By Baghdadhope*
Waiting for the news coming from Alqosh of the ordination ceremony of the new Chaldean Bishop of Mosul, Msgr. Shimoun Nona, that will be held tomorrow in the early morning in the Monastery of Dair Saiyda , Baghdadhope recommends its readers an interesting article.
In the article its author, H. L. Murre-van den Berg (Rijks Universiteit Leiden - The Netherlands) backs up the theory according to which it was right in Alqosh that the modern Aramaic, or Neo-Syriac "was reduced to writing for the first time" in the late sixteenth century.
Following the incipit of the article you can read by clicking here
A Syrian Awakening. Alqosh and Urmia as Centres of Neo-Syriac Writing
INTRODUCTION
In the course of the nineteenth century, European scholars gradually became aware of the fact that the Persian Church, the "Nestorian" Church of the East, was not dead, but still very much alive. And so was its literary tradition. Not only had Classical Syriac writing survived well into the nineteenth century, the activities of various missionary societies also brought to light the fact that a modern Aramaic, or "Neo-Syriac" language was in general use among the Christians of eastern Turkey and northwestern Iran. The activities of the missionaries among the Christians in Iran not only initiated a new interest in this ancient Christian people among westerners, but also played a significant role in the development of a new self-awareness among these Christians of Persia.
It is this Syrian "Awakening" which constitutes the starting point of the present article. However, a closer look at the history of these "East Syrian" or "Assyrian" Christians shows that the Awakening of the nineteenth century has an interesting precursor in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Contrary to what most of the missionaries in the early nineteenth century thought, it was not in Urmia that the modern dialect was reduced to writing for the first time. This took place in Alqosh, in the late sixteenth century.
In the course of the nineteenth century, European scholars gradually became aware of the fact that the Persian Church, the "Nestorian" Church of the East, was not dead, but still very much alive. And so was its literary tradition. Not only had Classical Syriac writing survived well into the nineteenth century, the activities of various missionary societies also brought to light the fact that a modern Aramaic, or "Neo-Syriac" language was in general use among the Christians of eastern Turkey and northwestern Iran. The activities of the missionaries among the Christians in Iran not only initiated a new interest in this ancient Christian people among westerners, but also played a significant role in the development of a new self-awareness among these Christians of Persia.
It is this Syrian "Awakening" which constitutes the starting point of the present article. However, a closer look at the history of these "East Syrian" or "Assyrian" Christians shows that the Awakening of the nineteenth century has an interesting precursor in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Contrary to what most of the missionaries in the early nineteenth century thought, it was not in Urmia that the modern dialect was reduced to writing for the first time. This took place in Alqosh, in the late sixteenth century.