SYRIA BETWEEN BYZANTIUM AND ISLAM

652 Pages·2010·2.62 MB·English

SYRIA BETWEEN BYZANTIUM AND ISLAM:
MAKING INCOMMENSURABLES SPEAK

Volume 1

Jack Boulos Victor Tannous

A DISSERTATION

PRESENTED TO THE FACULTY

OF PRINCETON UNIVERSITY

IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE

OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

RECOMMENDED FOR ACCEPTANCE

BY THE DEPARTMENT OF

HISTORY

Adviser: Peter Brown

November 2010
© Copyright by Jack Boulos Victor Tannous, 2010. All rights reserved.
Abstract

This dissertation deals with the social and cultural history of the Middle East in
the Late Antique and early medieval periods. It attempts to address two large
historiographic questions—the character of the Byzantine Dark Ages and nature of
early Christian-Muslim interactions—from the perspective of the Aramaic-speaking
Christian population of the Middle East. The first section focuses on the sophisticated
intellectual culture that developed among Syriac-speaking Christians in the Late
Antique and early medieval periods and contrasts its efflorescence with the fate of
Greek at the same time. It is argued that the Greco-Arabic translation movement of
Abbasid Baghdad represents the culmination of a Syriac tradition of scholarship which
stretches back to Late Antiquity. The second section of the dissertation seeks to answer
the question of why such a culture of scholarship and translation should have
developed in the Syriac-speaking world when it did. The nature of interconfessional
relations between Christian groups is examined and it is argued that Middle Eastern
Christianity in the early medieval period was characterized by a diversity of Christian
groups whose separation into distinct churches was only partial, with a consequent
intense competition between these groups for adherents. It was this diversity and
competition that fueled the development of the flourishing intellectual culture
encountered in the first section of the dissertation. It is argued, moreover, that much
of the intellectual activity which was taking place among Miaphysites was being driven
by the needs of a curriculum of study for educating a distinctly Miaphysite clergy. The
final section of the dissertation attempts to understand the place of Islam in the picture
of the early medieval Middle East given in the first two sections. Christian-Muslim
interaction and religious conversion are examined, as are Late Antique continuities
into an Islamic context. Just as the history of Byzantine culture is more than Greek, I
argue, the history of the Middle East is much more than the history of the politically-
dominant Muslim minority which ruled it: we cannot understand early Islam unless we
see it as a minority religion taking shape among a majority population adhering to
highly-sophisticated and more ancient rival confessions.

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For my Father, Boulos Issa Tannous.
In gratitude for everything.

