Syria

SYRIA. - I. GEOGRAPHY. - A historical region and (since 1946) an independent state of western Asia, bordering Turkey, 'Iraq, Transjordan, Israel and Lebanon.

Its territory (187,000 sq. km.), which extends from the Levantine Sea to upper Mesopotamia (Tigris) and from the Taurus to the Gebel Druze, embraces a vast desert or sub-desert sector in the E., and a much more varied one, rich in resources, in the W., where, between the inland reliefs (Golan, Hermon, Anti-Lebanon) and the coast, itself surmounted by high surfaces, stretches the depressed corridor in which the Orontes (Nahr el-'Asi) and the Litani (Nahr el-Litani) run with opposite gradients. Except at the highest fringes and in the sub-littoral zone, the country suffers from a scarcity of water (the climate, of the Mediterranean type, sharpens this character in the interior): its economic possibilities are therefore conditioned by the possibility of solving the irrigation problem, given that even pastoralism does not have adequate pasture, and mineral resources of any consequence are lacking.

Cultivated fields occupy barely 1/8 of the territorial surface and essentially provide for internal needs (cereals, pulses, vines, olive, sesame, cotton); while tobacco and fruit trees (apricot) are of some importance. In livestock raising, sheep and goats predominate (cattle are scarce). Much more notable is silkworm breeding, whose product feeds a substantial and traditional craft industry; skilled craftsmen also work cotton, artificial silk and leather. Industries, although developing, are limited to processing the local production of raw materials; the two largest cities are at the same time the country's most active manufacturing centers.

The population, almost entirely concentrated in the western S., is highly heterogeneous both from the ethnic point of view (large minorities of Arabs, Turks, Armenians, Persians, Europeans, etc.) and from the religious one. There are numerous large centers, many of which have distant traditions and are also great centers of culture; only Homs exceeds 100,000 inhabitants. S. lacks an adequate port (Laodicea and Tartus are only fishing centers); the greater part of its maritime trade takes place through Beirut (Lebanon).

Giuseppe Caraci

II. SYRIA IN THE BIBLE

Both in Greek and in Latin, the name was sometimes used to translate Aram (v.), in general and with the determinations "of Damascus, of Zobah," etc.: Σορία Δαμασκού: II Sam. 8, 5; Σ. Σουβά: II Sam. 10, 8; Σ. Μοογά: I Par. 19, 6, etc.; Syria: Os. 12, 12 (Hebr. 13); Mesopotamia Syriae: Deut. 23, 5 (Aram Nahārajim); etc.

In the Jewish era (I-II Mac.) Syria is the main part and the ordinary designation of the kingdom of the Seleucids (v.), with Antioch as its capital: but in the geographical sense the name had a more restricted use. The Kingdom of the Seleucids extended from the Taurus range and the region of the confluence of the river Ḥabūr with the Euphrates in the north as far as Egypt; geographically, however, Phoenicia (II Mach. 10, 11) and Palestine or Judea were distinguished, along with other minor regions. The political sense of the name appears in the designation of the Seleucids as "kings of Syria," as opposed to the Ptolemies of Egypt, to a certain "king of Damascus" (the Aretas), etc.

In New Testament times Syria is the Roman administrative district of the Syria provincia, which appears to have comprised in substance the ancient territories of the Seleucids, and therefore also Palestine (there are no well-founded grounds for doubt); it was governed by a governor (ἡγεμίαν: Lk. 2, 2, Vulg. praeses) who resided at Antioch, but acted through representatives in various centers, including the local dynasts, whom the Romans often left in place or installed with various titles. Thus already Pompey after the conquest (63 B.C.) left Hyrcanus at Jerusalem as high priest and ethnarch (almost "leader of the people"). On the occasion of revolts and disturbances at Jerusalem the governor of Antioch regularly intervened, as Q. Varus did after the death of Herod. In this broad sense, of the Syro-Phoenician region, the term Syria is used in the New Testament (Mt. 4, 24; Act. 15, 23, 41; 18, 18; 20, 3; 21, 3; Gal. 1, 21). Subsequent enlargements of the province reflect transfers to the pure and simple Roman administration of territories that had enjoyed a local government: thus in 34 A.D. for the tetrarchy of Philip, comprising territories beyond the Jordan, which shortly thereafter were assigned to Antipas, but remaining under the supervision of the governor of Syria (v. LEGATE; for Judea, v. PROCURATOR).

Giovanni Rinaldi

III. MUSLIM SYRIA

The history of Muslim Syria begins with the Arab invasion (634) and lasts down to our own days. Until 877 it is characterized by Syria's remaining a province within the Islamic caliphate. From 877 to 1516 various dynasties succeed one another in Syria, with dominions of greater or lesser extent, for the most part originating in Egypt and reigning there. It is in this period that the long parenthesis of the Crusades (1097-1291) opens. From 1516 to 1920 Syria is under the Ottoman empire. From 1920 onward, through the French protectorate, the successive phases of Syrian independence unfold, achieved in 1946.

The history of Syria is very fragmentary. No strong national unity exists; it is rather the history of individual regions and cities. One must therefore bear in mind on the one hand the entries relating to the regions (LEBANON, etc.) and to the principal cities (ALEPPO; DAMASCUS, etc.), and on the other the entries ISLAM, for the period of remaining under the caliphate; EGYPT, for the dynasties originating there; TURKEY, for the period of the Ottoman occupation.

Note that the chronological indications relating to the individual dynasties concern only their period of remaining in Syria.

1. The conquest (634-40)

The principal phases of the Arab conquest in Syria (and at the same time in Palestine [v.]) are: the victories of Aḡnāḏajn (634) and of Fihl (Pella, 635); the capture of Damascus (635); the battle of the river Jarmūk (636), decisive; the conquest of Jerusalem (638) and of Caesarea (640).

The Arab administration, in Syria as elsewhere (v. ISLAM, L'espansione storica), initially retained the character of a military occupation. Syria was divided into fund, military districts: Damascus, Hims, Palestine, Jordan; the caliph Jasīd I later added Qinnasrin. The subject population was subjected to tribute, both land tax (barāḏ) and personal tax (ḡizjah). Those converted to Islam (manvālī) were exempted from the ḡizjah and attached as clients to the Arab tribes.

2. Syria under the caliphate (640-877; 905-35). - With the advent of the Umayyad dynasty (661-750), Syria became the center of the caliphate. The capital was moved to Damascus and remained there, although the last Umayyad caliphs rarely resided in it, until Marwān II (744-50), who transferred it to Ḥarrān in Mesopotamia: not the least cause of the dynasty's fall. The foundation of Umayyad power was the army, made up of the Arab tribes existing in Syria before the conquest, united with the conquerors. It was, moreover, the internal struggles among these tribes (divided into qāṣiti and jamanti) that undermined the solidity of the State. The progressive disappearance of the military camps brought about a parallel ethnic and linguistic Arabization; the latter was furthered by the introduction of Arabic into the administration from the time of 'Abd al-Malik (685-705) and by the partial removal of the native element from administrative offices. Islamization was slight, the manvālī relatively few: this proves the tolerance generally enjoyed by non-Muslim subjects.

The 'Abbāsids, having come to power (750), transferred the capital to Bagdad. Syria remained a mere province. The direction of the State was taken away from the Syrians. These attempted revolts on several occasions: but persistent tribal discord made them fruitless. Fiscal pressure was intensified; likewise religious pressure, culminating in the discriminatory measures of al-Mutawakkil (847-61).

The Tūlūnids of Egypt conquered Syria in 878. A brief 'abbāsid restoration followed (905-39), and then the series of Egyptian dynasties resumed: they had to struggle with dynasties coming from the east (above all the Sel-ḡūqids and the atābeg) and with the States founded by the Crusaders.

3. The autonomous dynasties down to the Sel-ḡūqid invasion (877-905; 935-1076). - The Tūlūnids held Syria from 877 to 905; the Ḥifidids from 939 to 969. Both dynasties were Turkish. Against the Iḥšidids the caliph of Bagdad set the Ḥamdānids, who from Mesopotamia pushed into northern Syria and dominated it, with their center at Aleppo, from 944 to 1003; the greatest ḥamdānid sovereign was Ṣajf ad-dawlah, at whose court the poet al-Mutanabbī lived. In the north, the Ḥamdānids had to face the Byzantines, who, having occupied Antioch (668), pushed as far as ʿArqah. In the south, the Fāṭimids, having occupied Egypt in 969, at the same time pushed into Syria, supplanting the Iḥšidids and later also the Ḥamdānids. The Fāṭimids, through the exploitation practiced by their governors, weakened the country's resources; sīʿite propaganda developed, manifesting itself in the extremist movements of the Druzes, nuṣajrī, mutawālī (v. ISLAM, Le sette). In the 11th century the Fāṭimids declined: in Aleppo the dynasty of the Mirdāsids established itself (1023-79); then the ʿUqajlids of Mesopotamia occupied it from 1079 to 1085. The fāṭimid dominion in Syria may be considered ended with the capture of Damascus by the Selġūqids (1076).

