Born Malaṭya, (Turkey), 1225/1226
Died Marāgha, (Iran), 29/30 July 1286
Barhebraeus, a Syrian (or Syriac) Orthodox (“Jacobite”) prelate and polymath, is the foremost representative of the “Syriac Renaissance” of the 12th and 13th centuries. He was also closely associated with several members of the “Marāgha School” of astronomers, and he wrote several works dealing with various aspects of astronomy.
Barhebraeus' birthplace of Malaṭya (or Melitene) was at the time under the rule of the Saljūqs of Rūm (Asia Minor), a Turkish–Islamic dynasty. It had an important community of Syrian Orthodox Christians that included Barhebraeus' family. His father Aaron (Ahrōn) was a physician. The view that links the name Barhebraeus to a Jewish ancestry is best rejected in favor of one linking it to the village of ҁEḇrā on the Euphrates, downstream of Melitene. After periods of study in Antioch, Tripoli (both then still in the hands of the Crusaders), and possibly Damascus, he was raised to the...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Selected References
Abbeloos, Joannes Baptista and Thomas Josephus Lamy (1872–1877). Gregorii Barhebraei Chronicon ecclesiasticum. 3 Vols. Louvain: Peeters.
Bakoš, Ján (1930–1933). Le Candélabre des sanctuaires de Grégoire Aboulfaradj dit Barhebraeus. Paris: Firmin‐Didot. (Reprint, Patrologia Orientalis nos. 110 and 118. Turnhout: Brepols, 1988. [Candelabrum of the Sanctuary, Bases I–II; with French translation.])
Barhebraeus (1997). Book of Zelge by Bar‐Hebreaus [sic], Mor Gregorius Abulfaraj, the Great Syrian Philosopher and Author of Several Christian Works. Istanbul: Zafer Matbaası. (Book of Rays, facsimile edition.)
Baumstark, Anton (1922). Geschichte der syrischen Literatur mit Ausschluβ der christlich‐palästinensischen Texte. Bonn: A. Marcus und E. Weber. (Reprint, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1968, pp. 312–320.)
Çiçek, YūliyōsYeshūҁ (1997). Mnorath Kudshe (Lamp of the Sanctuary) by Mor Gregorios Yohanna Bar Ebryoyo [sic]. Glane/Losser: Bar Hebraeus Verlag. (Candelabrum of the Sanctuary; whole work, in Syriac only.)
Graf, Georg (1944–1953). Geschichte der christlichen arabischen Literatur. 5 Vols. Vatican City: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana. Vol. 2, pp. 275–281.
Moosa, Matti (ed. and trans.) (2000). The History of Syriac Literature and Sciences. Pueblo, Colorado: Passeggiata Press, pp. 152–158. (Originally published as I. Aphram Barsoum, Kitāb al‐Lu'lu' al‐manthūr fī ta'rīkh al‐ ҁ ulūm wa‐' l‐ādāb al‐suryāniyya. Hims, Syria, 1943; 4th ed., Glane/Losser: Bar Hebraeus Verlag, 1987, pp. 411–430.)
Nau, François (1899). Le livre de l'ascension de l'esprit sur la forme du ciel et de la terre. Cours d'astronomie rédigé en 1279 par Grégoire Aboulfarag, dit Bar‐Hebraeus. 2 Vols. Paris: émile Bouillon. (Ascent of the Mind, with French translation.)
Sayılı, Aydın (1960). The Observatory in Islam. Ankara: Turkish Historical Society, pp. 219–222.
Takahashi, Hidemi (2004). Aristotelian Meteorology in Syriac: Barhebraeus, Butyrum Sapientiae, Books of Mineralogy and Meteorology. Leiden: E. J. Brill.
——— (2005). Barhebraeus: A Bio‐Bibliography. Piscataway, New Jersey: Gorgias Press.
Teule, Hermann G. B. (1997). “Ebn al‐ҁEbrī.” In Encyclopaedia Iranica. Vol. 8, pp. 13–15. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, ff—f ff.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2007 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.
About this entry
Cite this entry
Takahashi, H. (2007). Barhebraeus: Gregory Abū al‐Faraj. In: Hockey, T., et al. The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-30400-7_112
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-30400-7_112
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-0-387-31022-0
Online ISBN: 978-0-387-30400-7
eBook Packages: Physics and AstronomyReference Module Physical and Materials ScienceReference Module Chemistry, Materials and Physics