Bšindelāyā; Bšandalantī; Bšindelinte; Ḥārim; Bšandlāyā Complete

Description

A village in Jabal al-Aʿlā registered in TIB 15 on p. 1022 as Bšandlāyā near Ḥārim. Also spelt: Bšindelāyā, Bšandalantī, and Bšindelinte. Our map gives an approximate location. According to the checklist of Klaus Peter Todt and Bernard Andreas Vest in TIB 15, the site yielded a Syriac building inscription, and several Greek ones, including one with an expanded non-Chalcedonian ("Miaphysite") formula of the Trisagion. The earliest inscription is, however one of the epitaphs dated 134 CE, which point to the Roman Imperial origin of the village. (see Tchalenko 1958, 117). As for notable buildings, the site has a one-aisled church, a monastery, and a medieval fort. The site is also known from literary sources, as one of its abbots subscribed the resolution against the Tritheists in 569 CE. Its non-Chalcedonian allegiance is, therefore, securely identified. Literature (after TIB 15, p. 1022): TIB 15 – Todt, K.P., Vest, B.A., Tabula Imperii Byzantini, vol. 15 (Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2014), 1022 (with further references); Butler, H.C., Architecture and other Arts (Publications of an American Archaeological Expedition to Syria in 1899–1900 2, New York: Century, 1903), 81–82; Tchalenko, G. (ed.), Villages antiques de la Syrie du Nord: Le Massif du Bélus a l'époque romaine (Paris: P. Geuthner, 1953) vol. 1, 248, 337 note 3; Tchalenko, G. (ed.), Villages antiques de la Syrie du Nord: Le Massif du Bélus a l'époque romaine (Paris: P. Geuthner, 1958), vol. 3, 117; Strube, Ch., Baudekoration im Nordsyrischen Kalksteingebiet, vol. 2: Das 6. und frühe 7. Jahrhundert (Mainz: Zabern, 2002), 184, Pl. 127 e-f. Inscriptions: the following abbreviations are adopted: AAES III = Prentice, W.K. (ed.), Greek and Latin Inscriptions (Publications of an American archaeological expedition to Syria in 1899-1900 3, New York: Century 1908); Waddington = Waddington, W.H., Inscriptions grecques et latines de la Syrie (Paris: Firmin Didot Frères, Libraires-Éditeurs, 1870). Syriac inscriptions: Littmann, E. (ed.), Publications of an American Archaeological Expedition to Syria in 1899-1900. Part IV: Semitic Inscriptions (New York: The Century Co., 1904), no. Syr. 2 (Syriac inscription). Greek inscriptions: IGLS II 633 = AAES III, 29 no. 5 = Alpi, F., La route royale. Sévère d'Antioche et les églises d'Orient (512–518) (Beirut: 2009), vol. 2, 52, no. J 4 with a drawing and photo (Greek inscription, extended Trisagion, Bšindelinte); IGLS II 635 = AAES III, 37 no. 9 (building inscription dated 554 CE); IGLS II 636 = AAES III, 38 no. 10 (donor's inscription? spelling of the name influenced by Syriac?); IGLS II 637 = AAES III, 40, no. 11 (building inscription, no date); IGLS II 638 = AAES III, 36, no. 8 = Waddington 2684 (epitaph for the father and mother of T. Kl. Philokles); IGLS II 639 = AAES III, 37, no. 8a-b = Waddington 2686b-c (epitaph for the father and mother of T. Kl. Philokles, dated 134 CE). Jarry, J., “Inscriptions arabes, syriaques et grecques du massif du Bélus en Syrie du nord (suite) [avec 9 planches]”, Annales islamologiques 9 (1970), 196, no. 13 (building inscription with a request for blessing, no date). Jarry, J., “Inscriptions arabes, syriaques et grecques du massif du Bélus en Syrie du nord (suite) [avec 9 planches]”, Annales islamologiques 9 (1970), 197, no. 14 (very fragmentary, letters: ΙΤΜ). Jarry, J., "Inscriptions de Syrie du Nord relevées en 1969", Annales Islamologiques 9 (1970), 216, no. 5 (very fragmentary Greek inscription: [ἐν] μηνί, Bšindelinte).