Università Roma Tre

The region named Syria in ancient sources can be aptly described as a crossroad of cultures: from the third millennium BCE, in fact, different cultures interacted over the centuries in different ways in the zone of the so-called «fertile crescent». In the laboratory an introduction to one of the liveliest epochs in the long history of Syria will be offered – i.e., that that stretches from the II to the VII cent. CE. In that period the region was a point of contact between three cultural macroareas, interconnected through conflicts but also mutual influence: the Greek-Roman world, the Persian world, and, from the VI cent. onwards, the Islamic world.
The period under discussion will be described through the complex history of the Christian communities speaking Syriac language. Stemming from the macroarea of Jewish and Aramaic cultures, these communities played over the centuries a crucial role in the interaction of the three above-mentioned macroareas. At the same time, the Syriac communities were profoundly influenced in their historical, political, social, and economic development by the conflictual relationships with the Greek-Roman and Persian world.
In the first two classes, a general overview of the history of the Syriac Christian communities will be offered, along with some basic elements of the Syriac language. In the next classes we will try to highlight how the Syriac Christianity – in its complex institutional, social, and cultural layout – interacted with the above-mentioned macroareas. In so doing, we will focus on certain issues, such as: the importance of translation literature (mainly, from Greek) in the Syriac tradition and its influence on other cultures (Islamic; Armenian; Coptic); the possible relationship between the Syriac and the Islamic mystics; the derivation of the Syriac Christian communities from the Jewish milieu and the issue of the so-called «Semitic Christianity»; the relationships between Syriac Christianity and the Persian institutions and the Mazdean culture; the relationships between Syriac Christianity and the Byzantine world, especially as regards the Christological disputes of the IV-VII cent.

A general bibliography and other course material will be given during the classes.