Religious Poetry in Vernacular Syriac from Northern Iraq (17th-20th Centuries). An Anthology Translated with Introduction

CORPUS SCRIPTORUM CHRISTIANORUM ORIENTALIUM DE

LOWAIN ET WASHINGTON

CORPUS SCRIPTORUM CHRISTIANORUM ORIENTALIUM

fonde en 1903 par J.-B. Chabot (tI948) et H. Hyvernat (tl941) reeree en 1948 par R. DRAGUET (t 1980)

EDlTUM CONSJLIO

UNIVERSITATIS CATHOLICAE Al\1ERICAE En 1950 a ere insrauree une designation simplifiee des volumes, qui doit remplacer l'ancienne dans les references bibliographiques. Un sigle en deux parties exprime successivement le numero d'ordre du volume dans la collection et clans l'une des sept sections: Aeth(iopica), Ar(abica), Arm(eniaca). Copt(ica). Iber(ica), Syr(iaca), Subs(idia); lorsque le volume est une version, le second element du sigle est mis en iraliques _ p.a. CSCO 189. Syr. 120 (un rexte), mais CSCO 190. Syr. 120 (une version). Puis, lorsqu'il ya lieu, les sigles T(exte) et V(ersion) mettent en concordance le texte et la version d'une m~me publication. ErrEn, le sigle Cft renvoie it des volumes susceptibles de completer de quelque fac;:on le volume concerne.

ET UNIVERSITATIS CATHOLICAE LOVANIENSIS Vo!. 628

SCRIPTORES SYRI TOMUS 241

Derniers volumes parus: 585. Subs. 107. - Leonhard, c., Ishodod ofMerws Exegesis ofthe Psalms 119 and 139-147, 2000, VI-28? p. ISBN: 90-429-0960-9. 586. Subs. 108. - Aleksidz':, Z., Mah':, }.-P., Le nouveau manuscrit georgien sinaftique N Sin 50 _ Introduerion par Z. Aleksidze, tene franc;:ais de J.-P. Mahe, 2001, VI-285 p. ISBN: 90-429-0981-1. 587. Arm. 25, T. - Mathews, E.G., The Armenian Commentilry an Exodus-Deuteronomy attributed to Ephrem the Syrian, 2001, X-216 p. ISBN: 90-429-1009-7. - V: vo!. 588. 588. Arm. 26, V. - Mathews, E.G., The Armenian Commentary on Exodus-Deuteronomy attributed to Ephrem the Syrian. 2001, XIV-160 p. ISBN: 90-429-1018-6. - T: 'la!. 587. 589. Syr. 230, T. - Mengozzi., A., Israel ofAlqosh andJoseph ofTelkepe. A Story in a Truthful Language. Religious Poems in Vernacular Syriac (North Iraq, 17th Century), 2002, 278 p. ISBN: 90-429-1022-4. - V: vo!. 590. 590. Syr. 231, V. - Mengozzi, A., Israel ofAlqosh andJoseph ofTelkepe. A Story in a Truthful Language. Religious Poems in Vernacular Syriac (North Iraq, 17th Century), 2002, 321 p. ISBN: 90-429-1023-2. - T: vo!. 589. 591. Subs. 109. - Shedinger, R.F., Tatian and the Jewish Scriptures: A Textual and Philological Analysis ofthe Old Testament CitlZtions in Tatian's Diatessaron, 2001, VI-186 p. ISBN: 90-429-1042-9. 592. Syr. 232. T. - Bnkke, D., Pseudo-Athanasius an Virginity, 2002, 48 p. ISBN: 90-429-1080-1. - V: vo!. 593. 593. Syr. 233, V. - Brakke, D., Pseudo-Athanasius an Virginity, 2002, 48p. ISBN: 90-429-1091-7. - T: vo!. 592. 594. Subs. 110. - Weltecke, D., Die «Beschreibung Jer aiten» van Mor Michael dem Grojen (J 126-1199). Eine Studie zu ihrem historischen und historiographiegeschichtlichen Kontext, 2003, XVI-314 p. ISBN: 90-429-1132-8. 595. Aeth. 105, T. - Bausi, A., La «Vital> e i «Miracoli» di Libanos, 2003, XXX-226 p. ISBN: 90-429-11603. - V: vo!. 596. (voir suite au recto) ,

RELIGIOUS POETRY IN VERNACULAR SYRIAC FROM NORTHERN IRAQ (17th-20th CENTURIES) AN ANTHOLOGY TRANSLATED WITH INTRODUCTION

EDITED BY

ALESSANDRO

MENGOZZI

PEETERS-LEUVEN ISBN 978-90-429-2277-8

LOVANll IN AEDIBUS PEETERS

PEETERS

9 789042 922778

2011

fonde en 1903 par I.-B. CHABOT (t 1948) et H. ~~~!~r'm'::}:71;tt~]t;,M~~;:~j,;;~:~i;i -recree en 1948 par R. DRAGUET (t 1 A. DE lIALLEUX (1980-:t 1994)

