Observations on Bar cEbroyo's Marine Geography

Introduction 1. Mediterranean Sea 2. Outer Ocean 3. Caspian Sea/Maeotis Conclusion

Introduction

[1] When one peruses through works on “Islamic” cartography, it does not take one long to realise that there is essentially one Syriac world map that recurs in such works, namely the map that is usually found in manuscripts accompanying the account of the world’s seas in the Second Base (“on Creation”) of Bar ^cEbroyo’s Mnorat qudshê (Candelabrum sanctuarii, = Cand .).1 Bar ^cEbroyo is, in other words, if not the most important, at least the most conspicuous Syriac author in the field of geography as he is in many other fields.

[2] While the versions of this map accessible in print include those which are encumbered with later interpolations (mostly in garshuni),2 the place-names given in the simpler, and what must be the original, version of the map can almost invariably be found mentioned in the text of Cand., either in the account of the seas or in the earlier discussion of the “seven climes”.3 These passages of Cand., however, are not the only places where Bar ^cEbroyo deals with geography. Similar descriptions of the world’s seas can be found in a number of other works by him, namely the Ktobo d-zalgê (Liber radiorum, = Rad .), the Sulloqo hawnonoyo (Ascensus mentis, = Asc .), the Ethicon (= Eth .) and the Hewat hekmto (Butyrum sapientiae, = But .).4

[3] The passages of Cand. and Rad. dealing with the seas received some attention over a century ago in 1890 when Richard Gottheil published them with an English translation.5 The relevant parts of Asc. and Cand. Base II received further attention when François Nau and Ján Bakoš published their editions of these works with French translations, respectively, in 1899 and 1930-3. Not much work, however, has been done since then on these geographical accounts. This means that we have as yet no translations published in a Western language of the relevant parts of Eth. and But., while the translations of Cand., Rad. and Asc. that do exist require some correction. It has seemed not unworthwhile under these circumstances to provide new translations of the accounts of the seas in these five works and to provide some comments on points of interest in them, mainly in connection with the sources used by Bar ^cEbroyo.

[4] In what follows the order of presentation will be that of the passages in Cand., where we begin with a description of the Mediterranean (ed. Bakos 154.3-155.5) and move on to the Outer Ocean (155.5-158.1) and then to the Caspian Sea (158.3-12). Translations of the passages of Cand. will be followed by those of the related passages in the other four works and then by comments on points of interest in these passages. The order of the passages in the four works other than Cand. is as follows:

Rad.: Outer Ocean (I.3.1.5; ed. Istanbul 35.16-37.6); Mediterranean (I.3.1.6; 37.6-38.6); Pontus and Maeotis/Caspian (I.3.1.7; 38.6-16).

Asc.: Outer Ocean (II.1.3; ed. Nau 133.12-134.16); Seas inside the Habitable World (II.1.4; 134.17-136.17), including the Mediterranean (134.22-135.15); Lakes (II.1.5; 136.18-137.18), including the Pontus and Maeotis/Caspian (136.21-137.19).

Eth.: Outer Ocean (IV.13.5; ed. Bedjan 452.18-453.11); Mediterranean (453.11-18); Other Seas, including the Pontus, “Hyrcanian” (Caspian) Sea, Sea of Reed and Sea of Elam (453.18-454.2).

But.: Mediterranean (Book of Minerals, Chap. V, Section 1, Theory 1-2); Pontus and Maeotis/Caspian (V.1.2, end); Outer Ocean (V.1.3).

[5] Among works that may have been available to Bar ^cEbroyo in Syriac, reference will be made in the following paragraphs to such works as the Syriac version of the Pseudo-Aristotelian De mundo by Sergius of Rish^caino (ob. 536), Jacob of Edessa’s (c. 640-708) Hexaemeron (= Hex.) and the anonymous Causa causarum (11th c.?),6 as well as the Hexaemeron of Moses bar Kepha (833-903)7 and the Book of Treasures (= Thes.) of Severus Jacob bar Shakko (ob. 1240/1), both of whom mostly closely follow Jacob of Edessa’s account in their accounts of geography. Among works dealing with geography in Arabic, I shall have occasion to compare the works of Bar ^cEbroyo with those of Abû al-Raihân al-Bîrûnî (973-1048), whose K. al-tafhîm li-awâ’il sinâ^cat al-tanjîm appears in fact to have been the source of large parts of the Second Base of Cand.,8 as well as with those of the geographers of the so-called “Balkhî” school (incl. Istakhrî, ob. 934; Ibn Hauqal, ob. 980; Muqaddasî, ob. 985). Another group of geographical accounts we shall be concerned with is that in Battânî’s (858-929) astronomical tables (zîj), together with the closely related accounts in Ibn Rusta (fl. ca. 922) and Kharaqî (ob. 1138/9). Reference will often be made also to other works of Bar ^cEbroyo, such as the first, political, part of his Maktbonut zabnê (Chronicon, = Chron.) and his Awsar rozê (Horreum mysteriorum, = Horr.), along with the works used as sources in these works, such as the Chronicle of Patriarch Michael I (the Elder, Syrus) and Juwainî’s History of the World Conqueror (Târîkh-i jahângushâ).9

[6] The comparison of passages from different works ought also to give us some insights into the relationship between these works and into the manner in which Bar ^cEbroyo altered his methods of composition during his literary career.

[7] Concerning this aspect of the study, it should be pointed out from the outset that Cand. is the earliest of the five works under consideration, the probable date for the composition of its Second Base being 1266/7 A.D.10 For the composition of Asc. and Eth., too, we have the definite date of 1279 A.D.11 Manuscripts of But. tell us that the part of this work dealing with the natural sciences, the part which concerns us here, was finished on 22nd August 1285, while the work as a whole was completed on 8th February 1286, a little less than six months before the author’s departure from this world.12 The date of Rad. is uncertain, but given that it is to a large extent a summary of Cand., its date can be placed after that of Cand. with some safety. We also have some clues for the terminus ante quem for the composition of Rad. in that this work is mentioned by Bar ^cEbroyo in three of his other works, the Swod sufiya, Awsar rozê (= Horr.) and K. d-huddoyê (Nomocanon).13 Of these three, the usually accepted period for the composition of Horr. is mid-Dec. 1277 to 3rd Aug. 1278 (1589 A.Gr.) given in the colophon of ms. Vat. syr. 282 and reported by J.S. Assemani in his Bibliotheca Orientalis (II.277).14 The colophon, however, of ms. Laur. or. 230 (itself copied in 1278 A.D.) gives the date of composition as mid-Dec. 1271 to 9th July 1272 (1583 A.Gr.),15 while in ms. Berol. Sachau 326 (182 Sachau; copied in 1297/8), too, the letter indicating the last digit of the year is evidently a gomal, = “3” (i.e. “1583”), even if some have tried to emend this to tet (= 9) to make the date accord with that given by Assemani.16 If this earlier date of 1272 for Horr. is correct, the date of composition of Rad. will have to be placed before that date, unless we allow for continued revision of these works by the author after their original composition.

1. Mediterranean Sea 1.1. General

[8] Cand. [Bakos 154.3-9, Gottheil 47.1-5, Çiçek 111.5-17]: The Universal Sea (yammo kullonoyo) which is outside the whole Habitable World ( ^comarto) and surrounds the whole earth like a single island is called the Atlantic and the Oceanus. Some call its western side in particular the Oceanus. To this [ocean] a narrow mouth (fumo aliso) is open from inside [the Habitable World] in the west, which is called the Passage of Hercules (ma^cbarto d-’RQLYS). There, too, are the Stelae (STYL’S), or Pillars (qoymoto), of Hercules. This mouth widens out as it proceeds (rodê) westwards and forms the gulf ( ^cubbo) of that sea Adrias (haw yammo ’DRYWS), which is the Sea of the Romans and the Sea of Syria (yammo d-rumoyê w-yammo d-suriya).

