Book Review: Martin Zammit, ‘Enbe men Karmo Suryoyo (Bunches of Grapes from the Syriac Vineyard): A Syriac Chrestomathy (Gorgias Press: Piscataway, NJ, 2006) Pp. xii + 206

Keywords

Book Review, Syriac Vineyard

Abstract

Zammit’s chrestomathy aims not only to deepen the linguistic competence of those “students who have covered the essentials of Syriac morphology and syntax,” but also to expose them to some of the “varied range” of Syriac prose and poetry (viii). In one hundred pages of annotated readings employing all three scripts, the reader is taken chronologically through extracts from twenty-six sources that span the third to the thirteenth centuries (3–103). The texts appear in the script in which they were originally published, and preserve the original editors punctuation, and vocalization when present. The annotations do not presume familiarity with any particular Syriac grammar, but are entirely self contained. Following the texts is a complete Syriac-English glossary (105–51). The last quarter of the volume is taken up by an English-Syriac glossary, which is something of an unexpected bonus (153–97). A useful Index of Grammatical Points follows (198–201), and the volume concludes with a Bibliography. A Preface by Sebastian Brock contains details of a number of other useful chrestomathies, most of which are now out of print.

Original Publication Citation

Review of Martin Zammit, ‘Enbe men Karmo Suryoyo (Bunches of Grapes from the Syriac Vineyard): A Syriac Chrestomathy. Gorgias Press: Piscataway, NJ, 2006; Anonymous, The Book of Crumbs: An Anthology of Syriac Texts. Gorgias Press: Piscataway, NJ, 2006 (Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies 11.1 (2008): 113-14).

Document Type

Peer-Reviewed Article

Publication Date

2018-06-28

Permanent URL

http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/6405

Publisher

Journal of Syriac Studies

Language

English

College

Religious Education

Department

Ancient Scripture

University Standing at Time of Publication

Staff/Researcher

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