Editeur scientifique: AndreaSCHMIDT

Responsables scientifiques des sections: Arabe Armenienne Copte Ethiopienne

RELIGIOUS POETRY IN VERNACULAR SYRIAC

Georgienne

FROM NORTHERN IRAQ (17th-20th CENTURIES) AN ANTHOLOGY

Syriaque Subsidia

Adresse de l'editeur scientifique (Editor):Prof. A. SCHMIDT Secretariat du CSCO Place Blaise Pascal, 1 B - 1348 Louvain-Ia-Neuve [email protected]

INTRODUCTION AND TRANSLATION

CORPUS SCRIPTORUM

CHRISTIANORUM

ORIENTALIUM

EDITUM CONSlllO

UNIVERSITATIS CATHOLICAE AMERICAE ET UNNERSITATIS CATHOLICAE LOVANlENSIS Vol. 628

SCRIPTORES SYRI TOMUS 241

RELIGIOUS POETRY IN VERNACULAR SYRIAC FROM NORTHERN IRAQ (17th-20th CENTURIES) AN ANTHOLOGY TRANSLATED WITH INTRODUCTION EDITED BY

ALESSANDRO

:MENGOZZI

WITH CONTRIBUTIONS BY

EMANUELA BRAIDA, SIMONA DESTEFANIS, RrrA SACCAGNO and SHAWQI TALIA

LOVANII IN AEDIBUS PEElERS 2011

IN1RODUCTION REuGIOUS POETRY IN VERNACULAR SYRIAC FROM NORTHERN

lRAQ

by Alessandro Mengozzi

The earliest attested texts in Vernacular Syriac1 are religious poems belonging to the dorekJa 2 genre and circulating among East-Syrian communities in Northern Iraq. Our direct knowledge of this kind of literature has significantly improved during the last few decades, thanks to the publication of a number of dorekya!a: a collection of poems by Israel of Alqosh and Joseph of Telkepe gives us an insight into the literature of the 17th century; Poizat edited two 18th-century poems; Pennacchietti edited two shorter poems On Arsanis Jimjimma and three Neo-Aramaic versions of the sogi!a of The Cherub and the Thiep Poizat presented the manuscript of an unpublished and uncompleted work by Father Jacques Rhetore: La versification en Soureth - dated 1913, but containing later additions up to 1920 - which, besides the technical description of Sureth metrics, with commented samples, surveys genres and authors of Neo-Syriac literature from Northern Iraq.4 The present publication proposes to move further in two directions. The publication of the dorekla On Repentance completes the picture of the early period of Vernacular Syriac poetry and a selection of later

© 2011 by Corpus Scriptorum Christianomm Orientalium Tous droits de reproduction, de traduction ou d'adaptation, y compris les microfIlms, de ce volume ou d 'un autre de cette collection, reserves pour tous pays ISSN 0070-0452 ISBN 978-90-429-2277-8 D/2011/0602/36 Editions Peeters, Bondgenotenlaan 153, B-3000 Louvain

1 Several varieties of North-Eastern Nee-Aramaic are included here under the heading of Vernacular Syriac. They were and are spoken by East Syrians and were occasionally used in literary works. Spoken ad written varieties are also called sure! « :h..rGiru:r:> 'in Syriac') by natives or, as far as the region of Mosul in the 19th century is concerned, felliJ)i «L?"~ 'peasant's - i.e. Christian -language'). Written varieties in particular are variously labelled as Neo-Syriac, Modem Syriac or Assyrian. For a general presentation of the Neo-Aramaic dialects, see Jastrow (1997). For dialectal variation in early and late Christian Neo-Aramaic poetry, see Mengozzi (2002) and the linguistic comments introducing the original texts in the present publication. 2 The term dorelqa probably derives from the Semitic root *drk 'to tread, step on' and seems to be related to the Mesopotamian Aramaic word 'drkt' 'song, hymn' (Kruisheer 1995: 162)_ The spelling dureg (from Classical Syriac *drg 'to step forward') is common in Urmia_ Other Kurdish and Arabic etymologies have been proposed. In the manuscripts dorek!a is used as an equivalent of various classical genres, such as memra, sogi!a or 'oni!a (Mengozzi 2002: vol. 509, 67-69). 3 Mengozzi (2002); Poizat (1990, 1993, 2002); Pennacchietti (1990a, 1993a, 1993b, 1996). 4 Poizat (2005).

_. __.•._..._-_.._-_._._------------_.

----------------_..._.

