The Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture and the Mashtots Professor of Armenian Studies at Harvard University are pleased to announce the final lecture in the 2023–2024 East of Byzantium lecture series.
Tuesday, April 23, 2024 | 12:00 PM (EDT, UTC -4) | Zoom
A Republic of Letters in Verse? Syriac Poems Addressed to Individuals and Communities (9th to 13th Centuries)
Salam Rassi, University of Edinburgh
Poetry has long been recognised as a key genre in Syriac literature. The metrical homily is among the earliest sites of theological exposition in the Syriac tradition. My paper will trace developments in Syriac poetry between the 9th and 13th centuries to understand how the genre evolved into a form of scholarly exchange within and across the Syriac churches. I argue that Syriac poetry often functioned as an elite means of communication. In addition to being an important vehicle for ideas, the genre opens a window onto the intellectual and cultural milieus of its authors and other educated members of their communities.
Salam Rassi is Lecturer of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations at the School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh. His main area of research is Christian-Muslim interactions across theology, philosophy, and literature. Following the completion of his doctorate at the University of Oxford, he became a Mellon Foundation postdoctoral fellow at the American University of Beirut. He has also worked as a cataloguer of Syriac and Arabic manuscripts at the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library, Minnesota and was a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at Oxford. His first book, entitled Christian Thought in the Medieval Islamicate World, was published by Oxford University Press in early 2022.
Advance registration required. Register: https://eastofbyzantium.org/upcoming-events/
Contact Brandie Ratliff (mjcbac@hchc.edu), Director, Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture with any questions.
An East of Byzantium lecture. EAST OF BYZANTIUM is a partnership between the Mashtots Professor of Armenian Studies at Harvard University and the Mary Jaharis Center that explores the cultures of the eastern frontier of the Byzantine empire in the late antique and medieval periods.
