Complete
Linguistic features:
Formulae:
Name and function
Quotations from literary texts:
Dating:
AD 500
-
AD 700
Language:
Syriac
Monumental:
Medium:
wall
Visible:
Accessible:
Has figural depiction:
Has iconoclastic damage:
Activities commemorated:
Funds:
Price:
Placement:
wall
People mentioned:
Name:
ʾBRHM/Abraham
Patronym:
Status:
unspecified
Ethnic allegance:
unspecified
Tribal allegane:
none
Family status:
unspecified
Role:
Name recorded
Occupation:
unspecified
Age:
Gender:
male
Religion:
Christianity
Religious denomination:
unspecified
Language:
Syriac
Description
date: unknown. description: A graffito scratched rather carefully on an outer slab of the south wall of the church (‘chapel’), to the east of the south doorway. Dimensions: H. 0.38 m; W. 0.46 m. Letter height 3.5–5.5 cm. Littmann notes partial resemblance of specific letters to those in the CPA script, and considers it as late. First recorded by Butler’s Princeton Archaeological Expedition to Syria and published by Enno Littmann in 1934 with a drawing. ed. PAES IVB 59; Cf. TIB 15, p. 1033. ܐܒܪܗܡ ܡ + ܐܒܪܗܡ ܗ + ܪ . ܐܒܪܗܡ + + 1–4. There is a sign after ܡ in each line. ‘Abraham.’ (transl. E. Littmann. commentary: The graffito repeatedly gives the name Abraham. Three horizontal lines and one vertical line are occupied. Littmann believed that it was the name of the author rather than a reference to the biblical figure and expected the pronoun ܐܢܐ (or "I, so-and-so") to be written in proximity but was unable to find it. Eventually, he suggested, that this Abraham must have been a renowned religious leader rather than an ordinary monk. He identified him as Abraham who conflicted the patriarch of Antioch Kyriakos in the ninth century CE, and found a kind of a sect termed Abrahamites who reportedly questioned the divinity of Christ. For an elaboration of this theory, see Littmann’s comments in PAES IVB, p. 51. Such a bold identification without any positive evidence is, however, very implausible. We have here either a dweller of the monastery playing with his own name in idle time, or a pious invocation of the biblical patriarch Abraham (which is an option also considered by Littmann).
Author:
Paweł Nowakowski
Added by:
Martyna
Created:
2022-07-26 15:01:56
Last update:
2023-11-13 17:35:19
Dimensions: surface: w 0.46 x h 0.38 meter
Condition: A graffito scratched rather carefully on an outer slab of the south wall of the church (‘chapel’), to the east of the south doorway.
Text: Letter height 3.5–5.5 cm. Littmann notes partial resemblance of specific letters to those in the CPA script, and considers it as late.
Date: 500 CE - 700 CE
Findspot: Unknown
Original location: Osrhoene Burğka (Burdjkeh; Barijki; Burğ Kay; Kaprocherkeōn komē; Qalʿat Simʿān) 36.2760, 36.8225 chapel wall
Current repository: Unknown
Text type: Graffito
Summary:
Graffito scratched on the south wall of the church in Burğka (Burdjkeh; Barijki; Burğ Kay; Kaprocherkeōn komē; Qalʿat Simʿān). 500 CE - 700 CE.
Changes history: 2022-07-26 Pawel Nowakowski Creation; 2023-08-24 Pawel Nowakowski Last modification; 2023-10-19 Martyna Swierk Preparation of EpiDoc file
Publication details: University of Warsaw; Warsaw;
Available under licence CC-BY 4.0
; @2021apparatus
1-4: There is a sign after ܡ in each line.
Translation
‘Abraham.’ (transl. E. Littmann.
Commentary
The graffito repeatedly gives the name Abraham. Three horizontal lines and one vertical line are occupied. Littmann believed that it was the name of the author rather than a reference to the biblical figure and expected the pronoun ܐܢܐ (or "I, so-and-so") to be written in proximity but was unable to find it. Eventually, he suggested, that this Abraham must have been a renowned religious leader rather than an ordinary monk. He identified him as Abraham who conflicted the patriarch of Antioch Kyriakos in the ninth century CE, and found a kind of a sect termed Abrahamites who reportedly questioned the divinity of Christ. For an elaboration of this theory, see Littmann’s comments in PAES IVB, p. 51. Such a bold identification without any positive evidence is, however, very implausible. We have here either a dweller of the monastery playing with his own name in idle time, or a pious invocation of the biblical patriarch Abraham (which is an option also considered by Littmann).
Bibliography (edition)
- PAES IVB E., Littmann,1934, Publications of the Princeton University Archaeological Expeditions to Syria in 1905–5 and 1909. Division IV: Semitic Inscriptions. Section B: Syriac Inscriptions, Paris, 59.
Bibliography
- TIB 15 K.-P., Todt, B. A., Vest, 2014, Tabula Imperii Byzantini, Vienna, 1033.