Bücher der Reihe Dar Mardin: Christian Arabic and Syriac Studies from the Middle East

This book is a reproduction of Philoxenos Dolabani's handwritten catalogue of the Syriac, Karshuni, and Arabic manuscripts located in St. Mark's Syrian Orthodox Monastery in Jerusalem, one of the most important Christian manuscript collections in the Middle East.

Al-Hamad devotes the four sections of this book to profiling four different authors who either wrote in Syriac or whose works were transmitted into Arabic via Syriac translations: Porphyry, John Philoponos ('the Grammarian'), Jacob of Edessa and Dionysios of Tellmahre.

This book originated in Bishop Yohanna Gregorios' dissatisfaction with the lack of a study which would show where the music of the Syrian church came from, how it was accepted in the church, the basis on which it entered the church, the regional variation in chanting traditions, and the development of church music through time.

This book cantains the Syriac text of Saint Ephrem's Commentary on Genesis supplied with an Arabic translation and commentaries. Its text is one of the most beautiful texts in Syriac language. The book is good for the general readers and those who have interest in the Syriac fathers and churches.