Rad. [Istanbul 35.16-18, 37.7-12, Gottheil 53.1, 53.16-54.4]: Ray (zalgo): The sea Oceanus surrounds the whole Habitable World (met^camronito) like a single island. ... Ray: Here [sc. by the Isles of the Blessed and Gadeira] a narrow mouth is open, whose width is only seven miles, where the Stelae (STLS), or Pillars, of Hercules (HRQLYS), are. It makes a breach (tora^c ) and passes through the middle of the Habitable World ( ^comarto). It extends towards the east [in] a space (wa^cdo) 5,000 miles in length and 800 in width, and forms this sea of us westerners called the Adriatic.

Asc. [Nau 134.19-135.4]: While the Universal Sea surrounds the whole Habitable World ( ^comarto) in a circle (qiqloso’it) like a single island, many tongues (leshshone) enter from it into (the Habitable World). The largest tongue among them is the one that enters [the Habitable World] from the narrow mouth, which is opposite the Isles of the Blessed, whose width is only seven miles, and where the Pillars (qoymoto) of Hercules are. It extends inside the Habitable World towards the east [in] a space 5,000 miles in length and 800 in width, and forms this great sea called the Adriatic, ...

Eth. [Bedjan 458.18-20, 459.10-13; Çiçek 236a 6-9, 23-27]: On this day, as the waters gathered in one place, the Universal Sea was formed, which surrounds the earth like a belt (qamro). [Issuing] from it, the particular seas gain mastery (eshtallat ) over the face of the earth in various places. ... Through the breach opposite the Isles of the Blessed, where the Pillars of Hercules are, this sea called the Adriatic enters like a tongue from the Universal Sea into the Habitable World.

But., Min. V.i.1: That sea which surrounds the whole earth like a single island is called the Atlantic. In the west a narrow mouth is open to it at the Stelae (STLS), or Pillars, of Hercules. Through it it enters the Habitable World as if into some harbour and forms this well-known sea which is called the Oceanus [sic] by many.17 ... V.i.2.: In the south of this sea there are two gulfs and in them are two islands called the Greater and Lesser Syrtes. In its northern (side) are three gulfs, the Sardinian (SDRWNYQWN cod. F, SRDWNYQWN ceteri), the Galatian (G’L’TYQWN cod. F) and the Adriatic (’DRY’NWS cod. F), and after these a slanting gulf called the Sicilian (SYQYLYQWN).

Cf. De mundo syr. 139.16-21, 139.23-140.1 [< gr. 393a 16-21, 23-28]: That sea which is outside the whole Habitable World is called the Atlantic and the Oceanus. It also flows around us here. Because on the west a narrow mouth (fumo aliso) is open to it from the inside – at what are called the Stelae (STLWS) of Hercules – its flow proceeds into this sea by us, as if into some harbour, and thus widens out little by little here, spreading out until it embraces (lobek < perilambánô) the large gulfs which adjoin each other. … It is said first to widen out to the right after proceeding from the Stelae (ST’LS) of Hercules and is divided into two gulfs and passes the islands called the Syrtes, one of which they call the Greater Syrtes and the other the Lesser Syrtes. On the other, northern, side it does not widen out immediately in the same way, but makes there too three gulfs ( ^cubbin),18 that called the Sardinian (SWRDWNYQWN), that called the Galatian (G’LTYQWN) and the Great Adriatic (’DRY’S rabbo). After these is another slanting gulf which is called the Sicilian (SQYLYQWN).

[9] There are, I believe, sufficient similarities between the above passages of Cand. and De mundo syr. to allow us to identify the latter as one of the principal sources of the former here (e.g. “called the Atlantic and the Oceanus”, “narrow mouth”, “Stelae of Hercules”). A number of elements in the passage of Cand., however, are suggestive of the use also of an Arabic source, such as the names “Sea of the Romans” and “Sea of Syria” for the Mediterranean (cf. arab. bahr al-rûm and bahr al-shâm) and the mention of the “passage” (ma^cbarto), along with the “pillars”, of Hercules. In connection with the latter it may be noted that the “Passage of Hercules” (ma^cbarat Hîrqlîs) is precisely the term used for the Strait of Gibraltar by Bîrûnî in his Tafhîm (123.5).

[10] The notion of the Ocean surrounding the Habitable World (oekumene) as if the latter were “a single island” can also be found in the De mundo, not in the passage quoted above but a little earlier at De mundo syr. 138.18-19.19 The comparison, however, of the Ocean to a “belt” (qamro), which we find in the part of Eth. quoted above and at a later point in Cand., is not in the De mundo and this comparison allows us to connect the passages in question in Cand. and Eth. with Bar Kepha.20

[11] In Cand., Rad., Asc. and Eth. (also in Horr.), though not in But.,21 Bar ^cEbroyo follows earlier Syriac authors in calling the Mediterranean the “Adriatic”.22 The spelling of the word varies, but the most frequently encountered forms in earlier authors are ’DRY’S and ’DRYWS.23 Of these the latter seems to be the preferred form in Bar ^cEbroyo.24 The origin of the forms ending in -NWS, which we encounter at Asc. 135.4, Eth. [Bedjan] 453.12, But. Min. V.i.1 (’DRY’NWS) and Chron. [Bedjan] 449.6 (’DRYNWS), remains a mystery,25 unless we can assume some confusion in Bar ^cEbroyo’s mind with the name of the Roman emperor Hadrian,26 or some vague influence of the ending of the word “Oceanus” (’WQY[’]NWS).

[12] The close similarity between the passages of Rad. and Asc. quoted above requires no further comment. The similarity between the geographical accounts in these two works (also, to an extent, the account in Eth.) will also be apparent in much of the rest of this paper.27

[13] The names of the gulfs which Bar ^cEbroyo adds in But. are clearly taken from the Syriac version of the De mundo, which is also the source of the error whereby Bar ^cEbroyo turns the Syrtes into islands.28 The De mundo also gives us a reason for the rejection of “Adriatic”, if not for its replacement by “Oceanus”, as the name for the Mediterranean as a whole in But., namely, the realisation upon re-reading of the De mundo that “Adriatic” was applied there to one of the gulfs within the Mediterranean. The reason for its replacement by “Oceanus” is more difficult to find, but Bar ^cEbroyo’s knowledge that “some call only the western side [of the Universal Sea] the Oceanus” (Cand. 154.5) may have had a role to play in causing the confusion here, since the term “Western Sea” (yammo ma^crboyo) is already found applied to the Mediterranean in the 6-7th c. Syriac version of Ps.-Nonnos’ scholia on the homilies of Gregory of Nazianzus,29 and the name “Sea of the West” (bahr al-maghrib) is then also frequently given to that sea by the Arabs.

1.2. Black Sea (Pontus)

[14] Cand. [Bakos 154.9-155.1, Gottheil 47.7-8, Çiçek 111.17-20]: From this gulf a tongue (leshshono meddem) goes out (metyabbal) and thins out (metqattan), passes by the walls (shuro) of Constantinople, and is called the sea of Pontus (yammo d-PNTWS/PWNTWS).

Rad. [Istanbul 38.6-10, Gottheil 54.11-13]: Ray. The Sea of Pontus is in the land of the Scythians.30 Its length is 1,300 miles up to Trebizond and its width 300 miles. From it a narrow tongue (leshshono aliso) passes by the walls of Byzantium and is cast (rmê) into the Adriatic Sea.

