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
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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.

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    of the Westerners and the Easterners. Therefore ye know [it], and your Lord, who is no accepter of persons, also knoweth [it]/ And at this time the Maphrian joined in matrimony two physicians who were his disciples in the city of Tabriz ; and he made abu’l’kairman dwell in Tabriz, and JOHN in maragha. And when he came to nineveh in the days of the Lord’s Fast of the year 1595 (a.d. 1284), he elected job the monk, an Elder, to beth kudidha, and he laid the hand of episcopacy upon him, and called him Joannes, and named him to the diocese of beth nuhadhra. And he was the twelfth of the bishops whom the Maphrian ordained in the East. And in that year the village of beth ’akre, in which was a sanctuary of mar JOHN bar naggare was destroyed. And the thieves laid ambushes therein, and they robbed the Elders and Deacons who used to go there. And the Maphrian began to build a monastery in the name of the martyr in the north-west [quarter] of bartalli, a fortress of the country of nineveh. And the clergy had great content thereat. And in the year 1596 (a.d. 1285) the building of the renowned monastery which was in the fortress of bartalli, and which the Maphrian built in the name of the martyr mar John bar naggare, was completed. And since the believing queen dhesbina khatun had brought two marvellously skilled painters from Constantinople, from the king her father, to paint pictures for the church of the Greeks in the city of Tabriz, the Maphrian sent and brought one of them, and he began to paint pictures for the new church of bar naggare. And before this year the Maphrian had sent many monks and elders to bring portions (i.e. relics) of saints to the old church. And having gone, they dug and made excavations and they found nothing. And the holy martyr appeared unto certain believing men in a dream, and said, ‘If the Maphrian doth not come no relics will be found.’ Now the Maphrian did not place any confidence in the words of these lay folk. He made a pretence of being sick, and he shut the door of the chamber in his cell, wherein he passed the night, upon himself, and he fasted and prayed, and spoke to no one from the night Friday until the night of the first day of the week following, the 23rd day of the month of the latter teshrin of this year. And after the Office of the night [was said], and he was partly awake and partly asleep, he saw a splendid young man who said, ‘There are relics under the old throne (i.e. altar).’ And when the Maphrian heard this he cried out to his brother and said, ‘I myself wish to go and seek for relics.’ And they brought horses for him and the two holy bishops. And they mounted their beasts and went to the old church. And the Maphrian told the diggers to dig in the place where in former times the altar had stood. And when they had gone down in the ground nearly as far as the height of a man, they found a funerary chest, and above it was a bowl filled with dust (or ashes), and below it, in the