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Acknowledgements

Looking back on my time at Princeton, I feel a profound gratitude for all that
has been given to me by so many generous friends and teachers. The debts I have
incurred are too many to enumerate and too great to ever hope to pay back. Indeed, it
is with not a little bit of fear and trembling that I sit down to write out my
acknowledgments—fear that I will unintentionally omit to mention the kindness and
help of one or more people and trembling to think that it might upset them or give
them cause for offense. This dissertation, to the extent that it contains anything
worthwhile, is a product of the things I have been taught and learned from dozens of
people all over the world over the course of more than a decade. I feel almost as if my
sole role has been to try to integrate what others have taught me into one vaguely
coherent text.
Before I get to my time at Princeton, I should mention my two previous
academic homes, for friends and teachers (and teachers who became friends) at both
places helped not a little amount in my intellectual formation, such as it has been. At
the University of Texas, it was Denise Spellberg who first got me excited about the
history of the Middle East. I can still recall vividly the amazement, curiosity and
delight her classes stirred up in me. After my last class with her and even for years
after I left Texas, Denise continued to be a source of support and encouragement. It
would not be inaccurate to say that had I never stumbled, through a series of
fortuitously interlocking circumstances, in my first semester at UT into her Intro to the
Middle East class, this dissertation would never have been written and I may never
have formally studied the Middle East. She should not, of course, be blamed or
punished for that fact, however. Also at Texas, Professor Peter Abboud and Dr. Aman
Attieh gave me a deep love for the Arabic language and an ability to speak and read its
classical form with an ease and facility that has served me well for years now. Peter
Abboud in particular, who speaks the most beautiful Arabic of anybody I have ever met,
anywhere, taught me much in the classroom about the grammar and elegance of
Arabic; he also taught me about dignity, character, and faith. I feel blessed and
fortunate to have had to the chance to meet and study with such a wonderful person, a
Yafawī, no less, who knew my family in Mandatory Palestine.
I came to Oxford a kid from Texas, full of enthusiasm to study Eastern
Christianity but with little knowledge of the subject. I had the good fortune of landing
in the classroom of Sebastian Brock in his last year of teaching there. Words cannot
express the wonder of being able to sit at the feet, so to speak, of the master, and learn
about Syriac literature and history from him. The bibliography and footnotes of this
dissertation are only faint indications of the amount I (and everybody else in Syriac
studies) have learned from the malphono rabo. It was back in the spring of 2003 that
Sebastian suggested to me in his office in the Oriental Institute on Pusey Lane that I
work on the letters of George, Bishop of the Arab Tribes. The genesis of this
dissertation and my specific interest in the early medieval Middle East in large part go
back to studying those letters and trying to understand the world from which they
emerged. Sebastian’s successor, David Taylor, was my teacher my second year at
Oxford and I learned an enormous amount from him about not only Syriac but about a
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number of other kinds of Aramaic, too. David taught me more than Aramaic, however.
He was also a model for me of how a teacher should be—always willing to do new things
and follow the interests of the students, wherever they lead, even when it required
much work and sleepless nights on the part of the instructor. I found solace and
justification for my own owl-ish behavior in David’s love of the wee hours of the
morning as the time to do his work. Over the years, David has become a late night
email correspondent, a source of sage comments and advice, and a constant supporter
and advocate. He has stayed my teacher, even after I left Oxford. But he has moreover
become my good friend. The corrections he sent to me at the last second saved me
from a huge number of shameful mistakes and typos in this dissertation; yet another
reason to feel gratitude to him. Also at Oxford, Alison Salvesen taught me Septuagint,
patiently read large amounts of Christian Greek with me and, since I left has, like David,
become a supporter, advisor and friend. I feel great pride and thankfulness to have had
the chance to be part of Syriac studies at Oxford.
At Princeton, my good fortune of having a large number of gifted and generous
teachers continued. Michael Cook inducted me into the tradition of Islamic studies in
one of the most challenging and stimulating courses I have taken in my entire life.
Professor Cook’s enthusiasm for and delight in his subject is something which is truly
to be emulated. His meticulously close reading of papers is another. Throughout my
time at Princeton, Professor Cook has organized lively and very useful seminars in a
variety of specialized subjects which have added extra dimensions to my education
there. The Ibn Taymiyya course he funded and sponsored, with its attendant
conference, was one of the academic highlights of my time in graduate school.
Professor Cook’s written work has also been a stimulus to me, going back to my time as