Asc. [Nau 136.21-137.5]: Among these is the Sea of Pontus, i.e. of Trebizond, but it is called a sea and not a lake because of its size. Its length is 1,300 miles and its width 300 miles. From it a thin tongue passes ( ^cobed ed. Nau: lege ^cobar) by the walls of Byzantium and empties (shodê) into the Adriatic Sea, just as the Adriatic [flows] into the Oceanus. Some call this tongue the canal ( tura^cto) of Alexander the son of Philip, as if he had opened it.

Eth. [Bedjan 453.18-20, Çiçek 236b 6-8]: There are other seas besides this one [sc. the Mediterranean], the Sea of Pontus and Hyrcania in the north ...

But. V.i.2: From the Adriatic a thin tongue goes out towards the north and passes by Byzantium and empties into the Sea of Pontus, ...

Cf. Bîrûnî, Tafhîm 122.15-123.2 [corr. pers. 168.10-13; Yâqût 21.13-16]: Then, in the middle of the Habitable World, in the lands of the Slavs (saqâliba) and Russians (rûs) is the sea known as the Pontus among the Greeks and known among us as [the Sea of] Trebizond because (Trebizond) is a port on (its shore). From it a channel (khalîj) goes out, which passes by the walls (sûr) of Constantinople and continually thins out until it falls into the Sea of Syria.

[15] A number of features in the passage of Cand., as well as those in later works, allow us to connect these passages with the passage of Bîrûnî’s Tafhîm. Particularly noteworthy among such features is the mention of the “walls” (shuro, arab. sûr) of Constantinople/Byzantium.

[16] The word “tongue”, leshshono (d-yammo), is used several times of a narrow stretch of the sea in the Syriac Bible,31 while the Arabic lisân is also frequently used in that sense. As the direct source of the expression here, however, one might reckon the phrase “leshshono meddem aliso” at De mundo syr. 140.27 (quoted under para. [49] below), whence we have “leshshono meddem” in the passage of Cand. quoted above and “leshshono aliso”, coupled with the verb “rmê” as in the De mundo, in Rad.

[17] Concerning the name for the Black Sea, it may be noted that Bar ^cEbroyo constantly uses the form “the Sea of Pontus”, evidently unaware of the meaning of the Greek word “póntos”. The usual Arabic form “bahr buntus” will have favoured the interpretation “Sea of Pontus” and Bar ^cEbroyo knew furthermore that there was a region of Anatolia called the “Pontus”,32 so that he may have thought that the name of the sea was derived from the region, not vice versa. The error is avoided by Jacob of Edessa et al.33

1.3. Lands around the Mediterranean

[18] Cand. [Bakos 155.1-3, 4-5, Gottheil 47.8-10, 11-12, Çiçek 111.20-24, 27-29]: Thus, to the south of the Adriatic Sea (yammo ’DRYWS) lie (foysho) Alexandria and Egypt (mesrin); to its north Constantinople (QWSTNTYNWPLYS), Rome and the whole land of the Franks (kulleh atro da-frangiya).34 ... [see paragraph [22] below] … To its east are the lands of Syria. So much on this sea of ours (w-holeyn man d-yammo hono dilan).35

Rad. [Istanbul 37.11-17, Gottheil 54.2-6]: ... this sea of us westerners called the Adriatic. To its north are Rome, the land of the Franks (frangiya), Byzantium (buzantiya) and the whole of Europe; to its south, which is called the Sicilian (gulf), are Abyssinians, Nubians, Berbers, Egypt (iguptos), Alexandria and the whole of Libya; to its east, which is called the Sea of the Syrians, are Tyre, Sidon and the whole of Asia.

Asc. [Nau 135.3-6]: ... this great sea called the Adriatic, to whose west are the Isles of the Blessed, to whose east Palestine, to whose north Great Rome and Byzantium, and to whose south Africa.

Eth. [Bedjan 453.13-14, Çiçek 236a 28-30]: To its east is Syria, to its north are Byzantium and Rome, and to its south is Africa.

But. V.i.1: To its east is Asia, to its west are the Stelae, to its north is Europe and to its south is Libya.

Cf. Bîrûnî, Tafhîm 123.2-4 [pers. 168.13-15]: ... the Sea of Syria (bahr al-shâm), to the south of which are the land of Maghrib (bilâd al-maghrib; add wa-ifrîqîya pers.) up to Alexandria and Egypt (misr). Opposite them in the north are al-Andalus and al-Rûm (rûmîya wa-rûm pers.) up to Antioch. Between the two are Syria (bilâd al-shâm) and Palestine.

[19] Although not all the places mentioned in Cand. can be found in Bîrûnî’s Tafhîm, there is, I believe, sufficient agreement between the two to indicate that the latter is probably the principal source of the former here. It may be noted in particular that the order “south-north-east” is the same in these two works, but is altered in Bar ^cEbroyo’s later works (“north-south-east” in Rad., “west-east-north-south” in Asc., “east-north-south” in Eth., “east-west-north-south” in But.).

[20] Of the newly-mentioned places in Rad., the Abyssinians and Nubians had already been mentioned in connection with the Ocean in Cand. (155.8). The “Sicilian (Gulf)” may be taken from the De mundo (syr. 140.1; cf. But. Min. V.i.2), although there it is one of the gulfs on the northern side of the Mediterranean. Descriptions of the Mediterranean where Tyre and Sidon feature prominently are found in the Causa causarum and in Battânî’s Zîj, as well as the passages of Ibn Rusta and Kharaqî related to the latter.36

[21] In Rad. Bar ^cEbroyo adds to his list of places the names of the three continents, Europe, Libya and Asia, and in But. the list is reduced to that of these continents only, along with the “Stelae” in the west. The division of the Habitable World into three continents goes back to the Greeks.37 The definition of Europe and Libya (our Africa) as lands to the north and south, respectively, of the Mediterranean and of Asia as lands to the east of these is encountered, among Bar ^cEbroyo’s Syriac predecessors, in Jacob of Edessa.38 We find much the same definition, but with Asia defined as lands to the east of Egypt in an earlier part of Cand. (103.12-104.8; ≈ Rad. 17.1-8), in a passage where Bar ^cEbroyo mentions that this is the division according to Ptolemy’s Geography but for the rest follows the text of Bîrûnî’s Tafhîm 141.5-10. A similar definition again, but with Asia defined as here in But. as the lands to the east of the Mediterranean, is found at Asc. 140.11-18.39

1.4 Islands in the Mediterranean

[22] Cand. [Bakos 155.3f., Gottheil 47.10f., Çiçek 111.24-27]: In it are the famous islands which are best-known to us, such as Cyprus, Samos, Chios, Rhodes and Sicily.

Rad. [Istanbul 37.17-38.6; Gottheil 54.6-10]: In this [sea] are five large islands, the smallest of which is Cyprus, whose circumference is 200 miles; [the circumference] of Sardinia [is] 300, of Sicily 500, of Crete 300, of Corsica [QWRNWS, Cyrnus] 350. [There are also] five small [islands], Rhodes, QWMNWS [< “Cos and Chios”],40 Samos, Euboea, Chios, and 252 others which are not well-known (d-lo mshammhon).

Asc. [Nau 135.7-15]: In it are many islands. Five are large, the first of which is Cyprus; its circumference is 200 miles and it is the smallest of them. The second is Sardinia, whose circumference is 300 miles. The third is Corsica [Cyrnus] and its circumference is 300 miles. The fourth is Sicily and its circumference is 500 miles. The fifth is Crete and its circumference is 300 miles. The smaller [islands] are five [in number] and are: Rhodes, QWMWS, Samos, Euboea, Chios; and 250 others which are not famous (d-lo tbibon).

