Icons of the Heavenly Merchant : Ephrem and Pseudo-Ephrem in the Madrashe in Praise of Abraham of Qidun

The fourth century saw a flowering of ascetic life in Mesopotamia under pioneers who coupled the ancient missionary-ascetic traditions of the Syriac speaking churches with more radical forms of withdrawal and seclusion. The life of one such pioneer, Abraham of Qidun (d. 367), illustrates both this transition and the powerful effect of such radical pursuit of holiness on the life and traditions of the churches. He was felt to be a "heavenly merchant" whose business was not in earthly wares, but in the very glory of heaven. His life inspired St. Ephrem the Syrian to compose a cycle of liturgical poetry in his praise - an icon in words, subsequently embellished and expanded by multiple imitators known to us now only as pseudo-Ephrem. This monograph offers the first in-depth study of the madrasha cycle of 15 poems in praise of Abraham, with special attention to the intersection of rhetorical and poetic technique with changing ideals of holiness and ascetic practice. It looks closely at these works disputed authenticity, their lexicon, verbal devices, and structure, to open a new window on the fascinating environment, discourse, and thought of early Syriac asceticism in the late fourth and early fifth centuries. A complete English translation of the cycle appears in the appendix. "The fourth century saw a flowering of ascetic life in Mesopotamia under pioneers who coupled the ancient missionary-ascetic traditions of the Syriac speaking churches with more radical forms of withdrawal and seclusion. The life of one such pioneer, Abraham of Qidun (d. 367), illustrates both this transition and the powerful effect of such radical pursuit of holiness on the life and traditions of the churches. He was felt to be a "heavenly merchant" whose business was not in earthly wares, but in the very glory of heaven. His life inspired St. Ephrem the Syrian to compose a cycle of liturgical poetry in his praise--an icon in words, subsequently embellished and expanded by multiple imitators known to us now only as pseudo-Ephrem. This monograph offers the first in-depth study of the madrasha cycle of 15 poems in praise of Abraham, with special attention to the intersection of rhetorical and poetic technique with changing ideals of holiness and ascetic practice. It looks closely at these works' disputed authenticity, their lexicon, verbal devices, and structure, to open a new window on the fascinating environment, discourse, and thought of early Syriac asceticism in the late fourth and early fifth centuries. A complete English translation of the cycle appears in the appendix."-- Publisher's website TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ABBREVIATIONS A BRIEF EXPLANATION OF TRANSLITERATION AND OTHER SPELLING CONVENTIONS PRESENTING AND RE-PRESENTING SAINTS: AN INTRODUCTION TO EPHREM THE SYRIAN AND ABRAHAM OF QÎDÛN CHAPTER I: THE TEXT AND ITS INTERPRETERS CHAPTER II: PIGMENTS ON THE PALETTE: LANGUAGE AND IMAGERY IN THE CYCLE CHAPTER III: THE PIGMENTS REMIXED: PROMINENT VOCABULARY AND IMAGERY IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE CYCLE CHAPTER IV: CANONS OF VERBAL ICONOGRAPHY: RHETORICAL DEVICES & POLARITY IN THE CYCLE CHAPTER V: THE CANONS RE-CODIFIED: RHETORICAL DEVICES AND POLARITY IN THE PSEUDO-EPHREMIAN PORTION CHAPTER VI: RHETORIC OF THE MADRĀŠÂ: RHETORICAL STRATEGY, STRUCTURAL PATTERNS, AND THE THEOLOGY OF THE ICON CHAPTER VII: STRATEGY, STRUCTURE, AND THEOLOGY IN THE ICON OF PSEUDO-EPHREM CHAPTER VIII: CONCLUSIONS. EPHREM’S THEOLOGY OF ASCETICISM AND VIRTUE APPENDIX A: FURTHER CHARTS APPENDIX B: ANNOTATED TRANSLATION OF THE CYCLE BIBLIOGRAPHY A detailed study of a cycle of fourth-century liturgical poems, in Syriac, dedicated to a great pioneer of the Syriac ascetical tradition. Hayes analyzes its various portraits of the saint, shaded differently by Ephrem and his later imitators.