4. The Seljuqs and the atabegs

The Seljuqs (v. TURKEY), having conquered S., remained there with a branch of the family until 1117. The formation of dynasties of atabegs, their officials, common to all parts of the Empire, occurred also in S.: at Damascus the Burids ruled (1103-54); at Aleppo, and later also at Damascus, the Zangids (1128-81), who with Nūr ad-dīn brought back an era of prosperity.

Meanwhile the Crusades had begun (v.). The Christians conquered Antioch in 1098, Jerusalem in 1099, Tyre in 1124. Their occupation extended in S. over the coast and part of the interior, without however reaching the great cities: Aleppo, Ḥamāh, Ḥimṣ, Baʿalbek, Damascus. With Nūr ad-dīn the Muslim recovery began.

5. The Ayyubids (1174-1260)

The Ayyubid Ṣalāḥ ad-dīn (Saladin), having replaced the Fatimids in Egypt in 1171, undertook upon the death of Nūr ad-dīn the conquest of S., completing it between 1174 and 1183. He then turned against the Crusaders and in 1187 defeated them at Ḥattīn, reconquering Jerusalem and driving them back to the fortified cities of the coast. Here the Crusaders gained something with the third Crusade, which gave them Acre and the coastal strip from Tyre to Jaffa. After Saladin's death (1193), al-Malik al-Kāmil ceded Jerusalem by treaty to Frederick II (1229). The city was however definitively retaken in 1244. The Ayyubid dynasty was supplanted in Egypt by the Mamluks in 1250. Of the secondary branches into which it had split, the most important in S., Damascus and Aleppo, ended in 1260; Ḥimṣ in 1262; the branch of Ḥamāh lasted until 1341, but under the authority of the Mamluks.

6. The Mamluks (1260-1516)

The Mamluks crushed the Mongol invasion in S., with the victory of ʿAjn Ġālūt (1260) and Marġ aṣ-Ṣuffār (1303). They continued the struggle against the Crusaders, until they definitively drove them out (1291, capture of ʿAṯlīf). In 1401 Tīmūr Lang (Tamerlane) invaded S., sacked Aleppo and Damascus, subsequently withdrawing. Administratively, the Mamluks divided the region into six departments (nijābah), namely Damascus, Aleppo, Ḥamāh, Tripoli, Ṣafad, Kerak. The governors (nāʿib), among whom that of Damascus predominated, were changed very often, in order to prevent them from becoming autonomous. Their economic exploitation depressed S., whose commercial activity had already suffered a heavy blow from the end of the Crusades. Among the internal agitations of this period, noteworthy is that of Lebanon, linked to the extreme-Shiʿite movements (1293-1305). Mamluk rule in S. ended in 1516, the year in which, with the victory of Marġ Dābiq, Selim I annexed the region to the Ottoman Empire.

7. S. under the Ottoman Empire (1516-1920)

S. was divided administratively into the pāsāliq of Aleppo, Tripoli, Damascus, and then Ṣajdā. Like the Mamluk nāʿib, the pāsā, changed with great frequency, gave themselves over to the economic exploitation of the country, causing its further decline. Their authority did not extend beyond the great cities and their surroundings: the countryside and the mountains remained under local emirs. In particular, Lebanon (v.) was semi-autonomous: it was inhabited by heterodox Muslim communities (Druzes, nuṣajrī, mutawālī) together with Christian groups (Melkites, Jacobites, Maronites). The emir Fahr ad-dīn (Faccardino, 1585-1635), of the dynasty of the Banū Maʿn, rebelled there against the Ottomans, making himself for some time independent and establishing relations with some European states. Another center of rebellion was later Acre: the local lord az-Zāhir maintained himself autonomous there in the face of the Porte from 1750 to 1775; his successor Gazzār (1775-1804) also had great power there, successfully resisting Napoleon's attack (1779).

The support of the Lebanese emir Bašīr, of the Šihāb dynasty that succeeded the Maʿn, favored in 1831 the Egyptian conquest of S.: only in 1840, under pressure from the European powers, did Muḥammad ʿAlī's troops have to withdraw and Ottoman authority was restored.

In 1860 Lebanon was the center of new agitations: the massacres of the Maronites by the Druzes provoked French intervention: the region was made administratively autonomous and had a Catholic governor, whose appointment had to be approved by the European powers.

The years preceding the First World War saw, in the face of the worsening oppression of the Turks and their indifference to the country's economic progress, a nationalist awakening of S. and a rapprochement between Christians and Muslims against the common enemy. France contributed with its capital to the construction of railway lines and the opening of schools. There was a notable flourishing of culture, which placed S., together with Egypt, in the vanguard of the Muslim countries; here the work of the Jesuits was effective, as they founded in 1875 the Université St-Joseph in Beirut, the center of the cultural movement.

At the outbreak of the world war (1914) the Turks suppressed Lebanese autonomy. Through S., they twice attempted (1915 and 1916) to invade Egypt. The Allied counteroffensive routed them. The English occupied Damascus in 1918; the French established themselves on the coast. The armistice was signed in the same year. Two years later, the emir Faṣṣal proclaimed himself king at Damascus, but the French, to whom by the Sykes-Picot agreement (1916) the control of the region was due, forced him to flee. On 10 Aug. 1920 the Treaty of Sèvres sanctioned the detachment of S. from the Ottoman Empire and foreshadowed the mandate regime.

8. Contemporary S. (from 1920 onward)

The mandate was entrusted to France (1922). S. was divided into four autonomous States (1925): S. properly so called; State of the ʿalawites (new denomination of the nuṣajrī) or of Lāḍiqijjah; Druze Ġebel; Greater Lebanon.

Despite French policy, aimed at the economic and cultural progress of the country, the nationalist movement continued its agitation for independence. A revolt was put down in the years 1925-26. In 1936 a Franco-Syrian Treaty sanctioned the independence of S. and Lebanon within three years; in the same year the States of the 'alawites' and of the Druze Gebel were annexed to S. The failure of France to ratify the Treaty aroused lively agitations.

When the second war broke out (1939) and France fell, the French troops in S. followed the Vichy government. Defeated by the English and the Gaullists (1941), the latter replaced them. General Catroux proclaimed in the same year the independence of S. and Lebanon, except for the limitations due to the state of war. The persistence of these limitations, exacerbated by French repressive policy, determined in 1945 a violent revolt. English intervention forced the French to a definitive evacuation, which took place in 1946.

The first years of independent S. are characterized by great political instability. The internal clashes of the parties and the struggle for influence among the foreign powers were reflected in a series of changes of government and coups d'état. The last of these brought to power (29 Nov. 1951) the military movement led by Adib el-Sisakli; the leaders of the "people's party", who had previously directed Syrian policy, were imprisoned; subsequently the Chamber was dissolved, then all political parties were abolished.

IV. CURRENT SITUATION OF CATHOLICS

The territory of present-day S. is part of the ancient patriarchate of Antioch (v.). From the 5th century Monophysitism also flourished there and the hierarchy of the Jacobites (v.) was formed.

According to a government statistic of July 17, 1952, the Syrian population is divided as follows: Catholics 114,086 (of whom: Melkites 51,493, Syrians 18,127, Armenians 18,010, Chaldeans 5,116, Maronites 15,112, Latins 6,228); dissidents 319,289 (of whom: Greeks 156,886, Jacobites 44,971, Gregorians 107,251, Nestorians 10,181); Protestants 12,671. Christians total 446,046, as against 2,644,991 Muslims.

The Catholic hierarchy is present in S. with the following ecclesiastical circumscriptions: for the Melkites: patriarchal diocese of Damascus, metropolitan sees of Aleppo, of Bostra and Hauran, archiepiscopal see of Homs for the Syrians; metropolitan sees of Damascus and of Homs, patriarchal vicariate of Upper Jazira; for the Armenians: archiepiscopal see of Aleppo, patriarchal vicariate of Upper Jazira; for the Chaldeans: apostolic administration of S. (and of Lebanon); for the Maronites: episcopal sees of Aleppo and of Damascus; for the Latins: apostolic vicariate of Aleppo. It must be borne in mind, however, that, since the political boundaries between S. and Lebanon were only recently fixed, some circumscriptions whose center is in S. also extend into Lebanon and vice versa.

Aleppo, among Syrian cities, is the one that counts the greatest number of Christians: all the Catholic and dissident rites are represented there and many educational and welfare works flourish there. The Christians of Aleppo are 40-50% of the population: the percentage is declining because of the emigration of many Armenians and the influx, for economic reasons, toward the coast. Damascus, on the other hand, is the moral capital of Syrian Christians, because the dissident patriarchs and the Melkite (Catholic) patriarch reside there: from the demographic point of view the Christians of the capital are barely 50% of the population. Latakia also counts a preponderant Christianity, because in its region, once called the "State of the Alawites," Christians, for the most part dissident Greeks, amount to about 25% of the population. Homs, ancient Emesa, is the seat of the Jacobite patriarchate. There is, however, also a very flourishing Melkite community. The region of Hauran presents itself as a mission field: Upper Jazira has welcomed numerous groups of Assyrian refugees.