Eth. [Bedjan 453.14-17, Çiçek 236a 30-b 6]: In this tongue (leshshono) are ten well-known (mshammhoto) islands. Five of them are large, the smallest of them being Cyprus, and five [are] small; and [there are also] 252 others, which, though not famous (lo tbibon), are nevertheless not devoid of people (noshuto).

But.: In it are the large islands Sicily, Samos, Chios, Rhodes and Cyprus, as well as many small ones. They all abound in people (noshuto) and crops.41

[23] The islands named in the above passages may be summarised as follows. For comparison, I also give the Mediterranean islands listed in Jacob of Edessa’s Hex., a list which is repeated by Bar Kepha and Bar Shakko.42

Cand.: Samos, Chios, Rhodes, Cyprus, Sicily

Rad.: 5 large: Cyprus, Sardinia, Sicily, Crete, Corsica [Cyrnus] 5 small: Rhodes, qwmnws, Samos, Euboea, Chios; and 252 others.

Asc.: 5 large: Cyprus, Sardinia, Corsica, Sicily, Crete 5 small: Rhodes, qwmws, Samos, Euboea, Chios; 250 unnamed islands.

Eth.: 5 large, smallest of which is Cyprus; 5 small; and 252 others.

But.: Sicily, Samos, Chios, Rhodes, Cyprus

Jacob of Edessa et al.: 5 large: Sardinia, Corsica, Sicily, Crete, Cyprus peninsulas: Peloponnese, Chersonese; and many others. small: Rhodes, Cos, Chios, Samos, Euboea, Ithaca; [and many others, Jacob].

[24] It will be seen that the same five islands are named in Cand. and But. The choice is somewhat surprising, since Samos, Chios and Rhodes are not among the largest islands in the Mediterranean and we see from Rad. and Asc. that Bar ^cEbroyo knew this, if not when he wrote Cand., at least by the time he wrote But. While it is difficult to find a source in Syriac or Arabic where all five of these are named as representative islands in the Mediterranean, a passage where four of them other than Chios (i.e. Cyprus, Samos, Rhodes, Sicily) are named as the principal islands of the Mediterranean can be found in Bîrûnî (Tafhîm 211.6-7; same list thence in Qazwînî, ^cAjâ’ib 105.5, tr. Ethé 215).

[25] The lists of the islands in Rad. and Asc. are similar to those in Jacob of Edessa, Bar Kepha and Bar Shakko.43 The comparison with the list in Jacob of Edessa, in fact, allows us to solve the mystery of the island whose name appears as “QWMNWS” ( ) in Rad. and as “QWMWS” in Asc. It is evidently a corruption of “Cos and Chios” (QW W-KYWS, ).44 If this supposition, “QWMNWS/QWMWS” < “Cos and Chios”, is correct, the islands named in Rad. and Asc. will be the same as those listed by Jacob of Edessa, Bar Kepha and Bar Shakko, except for the substitution of Chios for Ithaca, so that here again as in But. and Cand. “Chios” turns out to be an addition by Bar ^cEbroyo.

[26] The reason for this peculiar interest on Bar ^cEbroyo’s part in Chios is unclear. A possible explanation may be sought in a passage of his Chron. (ed. Bedjan, 8.7-8) where Bar ^cEbroyo names “Cyprus, Chios, Sicily and twenty others islands” among the lands allotted to the sons of Ham. The connection of this passage of Chron. to the geographical accounts as found in Cand. etc. may seem rather distant at first, but the division of the world among the sons of Noah is in fact mentioned at an earlier point in Cand. and we find furthermore that a significant number of the place-names mentioned at Chron. [Bedjan] 7.26-8.12 reappear in the geographical accounts in Cand. etc., often in the forms in which they are found there.45

[27] In Rad. and Asc. Bar ^cEbroyo gives us the circumferences of the five larger islands, information which is not given in Jacob of Edessa et al. As in the case of the dimensions of the different seas given in these same works (see paragraph [32] below), the values given here are the same as those given in Battânî’s Zîj, except that the circumferences of Cyprus and Corsica (Cyrnus) have been reversed (Cyprus: 350 miles, Corsica: 250 miles, in Battânî), a reversal which is probably due to misreading of the names of these two islands in Arabic (QBRS, QRNS). Battânî’s Zîj (or a related work) may also be the source for the “252 other islands” which Bar ^cEbroyo mentions in Rad. and Eth. (“250” in Asc.), since Battânî tells us there that there are “162” islands in the Mediterranean (Zîj 27.4), while the 12th c. Latin translation of the Zîj by Plato Tiburtinus talks of “262” islands.46 It will be remembered, of course, that Bar ^cEbroyo mentions ten of the islands by name, so that his total will also be “262”.

2. Outer Ocean

[28] Cand. [Bakos 155.5-157.11, Gottheil 47.12-49.14, Çiçek 111.29-113.29]: The Sea Oceanus, which is outside the Herculean Pillars, with its flow (redyo) proceeding southwards, passes by the lands of the Western Arabs and by the Silver Mountain and the Moon Mountains,47 from whose caves the waters of the River Nile spring (nob^cin), and by the lands of the Abyssinians and the lands of the Nubians, i.e. the whole land of the Cushites. At the end (sawfo) of this land there extends from it a certain small gulf ( ^cubbo) towards the north opposite Egypt (mesrin), which is called the Sea of Reed (yammo d-suf), as being the end and extremity (sawfo w-soko) of the great sea. The sons of Israel crossed it on foot and in it the Pharaoh was drowned. Because of the great number of mountains and rocks in this gulf ships are unable to sail through it except during the day and along the shores. That great sea from which this gulf proceeds is called the Red Sea and this [sea], as it flows towards the east, passes by the lands of Sheba and Saba and the whole land which is simply called the South (taymno) and where the trees of frankincense are.48 At the extremity of this sea called the Red, it forms a great gulf towards the north called the Sea of Fârs. On the western side of this sea is the city called Basra and the whole land of Babel and Seleucia and Ctesiphon. On its northern side are all the lands of the Persians and on its eastern side are the lands of the Indians. The Universal Sea which is outside this gulf, as it flows further towards the east, passes by the lands of the Indians and at their extremity forms a gulf towards the north called the Sea of the Indians. To the west of this sea are the lands of the Indians, to its east are the lands of the Tibetans and after them the lands of the Chinese, and to its north are the lands of the Huns or the Turks ( turqis), who are the Mongols, that is to say, their first land from which they proceeded (nfaq(w)).49 The Universal Sea which is outside this gulf, flowing further towards the east, passes by the famous islands of the Indians [of] which [one] is called Sarandîb and another Qumair,5 as well as the rest of the islands and mountains from which are brought and conveyed those hot, choice and aromatic spices (sammonê), clove (QRNPWL, arab. qaranful), aloe (’WLNGWG, arab. alanjûj), pepper (PLPL’), camphor (Q’PPWR, arab. kâfûr) etc., as well as precious stones, corundum (yaqqundo) etc. In the same way, extending from the east towards the north, it passes by the lands of the Tibetans and the Chinese, by the lands of the Huns, which I have mentioned, by the lands of the Iberians, and by many lands that are desolate, and impassable mountains. It passes also by the great black mountain in the north and the plains of the Qipchaqs and by the land of the Alans. There it forms a gulf from the north to the south, which is called Warang in the language of that place. In the same way, extending from the north towards the west, it passes by the land of the Scythians, by the cities of the Bulgars, by the whole of land of the Franks (frangiya) and by the land of Andalus of the Arabs ( tayyoyê) which now in our day the Franks have conquered. It ends by the Herculean Pillars, whence it began.

