14,643.[2] This manuscript was copied in 724 and the copyist added a single folio of text to the end, containing alist of caliphs translated fromArabic. Although it has been taken as an integral part of the text, the copying scribe clearly marked off his addition by preceding it with the words "it is finished" to indicate the end of the work he was copying.[3]
Robert Hoyland identifies seven parts to the originalChronicle of 640:[2]
- an incomplete geographical treatise
- a genealogy fromAdam to the sons ofJacob
- a table of pagan rulers fromAbraham toConstantine I with the main events of their reigns and, in Thomas's words, "a narrative to show how they were subjected to the Romans"
- a chronological table from Abraham andNinus to Constantine summarizing theChronicon ofEusebius of Caesarea
- a continuation of Eusebius down to the thirtieth year of the EmperorHeraclius, i.e., 640
- an "explanation (sūkālā) of the years" with seemingly random theological and historical notes
- a list ofecumenical councils with dates and rulers, including a condemnation of theCouncil of Chalcedon
The writings provide an eyewitness account to the Arab conquest in the mid-7th century (the 10th century according to theSeleucid year numbering):
In the year 945, indiction 7, on Friday 4 February[4] at the ninth hour, there was a battle between the Romans and the Tayyaye ofMuhmd in Palestine twelve miles east of Gaza. The Romans fled, leaving behind the patrician bryrdn, whom the Arabs killed. Some 4,000 poor villagers of Palestine were killed there, Christians, Jews and Samaritans. The Arabs ravaged the whole region.[5]
In the year 947, indiction 9,[6] the Arabs invaded the whole of Syria and went down to Persia and conquered it. The Arabs climbed the mountain of Mardin and killed many monks there in [the monasteries of] Qedar and Bnata. There died the blessed man Simon, doorkeeper of Qedar, brother of Thomas the priest.[7]
Notes
edit- ^According toPalmer 1993, pp. 5–12, the first editor of the work labelled the manuscriptLiber calipharum ('book of caliphs') on account of its last folio. A modernLatin translation was published under the titleChronicon miscellaneum ad annum domini 724 pertinens ("miscellaneous chronicle up to AD 724"). As a result, the whole chronicle is sometimes called theChronicle of 724 orBook of the Caliphs.Van Ginkel 2010 gives the alternative titlesComposite Chronicle of 636/40 andMesopotamian Composite Chronicle (which isComposite Mesopotamian Chronicle of 636 inDebié & Taylor 2012).
- ^abHoyland 1997, pp. 118–120.
- ^Palmer 1993, pp. 5–12.
- ^Corresponds with 4 February AD 634.
- ^Hoyland 1997, p. 120.
- ^Corresponds with the interval 1 September AD 635 to 31 August AD 636.
- ^Hoyland 1997, p. 119.
Bibliography
edit- Debié, Muriel; Taylor, David G. K. (2012). "Syriac and Syro-Arabic Historical Writing, c. 500–c. 1400".The Oxford History of Historical Writing. Vol. 2. Oxford University Press. pp. 155–179.
- Hoyland, Robert G. (1997).Seeing Islam As Others Saw It: A Survey and Evaluation of Christian, Jewish and Zoroastrian Writings on Early Islam. Darwin Press.
- Palmer, Andrew (1993).The Seventh Century in the West-Syrian Chronicles. Liverpool University Press.
- Van Ginkel, Jan (2010). "Composite Chronicle of 636/40". In Graeme Dunphy (ed.).Encyclopedia of the Medieval Chronicle. Vol. 1. Leiden: Brill. p. 485.