an undergraduate. This dissertation is in part an attempt to offer my own humble take
on and questions and problems he raised long ago and which have provided me with
food for thought and contemplation for years. I have also benefitted from
conversations and advice from Professor Cook during my entire time as a graduate
student.
William Chester Jordan was another very important part of my formation at
Princeton. I came there with no intention of studying the High Middle Ages—indeed,
not even knowing that it was a field—but because of his influence, at one point I
wondered whether Professor Jordan might just seduce me into his period. But my Latin
was not good enough and so the Syriac-speaking Orient was stuck with me. Professor
Jordan’s razor-sharp mind, exacting high standards, love of words and love for
language, appreciation of beautiful style and lively, intense, seminars (and bad, corny
jokes) will always come to my mind when I look back on my first two years of graduate
school at Princeton. I will also always think of him when I ponder the question of why
Vikings would need a king. Professor Jordan gave me a sense for the tradition of
Princeton History and for its importance in the wider field of historical studies. Beyond
the academic realm, Professor Jordan’s concern for and constant mentoring of his
graduate students, thoughtfulness and advocacy on their behalves, not to mention his
character and integrity made him someone to look up to both inside and outside the
seminar room. I believe that five Wild Turkeys, some of them neater than others, once
told him that he was a role model; I tend to agree.
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John Haldon came to Princeton my second year there and it is hard to imagine
my education as an historian having been complete had I not studied with him.
Professor Haldon introduced me to the field of Byzantine studies, awoke me to the
importance of economic and administrative history, gave me a great appreciation for
Marxist historical analysis, made it possible for me to take part in real archaeological
survey work. And more. Professor Haldon has also, like others, been an advocate and
supporter in all that I have done. I can attest as well that he is also one who looks out
for and takes care of his graduate students. What is more, in Princeton, in Turkey and
in Austria, I have had not a small amount of fun listening to Professor Haldon recount
memorable stories of escapades, high crimes and misdemeanors. I am grateful for all
the help he has been to me at Princeton, all the good times I have had with him at
Princeton, in Austria and in Turkey, and of course, for all that he has taught me about
thinking about the past in a rigorous and analytical way.
Other teachers should also be mentioned: Mark Cohen, who taught me about the
Geniza and who taught me about dhimmīs. Shahab Ahmed and Yossi Rapoport, who
taught me about Ibn Taymiyya and his times. Danny Curcic, who let me sit in on his
undergraduate courses and graduate seminars and who taught me about Byzantine art
and architecture, both in the classroom and seminar room, but also at a number of
different Hellenic Studies events over the years and even in Greece. Manolis
Papoutsakis, who taught me to keep Nöldeke’s grammar within arm’s reach at all times.
Patricia Crone, whose seminar I took (well, sort of—at least half of it) and who
generously let me attend closed events at the Institute for Advanced Studies, whose
written work has influenced me quite a bit, and whose comments on part of this
dissertation, at the very end, proved unsurprisingly challenging and incisive. Aron
Zysow, who taught me uṣūl al-fiqh and kalām, but who also taught me an enormous
amount about the history of scholarship and bibliography and engaged me in no small
number of fascinating and stimulating conversations in and around B-floor. It is as a
person who holds the love of scholarly labor as an ideal that I say with the greatest
respect that Professor Zysow is perhaps the clearest living example of philoponia I can
think of. And that’s saying a lot. He plays purely and solely for the love of the game.
Maria Mavroudi’s presence for two of my years here at Princeton was a true pleasure
and I profited enormously from both study with her and conversation with her about
scholarship. Her enthusiasm and curiosity was as infectious as her mastery of Greek
was humbling. David Armstrong, who taught me Greek at Texas, has been a friend,
visitor and general source of delight over the years. Dimitri Gondicas has been a
supporter and constant source of encouragement for my entire time at Princeton.
Hellenic Studies which, I have maintained for a long time, is the classiest outfit on a
campus full of classy organizations, felt like home for me while I was a graduate
student. I cannot even begin to count how many HLS classes I took, how many lunches
I attended, how many evening talks I was present at, not to mention the funding HLS
gave me for various summer escapades and for my studies at Princeton. Though I
never took a class with Heath Lowry, I learned a great deal from him at the Prodromos
Monastery in Serres and at Hellenic Studies events and feel fortunate for the time he so
generously shared with me.
There are scholars at other institutions to be thanked as well: several
discussions with Robert Hoyland at key moments in my research and writing provided
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me with important insights and food for thought. On more than one occasion, John
