Syriac Melkites in the Early Islamic Period: History, Identity, Manuscript Culture, lecture by Adrian Pirtea (University of Vienna), Cambridge Byzantine Worlds Seminar, Zoom, May 27, 2022, 5:00 pm (UK)

By way of a few representative case studies, I will argue that contextualizing the production and circulation of Syro-Melkite manuscripts in the early Islamic period (many of which are now kept on Mt Sinai) can offer new insights into how the Chalcedonies (Melkite) Syriac community developed a distinct confession and cultural identity in the multireligious context of the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates. First, I will discuss the tense relationship between Syriac Monotheletes and Dyotheletes in the seventh-eighth centuries as mirrored by the Syriac Patristic florilegia of the period. In the second part, I will show hoe Syriac Melkites contributed to the creation of a 'Syro-Byzantine' cultural synthesis, especially in the areas of monastic-ascetic literature and liturgy. Finally, I will briefly explore the role of multilingualism as a potential marker of identity among the Melkites of early Islamic Palestine.

Adrian Pirtea is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute of Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies of the University of Vienna.

Advance registration required.