From 1762 to 1947 the Holy See was represented in S. by an apostolic delegate, who was at the same time also apostolic vicar of Aleppo for the Latins. After the separation of Lebanon from S., while an apostolic nuncio was sent to Beirut, in S. the Holy See was represented from 1951 by a chargé d'affaires (for the apostolic delegation) residing in Damascus. Regular diplomatic relations have recently been established: the Holy See is represented by an apostolic internuncio and S. has accredited a minister plenipotentiary to the Vatican (cf. L'Osservatore Romano, Feb. 22, 1953).

Besides the religious Orders and congregations of the various Eastern rites, many Orders and congregations of the Latin rite, male and female, carry out their apostolate in S. with schools and welfare works, from which dissidents, Jews and Muslims also benefit.

In 1950, on the occasion of the drafting and discussion of the bill for the new Constitution, the heads of the Christian communities (Catholics and dissidents) carried out an effective action in defense of ecclesiastical rights: thus it was possible to prevent Islam from being proclaimed the state religion in the Constitution. The religion of Islam, in fact, implies a legislation that affects the various activities of citizens: therefore, if Islam had become the state religion, it would have been easy to conform all state legislation to it, going so far as to challenge as unconstitutional any law that was not in conformity with Islamic principles. In the preamble of the Constitution, approved on Sept. 5, 1950, it is said: "since the majority of the people profess Islam, the State proclaims its attachment to Islam and to its sublime ideals. We proclaim that our people is determined to strengthen the bonds of cooperation with the peoples of the Arab and Muslim world, to build the State on the foundations of sound morality conceived by Islam and by the other revealed religions, and to combat atheism and the dissolution of morals." And in art. 3: "The religion of the President of the Republic is Islam. Muslim law is the principal source of legislation. Freedom of faith is guaranteed. The State respects all revealed religions and guarantees freedom of worship, except for acts against public order. The personal status of religious communities is guaranteed and protected."

Art. 28 provides for schools and teaching: it contains positive elements in that it affirms and sanctions the principle of the coexistence of private schools alongside state schools, establishes compulsory instruction in accordance with the beliefs of the pupils, and gives a spiritualistic orientation to the formation of the new generations. But at the same time it grants excessive interference and a severe and meticulous control to the State over private schools and, indirectly, over the education of the pupils themselves. Such control, in fact, is not limited only to the subjects of the government program, compulsory also for secondary schools, but extends also to supplementary subjects which, under the constitutional text, will be determined by a special law. Nor does the provision concerning the sports and scouting movement cause any less concern, since, wherever it is organized, it remains always under the aegis of the State, which reserves the right to "protect" and "develop" it with laws and regulations.

The fears of Catholics increased when the Decree-Law of March 17, 1952 (no. 175) was issued, which reorganized non-state education in S. on new foundations. The most prejudicial innovation for the Christian communities was the outright, though implicit, abolition of the concept of the confessional school: in fact, by means of a skillful distinction between founder and director of confessional schools, the document withdrew the school from the protection and effective direction of the bishop, considering as solely responsible the director of the school itself, who, in order to take up his functions, needs government approval; other articles made the government the exclusive arbiter of the existence of individual confessional schools, as well as of their activity and administration. Particularly sensitive for the Catholic Church was the blow struck against the missionary schools (defined as foreign), since their foundation in the future was absolutely forbidden.

The Christian leaders, in common agreement, presented the due remonstrances and succeeded in obtaining notable mitigations. Another Decree-Law of Apr. 8, 1952 (no. 199) came to injure Catholic interests: the scouting organizations were all to be absorbed by the state ones; the Catholic scouts, to avoid the worst, preferred to proceed to self-dissolution.

Giuseppe Mojoli

V. SYRIAC LANGUAGE

One of the Semitic languages (v.), proper to the Eastern Syriac Church, which developed from the Eastern Aramaic spoken at Edessa, capital of Osroene and of the region ruled at the time of Jesus' birth by the dynasty of the Abgarids. It is divided into two dialects, the Eastern one more conservative, in use among the Nestorians, and the Western one, used by the Jacobites. These dialects became more clearly distinct from the time of the political and then religious separation which in the 4th century subjected the Westerners to Byzantium and the Easterners to the Sassanids.

The phonetic system of the language is characterized by a marked reduction of vowels at the end of words, an effect of the stress that falls on the other syllables. The originally short vowels, in open and unstressed syllables, are reduced alternately to a very short indistinct vowel (Heb. šēšā), with which a preceding j merges into i. This law, however, is suspended in secondary, later formations. In the syllable preceding the stress, in contrast to Hebrew, the vowel is shortened. The rich consonantal system of the Semites is simplified, as in common Aramaic. The originally spirant dentals have become explosive (momentary): d > d, t > t, d > ' (no longer q), v > t; instead of i there is s; only one ' and one h (Eastern h) have remained. The non-emphatic explosives, which are aspirated, become spirants under the same conditions as in Hebrew, with the exception that the w and j of the diphthongs are consonants that close the syllable. Consonantal assimilation prevails over dissimilation (e.g., Syr. nedda, Aram. jinda). The position of the stress is mostly on the same syllable as in Hebrew; however, no pausal forms are observed. In a closed and unstressed syllable, i normally becomes ē, ō becomes ō. In Western Syriac ā, ē have become ō, i, but ē deriving from a' is preserved (e.g., tēhod "you will take"). Eastern Syriac has preserved a more ancient vocalism, and in its consonantism, e.g., instead of h, a voiceless laryngeal spirant, there is h, a voiceless velar spirant.

In verbal morphology, with regard to the formations of the stems, the intransitive qatula has become very rare: qatila often it is confused with qatala. The passives in n, the reflexives in n, and the conative are entirely lacking; the causative is formed with ', although there are also traces of the causative in ša and ha. There is also a reflexive proper to the fundamental theme, to the intensive theme and to the causative theme. Now and then a formation with a diphthong (aw, aj) is found in the first syllable: e.g., sajbar "to nourish", gavzel "to kindle". Doubling of the 3rd radical occurs, e.g., in 'abded "to make a slave", 'ajnen "to look"; repetition of the 2nd and 3rd radical, e.g., in hēzavzel "to show oneself repeatedly", that is, "to walk proudly", eltēragrag "to daydream" from šērāgā, "lamp". Often one encounters the repetition of the entire biradical root, e.g., ramrem "to elevate", qangen "to sing". Roots with 4 radicals not infrequently arise from the dissimilation of the doubled radical of a qattala, e.g., 'argelda 'aggel "to roll", pargi "to gladden" from the root pegjā "to please". As for inflection, one observes that in the imperfect there is no longer either the jussive or the energic. Certain modalities are however expressed with forms of the verb "to be" (hēwā) compounded with participles or finite forms. There has remained, on the other hand, some trace of the fact that, as in Arabic, so too in Syriac a perfect qatula corresponded to an imperfect jaqtulu, which appears still in forms like neqrob "he will be near", nehhōb "he will be lean". As an altogether new tense there appears in Aramaic the active participle in the absolute state with the value of a present, while the passive participle absolute with a dative of agent is equivalent to the past, e.g., šēmi'li "I have heard". The fact that in the inflection of the imperfect strikes one most is that, in conformity with Eastern Aramaic, the preformative of the 3rd sing. masc. and of the 3rd pl. masc. and fem. is n instead of j. A remnant of an ancient triradical formation in verbs of media jīw is the Syriac and Arabic participle qā'im, whose ' can only be reduced to a semivowel.

In the morphology of the noun, a trace of the ancient Semitic cases has perhaps remained in the ancient locative kaddā "sufficiently". Forms like bēhav jīm "in that day", bēhav dār "in that generation", seem to testify that now and then the noun by itself is perfectly determined, as happens in Arabic, etc. The definite article has lost its determining value, but can be replaced by a suffix, e.g., latre'sar talmīdaw (Sin) τούς δώδεκα μυθητάς (Mc. 6, 7); this suffix is used normally before a determined genitive (with dē), a determined accusative, a preposition, e.g., 'alēh 'al mēdittā, "against the city". A remnant of mimation, that is, of the ancient indefinite article, is found, e.g., in imām "by day". The construct state with its governing noun now expresses a single and new concept, e.g., huppāk mellē "answer"; not infrequently (principally if a participle or verbal adjective) a preposition follows it, e.g., nāsbaj bappē "hypocrites", mēsām bērēlā "punishment". The feminine ending -at, an ancient marker for various classes of nouns (collectives, deterioratives, etc.) was also used for the formation of the so-called names of unity. Of this there remains, e.g., zēbattā "one time" from zabnā "time", nēfēltā "one breathing" from nēfēlā "the breathing", bē'tā "egg" etc., whose masc. plurals now replace the collective of singular form. This ending -at also serves to form abstracts from verbal adjectives, e.g., zēbintā "purchase" from zēbīnā "purchased", hēfiktā "ruin" from hēfikā "destroyed", "spoiled". For the formation of abstracts the fem. ending -aj is also used. Thus are born verbal nouns (maṣdar) like tu'raj "error", tu'raj, "hiding". The Arabic uḥraj "another" is equivalent to oḥrē of ancient Aramaic, whose ē is preserved in Syr. ḥrētā.

