Bar Hebraeus
[1] He was a prominent writer, who created various works in the fields of Christian theology, philosophy, history, linguistics, and poetry.
[3] In his numerous and elaborate treatises, he collected as much contemporary knowledge in theology, philosophy, science and history as was possible in 13th century Syria.
[citation needed] The name may refer to the ancestral origin of his family from ʿEbrā, a village by the Euphrates near Malatya, the city in which he grew up.
give Bar Hebraeus's full Arabic name as Jamāluddīn Abū'l-Faraj Ġrīġūriyūs bin Tājuddīn Hārūn bin Tūmā al-Malaṭī (Arabic: جمال الدين ابو الفرج غريغوريوس بن تاج الدين هارون بن توما الملطي).
There Bar Hebraeus continued with his studies and when he was about seventeen years of age he became a monk and began to lead the life of a hermit.
[7] His episcopal duties did not interfere with his studies; he took advantage of the numerous visitations, which he had to make throughout his vast province, to consult the libraries and converse with the learned men whom he happened to meet.
Thus he gradually accumulated an immense erudition, became familiar with almost all branches of secular and religious knowledge, and in many cases thoroughly mastered the bibliography of the various subjects which he undertook to treat.
Orient., II, 248–263; the account of his death was written by his brother, the maphrian Gregory III (Grigorius bar Saumo; d. 1307/8).
Bar Hebraeus' great encyclopedic work is his Hewath Hekhmetha, "The Cream of Science", which deals with almost every branch of human knowledge, and comprises the whole Aristotelian discipline, after Avicenna and Arabian writers.
This work, so far, has not been published, with the exception of one chapter, by Margoliouth, in Analecta Orientalia ad poeticam Aristoteleam (London, 1887), 114–139.
[8] The most important work of Bar Hebraeus is Awsar Raze, "Storehouse of Secrets", a commentary on the entire Bible, both doctrinal and critical.
The work of Bar Hebraeus is of prime importance for the recovery of these versions and more specially for the Hexapla of Origen, of which the Syro-Hexapla is a translation by Paul of Tella.
Bar Hebraeus used almost all that had been written before him, showing particular favor to the now lost chronographic records published by Theophilus of Edessa (late 8th century, although he has this only through Michael the Syrian and other dependents).
[15] Bar Hebraeus towards the end of his life decided to write a history in Arabic largely based on the Chronicon Syriacum, adapted for a wider Arabic-reading readership rather than solely for Syriac-literate clergy.
[21] In this field, we have from Bar Hebraeus Menarath Qudhshe, "Lamp of the Sanctuary", and the Kethabha dhe-Zalge, "Book of Rays", a summary of the first.
Bar Hebraeus codified the juridical texts of the Syriac Orthodox, in a collection called Kethabha dhe-Hudhaye, "Book of Directions", edited by Bedjan, "Barhebræi Nomocanon" (Paris, 1898).
[27][28] Beside previously mentioned, Bar Hebraeus has left many other works on mathematics, astronomy, cosmography, medicine and philosophy, some of which have been published, but others exist only in manuscripts.
