8vo. [4], 46 pp., [2], Arabic, Syriac and some Latin text, red cloth with gilt borders, annotated and interpreted by the Lebanese Father John Notayn Darouny, spine rubbed, damp stain on back cover and top edge, some spotting, Ex Typographia Polyglotta, Rome, 1880.

Synopsis

The last of the great Jacobite writers, Grégoire Abulfaraj, surname Bar Hebraeus, wrote in both Syriac and Arabic with equal skill. His command of the Arabic language was the opposite to his surprising ignorance of classical Greek. The poetical work of Abu’l-Faraj was and still is, greatly admired, and has attracted much attention for centuries. He introduced the great skill in stringing together words in verses of four lines. Specimens of his “Ktobo d-mushhotho” (Carmina) were published by von Lengerke in 1836-38 according to the Paris Ms. Ancient Fonds under the title “Gregory Aleorumque Carmina Syriaca Aliquot Adhoc Indedita”; others were published by the Maronite priest Agustinus Scebabi in Rome in 1877 under the title “Gregori Bar Hebraei Carmena”. His “al-Qasida al-Hikamiyah” (Carmen de Divina Sapientia) was first published in 1638 in Paris by Gabriel Sionita, and later published in Rome in 1880 by Yohanna Notayan Darayni (this edition).
See: www.Syriac studies.com for an article by Dr. Aziz Atiya entitled “Age of Decline”; also Mingana catalogue 88, 115, 230 and Scher: manuscrits de Mardin, 89.