As for the numerals, of which only certain numeral forms have remained (two, twenty, two hundred). As in this case, so too in the plural the formation by ending (-aj, -in, -ē; -āt, -ān, -ātā) prevails without restriction. Nevertheless there are traces of the type of broken plurals, so frequent in South Semitic, e.g., qurjā "countries" (qutal), Arabic quran (however before a suffix and in the construct state the ending -aj is already found); ḥemrā "herd of asses" is of the type qital. To the broken types qatal, qital, qutal the plural ending is also added, e.g., bātē "houses", 'ammē "peoples", gallē "waves". The forms ḥenkē "palates" and gumbē "thefts", as appears from the spirant mutation, are qital and qutal. It does not seem that vestiges of the plurals of small quantities (pl. paucitatis) have remained, while some have wished to see in these forms so difficult to explain, like rā'awcātā "shepherds", pl. of rā'jā (qātil of 3ʰ j/w) an ancient plural of plural, formed with -at from the plural of the form ru'āt (type qutalat, Arabic broken plural of the qātil of 3ʰ j/w), changing however the first vowel according to the singular. It is certain that in rawrēbīn "great" the repetition of the base, which for the most part expresses a distributive, is employed for the expression of the plural. The close connection of abstract forms with the plural (as in Heb. zēqūnim "old age", bēhūrīm "youth") appears, e.g., in hērūrē "liberation", mēkūrē "the marrying". For the passage of an abstract (maṣdar, nomen verbi) to a concrete sense, so widespread throughout Semitism, the example of talmīdā "disciple" (literally "the accustoming", "the habituating", from lēmūd "accustomed") may suffice, to which corresponds in Heb. limmūdh; both types, that is, taqtīl and qittūl respectively in Aramaic and in Hebrew, serve to express a verbal noun of the intensive theme.

In syntax let note be taken of the fact that the absolute state of participles and verbal adjectives expresses the predicate of the sentence. The syntax of the period departs greatly from the purely Semitic type. The nominal sentence is rare; there do not exist the apparently independent and in fact subordinate clauses, such as the hāl clauses, conditions without a conjunction, etc.; on the other hand subordinating conjunctions abound. The position of words is very free, and no other Semitic language has assimilated as great a quantity of foreign words as Syriac: Akkadian (numerals), Hebrew, Persian, Greek, even Latin through Greek. The very Greek particles δē and γῶς have been imitated, using however Semitic roots.

The Syriac language is the least Semitic of all the Semitic languages and the most subject to Hellenistic influence.

Raimondo Köbert

VI. THE SYRIAC RITE

Also called Syro-Antiochene, Syro-Western, Syro-Palestinian, this rite is in use today in the Syriac patriarchates (Catholic and dissident) and, after 1653, in the Malankarese dioceses (v.) of India; the Maronite rite (v.) is linked to it. Until the formation of a separate Church of the Monophysites in Syria, in the 6th century, the Syriac rite was not distinguished from the Antiochene (v.) rite of the Orthodox.

After the separation it had its own development, determined by the elimination of the Greek language more than of Greek elements. In fact, it presents itself as a happy combination of Syriac and Greek elements: alongside ancient Greek anaphoras it uses anaphoras composed in Syriac; together with biblical readings taken from the pēlīttā version it reads others taken from the Harklean version; besides the Syriac hymns it uses those of the octoechos of Severus of Antioch; to the Syriac 'enjūnē it mingles translated Greek canons; and together with the mēmrē of Syriac authors it has homilies of Greek Fathers read. The development lasted beyond the 9th century and new anaphoras were composed until the 15th century. The Arabic language, which was used shortly before the 10th century, then took an ever more important place (cf. for Catholics Synodus Sciarfensis... anni 1888, Rome 1896, p. 34 ff.); in the 19th century the Turkish language was also admitted in some regions; the script always remained the Syriac one. V. BAPTISM; HYMNODY, MASS; ORDER AND ORDINATION; PENANCE; DIVINE OFFICE.

Alfonso Raes

VII. LITERATURE

The Syriac language, already in use among the Christians of ancient S., of Osroene and of Mesopotamia, constitutes, together with the language of the Babylonian Talmud, Eastern Aramaic. Syriac literature, whose first writings begin with the 3rd century, flourished especially from the 4th to the 7th century, the era in which it began to be replaced by Arabic literature. There are three branches of Syriac literature: orthodox authors, from the beginnings up to the 5th century; from then until the second millennium there are, in parallel, Jacobite (v.) and Nestorian (v. NESTORIO E NESTORIANESIMO) authors. In the first period the estrangēlā script is used, while the Jacobites add small Greek vowels (sertā script) and the Nestorians (the "Nestorian" script) a system of vocalization by means of points.

Here are the principal characteristics of Syriac literature: 1) it comprises almost exclusively ecclesiastical writings; 2) except for the first Persian authors, the others depend on the Greeks, as can be seen from the abundance of translations; 3) it displays a profound religious sense and a predilection for poetry. This consists in the fact that the verses have a certain number of syllables.

On the Syriac versions of Sacred Scripture see below. The Syrians have preserved many Greek writings whose original has been lost. The Syriac versions of Greek philosophers then served as the basis for the corresponding Arabic versions, of which Latin translations were made during the Middle Ages.

The most distinguished authors of the orthodox period are Aphrahat, St. Ephrem, the most celebrated among Syriac authors, Cyrillonas and Bălaj, for whom see the individual entries: see also ATTI DEI MARTIRI.

The Syriac manuscripts, some of which are from the 5th century, are preserved especially in the British Museum and in the Vatican Library. Cf. W. Wright, Catalogue of the syr. mss. in the Br. Mus. acquired since the year 1838, London 1870-72 (2 vols.); St. E. Asseman, Bibliotheca apostolicae vol. codd. Mss. catalogus in tres partes distributus, Rome 1738-59 (2 vols.).

Ignazio Ortiz de Urbina

VIII. SYRIAC VERSIONS OF THE BIBLE

They are important from several points of view: they reflect the daily life of those Christians, the political and religious upheavals (heresies) of those regions. They were preserved and handed down with tenacious fidelity. With regard to the New Testament, the Syriac version is the oldest of all, and made in a language close to that used by Jesus. Their history shows the ever-greater Hellenization of an originally Semitic Christianity. Although much useful research has been done so far, the desirable working tools have not yet been created, especially critical editions that also incorporate the well-sifted biblical quotations of the whole of Syriac literature. From this derives the fact that on many questions one arrives at nothing more than probabilities or hypotheses. Moreover, for lack of historical sources (v. ARBELA, CHRONICLE of), the obscurity surrounding the origins and vicissitudes of Syriac Christianity persists.

Many prefer the Jewish rather than the Jewish-Christian origin of the most essential parts of the Pèliță of the Old Testament, which follows the Palestinian canon (v.), with the exception of Par., Esd.-Neh., Esth., and in which a broad influence of the Targum (v.) appears, especially that of 'Ongelös.

As for the Gospels, one could also suppose, for the New Testament as well, some Aramaic Gospel (the original Matthew, or the Gospel of the Nazarenes or according to the Hebrews?), which would explain the influence of some Aramaic apocryphal Gospel on the Diatessaron (v.) of Tatian (v.), which in any case was the first New Testament of the Syriac Church, composed before 172, according to recent authors, in a Syriac language of great expressive and stylistic qualities, and which had so much influence in the history of the Eastern and even Western versions (C. Peters, S. Lyonnet, G. Messina, A. Vöbus). However, older authors incline to hold that the original text was composed in Greek. They therefore cite a fragment found at Dura Europos. But that fragment and moreover the Berlin Papyrus 1638 (published by O. Stegmüller) were analyzed by A. Baumstark, whose results are accepted by highly competent recent scholars (C. Peters, A. Vöbus). Tatian, a man of very great gifts, probably knew how to write as well in Greek as in his mother tongue. In any case the "diatessaron" became the much-loved Bible of the Syriac Church for several centuries. The Syriac name of the diatessaron is Evangelión damēthaliṭē "Gospel of the (texts) mixed together."

But already very soon, perhaps first for theological studies, an Evangelión damēthaliṭē was set against it, the "Gospel of the (texts) separated," that is, our Mt., Mk., Lk., Jn. (eliminating the apocryphal one), and remade according to its style, even if a broad influence of the Syriac diatessaron remained in it. There existed, moreover, an irreducible plurality of such versions, made by various persons at different times and places. It had several forms opposed to one another, one of which is preserved in the very ancient palimpsest discovered in 1802 by Agnes Smith Lewis in the monastery of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai, and which for that reason is called the Sinaitic Syriac; it is a codex of the 4th or 5th century. Already 50 years earlier H. Tattam had brought to Europe another precious codex coming from the monastery of St. Mary Mother of God in the Nitrian Desert of Egypt, later edited by W. Cureton (London 1858), and called the Curetonian Syriac. These two codices of the Gospels are independent of each other; they are more or less close to the diatessaron; there existed moreover other forms of the Syriac text of the Gospels, for example, that of Titus of Bostra (v.).

