SYRIAC ORTHOGRAPHY
Syrian philologists knew orthographic rules only by tradition. Teachers of the Holy Bible, according to the Pshitto version starting with the Psalms, usually directed their pupils to read and vocalize correctly. They taught them the forming of letters, intonation, the marking of vowel signs and the fixing of diacritical points over words. This methodology began in the school of Edessa at the beginning of the fifth century from whence it was transmitted into the school of Nisibin. It was usually divided into three parts. The first, contained vocalized and accentuated copies of the Old Testament; the second, included tracts on diacritical and vowel points; and the third, contained tracts on vague and strange terminology. Master Sabroy, the founder of the school of Beth Shahaq, is accredited with introducing this methodology into the Orthodox schools of the East.
In 705 St. Jacob of Edessa revised the vocalizing of the Old Testament text at the Monastery of Tal Ada and elaborated on the system of vowel-signs, thus completing the system which we have today. He divided the Holy Scriptures into chapters, wrote an introduction about the contents of each, and made many marginal notes on the text, together with the correct pronunciation of words, containing studies of the Greek as well as the Syriac versions of the Bible. A group of these Biblical books survive in ancient manuscripts written between 719 and 720.
Eminent philological scholars among the monks of Qarqafta (the Skull), a monastery in Magdal, a village on the Khabur river not far from present day Ras al-Ayn and al-Hasaka, followed the steps of Jacob of Edessa. Their work led to what became commonly known as the Qarqaftian Tradition. In Ras al-Ayn two prominent scholars flourished, Santa Tubana who lived in a monastery in that district and Deacon Saba of Ras al-Ayn. Saba had a vast knowledge of the science of philology and a great mastery of the orthographic rules of the Holy Scriptures. He was a man of piety too.
According to Bar Bahlul in his dictionary (columns No. 1363 and 1364), whenever Tubana and Saba finished the vocalizing of a chapter they fixed their initials at the end. Books, which had been transcribed by Saba in 724 and 726, have also reached us – indicating the progress in this art in that period. Among the scholars who worked in this art were Brother Ibrahim of the monastery of Quba between 724-7261, Simon of the village of Tal Kummathri, abbot of the Monastery of Euspholis, and Theodosius of Talla, the organizer,2 Bishop Gurgis (George) in 736,3 Ibrahim of Hah and his disciple the deacon Rubeil in 817,4 and Basil, Samuel, Simon and Guriyya (Gabriel) in the monastery of Murayba in 841.5
MS. 168 of the British Museum contains the Book of Psalms vocalized by the two monks Samuel and Matta of the Monastery of the Eastern Syrians in 600. Another, MS. 171 in the same library, contains an old copy of the Gospels compared, and vocalized by the priest of the village of Nahra and his two disciples Yuhanna bar Daniel al-Arabi and deacon Yuhanna the Arab from Unamra.
These traditional books do not furnish the entire text of the Holy Scriptures. They are confined only to the verses whose pronunciation needs adjustment or to those that differ in both the Greek and Syriac translations. The reader will find that the pronunciation of these verses has been accurately accentuated despite the difference in the copying of these texts. Some of these philologists added to the Scriptures selected pieces from the works of our doctors Dionysius the Areopagite, Basilius, Gregory Nazianzen, Gregory of Nyssa and Severus of Antioch. Some of these were engaged in vocalizing the works of St. Ephraim, Jacob of Edessa, Antonius of Takrit and the lives and histories of the saints.
We have found twelve old copies of these traditional books, which are dated between 980 and 1205. One copy of these books at the Zafaran monastery MS. 241, is dated 1000 A.D., and another more recent copy at St. Mark’s Monastery in Jerusalem, MS. 42, was written at the end of the fifteenth century. The British Museum has a unique Nestorian copy finished in 899. Another British Museum MS. 163, contains the last volume of St. Severus vocalized by the two monks Samuel and Tuma (Thomas) of the Monastery of John of Atharib in 563. The library of St. Mark in Jerusalem also contains the book of Patriarch Cyriacus vocalized by the priest Theodorus of Takrit of the Pillar monastery in 806 who, it appears, became metropolitan of Marash (Germanicia) between 825 and 834.
SYRIAC ORTHOGRAPHY
– Mor Ignatius Aphram Barsoum