Rad. [Istanbul 35.18-37.6, Gottheil 53.1-15]: ... Oceanus, which, beginning at the islands of the Blessed and that (island) in the west called Gadeira, flows outside the whole earth towards the south and passes by the Mountains of the Moon, from which the Nile springs. It encircles the Abyssinians and the Nubians and forms the Sea of the Berbers, whose length is 500 miles and breadth at its extremity 100 miles. It flows further and forms the Red Sea, which thins out and extends for 400 miles in length; the breadth of its extremity, which is the Sea of Reed where Israel crossed, is 200 miles. It flows further, encircles the Desert of Pharan,51 and forms the Sea of the Elamites – where the Euphrates and the Tigris empty (their waters) – whose length is 1,400 miles and breadth 500 miles. It flows further, encircles the whole of Fârs and India and forms the Sea of India, whose length is 1,600 miles. In it are 1,370 islands, one of which is called Tirani or Sarandîb. It is very large. For its circumference is 1,300 miles. In it are tall mountains and many rivers and from it are brought the red and blue (sosgawno) corundums [i.e. ruby and sapphire]. It flows further and encircles the East and forms the Sea of the Chinese. It flows further and encircles the North; it passes by the desolate mountains of the Huns, and the lands of Bulgars, Scythians and Alans, and forms the Galatian Sea in which are the nineteen islands of Britain.52 It encircles the land of the Franks (frangiya) and joins the Islands of the Blessed and Gadeira where it began.

Asc. [Nau 134.4-16; on the Ocean]: This [Ocean] extends northwards and encircles Spain. It passes in the northwest by the land of the Franks (frangiya). It stretches to the north outside the Scythians. It reaches the northeast and confines the land of the Inner Turks (turqis gawwoyê), who are the Gog and Magog.53 It is thought to pass behind the impassable mountains which have been mentioned [cf. 133.23-134.1]. It joins the eastern sea of the Manzoyê,54 i.e. the Chinese. It passes in the southeast by the whole of Inner India,55 and then extends to the south along Inner Arabia and the Desert of the Himyarites, outside of the Mountain of Pharan. It passes by Egypt (iguptos) and the lands of the Berbers and the Cushites and the whole of Africa. In the proximity of the Silver Moutain, which is also called the Moon [Mountain], it becomes imperceptible,56 but it is thought to unite after it with the Western Sea, from which it began and with which it ends.

Asc. [Nau 135.16-136.11; on seas projecting into the Habitable World]: From the southern sea four tongues enter into the Habitable World. The first is the Sea of the Berbers, which is near the west; its length is 500 miles and the breadth of its extremity 100 miles. The second is the Red Sea, which thins out and extends 400 miles in length and the breadth of whose extremity, which is the Sea of Reed, is 200 miles. The third is the Sea of the Elamites, into which the Euphrates and the Tigris pour their waters. Its length is 400 miles and its breadth 500 miles. The fourth is the Sea of the Indians, whose length is 1,600 miles. In it are 1,370 islands, the best-known of which is Tirani, called Sarandîb in the language of that place. Its circumference is 1,300 miles and in it are tall mountains, from which many rivers flow. From it are brought the red corundum [ruby] and other precious stones. From the eastern sea there proceed many tongues whose sizes and properties have not been charted in books. From the northern sea that well-known tongue called the Galatian proceeds. In it are the nineteen islands of Britain, the best-known of which is Thule, the freezing island.

Eth. [Bedjan 453.3-10, 453.18-454.2, Çiçek 236a 13-23]: The Universal Sea, beginning in the west where the Isles of the Blessed are, encircles the Silver Mountain, from which the river Nile descends and which is in the southwest. It passes outside the Cushites and the lands of Sheba and Saba to the south. Reaching the southeast, it confines India, and in the east the Chinese, in the northeast the land of Gog and Magog, in the north the Scythians, and in the northwest the Franks and Spaniards, and thus ends where it began. … There are other seas besides this one, the Sea of Pontus and Hyrcania in the north [cf. para. [14] above], the Sea of Reed in the south, and that of the Elamites, where there is the reversal of the Euripian waters (hfikut mayyo ’WRYPY’); when those [waters] flow (goyhin) they cause the ships to ascend, and when they ebb (toybin) they cause them to return.57

But. Min. V.i.3: Outside the Stelae the Atlantic flows to the southwest and passes by the Silver Mountain, from which the Nile rises. As it flows eastwards, it encircles the land of the Berbers and the Cushites. In Arabia it forms the gulf of the Red Sea. This (gulf) in fact extends like a thin tongue into Egypt and forms the Sea of Reed. Then, it passes by the land of Sheba and Saba and forms the Sea of Elam, and then the Sea of India. In the southeast it passes by Inner India. It (then) encircles the East and passes by the Chinese. In the northeast it passes by the land of Gog and Magog. In the north [it passes] by the land of the Turks (turqis) and the desolate lands and impassable mountains and forms the Sea of Britain, in which is the island of Thule. Then, it passes by the Iberians, Alans, Scythians and Bulgars. In the northwest it passes by Italy58 and the whole land of the Franks. In the west [it passes] by Spain. It ends where it began, by the Stelae.

[29] The passage of Cand. above has a number of elements which are specifically Syriac, or at least Biblical, such as the the combination “Sheba and Saba”,59 and the explanation attributing the name “Sea of Reed” (yammo d-suf) to its location at the extremity (sawfo) of the great sea, an explanation that is found in Syriac exegetical works and is also given by Bar ^cEbroyo in his Horr.60

[30] More prominent, however, are the similarities with Arabic works on geography. It is noteworthy, for example, that Bar ^cEbroyo mentions both the “crossing” by the “sons of Israel” and the “drowning of the Pharaoh” in connection with the Sea of Reed. The story, of course, is both Biblical (Exod. 14-15 etc.) and Koranic (X.90 etc.). The first point is duly mentioned by Jacob of Edessa and other Syriac authors at the relevant place. The latter point, the drowning of the Pharaoh, is not mentioned by them, but is frequently mentioned by Islamic geographers of the Balkhi school.61 Another point of contact with these geographers is the mention of the difficulty of navigation in (our) Red Sea.62

[31] Among the elements the passage of Cand. above shares with Bîrûnî’s Tafhîm, we might call attention here to such items as the mention of Qumair, along with the list of spices produced in the southern islands,63 the “lands that are desolate and impassable mountains” (Cand. 157.5),64 and the use of the name gulf of “Warang” for the Baltic.65

[32] Prominent among the newly-added information in Rad. (and Asc.) are the dimensions of the different seas. As in the case of the circumferences of the Mediterranean islands (see para. [27] above), the values given here agree closely with those given by Battânî (and Ibn Rusta, Kharaqî).66 Although similar values are also given by Jacob of Edessa, some of the values given by Bar ^cEbroyo are not found in Jacob,67 and, furthermore, where Jacob and Battânî differ from each other, Bar ^cEbroyo is usually in agreement with the latter.68

[33] Battânî’s Zîj and related works also help us account for the mention of the “Isles of the Blessed” and “Gadeira” as places where the Ocean begins,69 and, in part at least, for the use of the name “Sea of Berbers” for the Gulf of Aden.70 They help us, furthermore, to solve the mystery surrounding the island of “Tirani” mentioned in Rad. and Asc. ( TYR’NY; TYRN’NY Rad. cod. Paris syr. 216; corruption of “Taprobane”, arabicè TBRB’NY),71 and to explain the “red and blue corundum” (yaqqundo summoqo w-sosgawno) given as the products of that island in Rad.72