The diversity of texts of the New Testament and the incompleteness and inaccuracies of the Old Testament in the 4th and 5th centuries required a revision; on which the vulgar Greek text of Antioch had great influence, where many priests and future bishops of the Syriac Church studied. The "harmonistic" readings caused by Tatian were eliminated, other interpolations were removed, omissions were restored, and the whole was stylistically conformed to the Greek text of Antioch. It is unknown, however, who the revisers were, who, given the differences among the individual books, were many, perhaps not of the same generation or period.

In the end that Bible was introduced also by ecclesiastical laws; Theodoret of Cyrrhus (v.) and Rabbula of Edessa waged a fierce struggle to uproot from their flock the use of the diatessaron, already venerable and more practical, for example, for traveling monks. Thus not without struggles and delays that revision became the Bible of the Syriac Church, practically down to today. Its name, which Mōšē bar Kēfā (d. 1913) is the first to hand down to us, is Pēliță, a term which, taken in context, means rather the "simple" than the "vulgate," and stands opposed to the versions that were later made on a more scientific basis according to the Greek texts, whose influence was growing. Originally there were missing, besides the deuterocanonical books of the Old Testament, the books II Pt., II-III Jn., Jude, inserted however in manuscripts of the 11th century, and the Apocalypse, inserted in manuscripts of the 13th century.

There are principally four recensions of the Péfilità: the Nestorian, the Jacobite, the Melchite and the Maronite. The first edition of it is that of Gabriel Sionita (v.) in 1645 in the Paris Polyglot, later reproduced by Brian Walton in the London one in 1657, which is however based on one of the worst manuscripts and was vocalized and freely treated by the editors and not without typographical blunders. Walton however in vol. VI gives the results of a collation of manuscripts made by Herbert Thorndike, also with less accurate things, but it still cannot be neglected since no other critical apparatus exists for the entire Péfilità. The 19th century gave us three editions, none however of critical value. That of Samuel Lee (1823) is substantially a reprint of the polyglot. The Urmian one, published in 1852 in Urmia (Iran) by the American Protestant Missionary Society, is based on some Nestorian manuscripts and gives the punctuation for the complete text, but depends greatly on S. Lee. The one edited by the Dominican Fathers of Mossul in 1887-91, therefore called Mossulian, is the most complete, beautiful and convenient; on its origin J. M. Vosté informs us in Misc. card. Mercati, I (Vatican City 1946), pp. 59-94, but he does not say from which manuscripts the biblical text was taken. With P. Bedjan and A. Vaccari it can be considered "the best of all" (reprint, Beirut 1951; it is the only one in commerce). The problem of a critical edition of the entire Péfilità remains urgent, beyond the existing partial critical editions (Pentateuch, Psalms, Isaiah, Paralipomena and others).

More scientific versions were always made according to the Greek text, in the 6th and 7th centuries. The first was made by the chorepiscopus Polycarp by mandate of his bishop Philoxenus of Mabbag (v.) in 508; it comprised the whole Bible, including the deuterocanonical epistles and the Apocalypse; unfortunately only fragments of the New Testament and of the Psalms have remained, so that around it many discussions arise, such as the recent one as to whether it has as its basis a Lucianic codex of Antioch (J. Schildenberger) or a Eusebian one, from Caesarea in Palestine, with a certain critical apparatus (G. Zuntz); Zuntz might be right inasmuch as it stands midway between the freedom of the Péfilità and the slavery to the Greek letter, of the Harclean version. This comprises only the New Testament and involves beyond the text a critical apparatus; it is disputed however whether the base text is the Philoxenian one, to which Thomas bishop of Mabbag (Harqel) in the years 615-16, collating codices in the Ennatum monastery near Alexandria in Egypt, added the apparatus that incorporates the result of his collations according to the Alexandrian technique, or whether he rather revised and modified the text; of such text several manuscripts have remained. For the Old Testament in 617-18 Paul, bishop of Tella (near Edessa, under the mandate of Athanasius, schismatic patriarch of Antioch), did something similar. He took the fifth column in the Hexapla (v.) of Origen and translated it faithfully into Syriac retaining the signs of textual criticism, such as asterisks, obeli etc. and the marginal notes; the most famous manuscript of the Ambrosiana of Milan was published by A. M. Ceriani (Monumenta sacra et profana, Milan 1874) in a beautiful lithographic edition; that manuscript does not comprise the whole Old Testament; however, by giving Origen's signs of textual criticism, it is of the greatest help to us for reconstructing the Hexapla and gives Daniel in the version of the Septuagint, replaced in the Greek Bibles by that of Theodotion. But already in 704-705 Jacob of Edessa made another recension of the Old Testament according to the Septuagint; he also divided the text giving brief summaries to the individual chapters, adding marginal notes etc., and the "Syriac misora", which takes its name from the monastery of Karkafta, on the river Häbär (but there is no "Karkafan version").

The Syro-Palestinian version of the complete Greek Bible in the more recent Galilean-Aramaic dialect, written in Syriac characters, is not strictly Syrian; it is in use in the liturgy of the Melchites; direct relations with the Syriac versions must not be underestimated, nor the influence of the Targums on the two versions; it would go back to the 4th-6th centuries.

Pietro Nober

IX. CHRISTIAN ART

From the point of view of art history, Syria during the Christian era can be considered divided into three great parts with characteristics of their own. The first is the vast coastal zone along the Mediterranean from Gaza to Antioch, of greater or lesser depth according to the locality, occupying in its northern part the entire valley of the Orontes with the cities of Apamea, Epiphania and Emesa, as far as Heliopolis; then the oasis of Damascus and, at the southern extremity, the whole of Palestine and the part of the province of Arabia south of Gerasa. Taken as a whole it is a deeply Hellenized land, comprising the greatest cities, seats of ancient and highly developed culture, exceedingly rich in industries and in trade, open to the sea toward the entire Mediterranean world and especially toward the imperial seat, Byzantium. The second part, with characteristics of its own, is constituted by the region of the Hauran, a great volcanic plateau rich in basaltic rocks, inhabited since the Hellenistic era by a population of Arab character, containing many ancient centers but perhaps only one great city of cultural importance, Bostra (Bosrâ). The third part is that of the limestone hills of inner Syria to the east of the Orontes valley, beginning at the Gebel al-'Alâ at the latitude of Hamâ in the south and extending north to include the whole of the Gebel Sim'ân, and reaching, to the east, as far as the Gebel al-Hass: it is a more distinctly Aramaic territory. It is in the first part that the greatest artistic production took place and where not only were the greatest works of Syrian Christian art created, but where the production of all the forms of decoration and luxury took place: paintings and wall mosaics, rich floor mosaics, illuminated codices, objects of goldsmith's work, carved ivories and so forth. But unfortunately its great architectural constructions have almost entirely disappeared and are known only through ancient descriptions. The two other parts have instead preserved a quantity, almost an exuberance of architectural monuments, in great number fairly well preserved in the parts still above ground today, so that they can be fully judged from the artistic point of view, while excavations will only be able to specify their liturgical details or those of interest to civil history. Moreover the greatest part of these monuments has been published in convenient repertories (M. de Vogüé, H. C. Butler) so that their study is easy: and still greater wealth of data will be available when the accurate and meticulous researches of the Russian architect Čalenko are printed. This ease of study of the monuments of inner Syria has meant that in books on Syrian Christian art, and especially on architecture, almost only these are discussed: whereas they are nothing but the production of the part of the country with less culture and less creativity. This has generated no small imbalance in artistic judgment, which here, for lack of space, can only be corrected in a necessarily summary fashion.