VI

vu

INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION

poems allows us to explore the development of the genre during the 19th and 20th centuries. In the following pages, a history of the religious poetry in Vernacular Syriac from Northern Iraq will be sketched;focusing on the authors of poems edited here for the first time.

hopefully preserved in the Library of the Chaldean Patriarchate in Baghdad - and in a miscellaneous collection of tracts from different manuscripts 'written in different East Syrian hands, generally of about AD 1550-1759' .9 The date 1607/08 AD, preserved in Habbi 3, may lead us to identify the author with Hormizd, son of the well-known Israel of Alqosh. The latter was the initiator of the Shikwana family of scribes and a highly esteemed author in Classical Syriac as well as in the vernacular (see here, below), who might in his turn be son of another priest Honnizd of Alqosh. 10 Hormizd of Alqosh son of Israel had two sons, Israel and 'Abdisho·, both active as scribes in the second half of the 17th century. 11 References to lines of Hormizd > Israel as (grand) father> (grand) son were fairly common in Alqosh and make it almost impossible to ascertain whether the Hormizd of Alqosh mentioned in Habbi 3 was father or son ofIsrael of AlqoshP Rhetore's attribution of the dorelqa On Repentance to Israel of Alqosh re~ains a plausible alternative. As far as the content is concerned, the poem clearly continues, in the modem tongue, the tradition of the penitential hymns, which were very popular in late East-Syriac hymnography. The rhythm of the composition is stressed by Biblical exempla of redeemed penitents and series of anaphora like 'woe unto me ... , have mercy... , what shall I do/say.. .'. As a classical model we may take the unusually long penitential ·oni[a attributed to Giwargis Warda and published by FolkmannP where the use of Biblical exempla is remarkably rich and living and a series of anaphoras ('I heard... ', 'I read... ', 'I saw ... ', 'what shall I do ... ', 'woe unto me... ') introduce a tedious catalogue of sins.

17th Century In the manuscript transmission, dorekya[a were given a title and attributed to an author. Often, in the scribal rubrics and/or within the texts, they were also dated. Although attribution is sometimes imprecise or erroneous and the overly regular dating of some poems raises some doubt, scribes did provide readers with the most relevant information about the poems they collected and the anonymity characteristic of folk literature was clearly avoided.

Hormizd ofAlqosh The first poem published in the present collection, the dorelqa On Repentance, is paradigmatic in this connection. It is attributed to a certain Hormizd of Alqosh in two of the three extant manuscripts (Habbi 3 and Mingana 51), 5 whereas the attribution of a manuscript of the Sachau collection to Joseph of Telkepe is most probably erroneous. Rh6tore attributes it to Israel of Alqosh. 6 Only the latest manuscript, Habbi 3, in the rubric and in a verse added at the end of the poem, gives the date of composition, which would be the year 1919 of the Seleucid era, i.e. 1607/08 AD. If this is true, the poem is the earliest dated extant example of the dorek!a genre. Rh6tore mentions a dorek!a On the Pestilence by l:Jnanisho· of Rustaqa, which would have been written in the year 1902 of the Seleucid era (1590/91 AD). Father Rhetore copied the text from an ancient manu-·· script in Qudshanis, faithfully reproducing the phonetic orthography of the original.? Style, content and language of the poem On Repentance confirm an early dating of the poem (17th or 18th century) and the text was included in 18th-century manuscripts: a collection dated Alqosh 1758 AD8 - now

Israel ofAlqosh and Joseph ofTelkepe Israel of Alqosh is the famous scribe and author, father and possibly also son of a Hormizd of Alqosh. Scribal headings and authorial or editoMingana (1933: 149). Macuch (1976: 48). 11 See Fiey (1965: 407) and Wilmshurst (2000: 244). 12 A scribe Israel, son of Hormizd, of the Audo family, was active in the last decades of the 19th century (Wilmshurst 2000: 255). A priest H6mo (Hormizd) of Alqosh, author in the vernacular and active around 1830, is mentioned in Rhetore (1913-: 64). For various Israels of Alqosh, see Murre-van den Berg (2006: 527-528 and 2008: 500, including further references). 13 FQlkmann (1896: German traIlsl. 35-44, Syr. text 1-17). 9

10

5 Mengozzi (1999) gives a preliminary general description of the manuscript transmission of the dorekyaJa, focusing on the Sachau collection now in London. On the manuscript Habbi 3, see Habbi (1978a, 1978-79). For the Mingana collection, see Mingana (1933). 6 In Rhetore (1913-: 53), the poem is entitled On Repentance (~~~b~ .~~ 'penitential supplication', the same term which occurs in the rubric of the Mingana ms. 51). 7 Rhetore (1913-: 52), Sony (1997: ms. 387, 1-6). 8 Listed as m. 650 in the catalogue by Haddad-Isaac (1988).

. - - - - - - _..

_

_. __

IX

INTRODUCTION

IN1RODUCTION

rial interventions in the text lead us to attribute to Israel the following poems in the vernacular: On Peifection (dated 1610/1 in the text), On the Sin ofMan, and a short hymn On Shmuni and her Seven Sons (1610/1 or 1631/2).14 As we have seen, Rhetore also attributes to Israel the dorelqa On Repentance, elsewhere attributed to Hormizd of AlqoSh. 15

Israel of Alqosh freely adapts the apocryphal Apocalypse ofPaul, dealing with intriguing descriptions of the other world and at least one of the narrative details in his hymn On Shmuni and Her Seven Sons comes from the Fourth Book of Maccabees. 18 In his poem On revealed Truth (including a vernacular version of the homonymous hymn