Religious Poetry in Vernacular Syriac from Northern Iraq (17th-20th Centuries). An Anthology (Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium)

The present publication ideally continues the CSCO 589-590, in which 17th-century religious poems in Vernacular Syriac (i.e., Neo-Aramaic or Sureth) were published. It offers the reader a rich anthology and the most complete historical sketch of the dorektha genre, surveying published and unpublished works by Chaldean and Assyrian authors. Texts dating from 1607/08 to 1980 AD are critically edited and translated into English, with linguistic, philological and literary On Repentance by Hormizd of Alqosh (17th cent.); the poetic diptych On the Torments of Hell and On the Delights of the Kingdom by Damynanos of Alqosh, which shows the author's indebtedness to Italian Baroque sermons; On a Famine in the Year 1898 by the poetess Anne of Telkepe, probably the first work by a woman to enter the CSCO; the fascinating and living story of the Hermit Barmalka by Joseph 'Abbaya of Alqosh; On an Attack by the Mongols at Karamlish, in which Thomas Hanna of Karamlish elaborates on classical sources such as Gewargis Warda and Barhebreus; the touching and beautiful elegy On Exile by Yohannan Cholagh, who deals with the Christian emigration from Iraq, a contemporary social problem that is even more pressing today than in 1980, when the poem first appeared in Qala Suryaya. Cover......Page 1 Title Page......Page 3 Preface......Page 5 Introduction......Page 6 Hormizd of Alqosh (ed. by A. Mengozzi and R. Saccagno) On Repentance......Page 11 Damyanos of Alqosh (ed. by S. Destefanis) On the Torments of Hell......Page 28 Damyanos of Alqosh (ed. by S. Destefanis) On the Delights of the Kingdom......Page 38 Anne of Telkepe (ed. by A. Mengozzi) On a Famine in the Year 1898......Page 44 Joseph 'Abbaya of Alqosh (ed. by E. Braida) On the Hermit Barmalka......Page 52 Thomas Hanna of Karamlish (ed. by E. Braida) On an Attack by the Mongols at Karamlish......Page 60 Yohannan Cholag (ed. by Sh. Talia) On Exile......Page 71 Table of Contents ......Page 75 [v. 1]. Texts [ v. 2]. Introduction and translation. (both volumes): On repentance / Hormizd of Alqosh ; ed. by A. Mengozzi and R. Saccagno On the torments of Hell ; On the delights of the Kingdom / Damyanos of Alqosh ; ed. by S. Destefanis On a famine in the year 1898 / Anne of Telkepe ; ed. by A. Mengozzi On the hermit Barmalka / Joseph ʻAbbaya of Alqosh ; ed. by E. Braida On an attack by the Mongols at Karamlish / Thomas Ḥanna of Karamlish ; ed. by E. Braida On exile / Yoḥannan Cholāġ ; ed. by Sh. Talia.