The first part of the Syrian territory delimited above is an eminently Hellenistic zone, Greek in culture and language, which has not only inherited the entire preceding tradition, but which has continuous contacts with the great centers of the eastern Mediterranean — Alexandria, Ephesus, Byzantium — and which at the same time attracts, for commercial reasons, those Oriental elements and especially Iranian ones that bring Oriental models or ideas. Not for nothing, already in the 3rd century, floor mosaics of Antioch show Iranian decorative motifs. Moreover it is an extremely rich region and the financial power of the clientele generates ever greater commissions and the possibility for artists of the most vast and ambitious conceptions and realizations. Finally it is the one that has seen the great imperial foundations arise within its borders, and not only on the Holy Places. All this entails exchange of ideas, the possibility of obtaining any material, an abundance of means that attracts the best elements even from distant countries. Therefore architecture, which is the fundamental art around which the others are organized, has realized there the most diverse programs. This is already verified from the Constantinian constructions onward, which introduce into Syria the Hellenistic basilica with columns provided with an atrium adapted to the Christian liturgy, and its differentiation from the building with a central plan, used as a martyrion or for other distinct uses. At the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem the two types appear united in a single architectural complex by means of an atrium: there the Anastasis is a rotunda with an ambulatory. At the basilica of the Nativity in Bethlehem the basilical structure is instead directly welded to the building with a central plan, which in this case is an octagon. The octagon with an ambulatory appears, again in Jerusalem, in the church of the Ascension and in the tomb of the Virgin, to be reproduced later, with greater complexity of peripheral rooms, in the Sanctuary of Mount Gerizim: the rotunda likewise returns later at Beisân (Scythopolis). A more complex type is that of the octagon with every side opened by niches, alternately semicircular and rectangular, which are outlined also on the exterior: it is certainly Hellenistic, given its reproduction in the Piazza d'Oro of Hadrian's villa at Tivoli, where the Emperor had copies made of the buildings that had most struck him in the East. Its adoption by Christianity is proved by the letters of Gregory of Nyssa to Amphilochios of Iconium, where a martyrion built in such a form is described: the type must have been quite widespread, given its importation into the Po valley, where it is adopted in several baptisteries. It must also have been known in Syria, where however its simple form is not documented for us, where, as at Nyssa, the rectangular niches are so elongated as to represent a cross: but a monumental and truly grandiose extension of it is known in the sanctuary that arose around the column of the stylite Simeon at Qal'at Sim'ān, where the four arms of the cross are magnified into basilical structures with three naves. This derivation, hitherto unobserved, is the only one that explains the genesis of that magnificent sanctuary. A simpler form was realized later in the sanctuary of another St. Simeon on the Mount Admirable not far from Antioch. The idea of connecting the four arms of the cross to a central martyrion, giving each a basilical structure, may derive from the pre-Justinianic sanctuary of St. John at Ephesus: but there the central building is square. In the martyrion of St. Babylas, erected near Antioch between 381 and 387, there is a simple cross form with the arms starting from a central square with thicker walls, perhaps because it was raised in the form of a tower: analogous is the sanctuary at Jacob's well at Shechem (Nablus) described and drawn by the pilgrim Arculf. Also the type of sanctuary with an inscribed cross, that is, traced within the interior of a square, is of Hellenistic origin, since one must go back as the primary source to those types of buildings of which an example is preserved for us in the Tychaion of al-Mismiyah (Phaenea) on the northern edge of the Leṣāh (Trachonite): an incomplete realization of it can be seen at the martyrion of St. Elias at Ezra' (Zoroa) on the western edge of the Ḥaurān and in the S. media at al-Anderīn, but its most monumental development was realized in the church of the Prophets, Apostles and Martyrs of Gerasa, which arose in 404-05. It seems that the church erected at Gaza by Bishop Porphyry on the ruins of the destroyed Marneion, built by an architect of Antioch on a plan sent from Byzantium by the Empress, was in the form of a cross, though it is not known of what type, rather than a basilica with transept: the fact that she also sent many columns of Carystos marble might suggest something similar to the church of Gerasa. A type of Hellenistic building, very widely used by the Romans in bath architecture, is that of an octagon with four semicircular niches on four sides opposed two by two, the whole inscribed in an outer square: it is found adopted by Christians in the baptistery of Qal'at Sim'ān and, with an internal ambulatory formed by an octagon of eight columns, in the St. George of Ezra' erected in 515 on "a dwelling of demons... where sacrifice was made to idols," as the foundation inscription says. It probably arose on the substructures of the destroyed pagan temple. But it is at Antioch that the most celebrated building with a central plan of Christian S. arose, the "Golden Church" built by Constantine: it was begun in 327, but completed and consecrated only in 341. However renowned a building it was, the little that is known about its structure (contained in two passages of Eusebius) does not permit even an approximate reconstruction: it is known that it was octagonal in shape, provided with a dome and exedras. This last mention makes one doubt whether its plan had any relationship with that of a building recently discovered at the port of Antioch: Seleucia Pieria. In the middle of this construction stands a square formed by four corner L-shaped piers, connected by means of four exedras with columns; the whole is surrounded by an ambulatory whose outer perimeter follows parallel to the inner one of the square with exedras. To the east opens an apse preceded by a rectangular bay. A second, almost identical building was discovered at Apamea, but it is still unpublished. The type had an extremely wide diffusion. At Boṣrā the square with exedras rises at the center of a circular building inscribed in a square, with four large niches occupying the corners of the square, of a type well known in Hellenistic architecture of the Roman period and which is also seen in the church of St. John the Baptist at Gerasa: it then passes into Mesopotamia to the sanctuary of the Virgin of Amida and to the martyrion of Ruṣāfah-Sergiopolis (where in place of the central square there is a rectangle), and from there into Armenia, at Zwarthnota (a. 641-61) and at St. Gregory of Ani (a. 1001). Toward the West it is found in the building at the center of the stoa of Hadrian at Athens, in the Balkans in the Red Church of Perustica, to arrive as far as northern Italy where at Milan it is repeated in the church of St. Lawrence. This very wide distribution of derivations presupposes as a starting model a celebrated building: which could support the hypothesis mentioned about the structure of the Constantinian church of Antioch which Eusebius calls "unique in its kind," μονογενές τι χρῆμα ἐκκλησίας. A last type of religious building with a central plan, realized in this part of S., is that with a trichora cell of the martyrion of St. John the Baptist at Jerusalem, of the church on Mount Nebo and of the convent of St. Theodore near Jerusalem.

The realization in elevation of all these planimetric programs presupposes as a fundamental condition the solution of the problem of the dome. In this respect one finds oneself before a characteristic phenomenon: in all of S., as in the roofing of the naves the builders remained faithful to the use of wooden roofs (and in the Ḥaurān to slabs of basalt) and never faced the problem of vaults, so for buildings that required a dome either in brick or in stone they never attempted to realize it. They therefore did not even face the problem of the connections between a dome and a planimetric layout of square setting, although they must have known the perfect solution realized by Hellenistic architects (baths of the Roman period at Gerasa, tomb of Samaria, etc.) of the pendentive connection and although their country was crossed by those currents that brought to the West the Iranian solution of domes on squinches. The Syrian builders during the Christian era, although they built small domes in funerary buildings and in bath buildings (but almost always with childish solutions of connections), as soon as they found themselves before larger dimensions never executed anything but pyramidal roofs or wooden domes. The procedure was so inherent in their constructive thinking that even after the Muslim conquest those Syrian builders who were employed to build the Dome of the Rock (falsely called Mosque of Omar) at Jerusalem covered its central rotunda with a wooden dome. When, during the Christian era, some rare real dome is found in S., it was built by the Byzantine occupiers, with Byzantine construction procedures: thus at Qasr ibn Wardân. If S. brings precious contributions to the solution of the problem of creating a church whose fundamental element around which everything is harmonized is the dome, its constructive realization was given only by Byzantium.

Also in the problem of all the possible forms that the basilical-plan church assumes, the first zone of S. has preserved traces of having attempted various solutions. At Ruhaibah in the Nôgeb and in the already mentioned church of Mount Nebo one finds the basilica with three naves joined with a sanctuary with a trichora cell: poor provincial derivations of some great building of which every trace is lost. In an analogous way one must consider the Sanctuary of the multiplication of the loaves at al-Tâbâ which presents the type of the basilica with transept, which some hold was also realized in the church erected by Bishop Porphyry at Gaza, on a plan sent from Byzantium, and built by an architect of Antioch. Also of clearly Byzantine type is the church of St. Sergius at Gaza known through the detailed description made of it by Choricius: if one looks at the careful reconstruction by Hamilton one sees that it was absolutely identical to the church of Qasr ibn Wardân, a monument erected by Byzantines, with absolutely Byzantine construction procedures and employing exclusively bricks, something that is contrary to the Syrian tradition, but proper to the capital. Now St. Sergius of Gaza and Qasr ibn Wardân in northern S. were built almost at the same time. The only difference is that the dome of Qasr ibn Wardân is on pendentive connections, while that of Gaza is on squinches with niches carried by columns of the type found at Koğa Kalessi and at Ruşâlah-Sergiopolis. It was preceded by an atrium which was reached through a propylaeum, a structure of clearly Hellenistic tradition. A second church of Gaza, that of St. Stephen, also from the beginning of the 6th century, is instead a basilica with three naves, divided by two rows of columns supporting architraves, provided with matronea and with a coffered ceiling decorated (xaxbâxosc) that hides the roof: it too was preceded by an atrium where the entrance was flanked by two towers and one arrived there by a great staircase. A truly monumental complex.

The aforementioned texts of Choricius also offer many details on the decoration of the two churches of Gaza, which happily complete the far more summary indications that other writers give on various monuments of this part of S. We thus know of the widespread use of wall revetments with colored marbles, of the paintings and figured mosaics that decorated the principal part of the building. At St. Sergius entire Gospel cycles were represented, principally the Nativity and the Infancy, many miracles, scenes of the Passion up to the Ascension. In the dome stood the prophets. But purely decorative figurations were not lacking either, gardens with trees laden with fruit and full of birds. At St. Stephen were represented Egyptianizing scenes so widespread in the late Hellenistic period, with the reproduction of the Nile and its banks and of the animals that bathe in it.