[34] One important alteration Bar ^cEbroyo makes between Cand. on the one hand and Rad./Asc. on the other is in the sea to which name “Red Sea” (yammo summoqo) is applied. In Jacob of Edessa, as well as in Bar Kepha and Bar Shakko,73 “the Erythrian, or Red, Sea” is what we call today the Indian Ocean, from which two gulfs called by them the “Arabian” and “Elamitic or Persian” (i.e. respectively, our Red Sea and Arabian/Persian Gulf) branch off. With Bar ^cEbroyo, too, this is still the case in Cand., where the “Sea of Reed” (corresponding there to our Red Sea) and the “Sea of Fârs” are said to branch off from the “Red Sea”.74 In his later works, Rad., Asc. and But., however, the “Red Sea” is placed on the same level as the sea of the “Berbers”, “Elamites” and “Indians” and corresponds to our Red Sea, usually called “bahr al-qulzum” by the Arabs (but “al-bahr al-ahmar”, Tûsî, Tadhkira 249.1).75

[35] Among other alterations, we may note the tendency to avoid Arabic place-names and to “classicise” or “Syriacise” these names. In Cand., what is known today as the “Arabian/Persian Gulf”, for example, was called the “Sea of Fârs”76; this is altered to the “Sea of the Elamites” in Rad. (36.10), Asc. (135.21, also 138.15) and Eth. (453.20), and to the “Sea of Elam” in But. Another example will be the alteration of “al-Andalus” to “Hispania” and of “Sea of Warang” to the “Galatian Sea/Gulf”, while the alteration of “Mesrin” (arab. misr) to “Iguptos” might also be included in this category, even if “Mesrin” is a good Syriac word.

[36] In most of these instances of “classicisation/Syriacisation” we probably need not look for a particular source. For one such alteration, however, we can find a definite source in the De mundo (syr. 140.15, gr. 393b 9), namely for the alteration of the “Sea of Warang” to the “Galatian Sea/Gulf”, in which are the Britannic islands of Albion and Ierne according to De mundo, “the 19 islands of Britain” according to Rad. and “the 19 islands of Britain, the best-known of which is Thule” according to Asc. This is then altered further to the “Sea of Britain, in which is the island of Thule” in But. – The identification of the Varangian (Baltic) Sea with the Galatian Sea (Bay of Biscay/North Sea) will have been caused by the general uncertainty of Islamic geographers over these northern regions, and more particularly by the rarity of references among them to the Varangian Sea77 and by the fact that Thule is sometimes said to be located near (or even “in”)78 Britain but is sometimes associated with the northern sea corresponding to the Baltic.79 A further contributing factor to the eastward displacement of Britain may be the coupling of Britain with “Iberia” at De mundo syr. 140.20 (< gr. 393b 17), where the latter will have been understood to mean “Georgia” rather than “Spain” by Bar ^cEbroyo.80 – The alteration in But. whereby this northern sea itself is now called the “Sea of Britain” rather than “Galatian” may have been prompted in part by unease on Bar ^cEbroyo’s part with the fact that a part of the Mediterranean is also called “Galatian”.81

3. Caspian Sea/Maeotis

[37] Cand. [Bakos 158.3-12, Gottheil 50.3-11, Çiçek 114.4-21]: In the land of the Iberians (iberoyê) there is a lake which is by itself (d-mennoh w-loh (h)i) and is not connected to the Universal Sea, so that someone setting out from a certain known place on its shores and travelling around it would be able to reach the spot from which he started, if it were not for that great river called the Âtil [Volga], which pours its waters into this lake. Because of its size and width, they call this lake a sea and not a lake in the books and in the language of common usage. Ptolemy calls it the Sea of Hyrcania and in our day they call it “Khazar”. To the west of this lake are the Gate of Iron [Darband], the plains of the Qipchaqs,82 Shirwân and Tabaristân, to its south Greater Armenia, to its east the land of the Iberians and to its north the great desolate black mountain which is at the extremity of the land in the northeast.

Rad. [Istanbul 38.10-16, Gottheil 54.13-55.2]: To the north of it is situated the Maeotis, the lake of Caspia, i.e. of rushes (qnayyo)83; the ancients call it (the lake) of Hyrcania and of the Iberians (iberoyê), but in our day it is called “Khazar”. From it a river-like tongue flows into the Sea of Pontus, just as from the Sea of Pontus into the Adriatic and [from] the Adriatic into the Oceanus.

Asc. [Nau 137.5-9]: To the north-east of this sea is the Maeotis, the lake of the Caspians, i.e. of rushes; Ptolemy calls it the Hyrcanian and others the Sea of the Iberians. From it a river-like tongue goes out into the Sea of Pontus, just as from the Pontus into the Adriatic.

But.: ... from which in turn a river-like tongue goes out towards the northeast and flows into the Maeotis, which is the lake of Caspia, Hyrcania and Iberia (iberis).

[38] Here again, the passage in Cand. has numerous points of contact with the account of the Caspian Sea in Bîrûnî, as well as the accounts in the geographers of the Balkhi school. The possibility, for example, of circumambulating the Caspian “if it were not for the Atil/Volga” is a point that is constantly mentioned in the accounts of the latter group and later authors dependent on them.84 Of the localities mentioned, Shirwân and Tabaristân are constantly mentioned among the areas on the shores of the Caspian by Arabic geographers, while the “great desolate black mountain” ( turo rabbo w-shohyo w-ukkomo), despite the insertion of the adjectives “rabbo w-shohyo”, must in fact be the “Black Mountain” of the Arabic geographers (usually known by its Persian name, “Siyâh-Kûh”; properly the Mangyshlak Peninsula).85 Two of the place-names mentioned, unless they are alterations made by Bar ^cEbroyo himself, may provide an indication of relatively late works among his sources, namely “Gate of Iron” (tar^co d-farzlo), which evidently corresponds to the “Gate of Gates” (Bâb al-Abwâb, = Darband/Derbent) of the Arabic geographers,86 and the “Plains of the Qipchaqs”, which seems to have replaced the “plains of the Ghuzz” encountered in earlier works, the latter of these being an alteration which is in accord with historical facts, since the Qipchaqs drove the Ghuzz from the area north of the Caspian in the mid-11th c.87

3.1. "Iberian Sea"

[39] One puzzling point in the passage of Cand. here is the placement of the Caspian in “the land of the Iberians”. This is then repeated in the later works quoted above, where, in Asc. for example, the Caspian is called the “Sea of the Iberians”. In these later works, the problem is compounded by the identification of the Caspian with the “Maeotis” (properly, Sea of Azov) and the consequent connection of the Caspian with the Black Sea, although in Cand. Bar ^cEbroyo is still free of this error.

[40] The clue as to why Bar ^cEbroyo places the Caspian in “Iberia” is provided in the sentences in which he mentions the various names under which the Caspian has been known.

Cand. [Bakos 158.3-4, 8-9, Gottheil 50.3, 7-8, Çiçek 114.4-5, 14-15]: In the land of the Iberians is a lake, ... Ptolemy calls it the Sea of Hyrcania (’RQNY’) and in our day they call it “Khazar” (KZR).

Rad. [Istanbul 38.12-13, Gottheil 54.4-55.1]: The ancients call it (the lake) of Hyrcania and of the Iberians, but in our day it is called “Khazar”.