Watt gave me tips and guidance which proved enormously helpful. Bas ter haar
Romeny was generous in conversation and in giving me a copy of his important edited
volume on Jacob of Edessa. Luk van Rompay was similarly generous in conversation
and information. Muriel Debié always discussed Syriac matters with me with a charity
and good humor that went neither unnoticed nor unappreciated.
When it comes to friends, I do not even know where to begin. Since my time at
Texas, Gene Fojtik has been a dear friend and constant intellectual interlocutor. Scott
Johnson is a person whom I think I have learned something from in every conversation
I have had with him over the past seven years. He has pushed me and challenged me in
ways which I have always appreciated and profited from. Bob Kitchen was a fellow
lover of Syriac and a wonderful source of encouragement, both when he was here in
Princeton and when he has been in Regina; he also took time between weddings and
baptisms on a weekend in late September to cast a critical eye at this dissertation and
for that I am grateful. Seeing Tom and Lynn Charles and Professor Charles West and his
wife, Ruth, every Sunday at church was always a highlight of the week for me and
brought sunshine even during the darkest times. George and Christine Kiraz have been
generous and hospitable in ways beyond belief to me for years; philoxenia is still alive
and indeed, flourishes, in their home in Piscataway. When I taught at Rutgers,
Christine would cook me a wonderful dinner of Middle Eastern food on Wednesday
nights. Sitting and talking with them about Syriac over her Mardinli fare for an entire
semester was another one of many highlights of my time at Princeton. George’s
generosity to me in giving me books and helping me in other ways has been a great
boon to my research. Without his help, I more than likely would not have been able to
get hold of the Karshūnī Life of Theodota of Amid, which played such an important role
in my research for this dissertation. I can only say tawdi sagi to them for everything
and feel the weight of its inadequacy to express gratitude as I do it. Hidemi Takahashi
and Andreas Jueckel are two other Syriac pilgrims whose conversation I have enjoyed
and benefitted from. Kristian Heal has been a partner in crime for some time now and
his work in making rare Syriac printed material widely available will gain him, I hope,
treasure in heaven. It has certainly earned him gratitude in my heart. In Aleppo,
Bishop Mar Gregorios Yuhanna Ibrahim was a wonderful host and source of
encouragement for my work; he made it possible for me to visit the site of Qenneshre.
In Jerusalem, Bishop Sawiros Malki and Abouna Shemoun Jan showed me hospitality
that would have made Abraham proud and allowed me to photograph the Life of
Theodota at St Mark’s Monastery. Columba Stewart—a fellow Texan, fellow
Houstonian, and fellow Syriacist and enthusiast for manuscripts—and his work at the
Hill Museum and Manuscript Library made my dissertation possible in a way that
would have been inconceivable even when I entered Princeton through making
difficult-if-not-impossible-to-obtain Middle Eastern mss. readily available to me. All
the mss. from Mardin which are cited in this dissertation were made possible by the
work of HMML’s amazing digitalization initiatives. Columba’s friendship is yet another
one which I have been blessed by.
One of the best things about Princeton for me was the rich community of
graduate students from whom I learned an enormous amount about history and also
about life. Uri Simonsohn, Yaron Ayalon, Alan Verskin, Krisztina Szilagyi, Amr Osman
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and Intisar Rabb in NES (Hey Intisar, …This is It!) were all good friends and people who
taught me much. Luke and Aubrey Yarbrough were thoughtful and generous friends as
well, interaction with whom I always appreciated. Luke’s detailed comments on my
dissertation went above and beyond the call of duty and saved me from many
embarrassing errors. George Hatke was both roommate and friend; his staggering
erudition was a source of constant profit, amazement and enjoyment for me. Yossi
Witztum was something of an intellectual kindred spirit who taught me more than he
will ever know or probably want to know and whose conversation I invariably enjoyed
and benefitted from. His amazingly meticulous, close reading of this dissertation in its
final stages saved me from embarrassing translation and transcription errors. Alden
Young and Mike Woldemariam were two friends whose company I also not only
thoroughly enjoyed every time I had the privilege to share it: they were also two
friends whom I learned a great deal from and I feel grateful to have had the chance get
to know them. Fadzilah Yahaya was a friend whose thoughtful support and generous
cooking were also crucial in getting me through the tribulations of graduate school.
Conversations with Jessica Lowe in the study room and elsewhere were always a source
of delight, as was correspondence with her. Valeria Lopez-Fadul’s encouragement and
conversation helped with the dissertation at the end. Helen Pfeifer was another valued
interlocutor. Manu Radhakrishnan’s constant encouragement was always appreciated.
Loubna El Amine, Katie Ghantous, Manar Moursi and Chantal Hayek were always and
unfailingly a lot of fun. Loubna was maybe the only person I knew in Princeton who
was always willing to dance, perhaps even more than I. Hanging out with Chantal
Hayek in New York and talking about the ism fā‘il and the maf‘ūl bihi—among other