On the exterior of the basilica of the Nativity was a mosaic with the birth of the Redeemer and the adoration of the Magi. All these wall mosaics have completely disappeared: but of the skill of the Syrian mosaicists an extremely ample documentation remains in the numerous floor mosaics that have come down to us. That highly skilled workshops had been formed as early as the Roman era is proved by the many mosaics of Antioch recently discovered: with the Christian era there are very many mosaics dated by inscriptions that follow one another at intervals that are not too great, so that their historical study is greatly facilitated. And these extend almost to the period of the Muslim conquest. Now it is evident that these workshops did not disappear completely all at once, and some works executed for the new Arab rulers must therefore be attributed to them. The stylistic identity of the mosaics of the palace of Hîrbet al-Mefğer and of a large part of those of the Dome of the Rock, with others of not much earlier date especially executed in the southern part of the province of Arabia, demonstrates that even for mosaic art the Arab Umayyad period is nothing but the final concluding phase of the art of Hellenistic S. The Iranian motif of the palmette, reproduced several times in the mosaics of the Dome of the Rock, had already been assimilated by Christian craftsmen, as the oldest parts of the mosaics of Bethlehem with the representations of the Councils show. The mosaics of the mosque of Damascus (which preserve figurations going back to the painting of Herculaneum and Pompeii) instead come from models preserved in Byzantium or are works of those Byzantine workshops that, according to some Arab texts, would have been sent by the Emperor.

For a precise knowledge of the stylistic characteristics of Syrian figured painting it is unfortunately not possible to avail oneself of the aid of miniatures in scrolls or codices, because no illuminated manuscript earlier than the 8th century can be said to be of Syrian provenance. Several are generally considered as such, such as the famous one illuminated by the monk Rabûla in 386 preserved at the Laurenziana in Florence or the two of the Bibl. nationale of Paris, syr. 33 and 341; but only for the absurd reason that they contain texts in the Syriac language. But the Laurenziana one was executed at the monastery of Zagba in Mesopotamia and the provenance of the two Paris ones is certainly to be sought in the same region. Mesopotamia and Osroene, where Syriac was spoken, have an artistic development quite distinct from that of S. There must indeed have existed a very important miniature painting, especially for the illustration of the Gospels, minutely analyzed by Millet and which he called precisely the "Antiochene recension," but today it is known only through fairly recent copies (Bibl. nationale of Paris, grecs 72 and 923). This, while it is of great importance for iconographic study, renders no service for stylistic knowledge. The prototype of the Ashburnham Pentateuch must also have come from S. (but in any case not from Hellenized S.), to be studied in relation to the paintings of Dura, especially those of the synagogue: but one must also bear in mind a hypothesis of Lower Mesopotamia. Such a study has not so far even been attempted.

A very strong aid for the study of style in Syrian figured representations is instead given by the silver plates worked in repoussé, especially those found at Kerynia on the island of Cyprus, probably transported there by some inhabitant of Antioch fleeing before the Muslim invasion. They represent scenes from the life of David. The smaller ones are more in the direction of the Hellenistic picturesque style, with some reference to the miniatures of the Joshua scroll of the Vaticana and at the same time with procedures of stylization that seem to come from analogous Sasanian silverwork: the larger ones instead have relations with the monumental style and an architectural composition of the scene, more characteristically Oriental. Few monuments of decorative sculpture have survived: the most notable are the columns that today support the ciborium of St. Mark's in Venice and some bas-reliefs used in the northern portal of the same Basilica, works of the greatest importance iconographically but not excellent in style. The masterpiece of Syrian sculpture that has survived is in ivory, that is, the frontal part of the so-called chair of Maximian that is found in Ravenna. The figures of St. John the Baptist and of the four Evangelists represented within niches, in a severe style, are truly of the very first order: the two decorative bands with animals within vine scrolls represent with richness and taste the Syrian decorative art of the 6th century. The other sculptures of the same chair, of a different style, are by another hand, almost certainly Egyptian. More extensively documented is decorative sculpture, both in Hellenistic S. and in northern inner S., where it develops with the same evolution. Already in pagan times the monuments from Baalbek to Palmyra offer examples of the tendency to increase the importance of the decorative element over the merely formal one of architecture: this tendency is exaggerated in the Christian era to the complete detriment of any logical distribution of it. It is under the influence of the Oriental spirit that this horror of emptiness increases and decoration tends to be a covering of all the walls, almost a carpet stretched over them. The technique itself is transformed: the decorative element, no longer harmonized with the structure, loses every plastic character, flattens into a simple play of planes where what represents the ornamental motif stands out against the dark background (tiefendunkel). New motifs come from the East infiltrate what still remained of Hellenistic traditions, and little by little they gain the upper hand. The two pillars of St. John of Acre, transported to the little square of St. Mark in Venice, show how the process had soon conquered Antioch itself. The execution itself shows the sure intervention of Oriental, Mesopotamian and Iranian craftsmen. Thus one arrives, in the Arab era, at the complete triumph of this evolution, with the facade of the palace of Mâattâ. A parallel evolution in the penetration of Iranian elements and motifs is observed in the art of weaving, a most flourishing industry of S. Already in some pieces (today in the treasury of the Sancta Sanctorum in the Vatican) with the scenes of the Annunciation and the Nativity, where the figurative part is still in the ancient tradition, the decoration reproduces the Persian palmette, to arrive finally at a whole series of magnificent textiles where even the subjects are taken from the Iranian saga, struggles of animals, galloping archers shooting arrows, arranged symmetrically on the two sides of a central tree, the sacred hom, such as the famous ones of the Diocesan Museum of Cologne. So Oriental that many classify them as Sasanian. It is therefore the decoration rather than the structure of the buildings that documents the continuous and sure penetration of the Oriental spirit into S., up to its complete triumph in the 8th century.

The monuments of the second of the three zones of S., the Hauran, are distinguished by a very particular constructive procedure of their own. This is a region of eruptive rocks, especially basalts, which can be cut into slabs up to 3.50 m in width. At the same time it completely lacks timber. Since very ancient times the custom had prevailed of covering buildings with such slabs: this had the consequence that rooms, of whatever length, could not have a width greater than the measurement indicated, sufficient in dwellings, but insufficient for large assembly halls. The procedure was therefore devised of throwing between two parallel walls arches functioning as load-bearing elements, and on two successive arches the slabs were rested: the width of the building was then a function of the span of the arch that could be built. To achieve even greater widths, then, instead of a single arch between wall and wall, three were built on the same line: thus one arrived at halls with three naves, as in the pagan basilica of Saqqâ and then in the church of Tafbâ and in that of Nimreh. The arches could even reach a span of 10 meters. With this procedure the oldest churches of the Hauran were built: the side arches, narrower than the central one and therefore lower, allowed the laying of a series of slabs and the construction of another upper arch until reaching the al-

height of the central arch, forming a church with galleries. The arches rested on square or rectangular piers: through the influence of northern S. columns were later introduced (church of Claudianus at Umm el-Gimâl). Sometimes the central nave was covered with a two-sloped wooden roof, as at the church of Umm al-Quîten. As for the sanctuary, it is observed that many churches of the Haurân have a projecting semicircular apse; but generally the sanctuary consists of a triple chamber, a rectangular or semicircular apse between two square or rectangular rooms, according to the type common in northern S. This latter structure also applies to single-nave churches (church of Masecho at Umm el-Gimâl). The facade of the church is often provided with a portico on architraved columns (arches are rare, as at Umm al-Quîten): sometimes (Lubben, year 417; Suwedâ, al-Kâris, west church of Umm al-Gimâl) there is an entrance of the hilam type, that is, a central space open to the outside with a large arch, corresponding to the central nave, flanked by two square rooms closed to the outside but open toward the side aisles and surmounted by towers. Churches of the broad-hall type, that is, with only a lateral entrance, on one of the long sides of the naves, are seen at Şammeh, Wakm and Deyr al-Guwâmî. The exceptional building of Qanawat, with the central nave surrounded on four sides by colonnades, preceded by a columned atrium and a frontal portico, is probably a pagan building used as a church despite its southward orientation. The sculptural decoration in the Haurân is scanty and of no artistic value.