Cf. Bîrûnî, Tafhîm 123.7-8, 11-12 (pers. 169.2-170.1, 170.4-6): Near Tabaristan is the sea of the port of Jurjân. ... It has been called after the names of all the adjacent countries, but its appellation (ishtihâruhu) among us is after the Khazars and among the ancients after Jurjân. For Ptolemy calls it the Sea of Hyrcania.88

[41] It would appear from the above that Bar ^cEbroyo’s “Iberians” corresponds to Bîrûnî’s “Jurjân” (pers. Gurgân, to the southeast of the Caspian), an erroneous correspondence, of course, and a disconcerting one given the relative proximity of the lands in question to the area in which Bar ^cEbroyo lived and worked, but one which may be explained with reference to the older forms of the name used for Georgia(ns), such as the Syriac gurzân,89 and the Arabic/Persian jurzân, jurjân (as opposed to the later standard kurj).90

[42] Bar ^cEbroyo’s placement not only of “Iberia” to the east of the Caspian but also of Greater Armenia to its south suggests furthermore that behind the account of the Caspian Sea in Cand. there also lurks a confusion of the Caspian with the Black Sea.91 This is probably to be explained through the confusion of the names applied to these two seas in some source used by Bar ^cEbroyo, since we know that the name “Sea of the Khazars”, though usually applied to the Caspian, was also applied at times to the Black Sea,92 while the name “Sea of the Georgians” (daryâ-i gurziyân) is used of the Black Sea in the 10th c. Persian geographical work, Hudûd al-^câlam.93

[43] Bar ^cEbroyo’s application of the name “Sea of the Iberians” to the Caspian, his apparent confusion of “Iberia” with Jurjân and his inclusion of the “Iberians” among the peoples along the shores of the northern Ocean (see para. [28], [36] above) force us to ask at this point who exactly the people are whom he designates by the name “Iberians”. An examination of the references to “Iberia” in Bar ^cEbroyo’s Chron. and Chronicon ecclesiasticum shows that his iberiya/iberoyê are usually the Georgia(ns) as we know them, but not quite in every case. A puzzling instance occurs at Chron. [Bruns-Kirsch] 71.4, 6, [Bedjan] 66.3, 6, where we find the “Iberians” joining the Goths in the incursions leading to the battle of Adrianople (378 A.D.) and where we find furthermore the word for “Iberians” in the form iberis with the ending “-is” as in the text of But. quoted above.94 Only the Goths are mentioned in the corresponding passage of Michael (Chron. 152b 28ff., tr. I.294) and in most other sources, but we do find the combined forces of the “Goths and Abarê” at Adrianople in Jacob of Edessa’s Chronicon,95 which suggests that the “iberis” of Bar ^cEbroyo, Chron. [Bedjan] 66.3, 6 may, in fact, be the Avars making an anachronistically early appearance (Avars would have belonged to recent history in Jacob’s day).96

[44] “Avars” does occur twice in Bar ^cEbroyo’s Chron. at ed. Bedjan 89.15, 90.20,97 where we hear of them raiding Roman territory during the reigns of Tiberius I Constantine (578-82) and Mauricius (582-602), actions which have certain similarities with those of the Goths during the reign of Valens.98 For our purpose, it is of note that the word “Avars” appears there in the form ’BRYS, again with an ending in “-is”.

[45] In comparing the two passages about the Goths-Iberians and the Avars, it becomes difficult, in spite the extra yud in iberis, to avoid the impression that Bar ^cEbroyo somehow associated the people he must have known reasonably well as the iberoyê or iberis and the people he knew only from remote history as the abaris.99 Such an association would have involved a major expansion in Bar ^cEbroyo’s mind of the Iberian territory beyond the Caucasus into the wide northern steppes.100

[46] Whether the classic confusion of khazar and jurz in Arabic led Bar ^cEbroyo to associate his “Ibero-Avars” further with the “Khazars” is unclear. On one occasion, Bar ^cEbroyo alters the phrase “the khagan, the king of the Avars” (K’GN malko d-’B’RYS) he found in Michael (Chron. 379a 30) to “the khaqan, the king of the Khazars” (K’Q’N malko d-khazaroyê) in his Chron.,101 suggesting, unless this is simply a slip of the pen,102 that Bar ^cEbroyo did indeed associate the “Khazars” with the “Avars”. Furthermore, at Chron. [Bedjan] 217.13, we encounter the definition “Hyrcania, i.e. the land of the Khazars”,103 where, since only the Khazars are likely to have been mentioned in Bar ^cEbroyo’s source, the equation of the land with Hyrcania must be his own.104 We also find the equation “the Georgians, i.e. the Khazars” (al-kurj wa-hum al-khazar) in the printed edition of the Mukhtasar ta’rîkh al-duwal, although here it is risky to determine whether Bar ^cEbroyo wrote “al-khazar” or “al-jurz” without an examination of the manuscript evidence.105

[47] It might be added here that there are at least two instances in Bar ^cEbroyo’s Chron. where “Iberia” must in fact mean the Hispanic “Iberia” rather than her Caucasian namesake, but Bar ^cEbroyo may have been unaware of the distinction.106 This inability on Bar ^cEbroyo’s part to distinguish between the two lands called “Iberia” in classical times will then have had a helping role in the placement of the “Iberians” on the shores of the northern Ocean we encountered at But., Min. V.i.3 (see para. [36] above).

3.2 Confusion of Maeotis and Caspian Sea

[48] There is much uncertainty in Islamic geographical literature over both the Maeotis (Sea of Azov) and the Caspian Sea. Although Aristotle already states that the Caspian Sea is isolated from other seas (Mete. 354a 3-4),107 the idea that it was in fact connected with other seas persisted both among Greek and Islamic geographers, the sea with which it was purportedly connected sometimes being the northern Ocean and sometimes the Maeotis and the Pontus (Black Sea),108 while the Maeotis, too, for its part had a life of its own among Islamic geographers, sometimes being detached from the Black Sea and located far to the north of where it is in reality.109

[49] The principal culprit that misled Bar ^cEbroyo and caused him, who explicitly states in Cand. that the Caspian Sea is not connected to any other seas, later to change his mind on this matter may be an infelicitous Syriac translation of a passage in the De mundo.

De mundo syr. 140.25-28 [< gr. 393b 24-26]: Europe, which is surrounded by mountains,110 is bounded by the Pillars (STLWS) of Hercules and the extremity ( ^ceqbo < gr. muchoí) of the Pontus, [and extends] up to the Sea of the Hyrcanians, from which a certain narrow tongue is cast into the Pontus (haw d-leshshono meddem aliso rmê menneh b-PNTWS; < gr. kath’ hên stenótatos isthmòs eis tòn Pónton diêkei). Some [say] instead of this tongue: that river called the Tanais ( TN’YN).

[50] The rendition of “kath’ hên” as “from which” (d- ... menneh) is unfortunate and would have led Bar ^cEbroyo to understand the word “tongue” (leshshono, corresponding to gr. isthmós), not as “isthmus”, but as “strait”.111 The last part of the passage about the Tanais (properly, the Don) could then be understood to mean that this strait, being a river-like channel, is also called the “river Tanais”.

[51] Having been misled by the above passage into believing that a channel called the Tanais flowed from the Caspian into the Pontus, Bar ^cEbroyo could then have been led to identify the Caspian with the Maeotis by such passages as the following, where it is stated that the Tanais flows from the Maeotis into the Pontus.

Battânî 27.7f., 9f. [≈ Ibn Rusta 85.16-86.1, 86.2-4]112: There enters it [sc. the Pontus] the river called the Tanais, and its flow is from the north, from the lake called the Maeotis. ... By Constantinople there pours forth from it [the Pontus] a channel which flows as if it were a river and empties into the Sea of Egypt; its breadth by Constantinople is three miles and Constantinople is on it.

