Bunches of Grapes from the Syriac Vineyard: A Review

I am grateful to Gorgias Press for sending me a gratis copy of Martin Zammit’s book `Enbe men Karmo Suryoyo (Bunches of Grapes from the Syriac Vineyard) – A Syriac Chrestomathy for review. The volume is a chrestomathy (i.e. a selection of readings) “intended primarily for students who have covered the essentials of Syriac morphology and syntax” (p.viii) and as such it makes a logical place to go next when one has completed John Healey’s Leshono Suryoyo: First Studies in Syriac. That was the path I myself took, and so I can attest to the appropriateness of the level for those continuing from that same starting point. I suspect that those who have learned using a different textbook will find the same to essentially be true. For those having studied using Thackston’s Introduction to Syriac, Zammit’s book provides more readings in Estrangelo (the script used in Thackston’s textbook) than in Serto (the main script used in Healey’s), as well as a few in East Syriac or “Nestorian” script. Both textbooks will thus leave readers of Zammit’s collection confronting the same sorts of challenges, and with a comparable familiarity with the script in which a significant portion of the contents are presented.

The readings are arranged in chronological order, but skipping around is straightforward (later notes mention when a point of grammar or other clarification has already been provided earlier, and where). It makes sense begin either with the script with which one is most familiar, or with pointed readings, or simply with readings that you find more interesting. The readings themselves are a delightful selection covering material from the tale of Ahiqar to an account of the Crusade of Richard I. I was genuinely surprised (as someone whose reading in Syriac had largely been limited to the Peshitta New Testament) at just how readily intelligible a text from nearly a millennium later turned out to be. Many texts also included surprisingly familiar names – the aforementioned account of the crusade by Bar Hebraeus of course mentions Saladin, England and the Franks, but one of the very early readings (from Bardaisan) mentioned Germany and “Hindu” (presumably in its ethno-geographic sense of someone who lives beyond the Indus). Such readings also include vocabulary on topics not found in the New Testament but otherwise common in Syriac and other Aramaic texts, and thus crucial to acquire: for instance, astrological terminology.

A significant number of poetic excerpts are included, and as is always the case with poetry, such readings are among the more challenging ones for those who are still getting to grips with the language. The volume works well as a second-stage textbook, presenting readings that are encouraging in their readability and others that are challenging and stretch the reader’s abilities. Notes are provided at the end of each selection on rare words, contractions, variant spellings and other such features (with numbered notes in the reading itself indicating that such assistance is available). There is also an English-Syriac and a Syriac-English glossary at the end, plus an index of grammatical points.

Those used to reading the Peshitta or other pointed texts (i.e. ones to which vowels have been added) will want to start with the pointed readings in Zammit’s volume. They may also at some point find that they have moved into an unpointed reading and understood it without immediately realizing they had done so. The addition of vowels in Syriac as in other Semitic languages serves rather like training wheels. Because they are above and below the consonants, as one becomes familiar with a language written in this form, they are given less and less attention. Zammit’s book will allow readers at that particular stage to make the shift, perhaps without realizing it at first, and the experience will inevitably be an encouraging one.

Even in a time when older books are being digitized and made available online for free, I am not aware of any book that offers what Zammit’s does. For instance, Nestle’s classic Syriac grammar and chrestomathy lacks many of the features that make Zammit’s so helpful for students at this stage. `Enbe men Karmo Suryoyo is certainly expensive for a book of its size, but if nothing else, students and fans of the Syriac language can request that libraries acquire it, and hope that eventually Gorgias may release a paperback edition that will be more accessibly priced. But for all those at an intermediate level of Syriac acquisition (whether taking a course or learning on their own), those looking to brush up on the language if they have allowed themselves to become rusty, or those who have read a narrow set of texts and are looking to expand their familiarity not only with the Syriac language but the range of Syriac literature, Zammit’s volume offers what no other volume currently available (to my knowledge) does. And so all who are interested in Syriac language and literature, for whatever reason, will surely be grateful to Martin Zammit and to Gorgias Press for this chrestomathy. I highly recommend it.