The chronography of Gregory Abû'l Faraj, the son of Aaron, the Hebrew physician, commonly known as Bar Hebraeus : being the first part of his political history of the world / translated from the Syriac by Ernest A. Wallis Budge.

  • Bar Hebraeus, 1226-1286.
Date:
1932
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The chronography of Gregory Abû'l Faraj, the son of Aaron, the Hebrew physician, commonly known as Bar Hebraeus : being the first part of his political history of the world / translated from the Syriac by Ernest A. Wallis Budge. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    38/676
    At the beginning of the year 1594 (a.d. 1283), after the death of the Patriarch mar ignatius, envoys came from the monastery, and with them were letters of submission and apology for the haste which they had been obliged to submit in establishing the new Patriarch, and the Maphrian would not receive them. Afterwards rabban simon, the physician himself, came to the Maphrian, and with many words [tried to] coax him into receiving his brother’s son. And the Maphrian would not be coaxed, and replied, ‘From ancient times the holy fathers have laid it down that a Maphrian cannot be established without a Patriarch, and a Patriarch cannot be established without a Maphrian. And since these [men] have trans¬ gressed the law and the canons of the Fathers, I have no part with them, neither will I associate myself with them in their transgression of the law.’ Thereupon the physician left and went away offended. And the Maphrian set out with the caravan and daughter of the king to come to nineveh. And whilst he was on the road taj ad-dawlah, the son of rabban simon, came to him about this matter. And because the Maphrian had brought up this man and educated him, and loved him like a son, he received him and the gifts which were with him. And the Maphrian wrote a letter of agreement to philoxenus and said unto him, ‘Peradventure thou wilt think of me that I myself had the desire to rise up [as Patriarch], and that because of this I am angry. God Himself, who trieth hearts, knoweth that there is not in me one member that wisheth this. [And I do not do so] for many reasons. For one reason, for nearly forty years I have been entrusted with the rank of high-priesthood, twenty years in the West, and twenty years in the East, and I am sated with this state of authority. Therefore I desire rest, and relaxation, and a life of peace (or, tranquillity), and the conclusion and the good end which is reserved for men of peace. Another reason is that in this my eastern dio¬ cese, by the grace of God, I live in great content, and I lack nothing therein. Am I to flee from it and go to another like my predecessors ? For although our time is in a disturbed state, the quiet which I have in the East existeth for no other [man]. The third reason is this. Even if I had the longing for the Patriarchate like other men, inasmuch as the dioceses of the West are laid waste, in this case for which could any desire remain in me ? Supposing I had a desire for antioch ; it is in a state of lamentation and tears. Or for the priestly diocese of gumya wherein there remaineth not a man to micturate against a wall; or aleppo, or mabbugh, or calonicus, or edessa and harran, all of which are laid waste; or the seven dioceses which are round about melitene, in none of which doth a single house remain [stand¬ ing], viz. lakabhin, and arka, and kallisura, and gubbos, and samha, and claudia and gargar. And from these [reasons] it is manifest that the cause of my complaining was your action which cannot be praised, and is to be condemned, for ye have done what ye have done without the consent