Programme

In the first classes, a general overview of the history of the Syriac Christian communities will be offered, along with some basic elements of the Syriac language. In the next classes we will try to highlight how the Syriac Christianity – in its complex institutional, social, and cultural layout – interacted with the above-mentioned macroareas. In so doing, we will focus on certain issues, such as: the importance of translation literature (mainly, from Greek) in the Syriac tradition and its influence on other cultures (Islamic; Armenian; Coptic); the possible relationship between the Syriac and the Islamic mystics; the derivation of the Syriac Christian communities from the Jewish milieu and the issue of the so-called «Semitic Christianity»; the relationships between Syriac Christianity and the Persian institutions and the Mazdean cutlure; the relationships between Syriac Christianity and the Byzantine world, especially as regards the Christological disputes of the IV-VII cent.

Core Documentation

A bibliography will be provided during the course

Type of delivery of the course

Each lab session includes a part with lecturer's exposition and a part of interaction with students

Type of evaluation

The student is invited to submit a written work at the end of the lab sessions, the topic of which will be agreed upon with the lecturer