things—made one hot summer quite cool. Bob Macgregor and Zack Chitwood cooked
for me and made Hibben 1S the best apartment a grad student could hope for during
my fifth year. You guys were really just great. Living with Karam Nachar was both an
introduction to and a graduate seminar in post-colonial theory and subaltern studies.
If he reads this dissertation, he will see his influence on me in more than one place.
Late-night debates with Karam about the Middle East, about the Arabic language, about
politics, about religion, about the ancien régime and everything else were for both of us,
I think, sometimes exasperating but always fun and a source of new knowledge and
insight. Nancy Khalek provided me good advice and acted as something of a mentor
early in my time at Princeton and even after she left. Similarly, Dan Schwartz gave me
more help and guidance than he probably realizes and has been a close and valued
friend for years. Princeton felt much the poorer for me after he left. Travelling around
Syria and Lebanon with him and Richard Payne was truly the trip of a lifetime. Richard,
of course, who came in the same year as I did, taught me much about life and
scholarship both in seminars and in discussions and debates we held on at least three
different continents. Whatever happens in life, Richard and Dan, we’ll always have
Ugarit. Damian Fernandez helped recruit me to come to Princeton; I still remember
how we sat in Chancellor Green cafe and spoke in Spanish and how he told me of the
wonders of Borrow Direct. During my time there we took classes together and became
good friends, hanging out in Princeton, New York, San Diego and even Vienna. He is
my favorite tangero and the mention of his name conjures up pleasant associations. I
hope we’ll be able to hang out in Chicago and DC, soon. David Michelson, Craig
Caldwell, and Ariel Lopez, other members of the Late Antique Tribe, were also valued
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friends, with whom I had good times, and great discussions and from whom I feel
fortunate to have learned. Christian Sahner, whom I knew as an undergrad and whom I
had the happy opportunity to re-connect when he returned as a graduate student was a
valued friend and confidant. Thomas Carlson had a Syriac soul which I always
appreciated. It was with happiness and profit that I got to know Joe Ricci and Lain
Wilson at the end of my time in Princeton. At the very end of the dissertation ordeal,
when I was at Dumbarton Oaks, the unforgettable Christian Flow caught and saved me
from a few embarrassing typos. Also at the very end, Jeannette Rizk made things very
interesting.
In my six years at Princeton, the Revolting Masses, our History Department
softball team, won the league championship two times and this past summer, if I had
dived for a certain low-hit fly ball to the outfield in the bottom of the last inning, we
may have won a third. It’s one of those historical counterfactuals which I’ll think about
for a long time. The Masses had nothing to contribute to my dissertation, but they
contributed much to my life. To Tom, Angie, Eric, Andy, Bob, Bill, Chris, Nick, James,
Tom, John M., Evan, John S., Bland, Joe, and all the others: thanks guys, for all the great
memories, all the fun Saturday mornings and summer evenings, more than one magical
first week of August, the goofy emails and sarcasm, the bad pizza at Conte’s and
mediocre food at the Annex, child-size servings of spaghetti, lobster from Maine and
missing car keys, Purple Thunder, the News Print Bat, dunking volleyballs, ‘Sleepless in
Seattle,’ and everything else. The Revolting Masses are one of the best institutions in a
town full of great institutions and I feel grateful to have worn the red for as long as I
did.
The inimitable Lena Salaymeh, an iconoclastic firebrand with a passion for early
Islamic history, descended on Princeton in the Fall of 2007 from Berkeley, making it
probably the most memorable of many memorable semesters for me at Princeton.
Ideas discussed and debated with Lena appear throughout this dissertation, which has
benefitted enormously from her insights. Her encouragement and subtle editorial
advice have been great boons to me in my time at Princeton and it has always been
with great fondness that I look back on her time there.
I met Tom Boeve when I was still a student at Oxford. Little did I know then,
Tom would become one of my closest friends at Princeton. His quiet confidence, cool
demeanor, sage advice and encouragement meant more to me than he will ever realize.
My first memory of meeting Sara Brooks was, I think, at the old Annex (of
sacred memory) many moons ago. Sara drove me around, sometimes even across state
lines, she cooked amazing meals, she ate with me at Zorba’s way too many times, she
listened to me ramble about just about everything, she endured more awful movies of
my choosing than any one human being should be forced to suffer through; she was
also one of the most considerate and thoughtful people whom I knew while at
Princeton and my time there would have been different and poorer had she not been
around.
Jeremy Friedman was my roommate for three years in graduate school and he is
one of the smartest people I have ever met; I learned an enormous amount about many
things from him. He invited me into his home, introduced me to his family, taught me
about Judaism, international relations and the Mets. Jeremy also helped me to see
things about my dissertation that I couldn’t (or didn’t) see myself. He is one of my
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