Michael, Chron. 381a 17-21, tr. II.363: ... to the river Tanais, which goes out from the Lake of Maeotis and mingles with [lit. inside] the Sea of Pontus.113

[52] Given the correspondence of much of the material elsewhere in Rad. and Asc. to Battânî-Ibn Rusta (and Kharaqî), we can be fairly certain that Bar ^cEbroyo knew the above passage of Battânî et al., while his knowledge of the passage of Michael is vouched for by the fact he reproduced the sentence above in his own Chron. (ed. Bedjan 91.2-4). Battânî et al., in fact, go on to talk about the Caspian Sea immediately following the passage quoted above (Battânî 27.11f.), but it seems that Bar ^cEbroyo’s trust in the Ps.-Aristotelian De mundo led him to ignore that passage of Battânî et al. in this case.114

Conclusion

[53] It will be clear from what has been said that in compiling his accounts of geography Bar ^cEbroyo made use, as was his wont, of a diverse range of sources accessible to him, both in Syriac and in Arabic.

[54] Among the Syriac sources he certainly used, we can count the Syriac version of the Ps.-Aristotelian De mundo, which is used extensively in those parts of the passages quoted above dealing with the Mediterranean, but less in those parts dealing with the Ocean. There are also numerous points of contact with the geographical accounts found in Jacob of Edessa’s Hexaemeron, which was later reproduced in abbreviated forms in Bar Kepha’s Hexaemeron and Bar Shakko’s Book of Treasures. While the similarity of the materials in these three works makes it difficult for us to decide which of them Bar ^cEbroyo used as his immediate source, there appears to be nothing in those parts of Bar ^cEbroyo’s works examined above which requires us to assume direct knowledge of the longer account found Jacob of Edessa’s work. The similarities, on the other hand, with the anonymous Causa causarum, which is itself evidently indebted both to earlier Syriac works and to more recent Islamic works, are not such as to indicate a use of this work by Bar ^cEbroyo, as opposed to the use of common sources. Bar ^cEbroyo also betrays influences of historiographical and exgetical works in Syriac, which he will have studied for the composition of his own works in these fields.

[55] Among the Arabic works which have been mentioned above, the influence of Bîrûnî’s Tafhîm is already evident in the earliest of the five works of Bar ^cEbroyo examined, the Candelabrum sanctuarii, as might have been expected from what we already knew concerning the use of this work in the Second Base of Cand.115 A number of passages in Cand. also indicate a debt to the geographers of the so-called Balkhi School. The relative brevity of these passages makes it difficult to determine whether they are based directly on the works of these geographers or on later compilations such as Yâqût’s Mu^cjam al-buldân.116

[56] Two points in Cand., unless they are alterations/additions made by Bar ^cEbroyo himself, will be indicative of the inclusion among his sources of a relatively late work, namely the mention of the “Gate of Iron” and “plains of the Qipchaqs” among the regions on the shores of the Caspian (Cand. 158.10, also 157.6) and the phrase “the land of Andalus of the Arabs, which now in our day the Franks have conquered” (157.10).117

[57] One change Bar ^cEbroyo makes between the account in Cand. and that in Rad. and Asc. is the addition of the values for the lengths and breadths of the seas. These values generally agree with those given by Battânî, Ibn Rusta and Kharaqî, as well as with those given by Jacob of Edessa and, following him, Bar Kepha and Bar Shakko. Some of the values given by Bar ^cEbroyo, however, are not found in Jacob and, furthermore, where the Arabic authors and Jacob diverge from each other Bar ^cEbroyo is in agreement with the former, so that Bar ^cEbroyo’s source for these values must be sought among the Arabic works, if not Battânî’s Zîj itself, at least a work closely related to it. Further indications of Bar ^cEbroyo’s use of Battânî or a related work are provided by the agreement of the values for the circumferences of the islands in the Meditarranean given in Rad. and Asc. with those in Battânî-Ibn Rusta (these values are not in Jacob or Kharaqî) and by the agreement of a number of further passages, such as that on Taprobane/Sarandîb in Rad., with those in Battânî et al.

[58] Another alteration that can be observed between Cand. and the later works is the disappearance of a good number of Arabo-Persian place-names and the replacement of some of these by their Greco-Syriac equivalents.118 Although in one case at least (replacement of “Sea of Warang” by “Galatian Sea”) the change can be attributed to a re-reading of the Syriac De mundo, it is probably factors other than the use of new sources which are at play behind these alterations. One factor may be the increased familiarity on Bar ^cEbroyo’s part with the Greco-Syriac place-names gained through his researches for the composition of his Chron. and Chron. eccl., the date of whose composition falls between that of Cand. and that of Asc.119 Another possible factor is an increased sense of Syriac national identity prompted by the new situation in which the Syriac Christians found themselves under Ilkhanid rule.120

[59] More generally concerning the relationship between the five works of Bar ^cEbroyo studied here, it may be stated that Cand. stands somewhat apart from the others as the earliest of the five. The accounts of the seas in Rad. and Asc. are very similar to each other, while the account in Eth. too, though shorter, shares many features with these. The similarity here between Asc. and Eth. is not so surprising given that these two works are known to have been composed in the same year in 1279. The similarity between Rad. and Asc., on the other hand, is a little more unexpected and this similarity forces us to reconsider the terminus ante quem of 1272 for the composition of Rad., which its mention in Horr. suggests. In composing the geographical account for But., the last of the five works composed some six years after Asc. and Eth., Bar ^cEbroyo apparently made use of his earlier accounts in both Cand. and Rad./Asc., but at the same time added some new materials, most notably from those parts of the De mundo which he had not used in his earlier works.121

[60] Geography, unlike philosophy and theology, is a science that deals with particulars rather than with universal and eternal truths, and place-names especially are subject to alteration over time. Bar ^cEbroyo’s habit of using diverse sources originating from different periods of history was as a result to prove more a detriment than an advantage for the purpose of composing a geographical account, and his trust in the works of the ancients and in the faulty Syriac version of the Pseudo-Aristotelian De mundo in particular was to become a source of error, as we saw in his account of the Caspian Sea.122 Nevertheless, what we find in the passages of Bar ^cEbroyo’s works examined here is a valiant attempt at a synthesis of the various source materials available to him, and makes for a far more interesting reading, at any rate, and a more challenging one for those interested in Quellenforschung than many comparable accounts both in Syriac and Arabic from the late medieval period, including that in the work of Bar ^cEbroyo’s older contemporary, Bar Shakko, who was often content merely to excerpt long passages out of a single source.

_______ Notes

50 ... gozroto mshammhoto d-hendwoye d-metqaryo SRNDYB wa-hrito d-metqaryo Q’MYR/QMYR ed. Bakos et Gottheil 49.3; add. hdo post d-henwoye ed. Çiçek 113.5-7 (i.e. “… famous islands of the Indians, one which is called …, another …). – Q’MYR Bakoš cum Parisino et Berolinensi; QMYR Gottheil, Çiçek (< cod. Hierosolymitanus) et cod. Vaticanus. Cf. Bîrûnî, Tafhîm 122.12 (pers. 168.4). Bîrûnî’s “Qumair”, associated with the Dîbajât islands (Laccadives and Maldives) at Tafhîm, loc. cit., as well as at Hind [Sachau] 103.3, 8 (cf. also id. Tahdîd [Bulgakov] 138.8), is a touch more likely to be Madagascar/Comoro (Qumr) (so Wright in his edition of Tafhîm, p. 122 footnote) than Khmer (Qimâr) as suggested by Wiedemann (1912a) 5 n.4 (so also Nallino [1899-1907] I.170 n.8, Jwaideh [1959] 31 n.4), unless it is in fact a conflation of the two.

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