The art and especially the architecture of northern inner S. is quite well known given the great number of published monuments and their generally good state of preservation above ground: excavations, so far scanty, may shed new light, but chiefly on liturgical rather than artistic questions. The program of the cult building is relatively uniform throughout the territory and appears formed in all its essential parts already in the monuments dating from the beginning of the Christian era, which suggests that it was imported and not locally elaborated. Leaving aside the small and insignificant single-nave churches or chapels, there are generally basilicas with three naves divided by two rows of columns supporting arches or, rarely, architraves. The arch on columns, artistically realized for the first time at Diocletian's Palace in Split, must have come from Antioch. The πρεσβυτερίον of the church is composed of a semicircular or rectangular apse corresponding to the central nave, flanked by two nearly square rooms: this structure derives from pagan prototypes, such as the Tychaion of is-Sanamēn, that of Musmieh and in general the Nabataean temples (Slēm, Qanavāt, etc.). The two rooms flanking the central apse differ in that one (generally the northern one) is accessible from the side aisle only by means of a door and functions as a diaconicon; the other (generally the southern one) is often widely open toward the side aisle by means of an arch and functions as a chapel for the cult of the martyrs, as Lassus has demonstrated. This use spread in the middle of the 5th century. The projecting semicircular apse, which shows its curve also on the outside, is generally reserved for small chapels; very rare in large churches. The church of Qal'at Sim'ān exceptionally has three projecting semicircular apses. Often the layout of the arches, or in plan of the apses, is a horseshoe (semicircle exceeded): at the convent of St. Simeon some arches have a slightly ovoid layout. All this is due to importation from Mesopotamia. Vaults or domes are found only in the conch of the apses or in non-religious monuments (baths, tombs): inner S. makes no contribution to what will be the capital problem of medieval architecture, namely that of covering the naves with vaults carried by arches. Generally the western facade of the church is a simple wall in which the entrance door may be opened: but in some more elaborate buildings (Termānin, Qalb Lauzeh, etc.) this front is formed by two lateral rooms corresponding to the side aisles and open only toward these (except at the cathedral of Kerrātīn from 504-505 and the church of the Apostles of I'gāz dated between 383 and 395, where they are also open to the outside and constitute almost an exonarthex), surmounted by two towers, enclosing in the middle an entrance widely open to the outside by means of an arch: it is the type called bilana, coming from Anatolia where it was soon adopted in churches and which S. already knew in the temples of the Hellenistic period. The church of Ruwāhā and the southern basilical arm of the church of St. Simeon are preceded by a true portico. An internal narthex and an atrium in front of the church are so far not attested in northern inner S., except in the already mentioned church of I'gāz and in the cathedral of al-Anderīn where the structure of an exonarthex is hinted at: it is said, however, that Calenko has discovered monuments of this type, as well as others provided with galleries, but being still completely unpublished (1950) they cannot be taken into consideration: they would in any case demonstrate a contribution of Antiochene forms. Sometimes towers are also found on one or the other or even on both of the rooms flanking the apse. The oldest monuments that have towers on the two rooms flanking the apse are from the 5th century. Perhaps the two cathedrals of Kerrātīn (dated to the year 504-505) and that of al-Anderīn (6th century) had four towers, two on the facade and two on the rooms lateral to the apse: a type that would later be taken up by the architecture of the Western Middle Ages. From the 5th century onward a tendency is observed in inner S. to increase the intercolumniation between the columns of the naves: and to give these arches, which had become ever wider, a better support, to replace piers with columns, and to reduce the height of the piers so as not to make the height of the side aisles excessive. The end of the evolution seems to be represented by the churches of Qalb Lauzeh, one of the finest monuments of inner S.

The position of the entrance doors is quite significant. A very great number of churches have the main entrance door in the middle of the western facade, therefore on the axis of the central nave, and only quite secondary small doors on the other sides: it is the normal type of the Hellenistic basilica. But other churches instead have two large doors on the south side and none on the facade or on what is considered as such. This is the very ancient conception of the broad-hall temple characteristic of the East from the earliest epochs of its civilization. A late liturgical text attributed to Bishop George of Arbela indicates that of these two doors the one facing east, which is generally the largest and the best decorated, served for the entrance of the men: the other was for the women. The church was divided into two parts: the front part, closer to the apse, was occupied by the men, the rear part by the women. In basilicas of Hellenistic structure, that is, with a single central door on the western facade, the separation of the sexes probably took place in another way, the south aisle being assigned to the men and the north one to the women. The central nave was almost entirely reserved for the priests. In the middle of this nave there exists in very many cases a platform raised one or two steps above the floor of the church, rectangular in shape and terminating toward the west in a semicircle. Along its periphery ran a bench for the priests, interrupted many times in the middle by a more important seat (the bishop's cathedra?): in the middle of the platform was a lectern which could be protected by a ciborium. This whole structure functions as a choir, since the synthonon is as a rule lacking in Syrian churches, that is, the series of benches for the choir arranged in a semicircle along the curve of the apse: it is found both in Nestorian and in Jacobite churches, and not only in S., but also in Sasanian Mesopotamia (al-Hīrah) as well as in Byzantine territory (Rujāfah-Sergiopolis), which presents the most grandiose example. It is curious to note that such is the position of the choir in the much later medieval churches of the West in Spain and in England. The doors of Syrian churches are protected by porches with triangular pediments and double-pitched roofs, carried by columns, another motif that passed into the Romanesque architecture of the West. Many times, however, the entire south front of the church is protected by a portico on columns when the entrances are on that side. Some buildings present a more complex structure, evidently studied in its relationship of masses: thus Deyr es-Soleib (between Hama and Masyaf), where a basilica with three naves and a single free apse has its two sacristies not in continuation of the side aisles but projecting on their outer flank. The front consists of an entrance with a central portico between two chambers (bases of towers) continued by two other projecting rooms (one of which is a baptistery). Between these and the two sacristies run two porticoes that clothe the flanks of the church. This ground plan will be taken up again by Armenian architects (Ereruk, Odzun, and perhaps Tekor). The whole is preceded by an atrium with porticoes of Hellenistic origin.

The churches of northern inner S. bear, generally on the architraves, inscriptions that very often make known the title of the building, the date of construction or of subsequent works, and also the name of the architect. This is rarely designated with the title of ἀρχιτέκτων, more often of τεχνίτζις or of οἰκοβόμας. Once perhaps he is a priest (Markianos Kyriis at Babisqa), once he is certainly a deacon (Petros son of Antoninos at Fidre).

The sculptural decoration is rich and varied but concentrated almost exclusively in the capitals and architraves. The capitals proceed from ancient types of the classical Corinthian with two rows of acanthus leaves, with a tendency to move toward dry and hard forms. The variants are very numerous. Some capitals also have figures: thus at the convent of St. Simeon the Younger. A characteristic of Syrian constructions is the almost systematic use of moldings or profiles that run all around the openings, jambs and archivolts, and continue uninterrupted even if the openings are numerous, beginning and ending in volutes. Figure sculpture is scarce and devoid of any artistic value: toward the eastern region there are found on the architraves of the doors figures of the Virgin, of flying Angels and of stylite saints. All this decoration is as a rule only on the external facings of the buildings: only at Qalb Lauzeh are there moldings on the archivolts and on the openings also inside the church. This must have been decorated with wall paintings, of which, however, only miserable traces have survived: only at Palmyra, in the temple of Bêl transformed into a church, do some paintings with figures of saints remain. Wall revetments with marble slabs were not very widespread, being reserved for the most sumptuous buildings: examples are found at Qalb Lauzeh and in the monastery of St. Simeon. Floor mosaics are rare, but only careful excavations will be able to increase the documentation on the subject: in any case, what is known is very far from the beauty of the examples of the coastal region, of Palestine and of Transjordan.

The development of Syrian art was first halted around the middle of the 6th century by the Sasanian invasion, which ruined the entire territory, and then in the first half of the 7th century by the Muslim conquest, at the very time when buildings such as Qalb Lauzeh, Termánin, St. Simeon, studied by brilliant architects as true artistic expressions and not as constructions suited merely to satisfying liturgical needs, promised the most radiant future.

Ugo Monneret de Villard

X. SCHOOL SYSTEM

In S. public education is widespread and tends to expand more and more in its struggle against illiteracy. It comprises elementary or primary instruction, secondary instruction or lyceum, and higher instruction, corresponding to our universities. The programs and methods, given the long period of mandatory administration by France, are for the most part, and for every order and grade of school, those of France.

Primary school comprises 5 classes and prepares students for the so-called "Syrian certificate of studies," which is not, however, obligatory for continuing into higher courses, a certificate of proficiency being sufficient for this. Religion is a compulsory subject there.

Secondary instruction covers a period of 6 years, followed by a complementary course of 1 year for those who wish to enter the university, and is provided in 5 boys' lyceums: Damascus, Aleppo, Homs, Hama and Deir ez-Zor, and 2 girls' lyceums: Damascus and Aleppo. It prepares students for two degrees of baccalaureate: the first degree at the end of 6 years; the second degree at the end of the complementary course. Attached to the Lyceums of Damascus and Aleppo is also a 3-year normal school, which is entered from the elementary schools and which prepares students for a kind of "Syrian elementary certificate," to be obtained, however, by taking the examination before a commission appointed by the Ministry of Public Instruction. Vocational instruction acquires a particular importance in the agricultural school, imposed by the very nature of the eminently agricultural country, and is organized in three grades: the first concerns the peasants, to whom, in addition to notions of history, arithmetic, etc., the rational methods for cultivating the land are also taught practically; the second trains the future technicians of the agricultural and mechanical stations; the third or higher grade concerns the future directors of agricultural activities.

For higher instruction there is the University of Damascus, founded in 1920, with the revival of the School of Medicine already established by the Turkish government, but raised to the rank of faculty; to medicine, including also a school of dentistry and obstetrics, was added the Faculty of Law. Alongside the University of Damascus one must also count the Higher School of Arabic, established by the French government to encourage and perfect the study of the Arabic language and to ensure its preservation; the Institute of Journalism and the Artistic Institute, both in Damascus, which confer diplomas respectively for the journalistic and musical careers.

Great advantages to education are brought by the numerous private institutes, colleges and lyceums, institutes run by religious men and women; and above all the University of St. Joseph of Beirut (v.) with its college, created in 1883 and directed by the Jesuits, which comprises the Faculties of Medicine and Pharmacy, Law, Engineering, Theology and Philosophy. Also to be remembered is the Islamic-Sharia College created by the former king of Egypt, Farouk, in 1940 to prepare the "men of religion," that is, magistrates of the Sharia courts, preachers, teachers of religion in Muslim schools, etc., and to give access to the higher religious institutes of Egypt, especially to the University of el-Azhar. - See plate XLVII.

Celestino Testore