The Seventh Century in the West Syrian Chronicles

The Seventh Century in West-Syrian Chronicles makes accessible to a wide public sources vital for the reconstruction of events in the first Islamic century, covering the period which ends with the unsuccessful Arab siege of Constantinople, an event which botn modern historians and Syriac chronographers see as making a decisive caesura in history. The general introduction enables a newcomer to the field to establish his bearings before tackling the texts. Part One presents 12 texts written between 636 and 847, including date-lists, king-lists, anecdotal chronicles, inscriptions and a contemporary memorandum of the Arab conquest. Part Two contains a long extract from the Chronicle of AD 1234 with supplementary material from Michael the Syrian, these two sources being the only surviving witnesses to the work of the greatest of Syrian historians, Dionysius of Tel-Mahr-e. Part Three contains the last part of the Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius 3nd a related text from Edessa, The epilogue draws together the genres of chronography and apocalyptic.